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Venture Capital Firm Targeting the Green Tech Industry

Here's a person who went from 10 years in the manufacturing industry, to President and CEO of Webroot Software and David Moll is now founder and partner of Infield Capital, a Venture Capital firm targeting the Green Tech industry. "Our specific target market is focused on the transportation industry specifically, with a tight orientation around what I'm calling future power train. Those innovations between the key and the wheel that are going to reduce the amount of energy we consume in transportation and the amount of pollution we do generate when we consume. So there are just a number of areas that jump out. Between the key and the wheel, we've got the transmission. There's some really neat companies doing things with 'continuous variable transmission'. There's the internal combustion engine, and I am stunned, to see how many university engine labs are spitting out tech transfer programs. And there are some very very promising concepts that are early, and not all of them are going to work. But there are some new engine technologies that I think are extremely viable and is going to cut gas consumption even, if we continue to burn gas in the near term, by potentially 30-60%." David also works with and suports other startups in unrelated sectors including Boulder Non-Linear Systems, Newton Running, University Parents and remains on the Webroot BOD. See David at the Colorado Capital Conference on the Building a Winning Team panel.
Related Links: 20th annual Colorado Capital Conference || Conscious Economy Channel || Rockies Venture Club || Find It ||  Bytes: 20583970  LISTEN

Profile of a Leader: Advice to Those Climbing the Ladder

"It boils down to 3 things, and I get the opportunity to do this with my consulting teams a lot," says Gregg Sutherland, Principle, Business Advisory Services Ernst & Young, Denver office. Larry Nelson and Sue Wyman, Chairman of the Communications Technology Professionals (CTP) and founder of the Jivaro Group asked Gregg to expand. Gregg said, "The first advice I'd give is to take the opportunity to really learn, to test, and to apply. I had this fellow working for me, genius smart but a little rough around the edges and he could be hard to get along with at times. He came to me and said, "I'm trying something new on this project. I've watched you do this, I've watched the client do that... I'm trying these different behaviors to see what fits me." He was intentional about learning. The second is to recognize that anywhere you work, there's going to be a flawed environment. There's also going to be someone that’s hard to get along with, there's always going to be someone not as capable as you’d like. The organization is going to make bad decisions from time to time. It's going to be frustrating and, it’s easy to get negative, and at that point the world really separates into two camps, the ones who sit around and complain and the people who say, "You know, it's not right, but here's what I can do about it.... and I can't fix the whole thing but I can fix that part." Gregg goes onto explain more... LISTEN
Related Links: Ernst & Young || Communications Technology Professionals || CTP Channel || Find It || - Bytes: 313179989

Board of Directors: To Be or Not to Be Is Not the Question

“CEO’s without a board are missing so much value,” states Sue Kunz, CEO/Founder Solidware. Just like building a good team, first look at your own skill sets and identify the gaps that you have and what you need in building a business. Then strategically look for folks who can fill those gaps. You want people around the table who are smarter than you are.” Generally investors come with a board seat. Sue pointed out that a board is not just active at the board meeting. She looks to her board for dialog, sometimes weekly, when a lot is going on, daily. When asked if there was a ‘downside’ to having a board, Sue said, “It’s a lot of work. With these top notch people you don’t want to waste their time. I try to be very organized, very focused on the dialog at hand. Sue goes on to point out, "Think small initially. You don’t want to build a huge board too quickly. Because you’re going to find over time, there are gaps you’re going to want to fill. Sit down, understand what you’re good at, and understand where your holes are. I think you can certainly find that combination of filling in your needs with someone who’s willing and able and has a proven track record. Of course, that’s a win/win for everyone. There is a difference when building an Advisory Board. Sue is a guest panelist at the Colorado Capital Conference. Listen Now for more ideas...
Related Links: Solidware Technologies || 20th Annual Colorado Capital Conference || Entrepreneurs Channel || Rockies Venture Club || Bytes: 22736460 LISTEN

Winning Teams, Relationships and the Connection Engine

What keywords will produce relevant search results? Who are the innovators in a crowd and what are they saying? What new liabilities are emerging? Answering these difficult questions results in great rewards. However, with only search and unstructured text mining tools, people have limited success in capturing those rewards. Michael Webb, Aubice Co-Founder, Executive Vice President of Global Development was interviewed by Jim Franklin, President of the Rockies Venture Club and the former CEO of Decisioneering and now a VP with Oracle. Michael is also on the "Winning Team" panel at the 20th Annual Colorado Capital Conference, being moderated by Larry. Michael pointed out that all about relationships. They with the right people with the right values to basically grow Aubice. He points out that when it comes to search there is this deluge of information...too data, very little relevancy. Another challenge is Understanding how to connect unstructured data to drive totally unexpected high value insights leading to breakthrough discoveries. "Aubice is a connection engine and can operate on the long tail of information where n=1 for advanced sensing of change and trend foreshadowing. Michael has built successful teams over the years, and that's what it is all about. LISTEN
Related Links: Aubice || 20th Annual Colorado Capital Conference || Crystal Ball || Rockies Venture Club ||
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Global Expansion: Trust and a Two-Way Relationship are Crucial

Bilateral trade between Colorado and Canada, is more than $1 billion per year. That number is growing and Canada is the biggest foreign market for Colorado business people. Annual bilateral trade between the two countries, US & Canada, is about $630 billion a year. That’s more than $1.7 billion per day, and it’s more than $1 million per minute. The border between our two countries is the most important economic border in the world. As a market, Canada is crucially important for the American economy. And in fact the United States exports, sells, more to Canada than it does to the UK, Germany, Japan and China combined. That’s how big the Canadian market is for the United States. Dale Eisler, Consul General for Canada here in Denver shared with Larry a number of other statistics that would surprise many Coloradoans as well as the steps that a Colorado company can go through to doing a two-way business in Canada. Canada is the biggest energy supplier to the United States. And, get this, the US imports more oil from Canada than it does from Iraq and Saudi Arabia combined. It's also well known that US has a great relationship with Canada in the areas of aerospce, bioscience, telecom (wireless is getting very hot), IT software, gaming... just to name a few. LIsten for many additional ideas.  LISTEN

Related Links: Canadian Consulate || Canadian Trade Mission || Biosciences || Podcast Directory || BYTES: 31245273

Loving Her Career and Financial Security Made the Difference

A move from the food industry, (29 years ago) to IT was an easy leap for Sarah Kiefhaber, who is now with AVAYA. Terry Morreale, producer and director of the Women in IT Channel talked to Sarah about her amazing journey in IT. Terry, a senior engineer at Applied Trust Engineering has for a long time been passionate about the concept of 'economic independence' for women. Sarah is a perfect example. "I started working at Bell Laboratories in 1979, having completed undergraduate degrees in mathematics and German plus one year of graduate work in physical anthropology. I spent a number of years working in the computer center at Bell Labs, first as the 'help desk' for all of the Denver Bell Labs technical population, then as primary technical support for all output services, before moving into integration testing of an adjunct processor for a communications system. In addition to spending a year in England, Sarah is involved in pretty much every phase of product development from inception through requirements, design, development, testing, manufacturing, ordering, field support, sales support and end of life. "I have helped to debug field problems in labs, on the phone and at customer locations." Share this interview with your daughters.   LISTEN
Related Links: AVAYA || Women in IT || Applied Trust Engineering || Find It || BYTES: 25455702 

Green IT Infrastructure Costs Less: Bigger is not Better

Green IT infrastructure costs less and improves the health of our planet. Trent Hein co-founder of Applied Trust and CEO and Ned McClain, co-founder and CTO talk about the proactive steps Applied Trust has taken to implement a Green IT infrastructure and take that even a step further and call it EcoInfrastructure.  Everyone knows that with today’s high cost of data center real estate, the increasing cost of energy, and your company’s desire to be more eco-friendly, infrastructure is on everyone’s mind. Trent and Ned discussed specific tactics and strategies for taking steps to building a Green IT infrastructure. Here are five key points: 1) Bigger is not better 2) Consolidate 3) Server virtualization 4) Organizational philosophy 5) Reduce the waste stream. Applied Trust engineers will work closely with your staff to ensure that a thorough assessment is conducted. All assessment recommendations will be presented in an actionable manner, such that network and system administrators can use the document as a guide for mitigation. Here are some results you can expect: • Reduced capital costs • Stronger bottom line through significantly reduced operating costs (including reduced energy consumption and reduced system administration labor) • Support for the environment • Improved employee morale and workplace environment • Improved corporate image as a “green business,” which can provide a marketing or recruiting edge. Listen Now...
Related Links: Applied Trust (ATE) || Women in IT || Conscious Economy Channel || Safe Surfing || BYTES: 21668156

The Investment Community Still Has Money for the Middle Market

Formerly an attorney and investment banker in New York on Wall Street, David Strong moved to Denver and is now a partner at the Denver office of Holme Roberts & Owen. During our discussion Dave said, "We are still seeing a vibrant economy in the middle market in Colorado, defined as anywhere from $20 to $100 million. There is definitely huge pressure on larger cap deals – credit markets have been tightened significantly – those deals are becoming harder to do. But what we’ve seen is a lot of capital, at least in the middle market waiting to be deployed. Buyers who raised their money before the credit crunch, before investment community got so skittish. They are looking for value in their market, and I think, still finding it. Those deals still have some leverage, though not as much as prior to the big credit crunch. Terms, everything is a little tighter. We’ve seen valuation go down, exit multiples go down, with the pressure. But we are still seeing good companies getting good valuations and those deals are still getting done." Then Dave got into the selling side...listen for more.  LISTEN
Related Links: Holme Roberts & Owen || It's the Law Channel || ACG Denver Events Calendar || M&A: ACG DEnver Channel || - Bytes: 22896956

The Music Industry Fights Piracy for Survival

In the nine years following the development of Napster, the music industry has changed dramatically. To match the new methods of downloading music illegally, there are new means of detecting such activity and new legal ramifications. Richard Gabriel, attorney with Holme Roberts & Owen goes on to point out other dicey issues. "The ethics of downloading music illegally and who should be responsible for such activity continue to be debated. This debate relates to the broader question of whether the music industry's business model, i.e. charging for the distribution of music-faces an existential threat not merely from piracy, but the proliferation of artists willing to share their music for free." Whether or not individuals can justify downloading copyrighted music from peer-to-peer networks or other outlets, the fact remains that this conduct is illegal. To underscore that message, the Recording Industry of America (RIAA) has brought thousands of lawsuits against individuals who have violated the copyright law. At the same time, organizations like the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) have suggested that the advent of file sharing cannot be stopped by litigation. What if it was your music? LISTEN
Related Links: Holme Roberts & Owen || It's the Law Channel || Electronic Frontier Foundation || Silicon Flatirons || - Bytes: 24960839

Social Entrepreneurship is Answering the Tough Questions

"The problems of the world will not be solved by governments and traditional charities," said Chris Pelley, Managing Director of Capital Investment Management Company (CIMCO) and Board Member of the Association of Corporate Growth in Denver. In the business community, many people are puzzled by the term, social entrepreneurship. Chris feels, it is the business people in our society who will ultimately make a tremendous difference in this field of philanthropy and problem solving. Larry asked, "You’re a registered investment advisor, how did you get involved in this?" I am intrigued by this idea. I was introduced to it by a friend at Oxford University; he mentioned it to me because he knew my daughters were interested in the subject. Being a father who cares, we were invited to attend the “Skoll World Forum Conference for Social Entrepreneurship” at Oxford, four years ago. People are going to get involved in this for a number of reasons. First and foremost; 87% of the children leaving colleges and universities want meaning in their lives more than they want money in their lives. These concepts are exploding around us. Parents and business people might want to discover more to help their teenagers and young adults through the new Ashoka Support Network. LISTEN
Related Links: CIMCO Home || ACG M&A Channel || ACG Denver Events || Ashoka || - Bytes: 27056486 -