Summary:

In today’s episode, we have an Timeri Tolnay, who is the CEO and founder of EdCuration. Timeri is an Edupreneur, who has built a company focused on connecting educators to the right curriculum and instructional resources to help their students succeed. 

Here’s a closer look at the episode:

• Timeri’s early career in education in California
• Moving to Colorado
• Understanding how schools purchase curriculum
• Developing and selling a curriculum company
• The problem Timeri was trying to solve
• Launch in 2018
• Early advice from Traction
• Raising a Friends and Family round
• Support from the state of Colorado
• First customers
• How they defined the business model
• Growing the team during COVID
• Challenges of raising capital
• What is exciting in the works
• The future of education

Resources:

EdCuration Website: https://edcuration.com/ 

Timeri Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/timeri-tolnay-1586591a/ 

EdCuration LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/edcuration/ 

EdCuration Twitter: https://twitter.com/ed_curation 

EdCuration Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/edcuration/ 

EdCuration Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/EdCuration 

Summary:

In today’s episode, Natty Zola, who is a TechStars founder travel startup EverLater. He's the former managing director of TechStars Boulder and now is an investor and partner at Matchstick Ventures.

Here’s a closer look at the episode:

• From Colorado to Maryland for a bad track team
• Leaving Finance to develop Everlater
• How travel inspired Everlater
• The early help with Everlater and the “give first” mindset of Colorado
• Access to capital in the early days
• Getting acquired by MapQuest
• Joining TechStars as the managing director
• How Natty’s entrepreneur journey helped him succeed at TechStars
• What Natty loves most about being an investor
• The decision to leave TechStars and become a full time investor
• The Matchstick investment strategy
• Importance of collaborative investing
• The things Natty looks for in an investment
• Importance of diversity in founders
• How companies can be attractive for Series A and coastal capital
• Natty’s advice during these economic times

Resources:

Natty’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nattyzola/ 

Natty’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/NattyZ 

Matchstick website: https://www.matchstick.vc/  

Matchstick LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/matchstickventures/ 

In today’s episode, I talk with co-founders who deliberately relocated their early stage startup to the great State of Colorado. They are on a mission to curate learning paths for all of your interests. No more Google searches or expensive online courses. The co-founders of INDX  - Susie Lira-Gonzalez & Thomas Cotter,  are helping experts and tastemakers curate the best articles, podcasts and newsletters to help you quickly level up your interests and knowledge. 

Here’s a closer look at the episode:

• Early days and how Susie and Thomas met
• From big tech to the startup world
• Creative bootstrapping strategies during COVID
• Notre Dame to Denver
• The original vision
• How INDX is different from traditional ways to learn
• Value in curated content
• Who were the early adopters
• Early mistakes - what didn’t work
• Challenges for an early-stage startup
• Hitting the pain point
• Getting creative with limited resources
• Thinking about how to raise money
• What makes them a winning team
• Importance of trust
• Learning Paths
• Calling all curators
• Why curated content is so valuable
• What is on Susie and Thomas’s INDXs

Resources:

Website: getINDX.com 

Susie LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/susielira/ 

Susie Twitter: https://twitter.com/susiestartup?lang=en 

Susie TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@susiestartup 

Thomas LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tcotter1/ 

Thomas Twitter: https://mobile.twitter.com/cottertmc 

INDX LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/getindx/ 

INDX Twitter: https://twitter.com/getindx 

INDX Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/getindx/ 

INDX Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/INDXSoftware 

In today’s episode, we are joined by Josh Nielsen, a founder who launched his tech career as a Hackstar in Boulder. He then traveled all over the world, only to return to the Rockies to build and grow something new and very exciting, Zencastr. Josh is here today to talk to us about the trajectory of the podcasting industry, what podcasters need and how his platform is innovating, modern recording tools for quality conscious podcasters

Here’s a closer look at the episode:

• What brought Josh to the Rockies
• From Mechanical Engineering to Computer Engineering
• Early days at Mahalo
• TechStars Hackstar program
• Hackathon music production platform
• Moving to Australia
• Fast-tracking creating a new company
• How a quilting business comes into the story
• Why a podcasting platform?
• The problem with the available platforms
• Getting the first 100 users
• Moving to Thailand
• Making money while you sleep
• Josh’s return to the Rockies
• Solving more podcasting headaches
• What is unique about Zencastr
• Raising capital
• Bringing on a co-founder
• What’s next for Zencastr

Resources:

Zencastr Website: www.zencastr.com

Josh Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshnielsen/

Zencastr LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/zencastr/

Josh Twitter: https://twitter.com/joshontheweb

Zencastr Twitter: https://twitter.com/zencastr