DENVER STARTUP WEEK (2019): WHERE TO FIND POTE LAW FIRM
Sept. 12, 2019 • by Jeffrey Pote
Denver Startup Week is just around the corner! This "celebration of everything entrepreneurial" is a FREE FIVE DAY event in Denver! And it is the largest free event of its kind in the world. This year the event takes place between September 16th and 20th. There will be tons of people descending on downtown Denver - from seasoned entrepreneurs, to those who launched their own unicorn startups, to others with their own successes in business and life! Are you ready? Have you planned your schedule? (Are you registered?)
This will be my first time attending DSW and I'm very excited to join!. There are so many great sessions and events happening all over downtown Denver that it is extremely difficult to narrow things down to a manageable schedule.
But there would actually have to be several of me in some cases to be able to join all of the sessions that I really want to see. Did you have a hard time finalizing a schedule that works with your other weekly obligations? (Can there be too much of a good thing?)
Here’s what I’m looking at right now, even though I’ve overbooked in a few places. Unfortunately, I won’t be able to make them all. But if you’re attending one of these sessions, let me know and I'll be on the lookout for you.
(Note: The session descriptions below are not my own but are those of Denver Startup Week. Their full descriptions are available by following the provided links. Google mapped locations are provided for convenience.)
MONDAY
MONDAY, SEP 16: 10:00AM — 11:30AM
BRACING FOR IMPACT: BUILDING BUSINESSES WITH PEOPLE AND PLANET IN MIND
Regardless of size or sector, integrating social and sustainable practices into your company’s brand and culture can help you not only survive, but thrive.
As more and more consumers seek products, brands, and services that align with their personal missions and values, companies pushing people and planet aside are struggling to keep up. Regardless of industry, weaving social responsibility and environmental sustainability into one's company and culture can improve employee retention, boost customer satisfaction, fuel future growth, and ensure a lasting legacy of positive impact.
In this session, innovators and leaders from diverse sectors will discuss the fundamentals of successful social and sustainable ventures, while unpacking strategies and tactics to build and grow them in today’s ever-evolving economy. The session will conclude with a unique opportunity to advise and inform the CSU System around the business support services and entrepreneurial resources to be offered at its future campus at the National Western Center in north Denver.
Location: CSU - Denver Center 2nd Floor Atrium, 475 17th Street
MONDAY, SEP 16: 12:00PM — 1:30PM
OUTCOME-BASED ROADMAPS: UNLEASH THE POWER OF A SHARED VISION & PURPOSE
Don’t be just another feature factory! The ultimate struggle for product teams is how to effectively communicate your product strategy upstream, while empowering mission-driven engineering teams downstream that solve real customer problems. Introducing, the Outcome-Based Roadmap!
You’ll learn to leave behind the feature factory practices that have you Gantt-charting lists of features four quarters in advance… and instead align your teams around customer-centric outcomes that deliver measurable value for customers while reducing risk for the business. Outcome-based roadmaps set the foundation for meaningful discovery, and allow a unified approach to solving the RIGHT problems.
Location: Grid Collaborative Workspaces, 445 N Broadway
MONDAY, SEP 16: 4:00PM — 5:00PM
DOING GOOD WITH DESIGN THINKING: THE THREEQUEL
Four in ten Americans don’t have the cash on hand to cover an unexpected $400 medical expense. This despite record low unemployment and a booming economy. In fact, two-thirds of bankruptcies are tied to unexpected medical issues.
While employers provide healthcare plans and retirement plans, a massive employee benefits gap exists in America when it comes to covering immediate needs and emergencies. Should employers play a role here? If so, how? And what’s the impact to employee productivity and the bottom line?
That in a nutshell is the focus of 2019’s Doing Good with Design Thinking. This session has grown into an annual tradition and crowd favorite at Denver Startup Week. Previous years have focused on applying design thinking principles to a range of intractable problems, from pandemics to homelessness to discrimination. This year we’ll be sharing stories of companies braving the social purpose waters, introducing benefits that fall far outside traditional corporate norms. Join us to see what they’ve learned from these fascinating social experiments. It might just change how you think about work.
Location: Spire Digital, 940 Lincoln Street
MONDAY, SEP 16: 5:00PM — 6:00PM
HUMMUS, HOPS, AND HATERS HAPPY HOUR
Head to the Spire Digital Dojo (940 Lincoln St.) for a happy hour consisting of Middle Eastern appetizers, a curated selection of local beers, and freeform discussions about what’s broken in our startup community and how it can be fixed.
Location: Spire Digital, 940 Lincoln Street
MONDAY, SEP 16: 6:00PM — 8:30PM
DENVER STARTUP WEEK OPENING BLOCK PARTY
Talk about scaling: 2000 of your closest startup friends will come together for THE block party to commence the most anticipated week for the Denver entrepreneurial community. Come celebrate another vibrant year and join in on the inaugural festivities. Trust your instincts: missing the biggest party of the year is not an option!
Location: Basecamp, 1600 Arapahoe Street
TUESDAY
TUESDAY, SEP 17: 10:00AM — 11:30AM
YOU FORMED YOUR COMPANY, NOW WHAT? NUTS AND BOLTS FOR STARTUPS
There's a lot to do and think of when you start your company. We've got the nuts and bolts of things startups should think about right from the start. View this as a one-stop-shop to get critical information from a variety of individuals who will guide you in the early stages and help you get set up for success. We'll address issues like equity to founders and employees, advisor relationships, payroll, protecting intellectual property, contracts, human resource issues, marketing, accounting, and more! It's easy to get lost and overwhelmed. We're here to help so you can raise money, grow your business, and sell (or acquire others) in the future. Doing it right from the start will pay dividends in the end.
Location: Jake Jabs Center at CU Denver - 5th Floor (Laube Commons), 1475 Lawrence Street, 5th Floor Laube Commons
TUESDAY, SEP 17: 12:00PM — 1:00PM
THE BEAUTY OF BUILDING A SECOND CAREER WITH LINDSEY VONN
The winningest female skier in history, Olympic gold medalist, founder of the Lindsey Vonn Foundation supporting girls through scholarships, education, and athletics, and now bringing her unrelenting toughness and bold outlook on life to the world of entrepreneurship: Lindsey Vonn.
Location: Basecamp, 1600 Arapahoe Street
TUESDAY, SEP 17: 2:00PM — 3:30PM
BUSINESS FOR GOOD: BUILDING BRANDS THAT SHAKE THE WORLD
Are you an idea creator or world shaker looking for impactful ways to use business for good? What if you could co-create a company-wide movement with the potential for greater social — and business — impact?
In this engaging and interactive workshop, we’ll explore the benefits of having a responsible brand while learning how to build and maintain a brand of purpose and integrity.
Many organizations—businesses, nonprofits, and government agencies alike—share- or say they share the desire to make the world better, but social responsibility goes beyond philanthropy and volunteering and we know that curating a public image of social purpose is not enough. Whether it’s ending poverty, reducing inequalities or tackling climate change, today’s consumers expect a lot from the brands they support.
This event will introduce you to the the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s), a key differentiator and competitive advantage for responsible brands. By attending this session you will develop a better understanding of how your organization can align business strategies and operations with the global goals in order to maximize positive impact.
Location: Capital One Café, 1550 Wewatta Street
TUESDAY, SEP 17: 2:00PM — 2:30PM
THE CHALLENGES OF SOURCING ECO AND ORGANIC
A Fireside Chat: As the demand for eco-friendly and organic products rise, high quality ingredient sourcing and conscientious packaging has presented new challenges. Whether the journey is towards shifting your business into eco-friendly sourcing or starting a new business with these principles in mind, we will discuss some of the options available and trade-offs to consider.
Location: Dairy Block Alley, 1800 Wazee Street
TUESDAY, SEP 17: 4:00PM — 6:00PM
DENVER FOUNDERS NETWORK SPONSORED BY PIE INSURANCE
For almost ten years, Denver Founders Network has brought the Denver Startup Community together every month for thoughtful conversations with some of the smartest and most accomplished founders in Colorado. Join us for this celebration of the Denver Startup Community from the original Denver Startup Meetup.
Location: Dazzle, 1512 Curtis Street
WEDNESDAY
WEDNESDAY, SEP 18: 8:00AM — 9:30AM
STANDING OUT IN A CLUTTERED CONTENT MARKET
Americans spend over 11 hours every day interacting with media of some form, whether it’s scrolling through social media, streaming videos, or reading long-form content. This means it’s more difficult than ever to break through the noise and captivate your target audience. Join Elizabeth Giorgi, CEO of Mighteor and Soona for an engaging discussion around how you can identify the content types with the most potential to get noticed. You’ll learn how to use humanity and heart to drive your content decisions, and create a content marketing strategy based on a data-driven, audience-first philosophy.
Location: WeWork Tabor Center, 1200 17th Street, 27th Floor
WEDNESDAY, SEP 18: 10:00AM — 11:30AM
GOLDILOCKS & HER DOLLAR BILLS: RIGHT SIZE YOUR FUNDING & PRIVATE CAPITAL
While securing funding can be complicated, finding the right funding is tricky. Funding options aren’t a one-size-fits-all. When looking to secure funding for your business, you need to consider the various structures and methods of financing. Additionally, having the right team in place can be the difference between acceleration and stagnation. In this panel presentation, you’ll hear from seasoned investors, legal experts, and owners who’ve been on both sides of the funding process. We’ll also delve into the effectiveness and timing of each method, so you can find the source that is just right for you.
Location: Moye White, 1400 16th St., Denver, CO 80202, 6th Floor
WEDNESDAY, SEP 18: 12:00PM — 1:30PM
MEASURE WHAT MATTERS: AN INTRODUCTION TO UTILIZING KPIS
Data plays a crucial role in a startup’s growth. When utilized correctly, KPIs – such as increased lead generation and stronger sales – can provide valuable insight into progress towards business goals and where you may be falling short. However, startups with limited resources are often overwhelmed by the quantity of data available and don’t understand which data points to measure. This panel, featuring Centro, Dizzion, Ibotta, INK and SpotX, will provide an introduction into establishing an effective measurement strategy to ensure your startup is turning KPIs into actionable outcomes.
Location: Galvanize (Platte - Classroom 2), 1644 Platte St., Lower Level, Classroom #2
WEDNESDAY, SEP 18: 12:00PM — 1:30PM
DENVER’S ENTREPRENEUR ECOSYSTEM – CONNECT TO THE RESOURCES YOU NEED TO BE SUCCESSFUL
Thinking of starting or growing a business in Denver? This session connects participants to a roadmap for success on how to navigate the thriving entrepreneur ecosystem in Denver. Learn the best public and private channels, resources, and networks available to help your business achieve the success you want. Learn more about the Commons on Champa and how the resources available can help build meaningful connections to get to your goals faster.
Location: Commons on Champa, 1245 Champa St.
WEDNESDAY, SEP 18: 2:00PM — 3:30PM
TOO MANY COOKS: BUILDING PRODUCTS WHEN EVERYONE'S YOUR CUSTOMER
Transforming a complex industry? Your impact will be huge, but there's a reason it needs disruption - siloed stakeholders, backwards incentives, and decades of bad behavior. And you can't do it on your own - you'll need strategic partners to fill technology or sales gaps. Now you have a long list of people to keep happy, even if they're completely not aligned.
This panel will explore how some of Denver's fastest growing companies have found focus and balance when everyone's their customer. You'll get best practices to hone in on what your customers really want, how to invest your time, and just say no.
Location: INDUSTRY Stadium (Brighton Blvd), 3001 Brighton Blvd.
WEDNESDAY, SEP 18: 4:00PM — 5:30PM
DIGITAL MARKETING & WEBSITE 101: STARTING A SUCCESSFUL ONLINE STRATEGY
Why do you have a website? If you can’t answer this question in one sentence you might need to rethink your strategy. Come hear from data and business intelligence leaders about the key tools and KPIs for starting a website for your business. By simplifying the tools you use, you can set up a basic online strategy to help track data and metrics. Come hear from successful companies, learn from their mistakes, and don’t get tricked by industry lingo.
Location: Industry RiNo Station, 3858 Walnut St.
WEDNESDAY, SEP 18: 4:00PM — 5:30PM
ENTREPRENEUR NETWORKING WITH FREE FOOD, DRINK AND LIVE MUSIC
Come raise a FREE glass of beer or wine, grab a bite, and connect with fellow entrepreneurs as Bunker Labs joins Denver Startup Week in celebrating entrepreneurial achievement of all kinds. The first 100 attendees will be gifted an awesome goodie bag filled with must-have swag, and the event will feature live music and a unique performance by CreatiVets who will creatively tell the unique story of a veteran entrepreneur through song.
Location: Dazzle, 1512 Curtis Street
THURSDAY
THURSDAY, SEP 19: 8:00AM — 9:30AM
THE IMPACT INVESTING LANDSCAPE
Impact investing has grown exponentially over the past few years and now comprises a significant portion of angel and early VC investments nation-wide and in Colorado. But there is a lot of confusion about what really is an impact company? Social? Environmental? Economic development? Is it non-profit, or should it be held to the same standards as venture backed companies? How do you measure impact?
This interactive panel will be led by local impact investors from Rockies Impact Fund, Social Venture Circle and Cornerstone Capital and will span across multiple viewpoints. Audience participation will be encouraged!
Location: Colorado Lending Source, 1441 18th Street
THURSDAY, SEP 19: 10:00AM — 11:30AM
THE DIRTY LITTLE SECRET OF SEO
You’ve got a great web presence, but need more traffic, more clients … so you hire an SEO company. Now what? Exactly what are you buying? Hint: not results.
We’ll give you an inside look at what SEO companies actually do & how to best work with them.
Is SEO all you really need? Is your SEO in sync with your business goals & priorities, or are you getting cookie-cutter services? A quality SEO strategy pays for itself in spades. I’ll cover how, why, & what you can do to get results. Attendees will receive our pre-SEO checklist, questions to ask any SEO company, & other resources.
Location: WeWork Tabor Center, 1200 17th Street, 27th Floor
THURSDAY, SEP 19: 10:00AM — 11:30AM
STARTING SMART: A LEAN STARTUP GUIDE FOR NONPROFITS
Fail fast, break things, and challenge yourself. These are things we hear quite frequently in the startup world. Yet as a society we continually handle nonprofits with kid gloves. With a board, marketing and fundraising needs, and a goal to make an impact, why should we treat new nonprofits differently than a startup? Learn how a local nonprofit leveraged lean startup and agile methodologies to create a minimum viable product, fail, and pivot in a saturated charitable market to create awareness around a communal need in just four months. Whether you are looking to start or join a social entrepreneurship or nonprofit, learn how you can create a larger impact in your communities with for profit business methodologies from Geoff Davis and Melissa Schwass, Period Kits Co-Founders and Julianna Nelson, Period Kits Board Member.
Location: Commons on Champa, 1245 Champa St.
THURSDAY, SEP 19: 12:00PM — 1:00PM
SCORING BIG IN BUSINESS WITH JOHN ELWAY
John Elway, Hall of Fame quarterback, General Manager and President of Football Operations for the Denver Broncos and entrepreneur, discusses how managing a football team is similar to running a business – and the secret to succeeding at both.
Location: Basecamp, 1600 Arapahoe Street
THURSDAY, SEP 19: 2:00PM — 3:30PM
CREATING A CONTENT STRATEGY FROM SCRATCH IN 8 EASY STEPS
Are you creating content that you believe is under-performing? Or are you looking to start a website and aren’t sure what content to create? Regardless of your situation, this session will help you step back and create a content strategy that will ensure you have a purpose and audience in mind for every piece of content you publish. You’ll pick up tips that will help you narrow your content focus, identify your unique content angle, match the language of your prospective customers for SEO, and better understand what content to create and why.
Location: WorkAbility Uptown at the Sudler, 1576 Sherman Street
THURSDAY, SEP 19: 2:00PM — 3:30PM
CO-FOUNDING IS A SERIOUS COMMITMENT – ARE YOU READY TO GET HITCHED?
Like any good relationship, co-founders depend on excellent communication and clear boundaries. The best way to work with your founder is likely not a handshake but rather an operating or founder agreement. But how do you have “the talk” without making things awkward? What are the key expectations you need to set today to avoid heart-break (or financial disaster) tomorrow?
This panel will provide practical solutions to the complicated discussions between founders starting a company. We’ll cover the best (and worst) approaches to these conversations, the intricacies of drafting an agreement between founders and the necessity of good governance and future planning.
Location: Hogan Lovells, 1601 Wewatta Street, 900
THURSDAY, SEP 19: 4:00PM — 5:30PM
IT TAKES A VILLAGE TO RAISE A SMALL BUSINESS (AKA THE ORIGINAL STARTUP)
As Denver continues to mature from an oil & gas boomtown to an innovative tech hub, we cannot leave Main Street businesses behind. From the mom & pop shops, to the immigrant-owned eateries, and the local auto garage down the street, 97.5% of businesses in Colorado are small businesses. These small businesses are the "original startups". The latest tech unicorn or massive funding round might grab all the headlines -- but it's the diverse, local businesses that give our city it's character and keep it running.
Join us for a panel discussion focused on the tools, resources, and capital that are available to under-resourced entrepreneurs and aspiring small business owners across the front range. This will be a casual-conversation environment, where the audience can easily interact with panelists and develop a discourse leading to a call to action to support under-resourced small business owners.
If you are an aspiring (or existing!) small business entrepreneur, impact investor, subject matter expert, or curious observer, you will not want to miss this unique gathering of community-builders as we host an open discussion on what's working well and where the gaps are. You will walk away from this session with information, ideas, and actionable steps to join the movement to build a diverse, equitable, and more inclusive startup community in Denver.
Location: Industry RiNo Station, 3858 Walnut Street
THURSDAY, SEP 19: 6:00PM — 8:30PM
DENVER STARTUP WEEK BASH (CLOSING PARTY)
What's the best way to close out Denver Startup Week? An awesome party of course! The DSW Bash is an evening full of tasty food, drinks, games, and music - all alongside your newest friends from the week. After a successful week of learning, meeting new people, and helping us celebrate Denver's entrepreneurial community, you will deserve this celebration. See you there!
Location: Dairy Block Alley, 1800 Wazee Street
FRIDAY
FRIDAY, SEP 20: 9:00AM — 10:30AM
MADE ON PURPOSE
Carol Cone is internationally recognized for her work in Purpose and CSR. She is a sought-after speaker and media expert, sharing her insights on purpose branding, corporate citizenship, sustainability and CSR. PR Week called her "arguably the most powerful and visible figure in the world of Cause Branding." The Carol Cone ON PURPOSE collaborative recently teamed with Aflac and Sproutel to create an award-winning AI comfort companion for children with cancer. The social robot duck won the “Triple Crown” of global awards: Best in Show at CES, People’s Choice at SXSW and Two Cannes Lions. Most important it is now in the arms of over 5,000 pediatric cancer patients. Join Carol and a panel of local business leaders and entrepreneurs for an inspiring discussion on infusing product with purpose.
Location: Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce, 1445 Market Street, 5th Floor
Well, that's what I'm looking at. If you made it all the way through that list, then congratulations to you! I hope at least a couple piqued your interest.
Due to prior commitments, Thursday may have to be my last day this year. But if I'm able to attend any Friday session, "Made on Purpose" held at the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce would be the one.
Where will you be? I'd be happy to talk to you about any of these sessions or their topics. And maybe you've noticed interesting events that I've missed. Feel free to reach out even if just to say “Hello.”