Entrepreneurs Unplugged
Entrepreneurs Unplugged is a meeting place where faculty, students and community members with technical backgrounds learn about and get involved in entrepreneurship. In particular, the program offers students and faculty an opportunity to learn how a successful startup is created as well as an opportunity to network. Each Entrepreneurs Unplugged meeting features food, drink and - most importantly - an experienced entrepreneur to discuss his/her start-up experiences. Programs are sponsored by the Silicon Flatirons Center for Law, Technology and Entrepreneurship; ATLAS; and Quick Left.
Entrepreneurs Unplugged events are held in the ATLAS Cofrin auditorium, Room 100, or at the University of Colorado Law School, Room 101. For more information about Silicon Flatirons Center events, click here.
David Cohen, Founder and CEO, TechStars
David Cohen is the founder and CEO of TechStars. Previously, David was a founder of several software and web technology companies. He was the founder and CTO of Pinpoint Technologies which was acquired by ZOLL Medical Corporation (NASDAQ: ZOLL) in 1999. You can read about it in No Vision, All Drive [Amazon]. David was also the founder and CEO of earFeeder.com, a music service which was sold to SonicSwap.com in 2006. He also had what he likes to think of as a "graceful failure" in between.
David is a active startup advocate, advisor, board member, and technology advisor who comments on these topics on his blog at DavidGCohen.com. He recently co-authored Do More Faster with Brad Feld. He is also very active at the University of Colorado, serving as a member of the Board of Advisors of the Computer Science Department, the Entrepreneurial Advisory Board at Silicon Flatirons, and the Board of Advisors of the Deming Center Venture Fund. He is a member of the selection committee for Venture Capital in the Rockies, and runs the Colorado chapter of the Open Angel Forum. His hobbies are technology, software/web startups, business history, and tennis. He is married to the coolest girl he's ever met and has three amazing kids who always seem to be teaching him something new.
6:15p.m.–7:45 p.m. Monday, May 20, ATLAS 100
Previous events and videos
George Kembel, executive director and co-founder, Stanford D. School
Silicon Flatirons, ATLAS, Deming Center, and Quick Left present George Kembel as the featured entrepreneur with moderators Brad Bernthal, Brad Feld and Jill VanMatre.
Speaker: George Kembel, executive director and co-founder, Stanford D. School
Kembel is an entrepreneur and investor turned educator. He co-founded and now leads the d.school.
Passionate about nurturing the creative potential of others, Kembel spends his time working with students, teachers, leaders, and investors to unlock the latent innovative capacity of their teams and organizations.
Under Kembel's leadership, the d.school has grown from a few projects and a classroom of students to hundreds of projects, thousands of students, and a cutting edge 30,000-square-foot facility at the center of campus. Kembel has scaled the d.school's impact even more dramatically. From a napkin manifesto to a widely recognized leader in innovation and education, the d.school has helped usher in a larger global design thinking movement. Schools and universities around the world are starting d.school-like programs, and the start-up companies and projects that have spun out of the d.school have already impacted millions of lives.
Kembel's experiences as CEO, venture capitalist, and now teacher have radically reshaped his approach to leadership. Kembel focuses the d.school on innovators, not innovations. He prioritizes learning over expertise, experimentation over planning, and collaboration over individual excellence. His personal missions include: fundamentally transforming how we educate our children, how we lead our organizations, and how we tackle some of the most significant challenges of our time.
6:15-7:45 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 7, ATLAS Cofrin auditorium, Room 100
Click here for a video of this event.
Wendy Lea, CEO, Get Satisfaction
Silicon Flatirons, ATLAS, and Quick Left present Wendy Lea as the featured entrepreneur with moderators Brad Bernthal, Brad Feld and Jill VanMatre.
Speaker: Wendy Lea, CEO, Get Satisfaction
Wendy Lea is the CEO of Get Satisfaction. Lea founded The Chatham Group, where she currently serves as an angel investor, strategic adviser and board member for a long list of startup companies. Lea chairs the board for women's entrepreneur group Watermark and serves on the board of Silicon Valley Social Venture Fund (SV2.org). She has been recognized as a Top 100 Woman of Influence in Silicon Valley.
6 p.m. Monday, Dec. 3, ATLAS Cofrin auditorium, Room 100
Click here for a video of this event.
Dan King, CEO, ReadyTalk
Silicon Flatirons, ATLAS, the Boulder Software Club, and Quick Left presented Dan King, CEO of ReadyTalk, as the featured entrepreneur on Oct. 10, 2012, with moderators Brad Bernthal and Jill VanMatre.
King is actively involved in the company's strategic direction and day-to-day operations. He has more than 25 years of experience in the telecommunications industry and related fields. Prior to ReadyTalk, King held senior positions in business development and financial management for ICG Communications.
King and his brother, Scott, were recognized as Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year in 2008 in the Software Services category for the Rocky Mountain Region.
To view a video of this presentation, click here.
TheBlogFrog
Silicon Flatirons, ATLAS, ITP, and Quick Left presented Holly Hamann and Rustin Banks as their featured entrepreneur with moderator Brad Bernthal on Sept. 24, 2012.
Speaker: Holly Hamann,VP of Marketing and Co-Founder Holly is a serial entrepreneur who has spent her career launching and growing start-ups in the social media, entertainment, video, and other tech industries. She is a blogger, public speaker, contributing writer on technology and marketing to various publications, is an American Marketing Association "Marketer of the Year" award recipient and guest blogger for The HuffingtonPost. She lives outside Boulder, Colorado and blogs about social media, triathlons and parenting teenagers.
Speaker: Rustin Banks, CEO and Co-Founder Rustin Banks (co-founder, CEO) started building online communities 15 years ago by hosting bulletin board systems (BBS) in his parents' closet. With an MS in Electrical Engineering, he left his position in Aerospace designing next-gen satellite systems to start BlogFrog in 2009. He and his wife, Tara, live in Colorado and he blogs about leadership and being the father of three small children.
Entrepreneurs Unplugged is a meeting place where faculty, students and community members with technical backgrounds learn about and get involved in entrepreneurship. In particular, the program offers students and faculty an opportunity to learn how a successful start up is created as well as an opportunity to network. Each Entrepreneurs Unplugged meeting features food, drink and - most importantly - an experienced entrepreneur to discuss his/her start-up experiences.
The Deming Center Women's Council is pleased to co-sponsor this Unplugged Session. The Women's Council's provides access and connections for students to successful women business leaders. It aims to nourish both students and other women in our community to live up to their potential as entrepreneurs and leaders in business.
To view a video of this presentation, click here.