David and Jill Cohen hosted a “End of Techstars” party at their beautiful Victorian home on Friday night to properly bid farewell to an amazing summer. It was definitely a bittersweet night because many of the Techstars are leaving to go back to their homes and families. We’ve got another Demo Day in San Francisco next month that some companies will be presenting at, but Friday was the official end.
I feel like I’ve gotten to know most of the Techstars very well throughout the summer, which is why some of the events of Friday evening surprised me. I knew the Devver Dudes are heavy Ruby guys, have a clear understanding of CPD, and really like Batman. I DID NOT, however, know that their list of redeeming skill sets spilled over into the arts, particularly acrobatics and pop dancing.
I’m not sure exactly how it all started. It seemed like one minute we were all carrying on quiet, group conversations about what’s next and how important this summer has been for all of us, and the next minute Dan and Ben were wagering .5% equity (and a majority stake in the company) on Dan’s ability to do a back flip in David’s backyard. Despite a few near misses, Dan successfully made it over without landing square on his head or worse, breaking a coding wrist or two.
As if this wasn’t already enough excitement for the evening, the Devver Dudes had another surprise in store for us. Apparently Ben has a rather successful past (17,488 views of his video on YouTube alone) dancing and singing with props….and he has a particular affinity for Britney Spears.
Ben made a second debut of his original perfomance shown below. He’s a little taller and a little older, but let me tell you….he still has a way with a broom.
Thanks Devver, for making Friday night a memorable farewell to Techstars. You guys are awesome and any investor reading this should clearly fund you for this display of raw talent alone.
Techstars LibDub Video
Sadly, I missed the recording because I was at an investor meeting. Thanks to Andrew Hyde’s bad ass planning and filming, this was made in little over an hour and in one take!
What do you get when you put a bunch of chocolate bunnies in a frying pan? Ask Generation Think Tank (GTT). This group of out-of-the-box creative thinkers has made it their full time job to drum up the most obscure marketing strategies that happen to cater to a specific demographic——Generation Y——-hipsters between the ages of 13-35 that are hard to please, hard to understand, and hard to reach. But somehow GTT has figured it out..and companies pay them handsomely for it.
Part of the reason GTT is able to successfully market to this tough demographic is because they are part of it. Brett Jackson, Daniel Lim, and Connor McCue started GTT because they saw a need for a different breed of a marketing company that didn’t think like all the others out there. GTT gets assignments that would terrify the more traditional (read: old) marketing and advertising agencies. A typical project may involve developing an unconventional marketing strategy for an unconventional product —— namely, the AVX Aircraft Company, manufacturers of a small, lightweight helicopter that can fit into a garage!
My high regard for this company derived out of my respect for their fearless leader, Brett Jackson. As the second youngest mentor in Techstars (Ben Casnocha has him beat by a few years), Brett has made quite a name for himself right out of the gates (or the diapers, depending on how you look at it). He started working for Crocs at the age of 16 and spearheaded the evolution from Crocs as a ‘boat shoe’ to the Croc as we know it today (i.e., every person in the world wears them, along with their 4.5 kids). He started an investment firm called Getch Companies at the ripe old age of 18, and started making seed investments in other businesses. Nowadays he runs GTT and provides non-traditional marketing advice to the 10 Techstars companies. He offers a fresh perspective to our teams, partially due to the fact that he has the practical business sense of a veteran entrepreneur, combined with the imagination and energy of a younger person. He’s just sort of an anomole, to tell you the truth.
Brett and his pals at GTT have been extremely helpful to Travelfli as we’ve developed our business this summer, and we can’t wait to work with them more as we roll out our marketing strategy for capturing frequent flyers in their infancy. We’re pitching for his company next week prior to Investor Day, and we can’t wait to hear their offbeat, yet valuable advice and recommendations.
P.S. Brett is also a treasure hunter. Yes, that’s what I said. He hunts for treasures that others buried ages and ages ago. Ask him about it. This guy is full of surprises.
GTT’s Marketing Strategy for Gellazzi... www.savethebunny.org
I have been horribly bad at keeping up with my personal blog, mostly due to the fact that I’ve been pretty good with the company blog and feverishly planning for Investor day—-which is just over a WEEK AWAY! I’ve had great intentions to post a bunch of different blogs, so I’m just going to play catch up.
I moved. Again. One would think that moving gets easier with time but that’s a lie. It sucks each and every time. That being said, I am now located in North Boulder and live in the basement of my landlord, who is an older real estate agent. The 10 minute bike ride to work has turned into twenty, and it’s a bit weird living with somebody twice my age. But there are some positives that came out of the deal: I now have a bath tub! I have laundry! My closet is a walk-in!
One of the conditions of my move was that I had to obey the “no pets” policy of my landlord. This means that I had to find a new owner for Rambo and Rudy, my turtles. This presented a bit of a problem for me because I’ve recently been wrestling with the injustice of keeping turtles in captivity. Austin calls my aquarium a “turtle spa” because they have different lighting options, sunbathing logs, and all the food they want. But it is 20 gallons of water that is shit in all day long by two dirty turtles. It never seemed like heaven to me. So after much internal debate and a reasonable amount of research, I decided to let them go in the Colorado University Pond (C.U. Wildlife Control, if this is breaking a law it’s all a farce and nothing I’m saying actually happened).
Last weekend my entire family accompanied me on a special trip up to the pond with the turtles. We staked out the best possible spot on the lake and I let them out of their bin and they INSTINCTIVELY KNEW WHERE TO GO! They weren’t even facing the water but they both took a quick u-turn and headed down to the shore and into the lake. We hung out for awhile to get a lay of the land and saw a ridiculous amount of wildlife in that pond…and they all looked like they were on steroids. Turtles, fish, ducks, more fish. They all seemed happy, plump and able to co-exist peacefully. I think this is the right decision and although I miss them more than I expected, I feel good about letting my kids out of the nest. Go visit them if you have a chance.
Gyminee just announced it’s first Techstars CHALLENGE that ‘runs’ from yesterday to August 15th. The winner is the person who runs the greatest accumulative distance during the period of the challenge.
This couldn’t be better timing for me because I am in the midst of training for a half marathon from Georgetown to Idaho Springs that takes place on August 9th. I ran one half marathon (13 miles) last weekend on a training run so I feel pretty confident that I’ll be able to finish the marathon. It is mostly downhill and is going to be rough on the knees (which are in extremely bad shape due to hard snowboarding in my glory days) but I think the elevation is going to be the biggest challenge. In training I’ve been running up Boulder Canyon and back down to try to get a feel for the elevation. My time is always in the mid 7:00’s, with an average of 7:56/mi on my half marathon run. I am going to try to increase it a bit before the race so I can finish in the lower 7’s.
As for the Gyminee challenge, I am currently leading the ‘race’ in first place with 13 miles. Peter from BuyPlayWin is trailing me with a distant lead of 6 miles. I may sound overly confident and there’s one overriding reason why: Brad Feld has yet to enter the race. Repeat: Brad Feld has yet to enter the race. If he partakes, I might be toast. He runs 20 miles a weekend for the helluvit. However, I am extremely motivated by prizes and will do almost anything for them. The winner of this challenge receives a free pair of Zamberlan hiking shoes…so I’m gonna go down fighting…or running.
P.S. If you haven’t ‘sprinted’ by Gyminee and registered, now is the time. It’s an awesome site for tracking fitness goals, dietary plans, and initiating other fitness challenges like this one with your friends. They are part of the Techstars group this summer and rocking it out with 30,000+ registered users! They also have a cool challenge widget that is displayed proudly on my blog for all to see…
Fling it Girl announced their public beta lunch today at BlogHer. I met Kary Rivera, the co-founder, through Boulder Women Engaging Technology and got to play with the site before it launched. I am so excited it’s now available for all to enjoy!
Fling it Girl is the best place on the web for you to stay in the know regarding the latest trends and products. The platform is similar to Digg, in that you can ‘Fling Up’ items of interest (clothes, books, health, travel, etc.) and then other users can “Fling It” (i.e., vote) to send it to the top of the lists. It relies solely on user generated content so it’s a great way to find out about products that you wouldn’t normally dig up on your own.
There is something for everyone on the site, so even if you don’t care about fashion or health, you can still find the latest tech gadget or garden tool on Fling it Girl. It also has a special section for just guys, so don’t let the name fool you. Guys can play too!
Stop by Fling it Girl today and show your love. I guarantee you will find something unique on the site that you wouldn’t have found on your own!
It appears as though there is a new kid on the block in the Boulder tech scene. David Cohen posted a nice write up on the BWET (Boulder Women Engaging Tech) group, of which I am a member. Then he introduced a new organization named BHARD (Boulder Hunks Achieving Righteous Dividends). At first glance, it remains unclear as to whether or not the word ‘hunks’ is an appropriate descriptor of this new group. We would like to politely suggest the use of a more fitting noun, such as Hippies, Hillbillies, or Haters.
Furthermore, it seems as though the group’s focus is on BeingHARD at all times. Then why, may we ask, do they have meetings at the YMCA? To us, this is a poor choice in location and is a sure sign that these men are very soft around the edges.
It sounds like a lack of direction also plagues the group. They talk about their ability to penetrate the market and achieve (righteous?) dividends for their group, but an insider source has confirmed they are having issues getting it up and in front of the right people.
It appears as if BHARD also suffers from the BSMALL syndrome. Size is important to them, as it should be, but they are struggling to grow rapidly. It can be construed that their current girth is the reason for poor group confidence, internal strife, inability to perform, and complete failure to engage other groups, such as BWET.
We wish the best for BHARD and hope these men can make an impact on the Boulder community.
