For this episode, we are once again coming at you from the front porch of our Chautauqua Cottage at the Reversing the Arrow conference, which took place in Boulder in June 2024. This time out, Brad and Jeff are joined by Ryan Coles, Professor of Management & Entrepreneurship and Chief Scientist at Daigle Labs, part of the University of Connecticut School of Business.  

With UNC-Chapel Hill Professor of History Ben Waterhouse sitting in, the four (well, five if you count our producer, Joel) sip some mighty fine - and Colorado-made - Law’s 4-grain Straight Bourbon Whiskey. The accompanying conversation flows from Brad’s Origin Story to how local culture affects entrepreneurial approaches and outcomes, a point that’s driven home by discussion of Ryan’s most recent paper.  The findings demonstrate how, when filtered through a local/cultural lens, “entrepreneurial energy isn’t just on or off; it can also be channelled.”

Enjoy and cheers!
___
This episode of Creative Distillation was recorded on the front porch of the Chautauqua Mission House at the Reversing the Arrow Conference, held in Boulder in June 2024.

Ryan’s paper, “Cultural Norms and the Gendered Impact of Entrepreneurship Policy in Mexico,” was first published in September 2024 in Volume 69, Issue 4 of Administrative Science Quarterly.	https://faculty.marshall.usc.edu/shon-hiatt/ASQ1283008.pdf

Learn more about Ryan Coles and Daigle Labs on his faculty page at the University of Connecticut School of Business website. https://www.business.uconn.edu/person/ryan-coles/
___
Learn more about CU's Deming Center for Entrepreneurship: https://deming.colorado.edu

Comments/criticism/suggestions/feedback? We'd love to hear it. Drop us a note at CDpodcast@colorado.edu.

Thanks for listening.
- An Analog Digital Arts Production for the Deming Center for Entrepreneurship Produced, recorded and edited by Joel Davis

"Whiskey Before Breakfast" [Traditional] performed by Jeffrey York and Brad Werner. Recorded, mixed and mastered by George Figgs
___
CREATIVE DISTILLATION
University of Colorado-Boulder professors Jeff York and Brad Werner distill entrepreneurship research into actionable insights.

Jeff York | Associate Professor | Research Director jeffrey.york@colorado.edu

Brad Werner | Instructor | Teaching Director walter.werner@colorado.edu

Deming Center for Entrepreneurship | CU Leeds School of Business 303.492.9018 | deming@colorado.edu

72: Ryan Coles (Connecticut) on Laws Bourbon and How Local Culture Affects Entrepreneurial Approaches and Outcomes

It’s our annual Creative Distillation holiday episode, and to ring in the season we’re spreading and receiving good cheer at one of our favorite locations, Dry Land Distillers, on Main Street in Longmont, Colorado. 

Dry Land founder Nels Wroe walks us through a couple of delicious libations, including Dry Land’s sweet (but not overly so) house egg nog. Nels also previews Dry Land’s seventh annual Nog Off, a fixture on the holiday calendars of many, and talks about Dry Land’s efforts to be Colorado’s first producer of regenerative spirits.

Brad and Jeff are also joined by Ashley Tillman, Innovation and Entrepreneurship Director for the entire University of Colorado system, and Alicia Sepulveda, Assistant Director of Research at CU-Boulder’s RADD Lab, which conducts Research on Affective Disorders and Development. They talk about CU’s goal of being the #1 innovation and entrepreneurship program in the country, and how the challenges of the program prepares students for more successful outcomes in learning and employment, by instilling the “grit” required to succeed in their post-academic lives.

All of that — plus the answer to the burning question of what came first, the eggnog or the rum? — on this very special episode of Creative Distillation.

Enjoy and cheers — and happy holidays from all of us at Creative Distillation!

——

This episode of Creative Distillation was recorded on location at Dry Land Distillers in Longmont, Colorado. Learn more and order merch and spirits at DryLandDistillers.com 

Learn more about CU’s Innovation and Entrepreneurship Initiative at cu.edu/impact-cu

--

Learn more about CU's Deming Center for Entrepreneurship: https://deming.colorado.edu

Comments/criticism/suggestions/feedback? We'd love to hear it. Drop us a note at CDpodcast@colorado.edu.

Thanks for listening.
- An Analog Digital Arts Production for the Deming Center for Entrepreneurship Produced, recorded and edited by Joel Davis

"Whiskey Before Breakfast" [Traditional] performed by Jeffrey York and Brad Werner. Recorded, mixed and mastered by George Figgs

___

CREATIVE DISTILLATION

University of Colorado-Boulder professors Jeff York and Brad Werner distill entrepreneurship research into actionable insights.

Jeff York | Associate Professor | Research Director jeffrey.york@colorado.edu

Brad Werner | Instructor | Teaching Director walter.werner@colorado.edu

Deming Center for Entrepreneurship | CU Leeds School of Business 303.492.9018 | deming@colorado.edu

73: Ashley Tillman & Alicia Sepulveda (CU) at Dry Land Distillers: Holiday Nog & Innovation at CU

We pick up where we left off before our annual holiday episode: on the front porch of the Chautauqua Mission House at the Reversing the Arrow Conference, held in Boulder in June 2024. This time around, Brad and Jeff are joined by: 

— Ben Waterhouse, Professor of History at UNC-Chapel Hill
— Katie Brownell, Asst Prof of Management at Virginia Tech
— and the omni-present Bob Eberhart, Associate Professor of Management at the University of San Diego, founder of the Reversing the Arrow conference, and frequent guest on the podcast

Katie sets the tone for the proceedings by stopping by with a bottle of State 38 Bourbon, distilled just down the road in Golden, CO. It’s the perfect accompaniment to a lively conversation about the intersection of history and business, sparked by Ben’s book, “One Day I’ll Work for Myself,” an examination of the (predominantly American) dream of self-employment — and its not-so-dreamy history. 

Ben notes that, in the last century, the American business ideal has trended from centering the collective good to shifting that burden to the individual by glorifying “going it alone,” leading to today’s gig economy and “DIY” entrepreneurial ethos — and putting particular pressure on today’s business students.

This topic falls right into the Creative Distillation wheelhouse, as it’s a long running theme on the podcast that starting a business isn’t for everyone — but that entrepreneurship isn’t just about starting a business. 

All of our guests agree that whether they use them to start a business or not, the skills entrepreneurship students develop — independent thinking, communication, creativity, and problem-solving — will set them up for success regardless of the undertaking, and are exactly what hiring managers are looking for these days.

It’s a fascinating meeting of brilliant business and history minds.

Enjoy and cheers!

—————

This episode of Creative Distillation was recorded on the front porch of the Chautauqua Mission House at the Reversing the Arrow Conference, held in Boulder in June 2024.

Ben Waterhouse’s book, One Day I'll Work for Myself: The Dream and Delusion That Conquered America, is available from your favorite bookseller. Learn more about Ben on his faculty page at the UNC-Chapel Hill website. 
https://history.unc.edu/faculty-members/benjamin-waterhouse/

Learn more about Katie Brownell on her faculty page at the Virginia Tech website. 
https://management.pamplin.vt.edu/faculty/directory/brownell-katrina.html

Learn more about State 38 Distilling at https://state38.com.

--

Learn more about CU's Deming Center for Entrepreneurship: https://deming.colorado.edu

Comments/criticism/suggestions/feedback? We'd love to hear it. Drop us a note at CDpodcast@colorado.edu.

Thanks for listening.
- An Analog Digital Arts Production for the Deming Center for Entrepreneurship Produced, recorded and edited by Joel Davis

"Whiskey Before Breakfast" [Traditional] performed by Jeffrey York and Brad Werner. Recorded, mixed and mastered by George Figgs

___

CREATIVE DISTILLATION

University of Colorado-Boulder professors Jeff York and Brad Werner distill entrepreneurship research into actionable insights.

Jeff York | Associate Professor | Research Director jeffrey.york@colorado.edu

Brad Werner | Instructor | Teaching Director walter.werner@colorado.edu

Deming Center for Entrepreneurship | CU Leeds School of Business 303.492.9018 | deming@colorado.edu

74: Waterhouse(UNC)/Brownell(VTech)/Eberhard(USD) on State 38 Bourbon & Entrepreneurship's History

Our penultimate episode from the Reversing the Arrow conference features a classic sit-down interview with Kathy Eisenhardt,  Stanford W. Ascherman, M.D., Professor in the School of Engineering at Stanford.

Kathy, as you’ll hear, is a legend in entrepreneurship education. Her trailblazing approach to researching how entrepreneurship really works makes her one of Jeff’s heroes. And the Eisenhardt Method, which she developed, deeply impresses Brad with its common sense approach. We think it’ll impress you too. 

Kathy was also the PhD advisor for Bob Eberhart, Creative Distillation’s most frequent guest and founder of the Reversing the Arrow conference.

In this fast-moving discussion, Kathy, Brad and Jeff talk about the pretty cool things that happen when business students meet engineering students — and how entrepreneurship programs serve as ideal incubators for great outcomes.

Other topics include the findings of a recent paper that Kathy co-authored on civilian drones, advice for young entrepreneurs, and the simple reasons why she and our hosts prefer the qualitative to the quantitative.

It’s a riveting conversation with someone who has been directing traffic at the intersection of business, engineering and entrepreneurship education for decades.

Enjoy and cheers!

***

This episode of Creative Distillation was recorded in the kitchen of the Chautauqua Community House during the Reversing the Arrow Conference, held in Boulder in June 2024.

Learn more about Suerte Tequila at drinksuerte.com.

Learn more about Kathy Eisenhardt on her faculty page at Stanford University: https://profiles.stanford.edu/kathleen-eisenhardt

Read Kathy’s paper, "Organizing Form, Experimentation, and Performance: Innovation in the Nascent Civilian Drone Industry," published in the July/August 2022 issue of Organization Science. Check the show notes for a link. https://pubsonline.informs.org/doi/10.1287/orsc.2021.1505
___

Learn more about CU's Deming Center for Entrepreneurship: https://deming.colorado.edu

Comments/criticism/suggestions/feedback? We'd love to hear it. Drop us a note at CDpodcast@colorado.edu.

Thanks for listening.
- An Analog Digital Arts Production for the Deming Center for Entrepreneurship Produced, recorded and edited by Joel Davis

"Whiskey Before Breakfast" [Traditional] performed by Jeffrey York and Brad Werner. Recorded, mixed and mastered by George Figgs
___

CREATIVE DISTILLATION

University of Colorado-Boulder professors Jeff York and Brad Werner distill entrepreneurship research into actionable insights.

Jeff York | Associate Professor | Research Director jeffrey.york@colorado.edu

Brad Werner | Instructor | Teaching Director walter.werner@colorado.edu

Deming Center for Entrepreneurship | CU Leeds School of Business 303.492.9018 | deming@colorado.edu

76: Kathleen Eisenhardt (Stanford) on the Intersection of Business and Engineering, and Suerte Tequila

With this episode, we segue seamlessly from the Reversing the Arrow Conference to the Global Entrepreneurship and Innovation Research Conference — affectionately known as GURK — held in Boulder in June 2024.

Our transition is eased by our location: the sunny rooftop of Avanti Food and Beverage on the Pearl Street Mall in downtown Boulder. On this gorgeous and scorching afternoon, Brad and Jeff speak with Avanti founder Rob Hahn. Over a round (or two) of Avanti’s signature Mezcal negronis, Rob shares Avanti’s inspiring origin story - from taking inspiration from Spain’s many food halls, to becoming a cutting edge accelerator for chefs and restauranteurs in Colorado, with locations in Denver and Vail as well as Boulder.

Negronis are the perfectly coincidental drink for our guest researcher, Stanford’s Chuck Eesley. Faithful listeners of the podcast will recall our legendary Ada Lovelace gin episode, which was Chuck’s first time on the podcast.  
https://soundcloud.com/creative-distillation/episode-21-ada-lovelace-gin-and-the-efficacy-of-university-entrepreneurship-programs)

Chuck returns to enjoy a proper Negroni and discuss his most recent research, published in the June 6, 2024, issue of Nature. The paper delves into the economics of misinformation, and how the algorithms on digital ad platforms route nearly one-third of ad dollars spent on news sites, to sites spreading misinformation. The impact of this on our political discourse is, shall we say, remarkable. Fortunately, Chuck proposes a solution that would bring transparency to this shadowy world, and reduce the economic incentives for misinformation entrepreneurs. 

Brad is impressed enough by Chuck’s research to bestow upon him his highest honor: a Professor Worthy of Their Tenure.

It’s a fun and fascinating, instant-classic episode of Creative Distillation.

Enjoy and cheers!

——

This episode of Creative Distillation was recorded at Avanti Food and Beverage during the Global Entrepreneurship and Innovation Research Conference, held in Boulder in June 2024.

Learn more about Avanti at https://avantifandb.com 
 
Find out more about Chuck Eesley on his faculty page at the Stanford University website.
https://profiles.stanford.edu/charles-eesley) 

Reach Chuck’s article, “Companies inadvertently fund online misinformation despite consumer backlash,” in the June 6, 2024, issue of Nature. 
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-07404-1) 

78: Rob Hahn (Avanti) / Chuck Eesley (Stanford): Mezcal Negronis and the Economics of Misinformation

For this episode, another in our series of recordings from the Global Entrepreneurship and Innovation Research Conference, which took place in Boulder in June 2024, we welcome Elvira Sojli, Associate Professor in the School of Banking and Finance at the University of New South Wales in Australia.

Elvira’s not a drinker, so this time out, Boulder-made Rowdy Mermaid Kombucha is on the menu. As it happens, Elvira makes her own kombucha at home. As such, you are about to learn more about kombucha than you ever imagined you’d want to.

On the topic of entrepreneurship research, Elvira touches on a few topics, all stemming from her fascination with the question of what to do when you know information exists, but the corporation is not revealing it. Specifically, she’s referring to how many large corporations mask their research expenditures, and that practice’s interesting implications for competitor research and insights into strategy.

This eventually leads to discussion of Elvira’s current research, which reveals that when a firm is hit with EPA actions, it tends to trigger quick filing of clean innovation patents they’ve been holding as trade secrets. These filings reveal useful info to other firms using those technologies. These peers often have lower emissions and other green patents, and are often able to attain new advancements quickly, which provides greater legitimacy for the market, resulting in more investment and new entrants.

This results in an economic and ecological win for all because other companies will iterate on the research while the originating company’s innovation is still patent-protected, resulting in a public good all around.

It’s another fun and informative episode of Creative Distillation.

Enjoy and cheers!

———
This episode of Creative Distillation was recorded during the Global Entrepreneurship and Innovation Research Conference, held in Boulder in June 2024.

Learn more about Rowdy Mermaid Kombucha at rowdymermaid.com.

Find out more about Elvira Soily on her faculty page at the University of New South Wales website (DON’T READ: https://www.unsw.edu.au/staff/elvira-sojli) 

Read Elvira’s paper, “Deleting Unreported Information,” in the September 2022 issue of the Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis. Check the show notes for a link. (DON’T READ: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-financial-and-quantitative-analysis/article/abs/deleting-unreported-innovation/4DE8D0EE758E43242B1A657F57296460)

--

Learn more about CU's Deming Center for Entrepreneurship: https://deming.colorado.edu

Comments/criticism/suggestions/feedback? We'd love to hear it. Drop us a note at CDpodcast@colorado.edu.

Thanks for listening.
- An Analog Digital Arts Production for the Deming Center for Entrepreneurship Produced, recorded and edited by Joel Davis

"Whiskey Before Breakfast" [Traditional] performed by Jeffrey York and Brad Werner. Recorded, mixed and mastered by George Figgs

___

CREATIVE DISTILLATION

University of Colorado-Boulder professors Jeff York and Brad Werner distill entrepreneurship research into actionable insights.

Jeff York | Associate Professor | Research Director jeffrey.york@colorado.edu

Brad Werner | Instructor | Teaching Director walter.werner@colorado.edu

Deming Center for Entrepreneurship | CU Leeds School of Business 303.492.9018 | deming@colorado.edu

79: Elvira Sojli (U of New South Wales): Rowdy Mermaid Kombucha and Deleting Unreported Information

On this episode recorded in June 2024 at the Global Entrepreneurship and Innovation Research Conference in Boulder, Brad and Jeff speak with Jay Habegger, a CU grad now pursuing his PhD at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business. Jay’s story is unique because, after over 20 years as an entrepreneur and two-time founder, he’s now studying entrepreneurship and trying to contribute to our understanding of it.

As they enjoy a light and refreshing Upslope German Pilsner, Jay tells Brad and Jeff about his research, which focuses on the regional distribution of venture capital, and tries to explain why differences exist between finding investors in the “Big 3” hubs (Silicon Valley, New York, and Boston) where one-half of all equity financing  transactions happen -- and the rest of the country.

Jay’s research asks: are these transactions equal? It turns out, they are not. Outside of the hubs, it’s a steeper search challenge to find investors; most financing involves less money and takes longer to find; and non-hub companies must often deal with a different investor type than they’d find within the hub.

The upshot of the research is, no matter where the company is located, it must still “show up” by embedding itself in the networks trafficking in the capital they seek. As we learn, that may seem like a pretty obvious concept, but it’s easily overlooked by a lot of companies. 

Jay, Brad and Jeff are here to point it out to them. 

Enjoy and cheers!

——
This episode of Creative Distillation was recorded during the Global Entrepreneurship and Innovation Research Conference, held in Boulder in June 2024.

Learn more about Upslope Brewing at upslopebrewing.com. 

Find out more about Jay Habegger on his page at the University of Maryland website (DON’T READ https://www.rhsmith.umd.edu/directory/millard-jay-habegger) 

--

Learn more about CU's Deming Center for Entrepreneurship: https://deming.colorado.edu

Comments/criticism/suggestions/feedback? We'd love to hear it. Drop us a note at CDpodcast@colorado.edu.

Thanks for listening.
- An Analog Digital Arts Production for the Deming Center for Entrepreneurship Produced, recorded and edited by Joel Davis

"Whiskey Before Breakfast" [Traditional] performed by Jeffrey York and Brad Werner. Recorded, mixed and mastered by George Figgs

___

CREATIVE DISTILLATION

University of Colorado-Boulder professors Jeff York and Brad Werner distill entrepreneurship research into actionable insights.

Jeff York | Associate Professor | Research Director jeffrey.york@colorado.edu

Brad Werner | Instructor | Teaching Director walter.werner@colorado.edu

Deming Center for Entrepreneurship | CU Leeds School of Business 303.492.9018 | deming@colorado.edu



81 Jay Habegger (Maryland): Upslope German Pilsner and Regional Distribution of Venture Capital


This time out, Jeff and Brad properly set the tone for the Global Entrepreneurship and Innovation Research Conference, which took place in Boulder in June 2024, with a roundtable of original “GEIRC” founders including:

-  Janet Bercovitz, Professor of Strategy & Entrepreneurship here at Leeds
-  Matthew Grimes, Professor of Entrepreneurship and Sustainable Futures, at Cambridge University’s Judge School of Business
-  Po-Hsuan Hsu, Professor of Quantitative Finance, National Tsing Hua University (Taiwan)
-  Mike Lenox, Professor of Business Administration, Darden School of Business at University of Virginia

Through this fascinating and funny, freewheeling conversation, our panelists reveal the conference’s origin story and describe how it grew from a small affair at Virginia’s Darden Business School to the transcontinental movement its become today, drawing members from around the world and holding events in North America, Europe and Asia.

The group ascribes the high level of interest in the conference to its cross-disciplinary nature. The gathering draws from multiple academic sectors, which tends to allow attendees to more quickly cut through the discipline-specific minutiae to find common ground, share multiple perspectives and get to actual real-world impact. 

Brad, Jeff and Janet talk about how Leeds is a natural slam-dunk host for the conference, given our people’s interest in entrepreneurship, or innovation, or both — not to mention the internationality of Leeds’ faculty and students.

Considering it’s the first time the Global Entrepreneurship and Innovation Research Conference has taken place since the pandemic, it’s a testament to the organization’s fortitude, creativity and resilience — exactly the sort of qualities one looks for in an innovative entrepreneur.

Enjoy and cheers!

——

This episode of Creative Distillation was recorded during the Global Entrepreneurship and Innovation Research Conference, held in Boulder in June 2024.

Huge thanks to our Boulder-area beverage providers:
Upslope Brewing: https://uslopebrewing.com
Liquid Mechanics Brewing: https://liquidmechanicsbrewing.com
Rowdy Mermaid Kombucha: https://rowdymermaid.com

And thank you again to our panelists:

-  Janet Bercovitz from Colorado: https://www.colorado.edu/business/leeds-directory/faculty/janet-bercovitz
-  Matthew Grimes from Cambridge: https://www.jbs.cam.ac.uk/people/matthew-grimes/
-  Po Hsuan Hsu at Tsing Hua University: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=vIgXoLEAAAAJ&hl=en
-  Mike Darden from Virginia: https://www.darden.virginia.edu/faculty-research/directory/michael-lenox

--

Learn more about CU's Deming Center for Entrepreneurship: https://deming.colorado.edu

Comments/criticism/suggestions/feedback? We'd love to hear it. Drop us a note at CDpodcast@colorado.edu.

Thanks for listening.
- An Analog Digital Arts Production for the Deming Center for Entrepreneurship Produced, recorded and edited by Joel Davis

"Whiskey Before Breakfast" [Traditional] performed by Jeffrey York and Brad Werner. Recorded, mixed and mastered by George Figgs

___

CREATIVE DISTILLATION

University of Colorado-Boulder professors Jeff York and Brad Werner distill entrepreneurship research into actionable insights.

Jeff York | Associate Professor | Research Director jeffrey.york@colorado.edu

Brad Werner | Instructor | Teaching Director walter.werner@colorado.edu

Deming Center for Entrepreneurship | CU Leeds School of Business 303.492.9018 | deming@colorado.edu


80: Roundtable w/GEIRC founders + Upslope / Liquid Mechanics / Rowdy Mermaid


This episode, our last from “GURK,” the Global Enterepreneurship and Innovation Research Conference held in Boulder in June 2024, features a conversation with another one of Jeff’s academic heroes and GURK founder, Mike Lenox. He's a Professor of Business Administration at the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business, of which Jeff is an alum. Mike’s influence helped Jeff focus his interest on CleanTech entrepreneurship, and the two have published several papers together.

Our bartender today is none other than Brad, who mixes his signature Manhattan while Jeff and Mike reminisce a bit about their Darden days before getting into more serious discussion about how clean entrepreneurship bridges our dichotomous political chasm on climate change. In cases where new clean tech demonstrates superior effectiveness over carbon-intensive technologies, the markets do their thing and the clean tech wins.

They also poke holes in the Panacea Hypothesis, which holds that entrepreneurship alone will solve all the world’s problems. Mike, Jeff and Brad concur that it’s really the interaction between markets and the policy that guides them that’s the key.

Whether it’s big issues like climate change, or AI — which our conversation also touches upon — Mike firmly believes that — especially in today’s fractured political climate — “extreme centrism” is the way forward. Our discussants agree that embracing and understanding the world’s complexity in order to solve big issues is the fundamental role of today’s entrepreneur. 

Unsurprisingly, they also agree that Brad’s Manhattans are excellent.

Enjoy and cheers!

——

This episode of Creative Distillation was recorded during the Global Entrepreneurship and Innovation Research Conference, held in Boulder in June 2024.

Unfortunately, there’s no link to Brad’s Manhattans, but here's that recipe for the Raymond Hale. It looks pretty tasty.

The Raymond Hale:

2 parts bourbon
1 part elderflower
1 part lemon
top with ginger beer

Learn more about Mike Lenox on his faculty page at UVA’s Darden School of Business (https://www.darden.virginia.edu/faculty-research/directory/michael-lenox)

Mike’s two clean tech books, “Can Business Save the Earth” and “The Decarbonization Imperative,” can be purchased from his website, michael-lenox.com

--

Learn more about CU's Deming Center for Entrepreneurship: https://deming.colorado.edu

Comments/criticism/suggestions/feedback? We'd love to hear it. Drop us a note at CDpodcast@colorado.edu.

Thanks for listening.
- An Analog Digital Arts Production for the Deming Center for Entrepreneurship Produced, recorded and edited by Joel Davis

"Whiskey Before Breakfast" [Traditional] performed by Jeffrey York and Brad Werner. Recorded, mixed and mastered by George Figgs

___

CREATIVE DISTILLATION

University of Colorado-Boulder professors Jeff York and Brad Werner distill entrepreneurship research into actionable insights.

Jeff York | Associate Professor | Research Director jeffrey.york@colorado.edu

Brad Werner | Instructor | Teaching Director walter.werner@colorado.edu

Deming Center for Entrepreneurship | CU Leeds School of Business 303.492.9018 | deming@colorado.edu

82: Mike Lenox (UVA): Brad’s Manhattans and “Extreme Centrism”

Season 6 closes on a strong note, with a panel discussion held in front of a live audience during Boulder Startup Week. This recording just happened to take place on the 13th anniversary of the opening of T|Aco, the downtown Boulder staple that graciously hosted this lively, illuminating and fun conversation. 

Our panelists represent a wide swath of the Boulder entrepreneurial eco-system:

•Stan Hickory, Director of CU’s Research & Innovation Office
•Peter Waters, co-founder and owner of T|Aco
•Davin Helden from Lafayette’s Liquid Mechanics Brewing — a proud sponsor of Creative Distillation and provider of this session’s tasty beverages
•Brad Feld, a partner at Foundry, co-founder at Techstars and an icon of Boulder’s startup community

Unsurprisingly, the discussion touches on a number of topics including:

* how Boulder having so many different startup communities (such as food, beer and tech) promotes cross-pollination between these communities, and provides more fertile ground for all
* the ways the post-covid “new normal” of empty downtown office space has fragmented the community and poses a threat to the local businesses catering to a dwindling population of office workers
* CU’s role in the Boulder startup eco-system, primarily by planting seeds of the entrepreneurial mindset that can help businesses of all types, and also as a talent pipeline producing rock star students ready to immediately contribute to a startup’s growth and scale
* the importance of finding the right investor
* startup communities as an essential component of a vibrant city

The conversation is underpinned throughout by Boulder’s unique and very real “Give First” ethos. It’s not just caring about the startup community; it’s the way we care about each other that makes Boulder special.

All of that, plus Jeff’s brief, tantalizing preview of Season 7. Bust out your aloha shirts, friends. It’s tiki time!

Enjoy and cheers!

—

This episode of Creative Distillation was recorded in front of a live audience at T|Aco in downtown Boulder. Learn more at tacocolorado.com.

Learn more about Liquid Mechanics at liquidmechanicsbrewing.com

Find out what Stan Hickory's up to at https://www.colorado.edu/researchinnovation/stan-hickory

Connect with Peter Waters at https://www.linkedin.com/in/peterwaters/

Find Davin Helden at https://www.linkedin.com/in/davin-helden-a4bb174/

Follow Brad Feld at https://feld.com/

And thank you again for showing up for another season of Creative Distillation. We appreciate you and look forward to seeing you back here for Season 7. Happy summer, everybody!

83: Season Finale: Liquid Mechanics Beer and Boulder Start Up Week Panel Live at T|Aco

University of Colorado-Boulder professors Jeff York and Brad Werner distill  entrepreneurship research into actionable insights.

New tracks tagged #cuboulder