Boulder, Colorado is a vibrant and thriving city located at the base of the Rocky Mountains. It is known for its beautiful natural surroundings, abundant outdoor recreational opportunities, vibrant cultural scene, and dynamic entrepreneurial spirit. Here are some of the top reasons why people move to Boulder and why they love it: Natural Beauty: Boulder’s location at the foothills of the Rocky Mountains provides residents with easy access to world-class outdoor recreation opportunities. The city is surrounded by over 45,000 acres of open space and 155 miles of trails for hiking, mountain... Read More

A true entrepreneur is not just somebody who doesn’t like to work for others. It is somebody who has a burning desire to create new systems and build upon existing ones. An entrepreneur is always thinking of ways to improve everything they come in contact with. Successful entrepreneurs have a part of them that is extremely lazy. This laziness is what causes them to relentlessly think of new ways to make things easier on everybody. They are obsessive problem-solvers; they see every challenge as an opportunity to show people a better way of doing something. The typical office environment drives... Read More

Meet Amy. She is a lover of crowds, resourceful creative and a bonafide foodie. An event professional by trade, she has a passion for creating experiences that inspire people to pursue their wildest dreams. Amy Lynn is a deep listener – clearly motivated by personal growth and authentic relationships. She is currently working on a place-making civic art project that uses a white-label app as its framework to create a network of dynamic social interactions.  Read More

Thanksgiving has come to be known as the great American day of indulgence: a day of over-eating, over-sharing and over-spending on Black Friday deals- like that shockingly discounted cooler or that 72-inch flat-screen TV complete with a mail-in rebate. We, the people, have taken our constitutionally granted liberty to take Thanksgiving as the seminal day to relax, spend time with family, and be grateful for all of the excess and privilege we have in our lives. Being grateful is undoubtedly a good thing for our mental and emotional well-being and so is having a holiday that gives us an excuse to... Read More

“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

Guess who I found exploring Chautauqua Park? This lovely lady, Julia Fallman. It’s safe to say that Julia is making a positive impact on the Boulder community, not only at Impact Hub Boulder as a Communications and Programming Coordinator, but also at Unreasonable Institute as a Global Labs Maverick. Julia describes Boulder as, “a sunny place where entrepreneurship meets the outdoors. In one day I could go for a trail run, go to work, climb the Flatirons, and grab dinner at the farmers market.” Cheers to that Julia!  Read More

“When you work for others, you are at their mercy. They own your work; they own you. Your creative spirit is squashed. What keeps you in such positions is a fear of having to sink or swim on your own. Instead you should have a greater fear of what will happen to you if you remain dependent on others for power. Your goal in every maneuver in life must be ownership, working the corner for yourself. When it is yours, it is yours to lose – you are more motivated, more creative, more alive. The ultimate power in life is to be completely self-reliant, completely yourself.” – Robert... Read More

    I was almost done. I knew I had to “pitch” my idea to somebody who had been there before. Someone who had successfully done it. Someone who had navigated this treacherous and unfamiliar territory. I knew just the guy. About a year and a half ago, I decided to start writing a column for About Boulder while I diligently worked on my first book, in addition to several of my own personal blogs. As I neared completion of my book project, I starting to get excited. I knew I had put in the hours and had a very solid foundation built for my entry into the world of authorship. I was proud... Read More

Has online begging become the new economy? Mark Ebner, a writer interviewed in a recent New York Times article, sure thinks so. The article, titled “GoFundMe Gone Wild” discusses the recent onslaught of social media campaigns to raise money for increasingly less worthy causes. The author of the article, Judith Newman, admits that the trend began with a focus on sincerely admirable causes, like paying medical bills for a suffering loved one or funeral expenses for a deceased relative, but she aptly notes that the campaigns have gone haywire. Facebook feeds are now filled with friends, exes,... Read More

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

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

After winning Super Bowl 50, Gary Kubiak, the Broncos’ head coach goes on record to say, “we grinded all year and we just had to do it once more”. Kubiak just gave everybody an insight into the mind of a champion. You see, The Broncos’ season was nothing like the Panthers’. The Panthers destroyed teams and then danced all over the field like children (by the way, I would’ve danced just as much as Cam. Judge all you want.) Their victories were spectacular. They scored points at will. They dominated. Everything they did was stylish. The Broncos’ season was very different. It was a... Read More

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

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

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

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

New Years resolutions are tough. They are tough to narrow down, tough to commit to, and, as we all know, tough to keep. But they are also useful. Mind tricks of any sort (or behavioral economics if you want to get fancy about it) can actually work and the scientific community would agree that making and attempting to keep New Years resolutions can sometimes lead to positive behavioral change. Over the last few years, in the hopes of actually keeping my resolutions, I’ve tried to stay away from small, superficial ones that force me into an all or nothing thought pattern. For example: Lose 10 pounds.... Read More

Boulder is a town filled with doers: people who would rather get up at the crack of dawn and summit a mountain than sit on their couch and watch television. I believe that this characteristic, the preference toward action over inaction, is what drives so much of the entrepreneurial success in our community. For a town of around 150,000 people, Boulder pulls more than its weight in the international entrepreneurship scene. This means that each of us Boulderites have to do more individually, and thus be stronger as a community. This holiday season, think about the entrepreneur in your life, whether... Read More

We’ve all heard the ancient proverb: Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day, teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime, right? Well, the meaning behind this proverb seems to be at the heart of a debate that has been sparked by Mark Zuckerberg and Dr. Priscilla Chan’s announcement that they would give away approximately $45 billion worth of Facebook shares over the course of their lifetimes. Any announcement made in such a public way by such a public figure is likely to ignite a firestorm of pushback and the Zuckerberg announcement was no different. Critics disparaged the Zuckerbergs... Read More

On Wednesday, the University of Colorado Leeds School of Business hosted an event that they dubbed the Sustainable Shark Tank. The Sustainable Shark Tank provided an opportunity for MBA students to present sustainable business plans to a panel of expert judges. Unlike the real Shark Tank (the one on television, not the one at The Aquarium) the judges weren’t deciding whether or not to write a check at the end of the program. However, the judges were providing honest and valuable feedback so that the MBA students could decide whether or not it would be worth it for them to take a chance and pursue... Read More