Tom Higley: Bit by Bit

Tagged: Denver Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts

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  tomhigley 9:02 pm on March 10, 2013 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: chris ganson, Denver, dylan richard, engineering, engineers, harper reed, jason kunesh, jb holston, obama, ofaco   

  Obama For America Engineering Dream Team 

  Last week J.B. Holston hosted the Obama for America Engineering Dream Team in Denver, and it was one of the more inspiring experiences I have had in some time. Who ARE these guys? Well, the Atlantic did a piece back in November, “When the Nerds Go Marching In,” that answers the question. Sort of.

  

  The guys who came to Colorado from Chicago – Harper Reed, Dylan Richard, Jason Kunesh and Chris Ganson – were like troops returning from Afganistan to a hero’s welcome. Which is fitting. After all, these guys are war heroes, albeit in a war of a very different kind. They’re the guys who put in 14 hour days 6-7 days a week in a battle to reelect a President. And they won.

  They were smart, focused and determined. But they weren’t cocky. Far far from it. Given several opportunities to glory in their success (vs. the misfortunes of their counterparts working for Romney), they flat out refused to be critical. “Technology is hard.” That’s what they said. They knew they could have had things happen to the Obama effort that they  didn’t expect and couldn’t control. As Harper says in the Atlantic article:

  “I know we had the best technology team I’ve ever worked with, but we didn’t know if it would work. I was incredibly confident it would work. I was betting a lot on it. We had time. We had resources. We had done what we thought would work, and it still could have broken. Something could have happened.”

  That generosity of spirit was evident throughout the conversations I witnessed – during their lunchtime panel hosted at Newsgator, during the dinner at Cholon Bistro and afterward when we were just hanging out together at The Kitchen.

  And here’s the real thing: they cared about making a difference, about making the world a better place. And because they really really do want to make they world a better place, they were clear that they weren’t willing to sacrifice what is most important – integrity and honor – to ensure a victory that could only have been hollow if it had to be achieved by compromising their values. Call me crazy, but I like that. No, I love that. Maybe I feel that way because I identify with a certain midwestern purity of heart that I thought I saw in them. Or maybe I just like connecting with folks that I think are the real deal, folks who really are making a difference in the world and who choose to use the talent, experience and drive they have to “be the difference.”

  Any way, you can learn a bit more about the team’s visit here: http://www.disruptcolorado.com/2-uncategorised/27-ofaco

  And you should check out J.B.’s blog post, “Stuff – an extensive and heartfelt “thank you” to all the people who helped make the visit so compelling – and there were many people involved to be sure. I’m just grateful I got the chance to connect for a few moments. A huge thank you to the dream team, J.B Holston and everyone else who made this happen.

  I’m hoping we can get them back again soon. Maybe in the fall for Denver Startup Week or 10.10.10.
   

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  tomhigley 12:21 pm on January 14, 2013 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: brad feld, built in Denver, Denver, denver startup week, Erik Mitisek ( 2 ), startup communities, startups ( 3 )   

  Built in Denver 

  

  

  Erik Mitisek, Chairman Built in Denver

  If you haven’t seen it yet, please check Built in Denver, the new website that focuses on the staartup and entrepreneurial activities happing in and around Denver, Colorado. Members, events, companies, blogs, jobs and more come together on the site as a go-to resource for those living in or near Denver and those outside Denver who want to know more about the City of Denver, Denver entrepreneurship, Denver startups and more.

  A great thank you to Erik Mitisek, Built in Denver’s Chairman, for the legwork that went in to pulling this together.

  Why “Built in Denver?” Why not “Built in Colorado?” Or “Built in America?”

  For me the answer to this question goes to two key issues. First, focus. We want Denver to have a resource that allows the entire community to pull together and amplify the voices, opportunities, entrepreneurs, startups and supporting resources that make Denver one of the best places on the planet to live and work. A different, “Built in Colorado,” theme could accomplish only a part of that and “Built in America” rather misses the point – of focus – entirely.

  The second issue is promotion. In Brad Feld’s recent book, Startup Communities, Brad describes his Boulder Thesis. (It’s a great book and a great read, by the way.) Brad didn’t choose “‘Boulder’ Thesis” to diss Denver (or Palo Alto). But he acknowledged that by using this term, he was promoting Boulder and the great entrepreneurs and startups in Boulder.

  

  Teaching Lean – Thinking Like and Agilist

  “Built in Denver” operates in that same spirit. We want to promote Denver – not at the expense of other great cities in Colorado – but in a way that proves beneficial to the entire state and this regional ecosystem.

  What’s happening in Denver that warrants this focus? Many, many things. Denver Startup Week, from October 22nd – 27th, has to have been one of the biggest most compelling events for startups in the Denver’s history. More than 70 events. Incredible events that were so well attended they often required larger venues to accommodate all the people who signed up.

  And during Denver Startup Week, Galvanize had its coming out party. With capital, a curriculum, community leaders, a beautiful, well designed space, and a great team to support it, Galvanize captured even more attention that it had during the i4C campaign.

  Before Denver Startup Week, I was fortunate to serve as a judge as ten teams delivered their Denver Startup Weekend pitches. Jon Rossi did an incredible job pulling this together and is to be commended along with each of the organizers, teams and judges who devoted their time and energy.

  

  Jon Rossi

  But the real story of what’s happening right now in Denver is about the entrepreneurs and startups that have embraced the City of Denver as never before. Lodo is crawling with them! Built in Denver is a great way to call attention to this and give credit where credit is due: to the founders and entrepreneurs who are building new companies and the supporting institutions – including the academic institutions (MetroState, CU Denver, and DU); Michael B. Hancock, Mayor of Denver; Paul Washington, Executive Director, Office of Economic Development, City and County of Denver; and Tami Door, President & CEO, Downtown Denver Partnership.

  It bears mentioning that we still have a lot of work to do. Startups – like infants – are dependent and in need of care and feeding. Without this, they don’t survive and certainly don’t realize their full potential. I’ll leave to another post a discussion of the list of things that startups require, but among them are entrepreneurial leadership, mentors, sources of capital, an affordable pool of talent, and a supportive community that includes academic institutions and state and local government.

  It is my sincere belief that the future of Denver and of Colorado is being shaped right now. Think of it as the new frontier, perilous and not for the faint of heart, but offering the promise of an amazing future.
   
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  tomhigley 3:08 pm on October 11, 2012 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: boutique, cute, Denver, dog, goldyn, highland, star   

  Zoe is a Star! 

  Goldyn, a wonderful boutique in Highland / Denver Colorado, adjacent to Lingers restaurant, has a great Facebook page. And Zoe, one of the cutest, coolest dogs on the planet, is a star!

  
   
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  tomhigley 3:01 pm on October 5, 2012 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: app, apple ( 2 ), Denver, facebook ( 4 ), instagram ( 2 ), instagram for business, marketing, photos ( 2 ), startup ( 2 ), template, tom higley ( 2 ), twitter, vasily vasinov, vokl   

  Vokl Business Headed to the App Store 

  

  Yesterday Vokl submitted its application, Vokl Business, to Apple’s app store. We’ve been working on this iPhone app since mid-July, and I have to tell you I’m excited to see it in action.

  The idea behind the app and the business is simple. We wanted to build an iPhone app that could be a kind of “show and tell” for businesses. As you might expect, the immense success of Instagram was certainly part of the inspiration. A seemingly simple app, Instagram let people take photos, apply filters and post the result – instantly – to Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and more. Instagram was so good, it actually made my lame photos look good.

  Even before Facebook indicated its interest in acquiring Instagram, the company had acquired 30 million active users. By the time the Facebook acquisition had closed, Instagram was at 50 million users and growing, and today it boasts 100 million users (while Facebook itself just announced that it had reached the 1 billion user mark.) Clearly Kevin Systrom and his team had hit upon something powerful.

  I had been thinking for years about location based services and consumer engagement, particularly as smartphones and apps began to become location aware. (At one point I probably had downloaded and used iPhone apps for 100+ location based services.)  I have also believed for a long time that harnessing the power of the “camera in your pocket,” would give rise to significant opportunities for app developers on both the consumers and the merchant side of the aisle.

  Still, in all of this research, testing and mental processing one thing became glaringly obvious: merchants and consumers were not taking full advantage of the smartphone and the apps created for the smartphone. Location didn’t matter very much. Most local merchants didn’t see the iPhone or Android phone as a conduit for building an intimate relationship with a customer. And most of the more innovative app developers were focused more on building their own walled gardens than on delivering the tools that merchants might use to deliver value to customers.

  Vasily (Vokl’s CTO & Co-Founder) had been working with me since the Pavlov Games days, so he and I spent many hours discussing and working through these things. The two of us concluded that Vokl should build the tools and capabilities that could create a kind of bridge between merchant and consumer with an emphasis on creating a kind of “Instagram for Business.” But our larger goal is to facilitate the transition from the merchant-to-customer communications channels of today and those that will drive commerce tomorrow and in the years ahead.

  If you built an “Instagram for Business,” what would it look like? How would it work?

  Well, a few of the essentials are obvious: access to the iPhone’s camera, the ability to filter photos to make them look great every time, and an instant publishing capability (to your business feed, a chosen Facebook page or a designated Twitter account). But what else would businesses want?

  We knew they wanted at least one thing that Instagram didn’t have. Text. They wanted the ability to add a message, a product name, a business name, store hours, a date.  You can’t do that with Instagram. But you can do it with Vokl Business.  And they wanted the text to look good. They wanted to be able to change the font, the color, the placement, the size. So we built that into the app. With Vokl Business, merchants can do all those things.

  That might have been the end of it. But we discovered something even more compelling. Merchants want to be able to create great look content fast. They’re busy. They have a lot to do and little time in which to do it. So the app we gave them had to get the job done well, but it also had to do the job fast. How could we speed up the content creation process? We discovered the answer: templates.

  With Vokl Business templates, your business can create content in seconds (rather than hours). Tap a template to replace the existing image. Tap the text to replace or edit the text. When you’ve finished, hit “Publish,” and pick your social network of choice. The idea here is simple, if it takes you far less time to create great content, you’ll be inclined to do it far more often.

  And why would your business want to do this? You might do it because you want to show a new product to your customers. Clothing. Food. Autos. Houses. Furniture. Performing artists. You name it. Publish a photo (or several of them), with the product or business name, the date of your special, the name of the person they should talk to, and see how many “likes” you get on Facebook. Notice, too, how many new people come through the front door.

  The entire Vokl team is very excited about the app, and we hope you like it too. It should be live in the app store the week of October 22nd. Please check it out, and let me know what you think.

  smart phone is discussing. Toggle Comments

   
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    smart phone 10:52 pm on October 5, 2012 Permalink | Reply

    Everything is very open with a clear clarification of the challenges.
    It was truly informative. Your website is very useful. Thanks for sharing!

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  tomhigley 7:38 am on July 9, 2012 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Andre Durand, change, Chris Onan, Denver, emotion, entrepreneur, Erik Mitisek ( 2 ), Meeting, Mile High, Paul Washington, Phil Weiser, startup ( 2 ), startup Colorado, Tamara Door, vision, weather   

  RSVP for Change 

  

  Can you say “gray?”

  Some days start out full of sunshine and promise. Others begin like this image this morning in Denver. Rainy. Gray.

  The gray day has more positive potential than the sunny day. How much, after all, is that sunny day going to improve?

  Here’s how things looked just a few moments later.

  

  Things are looking up.

  I’m interested in how people process things intellectually and emotionally. My initial emotional state (and those of other people I have observed) is often connected to shorter cycles driven in real-time by what is visible or what is invisible but believed or accepted as current reality or “truth.” But I also operate both intellectually and emotionally on a much longer arc than some people. I am deeply affected by what I see in the moment. But I also try to move past what I see now to what I think I might reasonably expect to see in the future. I’m not alone in this. I think this way of processing information is common to many of the entrepreneurs I know.

  These two images are a reflection of the startup scene in Denver. In the first image, it’s hard to tell what’s going on. Something’s there, but it’s pretty hard to see just what. In the second image, it’s pretty evident that there’s a lot going on and that things are very much under construction. That’s where we are now in the Denver startup scene. There’s a lot going on, things are very much under construction, and quite a few people are working very hard to make things happen. Erik Mitisek, for example, has been working extensively to drive Startup Colorado in Denver. If you’re connected to startups and entrepreneurship in Denver, please mark your calendar for this coming Friday, July 13th.

  Here’s Erik’s invitation:

  If you have not attended before, the Monthly Startup Mile High meeting is specifically focused on discussing entrepreneurial activities in the Denver metro region and how together we can continue to galvanize the entrepreneurial community to help foster great companies.  If you are an entrepreneur, work with entrepreneurs, want to be an entrepreneur, fund entrepreneurs, teach entrepreneurship or involved in the Denverstartup community – YOU SHOULD ATTEND.

  This is going to be an awesome meeting with speakers including:

  Andre Durand, CEO, Ping Identity
  Paul Washington, Mayor’s Office of Economic Development
  Tamara Door, CEO, Downtown Denver Partnership
  Phil Weiser, Executive Director, Silicon Flatirons | Dean, CU Law School
  Chris Onan, Managing Director, Appian Ventures

  If you attended the last meeting, thank you for your involvement and feedback.  If this is your first meeting, we look forward to you being part of the dialogue.  Based on feedback, many of you wanted some additional time to network.  So please arrive early to get to know your fellow entrepreneurial community members!

  Please RSVP by end of business Wednesday, July 11^th, 2012.

  RSVP HERE 

  To learn more about Startup Colorado, please visit::  http://www.StartupColorado.com

  Look forward to seeing you!

  Erik Mitisek
  NextGreatPlace, Inc.
  p. (303) 900-2008

  Great things are happening here in Denver. Things are clearing up. There’s a lot going on. And my perspective on what’s happening is even more positive because it is based more less on what I can actually see today and more on what I know people are doing and what I know is possible. It may be cloudy for a minute, but Denver’s future (as well as Colorado’s) is very very bright.
   
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  tomhigley 1:42 am on May 27, 2012 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Denver, Greg Phillenganes, music, toto   

  Toto in Denver 

  We stumbled across a Toto concert in downtown Denver. The hope: Greg Phillinganes would be playing keyboard. Greg and I played together on a tour of Europe back in 1972. He went on to play with Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson and Eric Clapton. Oh, and many many others, including Toto.

  Sadly, Greg’s no longer with the band. Still, we’re likely to hear some amazing music.