An exciting Meetup is planned this month on Wednesday Feb 29th (That's right "Leap Day") at the Penrose Library downtown, as we begin to start putting together the raw materials, people, and funding models for our proposed SaaS/Cloud/Internet Venture Development Cluster for Colorado Springs. This is where we effectively "glue" together our local Internet, Software Development, SaaS, and Cloud-based developer community, with our emerging business development and seed angel community that is interested in plugging into real companies with real investment strategies that have "legs" and "teeth". No "handouts" or "government cheese" allowed here !
Local, Loud, and Leveraged:
This is a local grassroots effort that is performance based and high-speed, and is not for the faint of heart. We are not asking anyone for permission. We are moving out and executing a well thought-out strategy that is supported by numerous venture accelerators across the country who have taken a "differentiated" and "direct" approach to building companies quickly and efficiently.
At our Feb 29th Meetup we will be "Filling in the Blanks" on SaaS/Cloud/Internet.
VDC + 3Ci = R E S U L T S
What is the formula for success ? We believe it's not a top-down-command and control approach that's for sure... We are not interested in using old, to build new. It's grass roots and bottom up, that means we create both a VDC, (Venture Development Cluster) focused on a specific vertical market model, (as in SaaS/Cloud/Internet), including start-up entrepreneurs and operating company entrepreneurs in the same space integrated together with mentors and advisers and investors who "get" software development, and the Internet to create a dynamic venture development environment. These companies work and support the efforts of the others in the cluster. Each have unique markets and products and services, but share a legacy of operational needs and challenges that they will be able to help support as an eco-system.
Match this with a specially developed Collaborative Community Capital Investment Fund, (3Ci) that raises and invests exclusively in the SaaS/Cloud/Internet cluster companies, and you have an explosive combination. We want to raise between $3M to $5M for this fund initially, with the potential to grow this to $10M annually so we are not messing around.
This Month's Speakers for our SaaS/Cloud/Internet Meetup:
This month we have invited a number of local software developers who are already developing SaaS/Cloud/Internet solutions, or those companies that are on the edge or considering development solutions in this area to make presentations at our Meetup.
Our "QuickPitch" Marathon will include the following presenters and companies who will be showing a wide variety of innovative SaaS/Cloud/Internet solutions:
1. Jeff Thomas, COO/Co-Founder - Invertual.com
Web Site: http://www.invertual.com
About Jeff:
Jeff Thomas founded 30dps (short for 30 dreams per second), a full-service agency, in 1989. Under his leadership, 30dps has established a sound reputation for excellence in branding, creative, customer-centered marketing, effective user interface design, new media consulting, and sophisticated website development. While 30dps has served a diverse client base across the country, from California to Washington D.C., it prides itself in being local at heart. In 2007, Jeff also co-founded Winged Dreams, a Search Engine Optimization, Search Engine Advertising and Internet Marketing firm. Prior to starting 30dps, Jeff served for ten years at FedEx, providing award-winning management of the team that developed the highly acclaimed COSMOS package tracking and customer service system that processed 30 million transactions daily, with 99.99% accuracy, availability and sub-second response time.
About Inventural:
In October 2010, he co-founded Invertual, Inc., an online global investment matchmaking community that matches Investors' interests with Member Companies looking for capital. Primarily a social networking, investor relations and communications portal, Invertual.com will provide businesses seeking the attention of investors with access to a large investor base and information they need to effectively communicate their message and help land deals. The website will also give these companies the tools to manage and self-police their SEC and Blue Sky compliance.
2. Jay Brooks, CTO, Co-Founder - VoltaMedia, Simian
About Jay Brooks:
Mr. Brooks holds a BS in Computer Science and a MSE in Computer Engineering from the University of Michigan. He has extensive experience in network application development, embedded systems and solution architecture. Mr. Brooks has worked in the Automotive, Computer and Consumer products industries, developing both internet solutions and application software. Mr. Brooks has worked for Digital Equipment Corporation, Compaq Computer Corporation and most recently Fluke Networks. Mr. Brooks brings in-depth experience in software engineering and complex system design.
About Voltamedia:
Founded in 2003, Volta is comprised of a close-knit team with over 20 years of combined expertise in web development, software engineering, graphic design and marketing for the beauty, fashion and entertainment industries. All of Volta's solutions are developed in-house which eliminates integration and communication problems caused by outsourcing. The company believes in creating the absolute best user experience and takes pride in building close client relationships to truly understand their business. Current clients include: Prettybird, Wild Plum, Tria Beauty, Freedom Films, Simply Organic, Photogenics, and Moxie Pictures.
About Simian:
Having already designed hundreds of custom web sites using their own unique web application platform, the veteran software developers at Volta saw a unique opportunity to respond to a new demand in the entertainment marketplace. Among their production company clientele, there was an outcry for the need of an online workflow tool that simplified reel presentations, for both the user and the client. Over the course of the last 18 months, and working closely with video producers and editors, Volta developed Simian. An online showcase tool that streamlines media presentation for commercials, music videos, and web or print advertising. Simian is a powerful web-based SaaS Solution that gives creative teams the power to share reels, build presentations, and coordinate project workflow.
3. Matt Troyer, Founder, President - ColbaltIP.com
Web Site: http://www.cobaltip.com
About Matt:
Matt is the President of CobaltIP and one of the founding parters. After spending 15 years in ecommerce, founding companies such as Firesale.com and Techforless.com, Matt moved on to software development in the intellectual property marketplace. Matt spent three years in the intellectual property industry where, he led efforts for several different software applications including patent review workflow, patent charting, and intellectual property ecommerce solutions.
About CobaltIP.com:
CobaltIP.com is the first of a new class of patent analytics software applications that was announced in March 2011, and went live as a beta in June of 2011 that is a partnership alliance between Free Patents, LLC,, (the parent company of FreePatentsOnline.com) and SumoBrain.com. The technology Cobalt has developed, and deployed is unlike any other patent searching and analytics platform in use today. Cobalt is targeted at patent agents and attorneys, corporate IP holders, IP consulting firms, university tech transfer and M&A professionals. The company offer several memebership levels that meet price and feature requirements for all IP professionals.
Web Site: http://www.micrprime.com
About Jim:
Mr. Romig is the founder and Chairman of the MICR Prime companies. Jim is the inventor of the patented MPM6000 Check Binder, the key component of ChIPS®. From 1985 through 1990 Jim was a sales representative for EG&G in S. California selling high tech glass scale positioning and quality measurement systems to the aerospace and machine tool industry. He has completed post-graduate work in administrative disciplines and has extensive sales and marketing experience.
About MICR Prime:
MICR Prime Services, Inc. (MPSI) has been in business for 9 years. For the last 6 years the company has worked to bring the Checks In-house Production System, ChIPS, to the financial industry market. MICR Prime is an outgrowth of Computer Forms (print service brokerage) begun in 1993. Research for a unique product to sell led Jim to a desk top publishing solution for internal bank documents (MS DOS). He purchased the Windows version in 2004. More than 300 customers in 26 states & 2 foreign countries use the package. The patented Checks In-house Production System (ChIPS) is new to the company. Its development and marketing strategies are the direct result of his efforts. ChIPS is a highly specialized system of software, equipment and consumables that dramatically improves profitability for financial institutions and gives them a distinct marketing advantage over their competitors. Jim will be discussing some of their plans to take their ChiPS software solution to the internet.
5. Matthew Coers, President (Ventures Interactive)
About Matthew:
About Ventures Interactive:
Ventures Interactive is a Denver-based Web Development and Internet Marketing company with a world-wide client-base. The company takes a vendor-neutral approach to each project - finding the best solution to fit the needs of each client, not forcing clients into a pre-determined list of reseller products or solutions. Ventures Interactive is oriented around developing online solutions that work toward business goals. Every website, regardless of it's tactical goals, has a strategic marketing purpose. Our responsibility is to help clients develop interactive products that deliver on their functional requirements, and serve as a basis for incremental improvement over time.
Mr. Coers will be introducing The Vortos Content Optimization System (COS) which is a machine-learningapplication that records the behavior of visitors to websites. The systemuses the intelligence it gathers to develop statistical probabilities, cluster visitors, and manipulate website content to focus on products andcontent visitors are most likely to view or buy. The information produced bythe system can be further used for remarketing and offline prospectqualification, or to feed into 3rd party CRM or marketing automation.
6. Aaron Nielsen, President - Blooco.com
Web Site: http://www.blooco.com
About Aaron:
Aaron is a Colorado native from Littleton. He holds a BSEE from the Colorado School of Mines and has worked in oilfield services, airborne entertainment systems, aerospace, defense, law enforcement, and satellite communications. He has spent most of his career as a software engineer with wide enough exposure to qualify as a “full stack” developer and architect.
About Blooco:
Aaron founded Blooco Inc. to pursue his dream of becoming a full-time entrepreneur. Currently in the defining stages of the company, Blooco is serving local businesses with software consulting services. As a bootstrapper, Aaron continues to invest in ideas by building prototypes and promoting further innovation in his community. With the strong R&D emphasis, Blooco is developing SaaS prototypes to serve the data integration and visualization needs of the oil and gas industry. Additionally, Blooco has developed Eyeris, a prototype software system for mobile identity management and authentication. Aaron currently lives in Colorado Springs with his wife and 4 children. They enjoy most outdoor activities, but especially snowboarding, backpacking, and fishing.
7. Janet Corniel, Founder - Movingal
About Janet:
Janet has extensive moving experience, having moved eleven times in sixteen years, which include domestic and international relocations. She also has a Masters Degree in Urban & Regional Planning from Michigan State University and is AICP Certified by the American Planning Association. From this extensive background, she has created MovinGal, a company that is designed to offer calm and reassurance in the chaos of moving by offering extensive information all in one convenient location so that customers can be better prepared to make a decision on their future home.
About MovinGal:
Started as a Blog in September 2010, Janet began writing and posting blogging topics and information regarding moving, (which at one time or another effects everyone). It became such a great source of information for anyone who has gone through a move and/or about to embark on one. Her blog also contains some laughs because you will need a few as you unpack your boxes in the middle of the night that becomes morning too quickly! Then in May of 2011, Janet announced the launch of MovinGal the website. After a year of development, the website was created to make searches for a new location and move much easier. For those people who have moved recently or are in the midst of a move know that trying to do research online to find utilities, school districts and other resources can be disjointed and time consuming because individual searches for each category was required. This is no longer the case. MovinGal enables searches for these resources based on an address. It provides all the information needed to decide if this is the right place for you and your family to settle into and presentes it all in one convenient location. The service is free.
Come out and support our local software entrepreneurs and companies !
This is just the first of six VDC Clusters we are going to launch this year, so it should be an exciting night !
Regards,
Mike Schmidt, Chair
Colorado Springs Entrepreneurs Group
