Creative Distillation

University of Colorado-Boulder professors Jeff York and Brad Werner distill entrepreneurship research into actionable insights.

CREATIVE DISTILLATION

Jeff York | Associate Professor | Research Director
[email protected]

Brad Werner | Instructor | Teaching Director
[email protected]

Deming Center for Entrepreneurship | CU Leeds School of Business
303.492.9018 | [email protected]

—

EPISODE 28: Finkel & Garf Brewing and Brand Loyalty After an Acquisition

In this episode, hosts Jeff York and Brad Werner are joined by Griffin Bohm, a second year MBA student student from Leeds with extensive craft brewing experience, along with Dan Garfinkel, CEO and Founder of Finkel & Garf Brewing Company. The show features a sampling of Finkel & Garf beers, a conversation on the business of craft brewing and an analysis of the study titled “Watered Down: Market Growth, Authenticity, and Evaluation in Craft Beer” published in Organization Studies.

Read the paper: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0170840621993236

Learn more about Finkel & Garf Brewing: https://www.finkelandgarf.com/

Learn more about CU's Deming Center for Entrepreneurship: https://www.colorado.edu/business/deming/

Comments/criticism/suggestions/feedback? We'd love to hear it. Drop us a note at [email protected].

Thanks for listening.

-

An Analog Digital Arts Production for the Deming Center for Entrepreneurship
Produced, recorded and edited by Joel Davis

"AcidJazz" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Podcast: Part Two of Executive MBAs Night Out Features a Private Q&A Session With Successful Entrepreneurs and Leeds’ Faculty.

Continuing with their slightly different approach to the Creative Distillation research podcast, hosts Brad Werner and Jeff York are again joined by Upslope Brewing Company founder Matt Cutter for a Q&A session with students from the inaugural Executive MBA Program at CU Boulder’s Leeds School of Business.

Set against the backdrop of Upslope Brewing’s grain auger churning in the background, Leeds’ Executive MBAs continued to pose challenging questions, such as: what are York and Warner’s perspectives about the importance of values and support systems when starting an organization; the supply chain challenges and changes Cutter faced during COVID; and then delving into York’s research-focused and Werner’s investor-based perspectives on taking an organization from bootstrap to exit in 10 years.

Highlighting aspects of the discussions, the hosts addressed the challenges and opportunities that arise when starting an organization. Specifically, focusing on building a team, including finding the right people. This is where York and Werner differed on approaches but agreed on the importance of values.

“Incorporate your values from day one…and be open to advice” 

Warner said.

While addressing a question about supply chain management, Cutter offered an impactful story around industry wide challenges faced during COVID.

“We got to notice at the end of November that we would have to go with five truckload minimums, which is a million cans. [That’s] for one SKU; we have nine SKUs that we run year-round plus our limited releases, like the German pils[ner]. And the upper cut was a 45% price increase. Oh, wow.” Cutter said.

Listen to episode 27 of the Creative Distillation research podcast and learn more about the hosts' different perspectives.

About the podcast

Creative Distillation is a research podcast co-hosted by Jeff York and Brad Werner, both of the Deming Center for Entrepreneurship at CU Boulder’s Leeds School of Business. Each episode distills academic research on entrepreneurship into actionable insights. This season, the hosts connect with researchers from around the globe to discuss sustainability, yoga, cannabis, food trucks, entrepreneurship programs and accelerators.

Comments/criticism/suggestions/feedback? We'd love to hear it. Drop us a note at [email protected].

On Episode 26, we try a new approach to the Creative Distillation podcast: recording in front of a live audience consisting of students enrolled in the CU Leeds School of Business Executive MBA Program. This special Creative Distillation event took place at Upslope Brewing's taproom. Without giving too much away, suffice to say that the evening and recording went exceedingly well and we look forward to making this a semi-regular occurrence.

In the first of this two-part episode, Jeff and Brad speak with Upslope Brewing founder Matt Cutter about the company's origins and Matt's journey from Project Manager in the software industry to one of the Front Range's biggest brewing success stories.

Matt, Jeff and Brad also take questions from the Executive MBA students in attendance, further illuminating the thinking and process behind building a successful enterprise.

Learn more about Upslope Brewing: https://www.upslopebrewing.com/

Comments/criticism/suggestions/feedback? We'd love to hear it. Drop us a note at [email protected].

Thanks for listening.

University of Colorado-Boulder professors Jeff York and Brad Werner distill entrepreneurship research into actionable insights.

CREATIVE DISTILLATION

Jeff York | Associate Professor | Research Director
[email protected]

Brad Werner | Instructor | Teaching Director
[email protected]

Deming Center for Entrepreneurship | CU Leeds School of Business
303.492.9018 | [email protected]

—

EPISODE 25 Ska Street Brewstillery and The Impact of Location Considerations on Venture Performance


On Episode 25, our merry band of academics met at Ska Street Brewstillery on a snowy Friday in Boulder, and discussed the efficiencies and challenges of running a Brewstillery, and Ska Street's overriding sense of devotion to creating and hosting community. With business starting to return to pre-Covid levels, Brad and Jeff, along with Ska Street's co-founder Dustin Hall and General Manager Katie Nierling, toasted the business' surviving the pandemic. Then -- as you'll hear in the "special intro" to this episode, the following Wednesday it was announced that Ska Street had closed "indefinitely." A recording location closing before the recording actually airs: definitely a Creative Distillation first. We had a truly fantastic time at Ska Street and are sorry to see them go. We hold out hope that they will someday return.

We were also joined by Dean Sharon Matusik from CU's Leeds School of Business. She enthusiastically took part in the Ska Street segment (she was happy that her second appearance on the podcast wasn't again held at a coffee roastery), then stuck around to share the latest entrepreneurship activities at Leeds and the Deming Center (spoiler: there's a lot going on) as well as discuss "Location capabilities, institutional distance, and start-up survival" a paper she co-wrote along with Carla V. Bustamante (Director of a Masters Degree in Entrepreneurship and Innovation at CU Boulder) and Jose Miguel Benavente (Professor at Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez in Chile). The paper examines the effects of institutional distance and location capabilities on international start-ups' survival rates.

Read the paper: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/gsj.1407

Comments/criticism/suggestions/feedback? We'd love to hear it. Drop us a note at [email protected].

Thanks for listening.

-

An Analog Digital Arts Production for the Deming Center for Entrepreneurship
Produced, recorded and edited by Joel Davis

"AcidJazz" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

University of Colorado-Boulder professors Jeff York and Brad Werner distill entrepreneurship research into actionable insights.

CREATIVE DISTILLATION

Jeff York | Associate Professor | Research Director
[email protected]

Brad Werner | Instructor | Teaching Director
[email protected]

Deming Center for Entrepreneurship | CU Leeds School of Business
303.492.9018 | [email protected]

—

EPISODE 24 Sanitas Brewing and Autonomy Over Choosing Teams and Ideas


On Episode 24, the Creative Distillation crew stops by Sanitas Brewing in Boulder for a wide-ranging and fun conversation with brewery co-founder Michael Memsic. In addition to landing on the perfect number of sample beers (four) to accompany an episode of Creative Distillation, they get into the Sanitas' approach to creating their lineup of "beer-flavored" beer, the challenges to the business posed by Covid (not to mention the 2013 Boulder flood), and Jeff shows off his knowledge of beer history and brewing technique, particularly with regard to sours.

Brad and Jeff then launch into this episode's paper: "Organizing Entrepreneurial Teams: A Field Experiment on Autonomy over Choosing Teams and Ideas." The research looks into whether giving startups autonomy over their team or their ideas -- but not both -- vs. giving them complete autonomy leads to better outcomes. The results may surprise you (they surprised Brad). The conversation weighs the dangers of overconfidence and echo chambers against the benefits of creating a company culture that questions every decision they make, the unique efficacy of "startup studios" and how knowledge plus passion equate to a higher likelihood of success.

The paper is authored by Viktoria Boss (TUHH Institute of Entrepreneurship), Linus Dahlander (ESMT Berlin), Christoph Ihl (Hamburg University of Technology) and Rajshri Jayaraman (University of Toronto).

Read the paper: https://pubsonline.informs.org/doi/pdf/10.1287/orsc.2021.1520

Comments/criticism/suggestions/feedback? We'd love to hear it. Drop us a note at [email protected].

Thanks for listening.

-

An Analog Digital Arts Production for the Deming Center for Entrepreneurship
Produced, recorded and edited by Joel Davis

"AcidJazz" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

University of Colorado-Boulder professors Jeff York and Brad Werner distill entrepreneurship research into actionable insights.

CREATIVE DISTILLATION

Jeff York | Associate Professor | Research Director
[email protected]

Brad Werner | Instructor | Teaching Director
[email protected]

Deming Center for Entrepreneurship | CU Leeds School of Business
303.492.9018 | [email protected]

—

EPISODE 23 Twisted Pine Brewing and Stakeholder Identification in New Ventures


On Episode 23, the Creative Distillation crew settles in at Twisted Pine Brewing in Boulder. With their expert and gracious hosts Bob Baile (owner) and Jeff Griffith (head brewer), Brad and Jeff delve deeply into the brewery's history and culture -- and 26-item beer list -- and talk about the challenges of micro-brewing, the importance of employee empowerment and community involvement, and the runaway success of their extremely spicy and award-winning Ghost Face Killah brew.

Brad and Jeff then discuss the paper "Stakeholder identification as entrepreneurial action: The social process of stakeholder enrollment in new venture emergence," (Journal of Business Venturing) which looks into the importance of new ventures identifying stakeholders (including financiers, employees, customers, suppliers and communities) through social action (aka talking to people), and how that can guide a venture's entrepreneurial imagination and development.

The paper is authored by J. Robert Mitchell (Colorado State, Western University), Trevor L. Israelsen (Univ. of Victoria), Ronald K. Mitchell (Texas Tech) and Dominic S.K. Kim (Western University).

Read the paper: https://www.ronaldmitchell.org/publications/JBV%20Mitchell%20et%20al.%202021.pdf

Comments/criticism/suggestions/feedback? We'd love to hear it. Drop us a note at [email protected].

Thanks for listening.

-

An Analog Digital Arts Production for the Deming Center for Entrepreneurship
Produced, recorded and edited by Joel Davis

"AcidJazz" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

University of Colorado-Boulder professors Jeff York and Brad Werner distill entrepreneurship research into actionable insights.

CREATIVE DISTILLATION

Jeff York | Associate Professor | Research Director
[email protected]

Brad Werner | Instructor | Teaching Director
[email protected]

Deming Center for Entrepreneurship | CU Leeds School of Business
303.492.9018 | [email protected]

—

EPISODE 22: Under the Sun Brew Pub and a "Special Issue" on Meta-Analysis


On Episode 22, the Creative Distillation roadshow pulls into Under the Sun Eatery & Pizzeria in South Boulder. There, they discuss the history, future and current state of all things Sun with manager Matt Rowley, who expresses the Sun's hospitality and personality through easy, fun, honest conversation and a tasty flight of crafted brews.

Brad and Jeff then turn their attention to the research. This time out, Jeff quizzes Brad about some of the concepts presented in this week's featured paper, "Entrepreneurship at a crossroads: Meta-analysis as a foundation and path forward," an article from a Special Issue on Meta-analysis published earlier this year by the Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal. It's authored by James G. Combs, T. Russell Crook, David J. Ketchen and Mike Wright.

Read the paper: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/sej.1404

Comments/criticism/suggestions/feedback? We'd love to hear it. Drop us a note at [email protected].

Thanks for listening.

-

An Analog Digital Arts Production for the Deming Center for Entrepreneurship
Produced, recorded and edited by Joel Davis

"AcidJazz" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

On Episode 21 -- kicking off Season 3 of Creative Distillation! -- Brad and Jeff speak with Chuck Eesley, Associate Professor at the Stanford University School of Engineering. While enjoying some negronis mixed with Ada Lovelace gin, Chuck shares a brief but fascinating history of Ada, widely considered to be the first computer programmer (from the mid-19th century!). Tangentially, Brad brings up bitters and Jeff's over/underuse of them in this particular(ly strong) cocktail.

This segues to an insightful (and fun) conversation about Chuck and Yong Suk Lee's research on the efficacy of university entrepreneurship programs. The results may surprise you.

Learn more about Chuck: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eesley/

Read the paper: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/smj.3246

Comments/criticism/suggestions/feedback? We'd love to hear it. Drop us a note at [email protected].

Thanks for listening.

-

An Analog Digital Arts Production for the Deming Center for Entrepreneurship
Produced, recorded and edited by Joel Davis

"AcidJazz" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

University of Colorado-Boulder professors Jeff York and Brad Werner distill entrepreneurship research into actionable insights.

CREATIVE DISTILLATION

Jeff York | Associate Professor | Research Director
[email protected]

Brad Werner | Instructor | Teaching Director
[email protected]

Deming Center for Entrepreneurship | CU Leeds School of Business
303.492.9018 | [email protected]

—

EPISODE 20: Straight Whiskey, No Paper


On Episode 20 of Creative Distillation, Brad and Jeff speak with Alistair Brogan, Owner/Operator of Boulder Spirits at Vapor Distillery.

This episode marks our first return to on-location recording since Covid forced us to Zoom. It's great to be gathered in the same room again -- especially surrounded by whiskey barrels stacked 4 to 5 high (they make for great acoustics).

We were so immersed in Alistair's delectable offerings and a flair for storytelling revealed through a seven-flight tasting that Jeff and Brad never made it to the paper they intended to discuss. Instead, this full episode consists of a fun and illuminating conversation about the art of distillation and entrepreneurship -- thereby capturing the true essence of this podcast.

Learn more about Boulder Spirits at https://boulder-spirits.com/

Thanks to Alistair and the entire Boulder Spirits crew for the warm welcome and consummate hosting.

Comments/criticism/suggestions/feedback? We'd love to hear it. Drop us a note at [email protected].

Thanks for listening.

-

An Analog Digital Arts Production for the Deming Center for Entrepreneurship
Produced, recorded and edited by Joel Davis

"AcidJazz" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

University of Colorado-Boulder professors Jeff York and Brad Werner distill entrepreneurship research into actionable insights.

CREATIVE DISTILLATION

Jeff York | Associate Professor | Research Director
[email protected]

Brad Werner | Instructor | Teaching Director
[email protected]

Deming Center for Entrepreneurship | CU Leeds School of Business
303.492.9018 | [email protected]

—
On Episode 19 of Creative Distillation, Brad and Jeff speak with Robert Eberhart, Associate Director of Research on Entrepreneurship and Society at the Stanford University Graduate School of Business.

Bob's also the first foreigner ever to obtain a wholesale liquor license in Japan, so it's no surprise he chose Suntory Hibiki Japanese Whiskey to facilitate their discussion of his paper, "Freedom is Just Another Word for Nothing Left to Lose: Entrepreneurialism and the Changing Nature of Employment Relations." Bob, Brad and Jeff get into a freewheeling, wide-ranging conversation about the effects of entrepreneurialism on society and, specifically, how it changes our view of work and success. The episode strikes a near-perfect balance between revelation and irreverence.

Follow Bob on Twitter at https://twitter.com/RobertNEberhart

"Freedom is Just Another Word for Nothing Left to Lose: Entrepreneurialism and the Changing Nature of Employment Relations": https://www.colorado.edu/business/node/16089/attachment

Robert Eberhart: https://www.linkedin.com/in/reberhart/

Comments/criticism/suggestions/feedback? We'd love to hear it. Drop us a note at [email protected].

Thanks for listening.

-

An Analog Digital Arts Production for the Deming Center for Entrepreneurship
Produced, recorded and edited by Joel Davis

"AcidJazz" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/