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Questions and answers with Ted Turner Part 4 of 4

756_ Questions and answers with Ted Turner Part 4 of 4 
This is the last segment of the Silicon Flatirons Center's "Entrepreneurs Unplugged with Ted Turner". What a treat it has been! Very enjoyable, a great time with a man no one really expected to be so open and genuine. We wrap up an interesting, hilariously funny session with the usual one-on-on audience generated Q&A, of course with a special emphasis on student participation. Ted doesn't disappoint. And next time you get a chance, be sure to make a point of seeing Mr. Ted Turner, although he'll tell you to,
"Call Me Ted".
- 12/14/09 LISTEN Part 4 of 4

Patents can make or break a company

757_ Patents can make or break a company
We all know what a patent is, right? Generally, we do. "A patent covers a new invention that has to be new and useful, novel but not obvious." Well, OK... what does that really mean? Larry interviewed Mark Yaskanin, Partner, Holme Roberts & Owen, LLP who heads up the Patent Group and Scott Bialecki, Partner, Holme Roberts & Owen LLP who heads up the IP Litigation Group. "A patent is actually a teaching of the invention, it explains the invention and it is a limited monopoly for a period of 20 years from the filing date of the application and it gives the patentee the right to exclude others from practicing an invention that's described in a patent. People need to understand that just because they get a patent doesn't necessarily mean they can actually practice the technology covered by the patent." What we see in the energy area, are all these ideas that come up, but at different points in the cycle. That could be an idea, another point in the cycle is they've filed a provisional application - another point is that they've filed a non-provisional application or that they've actually got a granted patent and they have, eventually, some sales of the product. And of course wherever you are in that cycle, there are different values associated with that. "One area that is getting a lot of attention is the energy field. We've seen clients come to us with expectations to purchase a target company and they would like to know what this target company has in terms of Intellectual Property, is it good IP and what really is the scope of what they're buying. This also applies to companies seeking to sell. Regardless of what side of the proposition you're on it definitely helps to have a patent attorney take a look at the IP and help figure out what is it you're buying or what is it you can do to help position things better to sell." Listen for more details...
Related Links: Holme Roberts & Owen, LLP Home || It's the Law Channel || It's the Law Archives || US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) || Keywords: Mark Yaskanin, Scott Bialecki, Holme Roberts & Owen, Patents, IP, Litigation, Entrepreneurs > Channel: Law 13656428 bytes 12/14/09 LISTEN

Change Your City: Social Entrepreneurship

758_ Change Your City: Social Entrepreneurship 
Meet this 39 year old dynamo; Peter Kellner, CEO, JD who has turned around 320 companies primarily in South America, and created in excess of 80,000 jobs at $2.5 billion. Peter Kellner was featured in Barron’s, “New Faces of Philanthropy,’ December 2008. Larry interviewed Peter during his world-wind tour in Colorado talking about social entrepreneurism and Ashoka. Peter is the managing partner and founder of Richmond Management, primarily a venture capital firm that invests in technology & related services in the US. They also invest overseas and have been investing in media principally in China since late 1990s and is still very active there. Peter has a great team in place and that allows him time for his passion - Endeavor. Endeavor was started 11 years ago with Peter and his co-founder Linda Rottenberg, modeled on Ashoka an organization that vets and selects social entrepreneurs and started by his dear friend, Bill Drayton. Peter went to Bill and said, "Bill can I stand on your shoulders"; and I read this Thoreau quote, "and I want to call this thing Endeavor. I want to build an organization just like Ashoka, but I want to fund business entrepreneurs in the emerging world. Not micro credit entrepreneurs, I'm looking for Steve Jobs in Istanbul, people who can create massive wealth for their societies, inspiring stories, jobs and really lead cultural change around environmental development within their countries", which is, I think, the key to progress. So here we are eleven years later and Endeavor is in eleven countries. As a social entrepreneur, Peter co-founded Endeavor, a pioneering organization promoting entrepreneurship in emerging markets. Peter is on the board of Obopay, Inc., Voxiva, Inc. and AdChina, Inc. He is a member of the Board of Trustees of The Allen-Stevenson School, a boy’s school in New York City, as well as the Board of Ashoka Youth Venture. Peter was in Colorado to help launch the 'Change Your City' Campaign in Denver. Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper is also supportive of the campaign...listen for more...
Related Links: Richmond Management || Social Entrepreneur Channel || Ashoka || ACG Denver Channel || Profiles of Leaders || Keywords: Peter Kellner, Social Entrepreneur, Ashoka, Richmond Management, Endeavor, Bill Drayton, ACG, DU, Change Your City > Channel: Profiles/SocEntrp 21027907 bytes - 12/14/09 LISTEN

Turner Invests in Future of Humanity

  753_ Part 3 of 4: Making a Difference in the World, Call Me Ted Style
...OR... Turner Invests in Future of Humanity

Part 3: Brad Bernthal probed into Ted Turner's worldwide passions. Ted talked about numerous countries and cities, including Denver. He referred to the Rwandan Genocide in 1994 mass killing of hundreds of thousands of Rwanda's Tutsis and Hutu political moderates by the Hutu dominated government. Over the course of approximately 100 days more than 500,000 people were killed. Ted went onto talk about Rwanda today under the leadership of H.E. President Paul Kagame of The Republic of Rwanda. Rwanda has outlawed plastic bags and every month his cabinet and everyone in Rwanda goes out and picks up all the trash in the country. Ted said, "People tend to think that philanthropy is giving money away. I don't approach it from that point, what I'm doing is making an investment in the future of humanity. I'm making an investment in a better world - I'm trying to, it's not easy. Kids ask me, when I speak at a high school or college, what's more satisfying making the money or giving it away? And I say you have to make the money before you can give it away. Then they say, 'It's easy for you, for rich people to give it away when you have so much. And I tell them it's easy for you to be a philanthropist too, one thing you can give is your time. One thing Ted does, when he walks down the streets of Atlanta or Denver, etc., if he sees a piece of trash on the street, he picks it up and walks to the nearest trash can." Listen for more...
RELATED LINKS: SFC Photo Album || 'Call Me Ted' Amazon || Rwanda Photos || SFC Entrepreneurs Unplugged || Keywords: Ted Turner, CNN, Entrepreneurs Unplugged, David Getches, Brad Bernthal, Silicon Flatirons, Entrepreneur, Paul Kagame, Rwanda, Channel: Entrepreneurs 19810601 bytes 12/7/09 Listen:

Bytes: 19893642 - 11/30/09 LISTEN Part 3 of 4

Managing Beyond the Recovery

752_ Managing Beyond the Recovery: New Realities, New Rules and New Values
"What we're seeing is that there will be a reset, what some executives call a reset with this economy. And at some point we are going to see a new normal. Some major economists think that what we will see, going forward over the next several years, a lower growth US economy with higher levels of unemployment, a weaker dollar, higher taxes, bigger government spend and I think also some concern about whether we will have a higher rate of inflation going forward," said Grant Reusch. Grant is the Operational Co-Chair of the ACG Denver Rocky Mountain Capital Growth Conference for 2010 and he also serves as chair of the content committee. The theme is a very important element for us and we began thinking about right after finishing last year's conference. We came up with the theme called "Managing Beyond the Recovery: New Realities, New Rules and New Values." Grant went onto point out, "It is a very important time as we recover from the most serious recession since World War II, with the kind of structural imbalances that we have to really figure out what it's going to be like going forward. Right now the signals are mixed - there are signs we are beginning to lift out of the deep recession but there are also some troubling remnants of the economic contraction that indicate a slow recovery in terms of job creation and the resumption of consumer spending which drives economic activity. These indicators include: a distressed commercial real-estate market; high unemployment; stalled consumer spending; lack of business confidence to support new capital investment; lack of investor confidence; a political and policy environment that is very difficult to discern." The answers and the experts will be at the 2010 ACG Denver Rocky Mountain Capital Growth Conference on March 17 & 18, 2010. We'll be there...Managing Beyond the Recovery: New Realities, New Rules and New Values... Learn more...
Related Links: ACG Denver Rocky Mountain Capital Growth Conference || ACG Denver || M&A Channel || 3/11/09 Photos || 3/12/09 Photos || Keywords: ACG, ACG Denver Rocky Mountain Capital Growth Conference, Grant Reusch, Managing Beyond the Recovery: New Realities, New Rules and New Values > Channel: ACG 9605262 bytes 12/7/09 LISTEN

Raising Money - Your Startup

754_ Raising money for your startup 
Larry talked with Mark Weakley, Partner, Holme Roberts & Owen, LLP, Boulder about a frequently asked question from entrepreneurs. "The recurring question is, 'what kind of corporate entity should I form, a corporation or limited liability company?' There haven't been a lot of regulatory changes, nothing is driving this, but I have this conversation, every week with new clients. The questions comes up often because there are lots of opinions out there from people that entrepreneurs talk to about what they should be. I think contrary to those opinions, there aren't hard and fast rules, but there are different considerations to go over. I think that the prudent thing is for an entrepreneur to have appreciation of what the different forms of business entities are, and why certain investors are predisposed to one or the other. Then it's a matter of saying, OK, based on the facts that I know and where I think we are going, how should I set this up, now?" Larry asked, "Getting right into it, what are the differences between these C, LLC and S corporations?" After getting into the differences between a corporation and a LLC. Mark pointed out that, "Early-stage entrepreneurs want to know what form of business entity should they use, particularly if they intend to raise money be it from friends, family, angels or venture capital funds. Entrepreneurs receive as many opinions on this question as the number of people they pose the question to. Some of those facts are known now, so the hard part is the conjecture on facts that won't be known until sometime in the future." Before Mark addressed this question, "Is it true that venture capitalist investors will always require their portfolio companies to be corporations?" he detailed the primary pros and cons for choosing a LLC versus a corporation. This is very important information for entrepreneurs ...listen for more...
Related Links: Holme Roberts & Owen, LLP Home || It's the Law Channel || It's the Law Archives || Podcast Directory || Keywords: Mark Weakley, Holme Roberts & Owen, LLP, Corporations, S Corporation, LLC, Entrepreneurs, Capital, Taxes > Channel: Law 15212378 bytes - 12/7/09 LISTEN

Benjamin Franklin in His Own Words

746_ Benjamin Franklin in His Own Words 
We met Benjamin Franklin and his manager, Christopher Lowell, at the RVC Angel Capital Summit. I'm sure you're all familiar with Ben Franklin, you can find out more on his website www.benfranklinlive.org. Larry spoke to Ben at length and he had great advice for today's entrepreneur. Ben said, "Mr. Lowell is acting as my manager and my guide to the 21st Century because he has me speaking at a variety of interesting organizations across the country and in Europe. One of the things I would say is to expect failure along the path to success. Because you cannot, or I have not found it possible to tinker with new ideas, with the end goal being to create something of use for society without creating, at the same time, a number of mistakes and errors as an inevitable part of the process. And not to consider yourself a failure for the failure of different parts of your invention to perform as you wished. I certainly had much failure when I was studying one of the most fascinating things that I ever encountered, which was electricity. I was first given some electrical equipment back in the 1740s and I was fascinated with the concept that lightening, so dangerous to man, could be nothing more than a more dramatic form of static electricity. In trying to prove that, well I must admit I knocked myself unconscious three times, occasions. But I was not discouraged, I was a little bit shaken, but I kept my eye on the end that I was intending to prove. The other thing I would encourage inventors to consider is that like anybody who is interested..." There's more...
Related Links: Ben Franklin Live || Angel Capital Summit || RVC Events || Summit Photos || Entrepreneurs Channel || Keywords: Benjamin Franklin, Christopher Lowell, Inventions, Entrepreneurs, RVC, Angel Capital Summit, Electricity, Economy . Channel: Entrepreneurs 8838609 bytes - 11/30/09 LISTEN

Microsoft Embraces Social Learning

747_ Podcasting is an easy, simple fast way... 
Larry interviewed Christian Finn, Director SharePoint Product Management, at the Defrag Conference. Christian discussed podcasting and really opened up Larry's view of Podcasting. He said, "My talk was around how we use podcasting inside Microsoft with 'social learning' as a compliment to formal traditional online learning or in classroom training. But really the initiative got started a couple of years ago to get the voice of the employees sharing knowledge with each other about their jobs, best practices, good ideas that they have, how they answer customer questions or solve software problems and really generate that person to person knowledge sharing that's so important in a large enterprise. Larry asked, "Do they have any worries or concerns about the podcasts?" Christian replied, "No. Let me talk about how they are done. Most of them are done with the person's laptop using a webcam built into the PC, some people go a little more advanced with a Flip Camera, with whatever tool they choose to use, they simply record themselves giving a demonstration, a talk or presentation and then save the file up to a podcasting portal that is available globally across Microsoft. The employees have no qualms about sharing anything. It's completely global, we have about 35,000 employees around the world, in our different sales, marketing and services offices, and they're the primary podcasters. So you might be a SharePoint Technologist specialist in Chile, just won a big deal with a customer and you want to talk about the demos you shared and how you convinced the customer to choose us, and you would just record that on your PC, upload that and a SharePoint Technologist in Germany or...Learn more...
Related Links: Microsoft Office SharePoint || Defrag || In the News || Defrag Conference Photos Day 1 of 2 || Defrag Conference Photos Day 2 of 2 || Blog || Keywords: Christian Finn, SharePoint, Defrag, Podcasting, Microsoft, Technologist, Global, Social Learning > Channel: NEWS 8719934 bytes - 11/30/09 LISTEN

Open Source licenses are enforceable

748_ We know these licenses are enforceable
 In an interview, a number of years ago, a Red Hat representative indicated they were being derided by people in the open source world for being too commercial. This time Larry interviewed Jason Haislmaier, partner at Holme Roberts & Owen, LLC Boulder. Larry says Jason is known as the 'open source legal guru in Colorado'. Jason went onto say, "I think now you really think of open source as being synonymous with commercial usage. It wasn't always that way, Open Source had its birth as what we called 'free software' which was really academic, it was far more ideologically based around the freedom of the source code than it was looking to have a commercial application. We can charge or we cannot, but it's still a license, and we know these licenses are enforceable, which is taken for granted. It's the same thing 'proprietary software went through back in the 90s, there was a time when we didn't have a legal precedent. It wasn't until we had a court case in the mid-90's that it was actually determined, that we could actually point to a case that said that. Same thing with open source licensing until very recently. Again, answering the obvious for a lot of folks, but more importantly for companies that are staking either their futures, the money of their investors, public money in the case of public companies on open source licensed based business models. We now have that much more legal assurance and I think that's certainly one of the factors that has contributed to the increasing use of open source software...listen for more...
Related Links: Holme Roberts & Owen, LLC Home || It's the Law Channel || SFC - Crash Course: Open Source || Find It || Keywords: Jason Haislmaier, Holme Roberts & Owen, LLC, Open Source, Licenses, Red Hat, Business Models > Channel: Law 13735626 bytes - 11/30/09 LISTEN

Turner Foundation Largest Private Land Owner

  749_ Part 2 of 4:
The Turner Foundation is America's largest
private land owner...

Bytes: 19893642 - 11/30/09 LISTEN Part 2 of 4

745_ (Part 1 of a 4) Ted Turner: From CNN, to Bison, to the United Nations and Beyond
This is a 4-part series. It's engaging, funny and loaded with learning points. The special guest on this Silicon Flatirons 'Entrepreneurs Unplugged' is Ted Turner. David H. Getches, Dean, University of Colorado Law School introduced Ted and shared some historical information that will open many eyes. Ted Turner lives his 21st Century life of giving and advocating to make things right and it is for that reason the University of Colorado Law School and the Silicon Flatirons Center for Entrepreneurship has created 'the Entrepreneur for Good Prize' and today we are presenting the 'Inaugural Prize' to Ted Turner. Then the Entrepreneurs Unplugged discussion was led by Brad Bernthal, Associate Clinical Professor of Law, CU Law School, and Entrepreneurship Initiative Director, Silicon Flatirons Center. Brad said, "Let's start out with the early days, 1963 and the bill board business. You're 24 years old, pressed into running the business under the most difficult circumstances I can imagine as your father passed away. Can you talk about growing Turner Advertising and your first entrepreneurial venture?" Turner is co-chairman of the Nuclear Threat Initiative, a charitable organization working to reduce the global threats from nuclear, biological and chemical weapons; chairman of the Turner Foundation, Inc., which supports efforts for improving air and water quality, developing a sustainable energy future to protect the earth's climate, safeguarding environmental health, maintaining wildlife habitat protection, and developing practices and policies to curb population growth rates; chairman of the United Nations Foundation, which promotes a more peaceful, prosperous and just world; and a partner in the Ted's Montana Grill restaurant chain, which operates more than 55 locations nationwide. Listen for more...
Related Links: SFC Entrepreneurs Unplugged || SFC Photo Album || 'Call Me Ted' Amazon || Economy Builders || Podcast Directory || Keywords: Ted Turner, CNN, Entrepreneurs Unplugged, David Getches, Brad Bernthal, Silicon Flatirons, Entrepreneur, Channel: Entrepreneurs 22984253 bytes 11/23/09 LISTEN Part 1 of 4