BLDRPPL

I never thought I would live that long. So I just crammed things in. I rock climbed and mountain climbed and ice climbed and raced my bike. I still worked, it’s just that I had… It’s not like I lived this life where I thought I would be around forever. You should do what you want to do first, and then you can always work till you die. So I kind of always lived that kind of life.

Michelle Grainger is a cycling coach, personal trainer and life-long athlete. Ingrid Alongi introduced us because Michelle was looking for someone to redo her website. Throughout the process of building it, we became friends. When she shared her life story with me, I knew it was something others needed to hear. She’s been to hell and back and today she shares a little of that with us as she recounts her Road to Paris.

Paris-Brest-Paris, the most famous long-distance randonnée

Its an ultra-endurance, self-supported support with a camaraderie, where you’re not supposed to be a racer. But it’s a timed event. It’s full of rules that are rich in tradition, but it’s not a bike race, it’s a gentleman’s timed event with a very wide range of timing. It goes from Paris to Brest and back, but it only comes every four years. People from all over the world can go, but you have to qualify. And you also can’t be a professional racer. And so we always said, we’ll do it, once I stop bike racing.

2009, A Year Into Training

In 2009 we were really gearing up and getting into it. We toyed with the idea if I could break the women’s record. And then on a training ride, riding through Boulder, I was hit by a truck. Everything changed. My whole life changed. I got immediate PTSD. I had some people get me off the road, but I decided I was ‘fine.’ I had chunks of skin out, but I was fine. I wouldn’t go to the hospital, I was fine. And I stuck to it. Until I couldn’t breathe because the truck had broken some ribs. And the unfortunate part is that because I soldiered on as though I were perfect, a lot of the injuries weren’t caught. Soon I was sleeping an hour a night, having panic attacks all the time, but I kept training because I was fine. But it wasn’t fine. Things were unravelling.

6 Months Later…

I hung to two things – my training and my work. And if I could do those two things, nobody will know what’s going on with me. Nobody will figure it out. That was my worst fear – that people would see how messed up I was becoming.

It’s such a fine line. I didn’t see it coming. I’ve always known about mental illness. I realize, you’re just one step away. I was on that line of no return. Like one more step…Had I not come in when I came in, I might have had one more month before serious psychiatric damage. But I was so scared, that brain, that fine line of not having your brain. Having lived my whole life in control, pretty much.

I learned over time there are choices. I had the choice not to go to therapy, I had the choice not to get surgeries. But I did.

Cancer

In the midst of scheduling all these surgeries, they found out I had thyroid cancer. Which I was going to put off. But the surgeons made me deal with it. I was lucky and grateful.

Through this whole thing I used to say, I will not be defined by the car accident, I will not be defined by the car accident. But I don’t say that anymore, because everything we go through defines us. And sometimes it’s an about face.

Four Mile Fire

We had four people piling 4 cars full of stuff. We didn’t live at home for a month because we had so much smoke damage. But we survived it, we got through it. And then we were back on track. Back on the road to Paris.

2011 & A Broken Femur

Back on track, still training, still qualifying. 125, 185, 250, 375 miles. We get all the qualifiers done. On track, doing really well, not much therapy anymore. I’ve got our plane tickets, everything, all set up. I’m commuting down to work in Boulder, I make this sweeping big turn into Pearl and there are all these rows of gravel. My back wheel popped up, I came down right on my hip and I broke my femur. I knew it immediately. It was almost like a Monty Python, because I really took a lot out of my arm and it was gushing blood. But I knew that was it, I wanted it so badly not to be, but I knew, no more Paris.

I thought I was going to lose it. But I learned to meditate. And I thought, alright, it’s off the table again. And I had to reevaluate everything.

2012 – The Diagnosis

My twin sister that year had been having some trouble with her hand – losing some strength, twitching. And when I saw her, I thought, this is really serious. On the same weekend my husband got laid off from a job he’d had for 24 years, my twin sister got her diagnosis – she had ALS. The floor just fell out.

When my sister got the diagnosis, I remember thinking, that’s a 3-5 year prognosis.

What have I learned? I’ve learned that you be with them. How can you look into the future and be able to look back and live your life with no regrets? So I said alright, I’m going to help support her and I’m going to go see her all the time. So that’s what I started doing.

In a two and a half year period, I watched her lose everything – her income, her savings, her retirement, her physical abilities. Everything, absolutely everything. And it was really hard to watch.

August 2013, Boulder Flood

It started raining. I called Steve and said you’d better get home. Watched our driveway culvert, we lost the culvert. Steve and I knew things were bad, as the creek became a raging torrent. We stayed awake Wednesday night. And then started to try and save things Thursday.

By Thursday, an hour after dark, the water reached our yard. And we climbed out the back window and went to a neighbor’s house. A house that had a draw behind it. We were so fixated on the river, we didn’t think about the hillside. About the time we all started to get settled it, I had just fallen asleep, the house got hit by a mudslide.

As buried as I was and the size of the rocks that were on me, I knew nobody was coming. I knew it was up to us. And I knew it was bad. And so I figured this was it. I made it through the car accident, I made it through PTSD and this is what is going to take me out? And this is how I’m going to die? And Steve said, this is not how you’re going to die.

Steve kept saying, “You have to help me dig, you have to help me dig.” So I started digging. As the night unfolded, Steve got me out, and we started to dig another neighbor out. It became obvious we weren’t going fast enough. So I ran along a hillside to go get help and I found both dogs, alive.

Everyone’s screaming at this point, it’s chaos, just chaos. It’s 3-4 in the morning, pitch black. What’s really bizarre is that we’re standing in a pitch dark house, he’s standing over me and we can both see as if it’s daylight. Because you have hormones and adrenaline that in a life or flight situation, allow you to see. You can see, plain as day.

Some pretty phenomenal things happen when you’re going to die and you don’t die.

Really the lesson from almost dying in that situation was alright, I have these survival skills. The last 4 years have prepared me for this.

I’m not somebody who believes anymore in Fate, like we have a path. But I believe we have a path, but we can change that path too.

I started to realize that in 5 years, each thing that happened to me, was preparing me for a worse thing. And that in the end, that would be losing my sister. My twin sister. My everything person. The person who we had a connection of friends, the same school, same classes, same music. Our personalities – she was the butterfly and I was the bee.

I was able to be there right when she died.

Today

And here we are, a Paris year, 2015. Steve and I started riding our bikes again in January, after having no base the last couple years. Now it’s not even my road to Paris, it’s just the road to Paris. The Journey. And now I just want to go. Let me go and ride my bike. Let me wave to the French people. Let me see 5,000 other people ride their bikes, too. Because getting there has been the battle. Riding 1200 km will be easy. Getting there – it’s a path, it’s a journey. The road to Paris is just going.

It’s life. The last 5 years have been life. Life happens. I think setting goals, I’m a coach, you have to set goals, we’re human, it’s keeps us moving forward. But I also think you really have to roll with all the change and disaster and death. And things that can change expectations.

It goes back to – I don’t want this to define my life. And yet, I won’t say that anymore because all of these things define our lives. I am defined by the car accident, I am defined by almost being hospitalized with PTSD, I am defined by the last  5 years. I am defined by that. I am a different person. I am not the person I was 5 years ago and I won’t ever be. And at some point you have to let that go. And bring parts of that with you. I hope I bring the good parts.

I hope I finish Paris, but I don’t have that expectation, because I know that maybe it won’t happen. And maybe that’s what the journey is.

It’ll be interesting, when I get to Paris, because it’s been a journey I didn’t see coming, in any sense of the word.

After Note – Michelle Grainger successfully completed the Paris-Brest-Paris on August 20th, 2015. We are ecstatic for her. 

“People are capable of doing so much more than they think they are. It’s a matter of finding your why. If your why is powerful enough, you can make yourself do it.”

We are here today with Jonathan Woodard and Jared Kohlmann. Jonathan is a Michigan native who studied Computer Science at U of M before moving to Boulder. He has tons of experience as a software developer and has founded several startups over the years. He is known around town for board games, paleo, and CrossFit. We will talk to him today about his role as the VP of Engineering at Rapt Media, his company Flightless, and Mobility on Demand.

I could interview Jonathan all day, but it is really interesting to talk to people about who they admire. Jonathan invited Jared, the owner of Pro Photo Rental, to meet with us today. The two met through a mutual friend here in Boulder, before completing the GORUCK Challenge together. Briana May worked with Jared at Pro Photo for years before branching out and starting her own photography company.

Sean to Jared: What are you, just a masochist?

“I am really into outdoor pursuits and one of those pursuits is mountaineering. Mountaineering is one of those things where you are pushing yourself to a limit. I would liken it to a balloon. You are always expanding your envelope of how much you can take. Not out of masochism, or something like that, but you’ve got to be hard to kill in the mountains. There is no turning back and going home. That started my exploration of what I am capable of, both mentally and physically. It isn’t a race; you are working together to achieve an objective. That really struck a chord with me and got me thinking about the teamwork aspect.”

Jonathan to Jared: How has that impacted the rest of your life?

“I think it gives you a lot of perspective. It is funny, because I use it both ways. Sometimes, I will think about other parts of my life that I struggle with, and think that this physical event is nothing compared to that. When the event is over and I am back at in my normal life, I also reverse that. The unfortunate downside is that it has left me a little less empathetic to people who aren’t willing to push themselves.”

Sean to Jared: Are there any business lessons you would like to share? What is the secret?

“Find the pain point of your customer. Try and get their perspective on things.”

Sean to Jonathan: Are you applying that with Flightless?

“Flightless is more about entertainment that solving any specific pain point. Ignite Ticket Swap is under the Flightless umbrella, and that was a pain point. Short Story RPG solves some problems with storytelling in the role playing genre. A lot of people are missing out on this way to tell a story, because of the connotation with something like Dungeons & Dragons. It is also extremely hard to get people together on a regular basis.”

“Valor is a board game that I have been working on for many years now based on the Gallic War. The inspiration for the game was a series of TV shows that Terry Jones from Monty Python did called “Barbarians”. The barbarians’ level of civilization met or exceeded that of Rome and they were more socially progressive than The Romans in certain ways. This incredible culture was essentially wiped out, except for the diary that Julius Caesar kept as he invaded. The tribes that he makes the most note of were the tribes that were the most difficult to conquer, and this diary becomes the chief scoring mechanic in the game.”

Briana to Jared: You have definitely been a mentor for me!  Tell us more about the future of Pro Photo..

“It is interesting the way the business has changed. Our business has shifted so much that now most of our clients actually come into the store instead of using the website. The business is growing more locally. If somebody comes in asking for advice, you don’t jump immediately to equipment, you talk with them about what they are trying to achieve.”

“The other big thing that has changed in the business, is the advent of video. The lines are becoming more blurred between still and motion photography. Once video became available on DSLRs, it became much more accessible to people. With things like the iPhone, video is just part of our lives these days. That is our biggest area of growth and equipment acquisition.”

Sean to Jonathan: Have you had any of those challenges here?

“I definitely think that is true. We are in the Rapt Media office right now and we deal with video every day. People will sign up for a free account and upload media of an astonishing level of production quality.”

Ingrid is the CEO(Consulting) and Co-Founder of Quick Left, a web development and consulting firm with offices in Boulder, Portland and San Francisco. She taught me everything I know about the industry as I worked for her as an apprentice developer and eventually, director of marketing for the first two years of my career.  

                                           Ingrid Alongi, CEO-Consulting of Quick Left

So, you’re a Boulder native?

I am a Boulder native! It’s been really fun being able to grow a business right here where I am from. I of course left for a while, you have to do your obligatory leave, but I was really excited when I got the chance to come back. None of the tech startup community that we have now was here when I left, so it was really cool to come back and see all of these new opportunities to start tech businesses and be involved in a growing creative community.

What did you do while you were in San Diego?

I graduated from CU with a double major in Philosophy and Women’s Studies and during that time I was sure that I was going to figure out something to do with my life, but I wasn’t quite sure what yet, so I did what people used to do back then. Nowadays, they start businesses, but back then they would go to grad school. So, I went to SDSU, which actually has the first Women’s Studies Master’s Degree program in the United States. My focus was gender and technology. I had this professor who became my thesis chair, Pat Huckle, who had us all do a web portfolio class. We had to design a website featuring us and our resume, and I was just immediately hooked. The overwhelming part about studying bigger social issues of race, class, and gender, is that these are huge problems that couldn’t be solved very quickly, or maybe even within your lifetime. Being able to write some code on a computer and see the results immediately, something about that really balanced out the needs I had during my education. I added a self directed minor in Computer Science. It did take me a little while longer to finish my Master’s Degree, and of course I was also working in the computer lab doing hands on instruction. I was teaching an Access class and helping students with Pine, which was a Unix based email client. Yahoo was just coming out at the time. It wasn’t that long ago, but it does make me sound like a dinosaur! People joke that my current Yahoo address doesn’t make me uncool, it makes me retro.

Let’s talk about Electromute.com

I have had the handle “Electromute” since I was an undergrad at CU. I was logging in with a 2400 baud modem to a chat board called “Mountain Raves”, trying to think of a cool electro-name, and that is what I came up with. I don’t think my site Electromute.com ever went bad the way that my 90s arm-band tattoo did. The last time I edited that site was in 2009. Every time I go to fix my site, there is a WordPress update to do, so my little window of time is spent updating WordPress, and not actually writing. Not to mention that writing is something I struggle with. Going back to San Diego, I had a hard time with my Master’s thesis, because it writing doesn’t come easily to me. Even today on the Quick Left blog, you will see very few posts by me.

What is your day to day like, now that Quick Left has grown so much?

You know it’s funny because part of me has this image in my head that my role will shift into this imaginary kind of CEO role, but it never gets there! I have to remind myself – that is what I am doing. One thing that I am doing a lot more of now, are speaking engagements, and talking a lot about women in technology. I never thought I’d actually be able to speak about these issues in this industry. I am managing a lot of different kinds of people, which is new for me. I have a lot of experience managing engineers and running a dev team, but I am realizing now that non-engineers may see a process differently. My job is more about communication now, than it used to be.

What are some of the things that kept you up at night when Quick Left was just getting started and how are they different now?

Some of the things are the same. Cash flow, being a non-venture backed company, and the ship only gets bigger. So, I remember one time when we were trying to make payroll, we got this $11,000 check in the mail and I walked right over to Wells Fargo and deposited it. It is still that same feeling, but at a larger scale. The risks have gone up, but my ability to manage that risk has also gotten better. I am not as worried about money issues as I was when we started and I feel more confident that I have the right team around me. The things that keep me up at night now are more about optimizing and getting better, rather than just surviving, and that is a really good feeling.

What are things you’ve done to stay sane and not freak out?

Not always successful.. Sometimes you just have to fake it! For me, making commitments to other people is a real motivator. The way I do that is by joining a women’s cycling team, signing up for races, and having a coach. Just being accountable to people. So figuring out a good motivator for you is really key to finding that balance. Do you need someone else to get you out of the house? What is your trigger? This year I have taken a break from racing as we merged with Sprint.ly. Now we have offices in Portland and San Francisco. I have been traveling more. I really just want to enjoy hanging out with other teams and not feel like I have to leave at 5 o’clock to ride my bike.

What have you been surprised by team growing a team from 4 to 40?

The biggest surprise is how the people and the company can outgrow each other. Part of me was hoping that we could all be one big happy family, but the company we started was a lot different than the company that we are now. Over the years we have cycled through a few different groups of people as we have grown and changed.

How do you think about company vision?

It is hard to have a clear vision when you are still getting a lay of the land. When a company is really young, I think it is important to have some shared core values. For instance, ours was creating good engineering products, but I did resist the notion of having a prescriptive vision. Now that we have grown a larger and have a better idea of what our sweet spot is, it is a little easier and also more realistic. Some of our vision statements when we were younger had buzzwords, and seemed cool, but they didn’t quite fit who we were. The tension when you are starting out with a vision and a mission statement is real and might take time to get there. Don’t feel pressure to have your 100% vision early. You can have guiding themes. You can have bumpers on the sides. That was something that I really struggled with – feeling like I had to have the map. You’re not going to have the map! Because, you know, having a map is great. But when you have a map and you are going somewhere, you actually miss some of the side roads and scenery along the way. If you have an open mind to some of the opportunities that come up, for instance our merger with Sprint.ly was not something that we were looking for, but if we had a rigid goal, we might have missed such a great opportunity to grow.

What about the tech scene in Boulder?

It has been exploding! Didn’t we used to have our hackfest once a week? Now, there are so many great events happening in the community, that we have our hackfest once a quarter. You can literally not buy dinner and beer every day of the week, because there are so many great events. It is great to see a small hippie town really put themselves on the map.

What was your childhood like growing up in Boulder?

That is a great question! People don’t generally ask me anything like that. They always ask me about my career. Growing up here was fun. I went to foothills elementary when I was a kid, but I moved around a lot, because my parents got divorced. Back in those days you could walk to school, so my brother and I would always do that. We got to really learn how to be responsible on our own and think independently. My dad started bike racing when I was 7 or 8. So we used to go with him to his races and watch. They were so cool! One day, we were walking downtown with my Dad – and I think he did this on purpose.. There were kids racing downtown. We were just like what!? Kids can race? So, that Christmas we got these terrible, heavy, kids bikes with 24 inch wheels, matching bikes, and we were off to the races. I was 12, my brother was 11, and we did the Denver Mini-Classic. I had one of those Bell helmets with the white hard shell and the red reflective strips. We didn’t have a lot of money, so I kind of scrounged things togethers. For my glasses, you know those big ones you get after you go to the eye doctor? Those are what I wore! I got second to last. I don’t know why I didn’t give up after getting second to last. I just loved being able to go fast and get outside. Also, the social side of it was really conducive to me. You get to talk about the cool move you made.. That excitement about recapping the race with your friends. It is just really fun. It was also neat, because as I moved around between different schools, there was always the same group of people that I raced with every summer.

Do you have any advice for someone starting their career?

When I started, I felt like I had to go to every event. While that is a great goal, it is really important to find out what fits you for the long term. I also think it is important to know what your competition is doing, but you have to stay focused on you own values and goals, because you can get distracted by constantly trying to keep up. There may be enough room for lots of different people in the space, so the distraction might not be worth it. Try to create balance in your life, whether it is getting together with friends and family on the weekends, or going out and hiking. Make some time to regroup and relax. Of course, having a good community around you, people with shared core values.

How do you get away for a hike without feeling guilty about missing work?

I used to have a hard time going to lunch, because I had so much work to do, and I still have a hard time going to lunch. Now I read articles or sit with other co-workers during lunch. It has gotten easier, because I have realized that the pace will never lighten up. I sleep well at night, I don’t stay up past 10. I just don’t like lunch! Depending on what I eat, I feel tired after lunch.

Who are some local people or projects that you are inspired by?

You know, one of the people that I really admire in town is Nicole Glaros at Techstars. The thing that inspires me about her, is that she takes time for herself and her family. She has two kids and her exercise routine, yet she is really organized and has a ton of energy. She has been able to keep the momentum going at Techstars and take it up a notch. That is a huge accomplishment. She is definitely one of the hardest working most balanced people I’ve ever met.

Any startups that you are curious about?

We are doing a home automation hackfest with a company called Chui. They were in Boomtown Accelerator. That is fascinating. There is another startup I mentor with at Techstars that is doing a hardware based application called Loop.

What else are you looking forward to personally?

I am really looking forward to growing our consultancy in San Francisco and Portland. I am also looking forward to getting Sprint.ly to the next level. We have really been focusing on the consulting business this year. The consulting business is funding the product. We are kind of in a great place, so I am really looking forward to putting a lot of attention and energy into product.

Thanks Ingrid!

BansheeTreeMusic.com

How did you start in music?

Kalyn: I started when I was young, but quit because of the judgmental side of it. I was going to vocal assessments as a young child and that tainted the music world for me. I wanted it to be about passion and just enjoying myself. When we met, Thom was already playing and performing in front of people and that made it a lot easier for me to perform with him instead of just by myself which was terrifying. 

Thom: When I was really little, I would just memorize any song I liked. My brain still works in the same way, starts in the beginning in a stream of music or melodies – it’s very linear. I knew that I would need to do something with that. Then I found my mom’s guitar in the closet and tried to play the same riff for three years until I got lessons. Then my grandma was like “you need singin’ lessons, I can’t barely stand to hear the sound of your voice!”. That’s what she did to my aunt who is now a professional opera singer. She’s very honest. 

You seem pretty comfortable entertaining now. 

When we’re learning, like when we’re trying to talk to people on the microphone. It’s almost a bust every time. One time we tried to plan something, and that was a huge fail,  you can’t go planning what you’re going to say. But playing music for people is easy because you can tell when they’re enjoying themselves and we ignore the people who aren’t. 

One of the cool things about playing old music is that you can pretend to be time bandits and you can pretend to be mute when you’re not singing. It’s like we’re an installation or something. Then there’s awkward moments though, that if we did know what to say, it would really help… no matter how mysterious we think we’re being.

How did you two meet?

Kalyn: I was working at this cafe that I’d been working at for a couple years. I saw some jazz music happening in front of the window I was waiting at. So every time I had some free time, I’d go and listen to it. That was my last day and I was going to go to California after that, and he was going to go on tour. Instead, the tour got canceled and he asked if he could jump on my ship. 

What was your reaction to that?

Kalyn: I’m gonna have you call you back on that tomorrow because I just met you… and this is crazy. 

Then I called and said he could come.

Kalyn, did you sing growing up?

I sang until I was about 13 but there was too much assessment and not enough joy. I was terrified to sing in front of anyone. Pearl Street helped. Walk around and you see all walks of life performing. I think that was the first time we played music together.

Thom, Did you know that she could sing when you met?

We were listening to Billy Holiday and I heard her singing along, and I was like… “you can do that? Alright, lets start learning things.”

You were on your way to California, but how did you end up in Boulder?

We had another friend in the car who was going to DJ, and he wanted to go to CO Springs. I had a friend in Boulder, so we could stay with her. By the route we took, we ended up in Boulder. We were going to stay for one night, but then she said we should stay for two weeks and play music. We couldn’t help it anyway, the mountains are so beautiful. 

There’s nothing like Pearl Street. There’s New Orleans which has every street you can perform on, but it’s more intimate here and there’s more of a variety of different kinds of performers here that we really like. There’s so many styles of music that we don’t touch at all, and there’s so much to learn. New Orleans is the spot for the style of music we play, there are SO many people who play the same type of music. 

So it helps because you can stand out from the crowd?

I think people have a greater appreciation for our style of music here, and not a lot of people our age do it. There are a lot of older folks who play this music, and we’ve been blessed to play with them also – but there are very few young swing musicians here. I think people appreciate it when the younger generation can get together with the older generation and connect. 

I like the Blues influence in your music, could you talk about Robert Johnson?

Thom: I love Robert Johnson, he’s a really great storyteller and a really great guitarist. Doing things that’s hard to imagine doing now because it’s so different than any style of guitar playing from today. It’s an amazing style of using the whole guitar. The blues style is not so much about the skills and the chords, but about the emotion. 

Kalyn: I don’t know who Robert Johnson is. But if you play the music for me, I probably know one or two of his songs. I mostly liked Billy Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, Etta James, a lot of soulful females.

How’d you get introduced to Blues?

Well if you trace pop and rock back it all goes there. I really like rock bands, and you get into a jam band, and you wonder who they listen to and they like this jazz band. Then you start to appreciate it more, and you just keep tracing it back. Robert Johnson is somewhere along the way there. 

On the future:

We’d really love to be part of an electric swing band. The electronic swing stuff could be taken a little further, and we’d love to be a part of it. The same thing with merging the young generation with the older generation. The young are into a lot of electronic music, and swing should never die.

Did you both have musical families?

Kalyn: My grandmother sang in church, but never took it further than that. I think my family viewed art as something very difficult to make money on. I grew up thinking the same thing, that if I were to do something with art, it would be a hobby. They’re talented, they just didn’t go as far as they could have I think. 

Thom: I come from music appreciators in my immediate family. My great-grandfather and great-grandmother were professional sweet music musicians. Sweet music was like jazz tunes before they had any syncopation to them. They didn’t really pass that down, my grandfather didn’t play and my grandmother didn’t play. From my mom’s side, my mom isn’t a musician – she plays some guitar and sings – but my uncles and aunts are all different walks of life musicians. All my cousins play violin. There is a huge importance of music in my family. 

What are some of your upcoming events? 

We will probably be doing community and art events in Ward and the mountain towns. We play weekly at License No.1 (or as people call it, ex-catacombs). With beautiful low lighting and jazz, it really puts people into the feeling of The Boulderado. Louis Armstrong played back there in the day, and I think they’re trying to bring back the life what was once a really cool jazz bar. 

We play at The Stanley up in Estes sometimes, we’ll be there on the 31st. It’s that theme that I really enjoy. When we play jazz, it really brings you back to a previous life. The Stanley has a similar atmosphere. 

What’s it like to know that you can start playing somewhere and people come up to you and ask you to play for them?

Always say yes. If we have one solid gig that we can rely on every week, then everything else we can just say yes to. We love to meet new people. We don’t know many people around here, so whenever someone comes up to us, we always try to connect with them and bring it a little further.

Does that help boost your confidence to know that people will stop what they’re doing and want you to play for them? 

That feels really good, I think it’s the self criticism that can shine beyond that. We have to overcome that within ourselves, but it really helps to have other people tell us how they feel about it. We’re not often telling ourselves the positive things, so to hear it from other people helps a whole lot. We hope to help those people too who maybe want to have an event or a party that we could add to. 

Is it easy to randomly collaborate with other musicians and just start playing together?

Yeah, especially when they’re experienced in swing music. Sometimes it’s fun to teach people a new style though. We’re fortunate to know some really talented people and we just end up running into them.

Who has helped you out in Boulder?

The Goorin Hat Company has given us some really beautiful hats… we just make people dance in their store while they’re wearing hats. 

Of course, The Boulderado has helped us out a whole lot. 

There are some more experienced musicians, particularly a guy named David Williams who is an incredible song writer, a great gypsy guitarist. He’s been a great mentor for me. He wrote a bunch of songs for a children’s show on PBS that are crossover swing songs about things like jungle animals. He can entertain anyone. He’s so spontaneous and such a friendly person, we would be playing and he’d say “hey, why don’t you hop in on some of my gigs and back me up” and we’d learn some of his songs. He’s also an english professor at the University.

Another Williams who has helped us has been Tim Williams at the Capitol Design Team. He’s invited us for events and scheduled multiple times to have us recorded in some of the most beautiful places we’ve been. He’s so connected around here, and we’re blessed he noticed us. The first time we were out here, he noticed us two days after we had been performing on the street and he stopped us and was like “I’m learning to play guitar, play a song for me?”. 

Also, Bramble and Hare has helped us a lot. They gave us the okay to go in there and play any time we want. Put out a tip jar, bring any musicians we want. We’ll continue to play there as much as we can. 

Do you find Boulder to be different than other places in terms of people who want to help out?

That’s a part of the reason why we’re out here. Boulder is about meeting people by chance, it cuts to the chase of people getting to know each other and play music together. Connections happen a lot quicker here. The scene is also bigger for musicians. Where we’re from, not a lot of people go out for live music. We ended up working at one particular speak-easy and only playing there. You’re just a backdrop. Where as here, every restaurant thinks music would be a good idea. The businesses are very open minded here. So if you pitch them an idea, they’re more willing to take a risk on us. There’s a confidence that we have here that we didn’t have back in Albany.

How do you pronounce your last name?

Cho-Peck. Wicked polish.

Tell us about working at The Kitchen

I was working at The Kitchen a year ago. Moved back to Boulder after having lived in San Diego and LA. I got typical “Boulder” jobs, part time at Laughing Goat and the Kitchen. Graduated from CU with a film degree. I came across Madelife after it was recommended by a friend, picked up a video internship, became video coordinator and now I’m in the creative coordinator position to organize our creative accelerator program.

We know about tech accelerators, but what’s Madelife all about?

It’s a 3 month tuition based creative accelerator program that provides skills, resources, and marketing for individuals who are interested in about 5 different creative fields. We have web design, graphic design, photography, video production, and audio production. We cater the program depending on the individual. Someone comes in and they start a project that we help them with for about a week or two weeks. We analyze how the process went and take a look at their strengths and weaknesses, as well as their overall goals and cater the next three months based off of what they where to get to and help with their workflow. 

Different compared to other accelerators, sounds like it’s more qualitative instead of quantitative.

Yeah, we’re trying to develop exposure to some sort of creative interests that people want to excel in. Depending on what the participant wants to attain or what kind of level they want to reach, is all figured into how we create the program. If someone wants to get into video production freelance, initially we would provide them resources with other people who have already established themselves in the business and then move into marketing and how to get yourself out there. How do you create revenue with your talent?

What do you do at Madelife?

I run around and try to use my attention deficit disorder to its greatest benefit. Initially I was in a video coordinator position and promoting various brands and artists in the store – promotional material for Madelife. Now I’m taking on this role as creative coordinating position. When an accelerant comes in, I’m organizing their program. Figuring out what projects they should work on in the first few weeks and how that applies to their goals. I help organize the creatives’ acceleration as well as Madelife’s acceleration.

Where do you see Madelife going?

Sky is the limit. A lot of work still needs to be done, but I feel like the process we’re trying to establish can be really beneficial for a lot of people. Having a lot of people in the program with a staff to support that. Established creatives meeting fresh creatives and collaborating. Using the space as an event space, and creating a culture. Expanding to Denver… Norway… I really want to live in Norway. 

Why Norway?

I love the cold. Scandinavian culture is just really cool. Columbia too though. I went to the Columbia festival yesterday, and it’s probably nothing like that. But it was just really cool. This is my scatterbrain. 

Back to Madelife…

The goal is to genuinely and sincerely support artists. I am sometimes nervous about a company going on the wrong path and creating more problems than good. I feel like in any sort of business you can accelerate to a detrimental or stagnant place. I’d really like to see Madelife sustain itself financially – but really to affect people on a positive level and create a genuine understanding of what it takes to be a successful artist. 

There’s a romantic notion of a starving artist, but I don’t think it’s necessary. In order to be an artist, you have to really work hard… but you don’t always have to stretch yourself too thin. You can be sincere with your art, but also survive and live a healthy and fruitful life

On your website it says “Born and raised in the mysterious mountains of Colorado, Cain Czopek makes films that convey the depth of the human condition in the common human being.” So I watched your short, Estrangement, and that’s a heavy movie. Quite a contrast, where does this come from?

I think it could be that I have had such a privileged, healthy lifestyle growing up and it’s like exploring my “shadow” in cinema. I live my life as a jovial, positive person and it’s therapeutic to explore my darker side.

I feel like it came from a personal place of no matter how great and beautiful place Colorado is, we still have our personal struggles. Me dealing with personal stuff and creating a story from it based off of James Cain’s The Postman Always Rings Twice which is one of the first stories of the Roma Noire era.

What’s your favorite place in Boulder?

I grew up about 30 minutes away in the mountains, and there’s Gross Reservoir that provides water for Denver. It’s a little out of the way of Boulder, but it’s really beautiful and we used to go cliff jumping there. In the heart of Boulder, it’s cheesy to say, but I really do dig The Kitchen Upstairs.

Who would you interview?

Galen McKamy, the creative director for kid robot. Kid Robot is cool with an artistic vibe, and he’s a really good street artist. There’s a little bit of hip hop street art movement that’s always been a little involved with Boulder. My favorite part about Boulder is that there’s this street culture close to the mountains and it’s really interesting with a hippy vibe. It’s still creating art on buildings with a backdrop of the mountains and it’s otherworldly. 

Ryan Wanger is a Senior Software Engineer at MapQuest and an Organizer for both Boulder Startup Week and Ignite Boulder. Ryan earned a B.A. in Computer Science from Hamilton College and a Game Design Certificate from the Academy of Game Entertainment Technology. His journey to Boulder included stops in New York, Boston, and Los Angeles.

“If somebody gave me back all of the time that I have spent on the internet, I definitely wouldn’t spend it the same way! I think that people who succeed in the next 10-20 years are going to have the self discipline to get stuff done and not be consumers of media.”

His experience with Everlater

“My favorite time at Everlater, in retrospect, was when I was doing support. I could read support emails and fix a problem in 5 minutes. That would just blow people’s minds! We gained passionate users one at a time.”

Speaking at Ignite

“I really like the challenge of coming up with a presentation. There are very strict restraints for it, which in some ways makes it easier. It keeps you focused on entertaining, making people happy, and making them think about something.”

On gaming

“I grew up playing games with my family. We played hearts, spades, scrabble, and boggle. I hadn’t thought about chess in 5-10 years and then suddenly I was seeing new things and thinking about the game differently from my experience with these other games.”

Who is Ryan inspired by?

“Nate & Natty are interesting because they are finance people who taught themselves how to code. They are the nicest guys ever! Twice during Boulder Startup Week I ran into people who accredited them as the reason that they moved to Boulder. That is almost a better benefit to the individual people out there than some company that raises or makes a bunch of money and becomes a success.”

Regarding pinball

“Something that I had known about and ignored my entire life suddenly became this obsession for me. It makes me excited about the future! What else have I missed? The moral of the story is: try new things.”

Becca is a Co-Founder of RiverandLark and an Organizer at Block 1750. She studied Molecular Biology and Business at CU Boulder, served as the Director of Marketing for Quick Left, and worked at a startup in Silicon Valley before rediscovering her home here in Boulder, Colorado.

Boulder people understand what is important in life. It isn’t making scads of money, getting featured in TechCrunch, or bought by Google. It’s being outside, and spending time with friends & family.

Regarding RiverandLark

We really believe in the power of storytelling, and so we try and help people with that. We focus primarily on video and do a little bit of web development.

On women in tech

Ingrid Alongi is obviously the first person who comes to mind. I also think about Tara Calihman, Sarah Jane Coffey, and Elaine Ellis Reddy. There are so many strong women in this community that I have learned a lot from!

What is Murmuration?

Murmuration is the TED of live performing arts. We have breakdancers paired with a Native American drum circle, an entire drumline, ballerinas with a slam poet, and a barbershop quartet. It will be an insane mashup, this unity of musicians and dancers, all at Chautauqua.

Murmuration [ video ] – Saturday, May 31 7:30 PM

Block 1750 Grand Opening Party – Sunday, June 1st 6:30 PM

Royce Haynes is a Facilitator for Startup Weekend in Denver and a former Hackstar with Techstars Boulder. He is currently working as a Senior Software Developer with Pearson North America and pursuing an MS in Computer Science at The University of Colorado Boulder. We spoke with him about his journey from Kansas to Boulder, new projects, and his work with the Risingstars program.

I have this expectation to be a successful entrepreneur. I don’t know how, when, or where. I think it is engrained in me. It also comes from my family.

Regarding Risingstars and PowerMoves.NOLA

We help minority based companies, specifically software startups, get a glimpse of what Techstars is like. Tom Chikoore tapped me to help with the bootcamp down in New Orleans.

His latest side project

Chrrp is an app that shows you how much money you have made. It just chirps at you! It’s particularly for SAS companies that use Stripe and have reoccurring revenue.

process x creativity = impact

As the company grows – revenue, customer base, and employee base – you have to have this balance of process and culture to make a big impact.

On growth

It depends on what we define as growth. Is growth money? Figure out what growth is for you and how you are going to be good at that growth.

What is Royce excited about?

I’m just excited about everything these days! You can feel the energy. Colorado as a startup ecosystem is making the right moves to be a very sustainable area.

Rachel is a Connecticut native who studied Computer Science at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute before moving to New York City. Since then she has done a variety of work including a 4 year stint at Etsy as a senior software developer. Rachel recently accepted an offer to work at Gnip here in Boulder, so that is one of the things that we spoke with her about.

“I like people who are out doing interesting things and not letting preconceptions about what they should or shouldn’t be doing determine what they are actually doing. They see things that are interesting, they see an opportunity, and they just do it.”

Rachel admires many people in the Boulder community. One person that she mentioned is her colleague at Gnip, Shannon McCoy. Jonathan Woodard was referred to for the second interview in a row and we finally have an excuse to interview Kent Riggs since he was acknowledged this week.

“Shannon managed to get herself hired by Gnip, probably over a year ago, and is just killing it now. Kent is just everywhere, he’s got so much stuff going on.”

We discussed women in tech and Rachel made some interesting points that are often overlooked.

“There are so many things about it that are so good, especially if you want to have a family, because the schedule can be really flexible. You can work from home. It really lends itself to doing consulting and freelance part-time if you want to.”

Last weekend I had an amazing conversation with my friend Dan Andrews. He is an Alaska native who worked at RightNow and Oracle in Bozeman, Montana before moving to Boulder and working as a Software Developer at Techstars. We discussed everything from dancing and public speaking to technology and venture capital.

“To say it’s about hype, I think really misses the point. Venture capital (VC) is what allowed companies like Apple to get their start. Hype helps in the short-term, but a successful VC in the long-term has their eye on value.”

Dan admires many people here in Boulder, but the first person who came to mind was Birdbox CTO Kevin Cawley. Hopefully we will have a chance to meet with Kevin at some point in the future! Dan also mentioned his predecessor at Techstars, Jeremy Frazao.

“Here in Boulder, the person I would consider a friend and a mentor is Jeremy Frazao. When I am stuck on something, if he is around, I will ask him what his thoughts are. I look up to him a lot.”

Dan had some interesting thoughts on the similarities and differences between Anchorage, Bozeman, and Boulder. While the competitive athletic vibe here is new to him, the collaborative tech community here has made him feel right at home.

“In terms of the tech scene, I think Boulder is special. I just thrive here. I feel like I am lucky to be right in the middle of it.”

We are really grateful that Dan would take the time to speak with us. Cheers to all of the readers and listeners who tuned in!