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Articles Written By SaraBaris

 

How to Build a Conscious Company

December 5th, 2021

“For conscious companies, growth is different by definition. We don’t grow only for profit; we grow for purpose. We scale not only for a greater bottom line, but also for greater impact.” Says Lori Hanau, founder of Global Round Table Leadership. Many of the companies that I’ve written about and many others in Boulder strive to be conscious companies. They strive to put purpose before profit and to build products or offer services that make a positive impact on society. However, it’s not just an organic foods or a renewable energy company that can be conscious. Any company, no matter... Read More

Boomtown Demo Day: An All-Male Affair

April 14th, 2016

Boomtown, a prominent accelerator based in Boulder, hosted a Demo Day last night at the Boulder Theater for its 5th class of graduates. “A major focus at Boomtown is on developing and adapting a program that is best suited for the start-up.” By definition, an accelerator’s purpose is to provide resources for entrepreneurs to accelerate the growth of their companies, usually in exchange for a portion of equity in the company. But what I realized last night, as I watched a stampede of almost all male founding teams parade across the stage at the end of the night, that the support provided by... Read More

The New Venture Challenge

April 1st, 2016

On April 7th, the CU New Venture Challenge will host its championship round as five teams compete to win over $20,000 in cash and prizes. The New Venture Challenge is a cross-campus entrepreneurship competition that encourages University of Colorado students from every different school and department to team up with one another and build creative business plans. The teams draft pitches and business plans for their new venture ideas and then compete against each other to win cash and access to crucial mentoring opportunities. The New Venture Challenge participants can compete along one of 6 different... Read More

Beyond the Front Range

March 25th, 2016

This column has traditionally focused on businesses located in Boulder or nearby Front Range communities. We here at aboutboulder.com live in Boulder, we work in Boulder and we care about the Boulder community. However, we are also citizens of the state of Colorado and there has been much buzz in the state capitol about building businesses beyond the Front Range. Governor Hickenlooper has focused extensively on expanding the economies in rural Colorado communities. His new program, the Blueprint Initiative “invites the state’s rural communities and regions to apply for specialized resources... Read More

What Does it Mean to be Employee-Owned?

March 10th, 2016

Just over three years ago, New Belgium Brewing Co., the fourth largest craft brewery in the country, announced that it had become 100% employee-owned. The CEO and co-founder of the company has spoken about the decision many times since the announcement, saying that “there are few times in life where you get to make choices that will have a multi-generational impact.” New Belgium’s decision to transition into a 100% Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) structure is a shining example of how the leadership in companies can make positive decisions that impact both society at large and the company’s... Read More

Corporate Philanthropy Made Easy

March 3rd, 2016

In previous articles, I’ve touched on concepts related to creating mission-based organizations and I’ve highlighted companies that have built a culture of impact and sustainability into daily business practices. More than any defined monetary contribution, these cultural and community-based efforts are crucial to ensuring that the future of our world is as bright as the future of our businesses. However, for companies that are looking to create lasting impact through monetary contributions, apart from or in addition to more qualitative efforts, the Entrepreneurs Foundation of Colorado has created... Read More

So Much Impact in One Place

February 25th, 2016

For the past several months, I have written about business in Boulder and throughout Colorado with a particular focus on businesses with an impactful or sustainable mission. These businesses have run the gamut from technology to consumer products to non-for-profits. The Colorado Impact Initiative is a push to bring many of the diverse impact businesses in Colorado together in one place at one time. The culmination of the Initiative’s will be the Colorado Impact Days, a public showcase and investor-focused event to highlight many of the impact businesses in Colorado. While it is important to give... Read More

Supporting Female Entrepreneurs

February 18th, 2016

The statistics around female entrepreneurship are either non-existent or depressingly bleak. Alicia Robb, a senior fellow with the Kauffman Foundation and a prominent researcher on issues of gender, race, and entrepreneurship notes that over the last 15 years 85% of all venture-funded businesses have completely male executive teams with no females in leadership roles. What’s worse is that only 2.7% of venture-funded businesses have female CEOs. Right now, in 2016, the face of entrepreneurship is still male. How can we change that face? How can we make that face more diverse across gender and... Read More

Consulting for Good

January 28th, 2016

In light of an overwhelming response to last week’s post about the rise of the B Corp, I wanted to follow up on some of the questions that I received. Many in the community wanted to know more about how to become a B Corp from a practical perspective. I think most entrepreneurs understand the concept of the B Corp quite well and, based on the testimonials of existing B Corps, they are starting to understand the benefits of the certification to a company’s bottom line. In short, people get the why, they just don’t necessarily get the how or the when. What sorts of companies should apply for... Read More

The Rise of the B Corp

January 21st, 2016

No, the B Corp is not some new Transformers sequel or some government program designed to eliminate the lingering ills of the 2008 recession. The B Corp is a certification: nothing more than a label, plain and simple. It’s not even an official legal registration designation, it’s simply a signal to consumers that a company intends to behave in an ethically, socially responsible way and, in turn, the company intends to be held accountable for that promise. According to B Lab, the organization that issues the B Corp certification, “B Corps are for-profit companies certified by the nonprofit... Read More