Category Archives: Business

On November 6th at the Infinity Center in Denver, in front of a packed room of technology professionals, the Colorado Technology Association held their 19th annual APEX Awards, recognizing the best of the best from around the state. Alan Buller from Fremont Economic Development (FEDC), was awarded “Talent Champion of the Year” for 2019. Alan was recognized for his work with the tech sector portion of Canon City High School’s internship program, hosted at FEDC’s award winning rural co-working and incubator facility on historic Main Street in Canon City.

Alan was also interviewed in Denver Business Journal, CTA APEX Awards: Alan Buller resists retirement for rural revitalization, and described the evening in his own words…

“Yes, at Wednesday night’s APEX Awards, I received the Talent Champion of the Year Award from the Colorado Technology Association. Though I knew I was one of three finalists, I certainly did not expect to win…”

Canon City residents Brad and Kristy Rowland joined Alan for this great event, where Canon City was mentioned in the opening keynote and Alan used his heartfelt acceptance speech to recognize the contributions of his extended team, Bob Wellott, Lisa Tedesko, Bill Summers, Diana Armstrong, and Jason Veatch.

Read more at Alan’s blog here.

Congratulations to Alan Buller of FEDC TechSTART, a Top 3 Statewide Finalist for a 2019 Colorado Technology Association APEX Award

When Alan and his wife moved from Austin, Texas, to Canon City, Colorado, they quickly plugged in and became a part of our community’s active volunteer life. Alan found a second home at FEDCs co-working facility for recovering tech people, TechSTART (https://techstart.fremontedc.com), and partnered with another volunteer, Bob Wellott, to lead our fledgling tech internship program for Canon City High School.

Inconceivable!

Whenever Alan says he came to Canon to “retire” it reminds me of the classic Inigo Montoya line from The Princess Bride, “You keep using that word, I do not think it means what you think it means…”

As high school students started to select TechSTART for their internship, Alan would dedicate a work session to each one, and select a participating tech business to craft a custom program aligning with that student’s personal growth goals. When asked about managing the program with that kind of growing time commitment, Alan would say, “These kids deserve our best, and we have an opportunity to do something really special here.”

Larger community tech internship programs can often handle hundreds of students in a consistent, standardized classroom setting, but Alan was the first to realize that the small size of our local tech businesses was an advantage, allowing programs to be uniquely tailored to each student, while they work directly with a business owner or tech professional. Alan has now formalized programs with TechSTART businesses ranging from Second-61 (https://www.second-61.com), an outsource support center for the Army founded by Chris Koehn, to River Science (https://www.river.science), led by European Union award winning PhD, Luke Javernick, both Canon City natives.

Future-Proof Superpowers

Along with intern tech training, Alan focuses on the need for personal development and is currently designing a gameful approach to soft-skills training called The Quest for Future-Proof Superpowers.

In addition to acting as a volunteer intern coordinator for FEDC TechSTART, Alan serves on the Advisory Board of SXSW Edu (https://www.sxswedu.com), presented at the 2019 SXSW Edu conference, and participates as a local leadership team member for our PTECH (https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/canon-city-high-school-awarded-fourth-pathways-early-college-rowland) grant award, allowing participating high school students to receive two free years of school at Pueblo Community College.

We could not be more appreciative of the time and passion Alan has brought to the table to support FEDC TechSTART, the Upper Arkansas Technology Sector Partnership (https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/upper-arkansas-tech-sector-partnership-1-year-growing-brad-rowland), our community, and our students. In a state with such a vibrant and progressive tech community, we were delighted to learn that Alan had been recognized as a top 3 statewide finalist for a Colorado Technology Association APEX Award (https://coloradotechnology.org/apex-awards), and will attend the APEX Awards Banquet representing all of us at TechSTART.

Best of luck Alan, and thank you for all you do!

More About Alan

With an educational background in communication, Alan Buller spent 15 years working in the mental health field, advancing from direct care worker to Training Coordinator while pioneering new uses for video technology in the head injury rehabilitation setting. After returning to graduate school in instructional design, he worked at Texas’ largest state agency to develop and implement instructional systems and materials for over 20,000 employees statewide. He went on to explore interactive multimedia as an independent contractor, producing award-winning educational experiences for students from grade school through college, as well as teacher training for pre-K and special education.

Alan’s corporate training clients have included Dell Computers, USAA, Ernst-Young, Eli Lily, BASF, MasterCard, Sears Holding Company, and others. Throughout his career, Alan has been actively involved in professional associations, serving in leadership positions for the local chapter of the ITVA (International Television Association) and IICS (International Interactive Communicators Society) as well as leading the community access group, Austin Community Television. He has presented to conferences large and small on topics from team building to training evaluation to visual note taking and communication.

Southern Colorado economic development initiatives move to the next stage, advancing rural reshoring and cyber-tech remote office potential

FLORENCE, Colo., August 15, 2019 (Newswire.com) – ​​​Fremont Economic Development Corporation, a 501c6 non-profit focused on economic development in Fremont County, Colorado, today announced the launch of a new business campus concept, Emergent Campus, opening in the historic former Florence High School in Florence, Colorado.

The property was acquired by Unbridled Holdings of Denver, in partnership with local investors, to build on the economic development initiatives of Fremont Economic Development Corporation and a four-county innovation sector initiative, the Upper Arkansas Technology Sector Partnership.

In the future, Emergent Campus is envisioned as a “work, live, play” style business campus, with space for incubation, trainings, offices, events, and living quarters. For the near term, the campus will open with a pioneer group of local business tenants who share in the project goals.

Unbridled Solutions CEO Stan Bullis is partnering on Emergent Campus with two Fremont County entrepreneurs, Chris Koehn, founder of Second-61, and Brad Rowland, who worked with FEDC to build the TechSTART co-working community in Canon City. The partners say they share a common vision around the intersection of business, community, and individual development that goes far beyond rural office space.

“The Emergent Campus culture is built on a highly curated and seasoned group of advisors, consultants and executives committed to changing businesses through destiny, authenticity and radical generosity,” said Stan Bullis, CEO of Unbridled Solutions. “The goal of Emergent Campus is to create more purposefully driven environments for others to grow and help transform our communities in a positive way.”

The partners see Emergent Campus as the next step after several years of successful rural economic development and as part of a larger trend happening in Colorado and across the country. This trend is strongly echoed by many industry leaders like Greater Colorado Venture Fund Director Marc Nager, who is quoted as saying, “the next big thing is small towns,” and Beacon Founder Joe Toscano, who highlighted FEDC TechSTART’s success in his recent Forbes article, “The Next Wave of Innovation Will Come From America’s Forgotten Communities.”

“Rural America doesn’t need a handout,” Koehn said. “Rural America is the greatest untapped business and strategic asset waiting to be discovered by America’s business leaders. The men and women in rural areas are innovative, hardworking, and creative and have learned to live through decades of job loss as industry after industry centralized or moved offshore. Technology developments and educational programs are helping to mobilize this strategic workforce to provide a rural talent pipeline that’s a fraction of the price of larger markets. Combine that with lower-cost infrastructure, lower turnover, and higher quality of life, and you have all the elements to help our national economy become more prosperous in the coming decades.”

“Economic recovery, especially in rural communities, starts when obstacles are removed and the business climate is made conducive for purposeful growth,” said Rob Brown, Executive Director, Fremont Economic Development Corporation. “The team driving FEDC TechSTART has cleared the path for technology-focused businesses to benefit from opportunities previously lying dormant in rural communities like Fremont County, Colorado. The Emergent Campus represents the logical continuation of the FEDC TechSTART vision and validates the effort to make rural Colorado relevant in the technology business landscape.”

“We were honored to work with the City of Florence and Florence School Board, who share in the vision of maintaining downtown’s historic integrity while creating prosperity for Florence residents,” said Bullis. “Our hope is that the historic Florence High School building continues to be a positive force at the heart of the community as it has for so many generations before us.”

Resources

FEDC TechSTART – An Innovation Catalyst for Rural Colorado (home page)

Top Seven Reasons to be a Remote Tech Person in the Upper Arkansas (article)

Colorado Welcomes Its Second Official Technology Sector (article)

National Center of Academic Excellence for Cyber Defense Education (Pueblo Community College)

Canon City High School Awarded 4th Pathways in Technology Early College High School (PTECH) Grant in Colorado! (article)

About Fremont Economic Development Corporation (FEDC)

Fremont Economic Development Corporation is a professional economic development organization focused directly on business attraction, retention and expansion in Fremont County, Colorado. With an established and growing network of business, academic and governmental partners, we directly assist companies with competitive location or expansion projects by connecting them with the right people, the appropriate resources and the most meaningful and relevant information. FEDC’s TechSTART program is an award-winning tech sector co-working community, creating an innovation catalyst for rural Colorado.

About Second-61

We are patriots, we are technologists, we are hard-working Dads, Moms, and citizens. We are passionate about serving our customers and our employees. At our core, we give all to deliver, protect, and defend that in which we believe and those who we serve.  We believe in God, Family, Country, and Getting the Job Done Right. Simply put, we do what we say and say what we do, we keep our word and we attain. We strive for a safer and stronger country and in God we trust. www.second-61.com

About Unbridled

Unbridled is an event management, event production and creative agency delivering intentionally crafted events through our customer-focused approach to creative design, attendee management, program logistics, production, and travel. We’re known by our values-driven culture, creativity and full-service flexibility. www.Unbridled.com

For press inquiries, please contact Jason Veatch, [email protected]

Jeremy and Laura Moskowitz recently traveled to Colorado Springs to present Fremont Economic Development Corporation (FEDC) with a generous donation to expand on their success with tech-based economic development initiatives in rural Fremont County.

“We can all relate in our families and communities to the changes brought about by positively impacting the future of even one person,” said Moskowitz, Founder, PolicyPak. “We applaud and support people doing work in rural and urban areas that elevates the potential for the next generation.”

The donation will be used to continue work on high school internships and apprenticeships with local tech businesses and expanding the business incubation and recruitment efforts of the Upper Arkansas Tech Sector Partnership, Colorado State’s second official technology sector. PolicyPak has a culture of giving, and also offers a Higher Education Entrepreneur Scholarship, detailed on their website.

Accepting on behalf of FEDC were Brad and Kristy Rowland. Brad has served as the Program Director for FEDC’s award-winning “TechSTART” initiative, headquartered on Main Street in Canon City, Colorado, and leads the Upper Arkansas Technology Sector Partnership as the private sector convener. Brad and Jeremy started working together through an active business alliance between PolicyPak and FSLogix (now part of Microsoft), where Brad ran global marketing from his rural co-working office in Southern Colorado.

About Jeremy and PolicyPak

Jeremy is Founder & CTO of PolicyPak, Microsoft MVP in Group Policy, Enterprise Mobility, and MDM. Jeremy Moskowitz founded PolicyPak Software after working with hundreds of customers with the same problem: they couldn’t manage their applications, browsers and operating systems using the technology they already utilized.

So, he designed a solution to work with administrators, and not replace what they already knew. He’s still busy providing ever-better and more tailored solutions to that basic problem through PolicyPak Software. Jeremy also founded GPanswers.com, a community portal for all things Group Policy. Jeremy’s best-selling Group Policy books are on the desks of happy administrators everywhere.

Jeremy holds a Computer Science degree from the University of Delaware, was one of the first MCSEs in the world, and was designated an MVP in Group Policy by Microsoft for over a decade.

About Fremont Economic Development Corporation

Fremont Economic Development Corporation is a professional economic development organization focused directly on business attraction, retention and expansion in Fremont County, Colorado. With an established and growing network of business, academic and governmental partners, we directly assist companies with competitive location or expansion projects by connecting them with the right people, the appropriate resources and the most meaningful and relevant information. FEDC’s TechSTART program is an award-winning tech sector co-working community, creating an innovation catalyst for rural Colorado.

The business community’s strong participation in the Fremont Economic Development Corporation Business to Business Roundup at Florence’s historic Rialto Theater on April 16 indicates that the spirit of entrepreneurship is alive and well. FEDC event organizers treated local business owners and entrepreneurs with opportunities for personalized access to financing, a business to business networking tradeshow and the local favorite Bull Session Pitch Contest in a free one-day event.

Local entrepreneurs secure more than $200,000!

FEDC kicked off the event with an Access to Capital segment to help educate and connect small businesses and entrepreneurs with available funding sources in Colorado. Planner Marc Bellantoni of the Upper Arkansas Development Corporation said funders from across the state offered one-on-one assistance to those interested in securing loans for their small businesses or business ideas, and funders are working with five serious inquiries from the event totaling more than $200,000. Breakout sessions focused on venture capital, non-profit and government, private or traditional financing and Colorado Opportunity Zone and Enterprise Zone incentives.

Expanded Bull Session Contest awards $12,000 in prize money and makes an announcement!

The increasingly popular Bull Session Business Pitch Contest was expanded to include non-profit and high school divisions. When opening the Bull Session, Emcee Ed Norden announced that the FEDC’s Choice Winner from the inaugural competition last fall has raised $280,000 in funding from angel investors and the world-renowned HAX accelerator. Brock Predovich of Bravrr Inc., a diagnostic and therapeutic wearables startup, currently is in China developing technology to assess and provide therapy for bruxism disorder (unconscious teeth grinding).

FEDC’s Choice Winners (Judged by a private FEDC panel of business experts)

• For-profit, $3,500 prize – Ian Sturgeon is President of Double Under Wonder, and CMO of Bolder Bands. He introduced NatureChase, a GPS-based game that combines the best parts of geocaching with the best parts of the classic game “Capture the Flag.” (FEDC TechSTART and FEDC Business Development Center (Business Incubator) tenant).
• Non-Profit, $3,500 prize Dee Dee Clement is the executive director for Loaves and Fishes Ministry, a local non-profit that serves those in need within the community with emergency shelter, food, clothing, financial and housing assistance.
• High School, $1,500 prize – Dalton Cloninger, creator of Simitry Studios, a generalized 3D modeling and animation company that is specializing in character animation and architecture modeling. Dalton is a junior in Cañon City High School. (FEDC TechSTART Intern)

FEDC People’s Choice Winners (Judged by the audience)

• For-Profit – $1,500 prize – Gregory Carlson is the founder of Blickel, a social network of learning designed to track a learner’s progress from start to finish. Gregory is a self-taught programmer, and he and his team have been developing Blickel for the past four years. (FEDC TechSTART Tenant)
• Non-Profit – $1,500 prize – Patrick Caulfield is Commander of Fremont Search and Rescue, the backstop for everything outdoors…and ultimately, the ones who bring people home when the things go fatally wrong.
• High School – $500 prize – Gage Nix/Austin Hix introduced EXEOS, a business where they design and build personalized wall computers that are custom painted. (FEDC TechSTART Interns)

Thank you sponsors Unbridled, Create Cañon City, Lois Kaplan, Second-61 and Colorado Legacy Land!

Mark your calendar!!! The next Fremont Economic Development Business to Business Roundup is October 10, 2019, at The Abbey Events Center, Cañon City. For more information, contact Diana Armstrong at [email protected] or call 719-275-8601.

Here is the link to the Bull Session photo gallery on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pg/FEDCTechstart/photos/?tab=album&album_id=2220271994954245

Recently, Bravrr was awarded $280,000 venture investment funding, and an opportunity to accelerate the development of BruxRelief at the world-renowned HAX accelerator. This unique opportunity will allow them to take their product from prototype to production. BruxRelief is a bio-sensor device that helps to diagnose and treat bruxism. This investment will enable Brock and team to further develop the model, conduct user interaction studies, and build marketing and business plans.

Bravrr’s focus is in developing smart, wearable technologies that enable healthcare professionals and patients to assess and treat illnesses and disorders. “Bio-sensor innovation and the broad adoption of smartphone technology is paving the way for a new generation of personal-health management solutions,” said Bravrr founder, Brock Predovich. Originating in a hotel room in Bali, Bravrr has spent the last two years developing the product using sensors, PCB plastics, and 3-D printers.

Bravrr represents a growing trend in the startup space – a lean and highly distributed team of people developing world class technology. Operating out of a rural tech community in Fremont County Colorado, Bravrr has benefited from the established entrepreneurial base at TechSTART. “Although Bravrr has a distributed, international team, we were honored to have founder Brock Predovich headquartered in our rural co-working community,” said Brad Rowland, program director, FEDC TechSTART

HAX is a two-stage program that starts in Shenzhen, China, and finishes in San Francisco. Companies that are admitted will spend four to eight months in Shenzhen co-developing technology, followed by two to three months in San Francisco, where they focus on business development, fundraising, and growth.

To learn more about Bravrr, visit https://www.bravrr.com/

We’re moving the administrative operations of our eCommerce company to 415 Main Street, and remodeling some space in an office building that was built in 1904.

We couldn’t be any more excited.

There’s just something special about walking the same hallways the men, and women in our town have walked for over a century, while still enjoying blazing-fast fiber internet from SECOM, and sharing the same block with a super-hip coffee shop, and our town’s brewery.

I couldn’t wait to move into our new digs, so I begged our landlord to let me in a day early to start sprucing up my office.  As I was repainting, I noticed the doorknob pictured above.  Apparently, sometime in the last 103 years, someone did a really terrible job cutting-in around it.

At first I was annoyed, and had plans to take the errant paint off with a solvent, but then I started wondering who was responsible…

Maybe it was an entrepreneur in the 1920s who didn’t have a ton of time to spend on silly things like painting. (like me)

Maybe it was someone in the 1970s who bribed their friends with a 6-pack of beer to help them repaint their office. (like I did)

Maybe it was a parent in the 1990’s, who had a child who insisted on “helping” them paint their new office.  (like mine did)

Whoever is responsible for this sub-standard paint job, I’m going to leave it the way it is as long as I’m here.

I love the idea of using the same offices as the people who helped build our town into what it is today.  I love wondering what they were like, what they worked on, and who they were. Most of all, I love dreaming about how I can be a part of our town’s future.

At Double Under Wonder, we’re INCREDIBLY excited to be part of the new TechStart project here in Canon City, Colorado.  If you’re interested in being part of it too, shoot us an email, or give us a call.  We’ll show you around, we’ll take you down the street for an Owl Burger.  Heck, I’ll even let you use my less-than-perfect doorknob!

There are big things happening in Canon City, and it’s not every day you get to be part of history. Come see how you can partner with us to bring new tech-driven jobs to our area, while being around a growing group of incredibly talented, and interesting people.

Have a wonderful day!

Ian Sturgeon

www.DoubleUnderWonder.com

by Matthias Miller

Multiply Your Strengths is a qualified solution provider for AppHosting.zone. However, our relationship does not end there. We’ve provided marketing consulting for AppHosting.zone, empowering them to more effectively reach their prospects.

While the Marketing and Strategy Deep Dive (multiplier.link/deep-dive) laid the foundation for their marketing strategy, this was only the beginning. Without an online presence or marketing collateral–that is, without actually implementing this strategy–we had little value to provide them.

Of course, our goal was to help establish them in their market. However, let’s dig more deeply into the specifics. When implementing this strategy, we focused on three critical pieces.

First, we worked with their website designer, proposing a basic website structure, then writing all of the copy for their website. Because of our in-depth involvement in the Deep Dive process, we were able to craft a website that matched their objectives–establishing them in their specific niche.

Second, their designer used the copy that we had written for their website to develop full-color professional brochures to distribute to their clients. Although we had already written the copy, we were able to work with them to further refine their terminology and tighten the copy.

Finally, we wrote several white papers that they could use to promote their business, allowing them not only to further educate their prospects but also to continue to establish credibility within their target market. And while white papers may sound dry and boring, if you enjoy reading this newsletter, you’d actually probably enjoy reading some of them! (Well, except for the technical papers.)

Why did we choose to publish white papers as part of our marketing plan? We had three reasons.

First of all, while AppHosting.zone works with solution providers to create custom software, they’re ultimately in the business of taking the headaches out of running a business. The white paper allowed us to effectively (and vividly) paint that picture for their prospects.

Secondly, everyone fears what they don’t understand, and many people assume that “custom software” is way too complicated to understand. We wanted to put it in language that they could easily understand.

Finally, white papers provide a great way to test a prospect’s engagement, an easy way to start a conversation, and most importantly, a way to genuinely provide value early in the sales conversation.

The best part? By partnering with their designer, we were able to provide them a website, brochures, and white papers that they not only could be proud of, but that helped to establish them in their market.

Matthias Miller is the business growth consultant and founder of Multiply Your Strengths. He’s passionate about seeing people excel in their strengths. His intentional pursuit of professional growth has given him extensive experience in software development, project management, leadership, and marketing. He lives in Canon City, Colorado, with his wife Bonita and their family. https://www.multiplyyourstrengths.com/

by Matthias Miller

Andrea is a vivacious serial entrepreneur. She’s narrowed in on the few things that she’s really good at–hiring great people and starting new businesses. Her work ethic, embrace of healthy risk, and reliance on skilled talent has proven significant on her journey to success.

However, she’d hit a wall in one of her businesses.

When she came to me, she wanted to discuss ways to improve profitability of her lawn care business. She’s always prided herself in providing exceptional service at a competitive price, even though there’s always some individual selling his services on Craigslist for a slightly lower price.

Up until now, she’s been reinvesting her profits into the business, allowing her to continue scaling and gaining market share in her area. She’s hunted for ways to tighten up the business, and she’s done everything she can to continue to drive down her costs.

When she first called me, she wondered if she’d gotten into the wrong business. She wasn’t facing a crisis, but she wasn’t seeing the profitability that she’d hoped for either.

As we dove into the tactical pieces of her business, we discussed her expenses and her processes. We knew that because of the excellence she provided, her costs were higher than her competitors. However, if we’d hoped to find a gushing artery, we were disappointed.

Halfway through the meeting, our conversation shifted towards her entrepreneurial vision. It took her less than 30 seconds to name six business that she’d thought about starting in her area. Yes, she’s a full-blooded serial entrepreneur.

I’ve found my best consulting calls always have an unpredictable element, and when she started to describe the other businesses that she wanted to start, I began to paint a picture for her.

I started to describe an entire ecosystem that she could build–multiple businesses feeding into each other–allowing her not only to eventually drive down operational costs but also allowing her strong competitive advantage as she continued to scale. We discussed specific marketing tactics that she could use to feed customers from one business to the other.

As we talked, she suddenly began to see the true asset that she had built–one piece of a bigger puzzle that would serve to firmly embed her in the business landscape of her area.

My prediction? While it’s going to take time, if you come back in ten years, you may just discover that Andrea has built a juggernaut network of businesses that her customers absolutely love…and that create a healthy profit for herself.

Matthias Miller is the business growth consultant and founder of Multiply Your Strengths. He’s passionate about seeing people excel in their strengths. His intentional pursuit of professional growth has given him extensive experience in software development, project management, leadership, and marketing. He lives in Canon City, Colorado, with his wife Bonita and their family. https://www.multiplyyourstrengths.com/