Vol 1 Issue 4 May 2007
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Upcoming
6th Annual Business Plan Competition
Register to attend the Bard Center's 6th Annual Business Plan Competition
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
8:30-1:30 p.m. at Grand Hyatt-downtown
Celebration of Success
Please join the Business School's signature event with Secretary Robert Reich, Former U.S. Secretary of Labor and Professor of Public Policy, UC-Berkeley. Celebration of Success Dinner. Proceeds benefit student scholarships, fellowships for outstanding faculty and future Celebration of Success events.
Wednesday, June 6, 2007
6:30 p.m. at Donald R. Seawall Ballroom, Denver Performing Arts Complex
Excellence in American Entrepreneurship Award Dinner
It is for their spirit of entrepreneurship, and commitment to community that the Bard Center is awarding Gail and David Liniger the Excellence in American Entrepreneurship Award.
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
6:30 p.m. at Grand Hyatt-downtown
Entrepreneur Seminar Series - Valuation of Your Company/Corporation
Need to raise money? What is your company worth? How do you calculate its value, what’s important or not? This seminar is designed for the Entrepreneurs that have formed their company and are in the process of seeking initial or first round funding as well as Entrepreneurs that are just starting out in their business. Please RSVP.
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
3:30-5:15 p.m. in the Bard Center classroom
FOR MORE INFORMATION OR TO REGISTER FOR EVENTS CONTACT:
Beth Polizzotto at bard.center@cudenver.edu or (303) 620-4050
Announcements
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Alexander E. "Sandy" Bracken Retires June 30th
Executive Director of the Bard Center for past six years is saying goodbye.
"It has been my great privilege and pleasure to serve as the Bard Center Executive Director for the past six years. I believe it is time for me to move on and for someone new to come into this position and take the Bard Center to the next level. The Bard Center has exciting opportunities ahead for expanded growth with the alignment with the Health Sciences Center and focus on bioscience; and health offers a promising new area for curricular expansion, new entrepreneurship students from the sciences and health fields, collaboration with faculty researchers, and new bioscience business development." Sandy Bracken
The UCD Business School, the Bard Center Advisory Council, and the Bard Center Alumni want to thank you Sandy for your dedication over the past six years to improving the education and experience of Colorado Entrepreneurs. Your vision and guidance have delivered significant results as well as providing a blueprint on how to succeed in growing entrepreneurship in the Front-Range.
New Website- www.cudenver.edu/bard
Look for our new website mid-May. Many thanks to Elevated Third and Jeff Calderone, Bard Center student, Certificate recipient, and past incubator tenant!
Bard Center Company Updates
RevoPower, Steve Katsaros, Rutt Bridges Venture Capital Fund Recipient
and BPC Winner
RevoPower is making progress toward commercialization of their gas powered wheel. Early production units have rolled off the factory line in China and now begin their extensive testing for volume manufacturing. Steve Katsaros estimates that this process will be completed sometime late this calendar year and volume production and sales to the general public will begin sometime in early to mid 2008.
Simple Decisions, Joshua Churlik, Rutt Bridges Venture Capital Fund Recipient
Josh Churlik CEO, Simple Decisions recently won First Place in the North Carolina State Business Plan Competition. Josh is an NC State alumnus who had studied entrepreneurship there at the undergraduate level. Josh also holds an MBA from the UCD, and has received seed financing from the Rutt Bridges Venture Capital Fund.
Tensegrity, Jerry Rifkin, 2006 Business Plan Winner
Tensegrity continues to make progress toward commercialization. CEO, Jerry Rifkin is actively engaged in raising funds to complete an alpha manufacturing run in order to complete additional in depth testing of his designs, functionality and reliability. He hopes to complete a similar test at a VA facility in the third quarter of this year.
WINDOWSEAT Pictures, Moz Mirbaba, Bard Center Alum
Moz Mirbaba is a 2003 Bard Center Certificate Receipt and entered Windowseat Pictures in the 2003 Bard Center Business Plan Competition. Windowseat brings concept/project to the screen on time and on budget. Crews execute projects based on scope and need; with a constant focus on creating entertainment that gets organizations and their products the attention and sales they deserve. Windowseat has had steady growth, clients include Vans Shoes, Anheuser-Bush, Sony Music, Rockstar Energy Drink and the United States Air Force.
Previous Events
Certificate Awards Ceremony
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The Bard Center awarded 67 students a Certificate in Entrepreneurial Studies The Certificate program requires student to complete a minimum of 3 courses in entrepreneurship. These students may be non-degree seeking students or degree-seeking from any disciple with UCD.
Entrepreneur Seminar Series
The Entrepreneur Seminar Series has provided a wealth of knowledge to our Entrepreneur community. We have hosted five events this school year and one additional seminar is scheduled in May. Since we last reported on this topic we have hosted and additional three seminars: Business Risk Management; CTEK, CTEK Angels and CTEK Incubator; Business Incorporation/IP Protection for Start-ups. We will close our school year with a seminar on May 16th “How to value your business”. These sessions are scheduled for two hours and designed to provide hands on information for the current and future entrepreneurs.
In November of last year we had an engaging session with four local Venture Capitalists: Peter Mannetti from iSherpa Capital, Chris Onan, from Appian Ventures, Lisa Rutherford, from Vista Ventures, and Chris Scoggins, from Sequel Venture Partners. This team of experienced VC’s walked our Entrepreneurs through their qualification and review process. We discussed how they make money for their investors, the type of deals they look for, and how they manage their investments.
The February Business Risk Management seminar was hosted by Matt Coleman, President Van Gilder and Steven Purkapile Vice President. The topics were broad: business and product liability, directors and officers insurance, as well as healthcare, insurance and trends in health and flexible savings accounts. Our speakers prepared a notebook handout of the common terms and forms used in the industry.
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In March, we were visited by CTEK. Gary Held President, David Gold, CTEK Angel Investor, and Stephen Miller Executive Director of CTEK Stapleton Incubator. The CTEK team reviewed their processes for business evaluation, incubator residency and funding. Discussions followed to explore how CTEK resources can be made available to Bard Center entrepreneurs and young companies and the collaboration between CTEK and the Bard Center.
In April we were visited by Tom Franklin from Townsend, Townsend & Crew and Michael Weiner from Holland & Hart. Tom spoke about intellectual capital and how to protect it as intellectual property. We discussed how to protect your intellectual capital by using trade secrets, trademarks, copyrights and patents. Michael spoke of the how to set up and incorporate your company. He discussed the various advantages and disadvantages of the type of corporations LLC, S & C.
While these sessions are at a high level they are meant to provide an overview of these topics for the companies just starting out. At the end of each of the seminars the entrepreneurs are provided with an opportunity to network with our speakers and exchange business cards for potential follow-up discussions. The feedback we have received from our entrepreneurs is very positive and we will be continuing the seminar series in September.
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