CU Entrepreneur Showcase Week #6: Matthew Nelson, Junior
Name: Matthew Nelson
Business: Electric Honey Experience
CU Leeds Business Analytics and Psychology, Junior
“What is the Electric Honey Experience?”
The Electric Honey Experience is an annual 2 night, 3 day camping festival that celebrates Creative Expression, Music, and Spirituality to raise money for charity.
There is a wide variety of music from Grateful Dead covers and Indie Rock bands, to Industrial Techno and Future Bass Djs. Last year, other activities included Mountain biking, Tai Chi, Bouldering, Yoga, Slack lining, a Band performing atop a Mountain, Soccer, Ecstatic Dance, and our community forging Electric Honey Ceremony.
Editors Note: To see what the first Electric Honey Experience was like in 2023, watch the documentary here.
“What is your favorite part about working on this venture?”
Bringing people together. During last year’s festival, I legitimately had a total of around 50 people come up to me, look me in the eyes, and thank me for helping put on what they called the best or one of the best experiences of their lives— WOW. A sense of fulfillment like none I have experienced before. Returning to Boulder and seeing the friendships that were formed at Honey persist and deepen has kept my fire of passion for this project burning.
“How did electric honey start?”
In May of 2023, I brought the idea of throwing our own festival to a few of my friends also in the music industry. The idea achieved a strong resonance with two of them, Justin Hansen and Théo Pagani, who became my co-founders and fellow architects of the Electric Honey project. Each week we had meetings and made progress until October 7th when our creation was released into the world.
“What’s your major and what are you studying, what year are you?”
I am a double major in Business Analytics and Psychology in the second semester of my Junior Year at CU Leed’s.
“What led you to choose that major?”
I chose Business Analytics because I wanted to learn more about business while developing the hard skills to interact with data and create technologies. I decided to add a Psychology major as well to continue my personal exploration and understanding of the human mind more deeply.
“Have you been able to make any connections at Leeds that have helped you with your business?”
Yes for sure. Although most of the people who helped make Electric Honey a reality I connected with outside the classroom through DJing, professors such as Matthew Brady and Brad Warner come to mind as individuals that helped guide me along the entrepreneurial path.
“What’s been the most useful class you’ve taken so far at Leeds and why was it useful?”
New Venture Creation with Brad Warner. Brad does a great job of turning the mystical task of “creating a company” into action steps that truly does leave individuals prepared to start legitimate businesses. Honorable mention to the whole slate of Matthew Brady’s classes.
“Obviously, balancing school and your own venture are not the easiest things to do. What’s your strategy to manage both?”
Increasing your capacity for work, while cutting out activities that do not progress you. The cutting out of activities being the more overlooked and more impactful component in my opinion. For example, I only carry around a $20 Nokia flip phone during the day. This frees up the 3 ½ hours that I normally spend on my phone everyday and decreases the threshold of stimulation required to derive entertainment, making work and everyday life more enjoyable.
“Do you think, knowing what you know now, you’d have taken the same path?”
Yes for sure, I have known for a few years now that the life leasing to a traditional office job is not for me.
“Would you recommend that other entrepreneurs attend CU or college in general?”
Depends on your circumstances, if you receive a scholarship or have parents that pay for it then YES. CU offers many entrepreneurial resources and opportunities for connections to be made. If you have to pay for it yourself, generally NO. Your ROI would very likely be higher investing that money in your own business and pursuing no cost/low cost online education.
“If you had to pitch your service or product in 1 sentence, what would you say?”
Come to the Electric Honey Experience to make genuine interpersonal connections, hear good sound, and express yourself creatively.
“In your journey as an entrepreneur, what’s been the biggest personal challenge you’ve had to overcome, or are still working to overcome.
Spreading myself too thin. I have a tendency to say Yes to too many things. This has made it hard to make time to deeply pursue one thing for multiple years, which is always required to achieve mastery.
“Do you make use of AI in your daily life or in your business? If so, how? If not, why?
Yes. I use AI very frequently in both my daily life and in my business. I use it as a coder, idea generator, teacher, copy writer, and more. The use of AI and automation tools has been of great value for my personal tasks and businesses. I am actually in the process of launching a technology solutions company to help other businesses owners harness tools such as these more fully.
“What’s the end goal for your venture? Where do you see the finish line?”
The end goal is to have my kids and my co-founders’ kids all attend Electric Honey someday.
“Looking back from when you started to where you are now, what has been the most surprising or unexpected aspect of your entrepreneurial journey?”
The support we have gotten from the Boulder community. What started as a gathering for our friends to enjoy music, has already grown well beyond the reach of our friend group. There are currently around 570 people on the waitlist for Electric Honey 2024 and nearly 400 of them us 3 have never met before.
“What’s the next step for you in your business?”
Electric Honey 2024. We will have more music, more creative and spiritual activities, more decorations and, most importantly, more unique individuals to meet with around 570 people already on the waitlist.
“If you had unlimited funding and unlimited time, what would you do in the world?”
Create systems and events to foster genuine connections and personal wellbeing.
“Are there any specific problems you are still trying to overcome that you would like to consult our audience and readership about?”
If bringing people together motivates you, we are hiring interns and encourage you to send us an email at contact@electrichoneyexperience.com
If you know someone with land in Colorado’s mountains or Utah’a desert fit to host a festival, please contact us 🙂
Find Electric Honey on Instagram: @electrichoneyexperience
Find Matthew Nelson on Instagram: @matthew.nelson
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