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GenXYZ 2023 — Terence Rogers

They’re uncommon achievers, whether as entrepreneurs, CEOs, nonprofit leaders, visionaries critical to their companies’ success or, in some cases, all of those roles. This year’s Top 25 Young Professionals figure to continue making a difference professionally and in their communities for years to come.

Read on to learn about the 2023 Top 25 Young Professionals and to see the list of this year’s top 50 finalists.

READ: GenXYZ 2023 — Top 25

Terence Rogers, 33

Chef/Owner, Sullivan Scrap Kitchen | Denver

According to the Natural Resources Defense Council, U.S. restaurants generate an estimated 22 to 33 billion pounds of food waste each year. Chef Terence Rogers wants to change that, and his restaurant, Sullivan Scrap Kitchen, has sustainability in food, staff and community as the core of its mission. Rogers reduces food waste by finding creative ways to utilize ingredients and repurpose items before they end up in compost.

Rogers is also the chef and owner of TBD Foods, a premier farm-to-table catering company. Having both businesses operate out of the same building allows for full cross-utilization of ingredients. He focuses on local sources for all ingredients for the restaurant and catering company and works with local farms, ranches, mills, cheese purveyors, honey suppliers and more. 

He started TBD Foods in 2014 out of his apartment in Somerville, Massachusetts, hosting pop-up dinners. He moved to Denver in 2016 and continued hosting pop-up dinners and catering small events. In the winter of 2019 he opened Lil Scrap Kitchen as a pop-up sandwich restaurant out of his commissary one day a week to sell items that were “waste” from catering events. From there Sullivan Scrap Kitchen opened during the pandemic in July 2020. 

In the summer of 2022, Rogers changed the concept of Sullivan Scrap Kitchen from sandwiches and burgers to a plant-focused, small-plates menu that changes throughout the year. Sullivan Scrap Kitchen offers discounts to the teachers and administrators at the school next door, Denver Center for 21st Century Learning.

GenXYZ 2023 — Devin Bostick

They’re uncommon achievers, whether as entrepreneurs, CEOs, nonprofit leaders, visionaries critical to their companies’ success or, in some cases, all of those roles. This year’s Top 25 Young Professionals figure to continue making a difference professionally and in their communities for years to come.

Read on to learn about the 2023 Top 25 Young Professionals and to see the list of this year’s top 50 finalists.

READ: GenXYZ 2023 — Top 25

Devin Bostick, 30

Founder and President, Lucky Truck | Boulder

Commercial trucking insurance was a paperwork driven, regulation heavy, bricks and mortar business until Devin Bostick reinvented and disrupted it. Commercial trucking insurance has higher and more complicated risks than conventional auto insurance. Bostick’s company, Lucky Truck, redefined commercial trucking insurance by putting it into a digital format. 

The commercial trucking industry is dominated by small businesses, with owners on the road filling out paperwork that easily gets disorganized. Lucky Truck puts it all on an app where it has 24/7 visibility, saving drivers time and keeping them on the road.

Though he did not have experience as a trucker or as an insurance provider, Bostick started researching business ideas in 2017, looking for something that would change business and provide real value to customers. He saw that the staid, mechanical, agency-based commercial trucking industry was handcuffing the very drivers it insured. He set out to develop technology that could change as fast as the driver’s loads and provide 24/7 visibility for the documentation and proof of coverage truckers need. Bostick launched Lucky Truck in 2019. Then, during the pandemic, he raised $6.5 million, wrote the software and launched the Lucky Truck platform, hired 50 employees and added more than 900 customers.

Bostick teaches entrepreneurship in the College of Media, Communication and Information at University of Colorado Boulder. Instead of textbooks and case studies, students learn from real world examples of startup companies. In addition, he founded an early stage venture capital firm and has made seed investments in 10 startup companies.

Costly mistakes to avoid when choosing your company structure

Business,people,meeting,design,ideas,concept

Starting a Colorado business is an exciting prospect, but it also brings many decisions.

Whether it’s the fulfillment of a lifelong dream or a recent opportunity that suddenly presented itself, you’ll want to ensure that you are setting yourself and your business up for success.

Choosing your company’s structure or type of business entity is one of the biggest and most important decisions you will make.

It’s crucial to consider more than just the short-term picture—think about your long-term business plan and what financial implications it might have for you personally and for your business.

Here are some costly mistakes all entrepreneurs should avoid when deciding on a company structure. 

Keeping Business Too Casual 

Maybe you’re going into business with your childhood friend, a best friend, or a close family member. No matter how close and casual your relationship with them might be, don’t make your business agreements relaxed. Keeping things too casual with other owners or partners can, among other things, ultimately cause the demise of your business. 

Instead, formally document any agreements so everyone is on the same page and there are no questions down the line about what was agreed upon. Whatever business structure you agree to and any other agreements you reach, be sure to have them review by a skilled attorney and put on paper.  

Failing to Form a Legal Entity  

You can start a business without forming a legal entity. However, doing so could significantly affect your business’s financial future. It’s common for sole proprietors to start a business without filing a structure, but it’s something that should be considered. Forming a legal business entity offers entrepreneurs many advantages, while forgoing a legal structure comes with many risks, including: 

Putting personal assets on the line: A legal business entity protects your assets that would otherwise be jeopardized in the case of a business financial hardship or litigation. You can protect your assets and keep things simple with a limited liability company (LLC). 

Decreased business credibility: Consumers, vendors, and investors all usually prefer to do business with reputable, established companies. However, it’s hard to prove if you haven’t set up a legal business entity. Setting up a business as an LLC or corporation makes it easier to obtain a business bank account, business credit, EIN, and more to establish that your company is trustworthy. 

Failing to Consider Tax Implications 

Business taxes can vary widely depending on the business structure. Carefully weigh your options.  Understanding precisely what you will be required to pay before determining what type of entity you want to form can help you avoid negative tax implications. Failing to plan and research tax consequences for a business entity can be a costly error. Consider the following: 

  • Sole Proprietors, Partnerships, and S Corps are allowed pass-through taxation. LLCs are not a tax type but are taxed as a Sole Proprietor or Partnership by default. As a result, LLCs aren’t liable for corporate tax; but owners will very likely need to pay self-employment taxes, typically around 15 percent of their profits. 
  • Owners of LLCs taxes as sole proprietors or partnerships can potentially decrease their self-employment tax burden by filing as an S Corp using form 2553. By paying a portion of the profits to the owners as salary/wages and withholding taxes one might be able to lower the total taxes paid.
  • Although owners are also subject to double taxation, a C-Corp may be attractive depending on the applicable tax rates and write-offs. For example, with investment heavy businesses, passthrough owners are taxed on ALL of the profits at ordinary tax rates before reinvestment. In comparison, the corporate tax rate for a C-Corp on profits could be much lower so that more profits can be reinvested. As a result, later on, the reinvested amounts not only grow the business profits, when the owner receives the funds, they are capital gains and taxed at generally lower capital gains rate instead of as ordinary income.  

Circumventing Future Growth 

You might be on your own now, but do you expect or want your business to grow, possibly taking on partners or shareholders later? If you hope to find investors to back your business goals in the future, the entity you choose could have a substantial role in the future growth of your business. It could also impact your bottom line. It’s essential to understand the following about business structure and development: 

  • S Corp ownership limitations: S-Corps aren’t allowed to have more than 100 shareholders and foreign owners aren’t permitted.  
  • Multiple LLC members: Business owners have the right to add members to their LLC. However, they need to think about their role and percentage ownership. If the company folds or disagreements about operating the business, there could be significant financial implications. 
  • C-Corp Ownership: In general, the structure of C-corps allows for more significant long-term growth. Yet, they also have more intricacies and fall under stricter regulatory and compliance standards. 

Not Enlisting the Help of a Business Attorney 

The best step a budding business owner can take is to enlist the help of an experienced business attorney. A well-versed attorney can help them understand each business structure option as well as the pros, cons, and potential long-term costs of each.  

How to Analyze and Overcome Entrepreneurial Barriers

So you want to start a business …  

Starting your own company sounds like a great way to earn money while having the freedom to be your own boss and make your own rules. And, as a Coloradan, you’re in a great place — Colorado is the 10th best place to start a business in the country. 

However, it’s not easy. Being your own boss means facing and overcoming a lot of obstacles, many of which are internal. So what are some of the entrepreneurial barriers that you might face? Here are a few — as well as how to overcome them. 

Not Understanding Product-Market Fit 

One of the biggest reasons that businesses fail is that their product or service doesn’t match the needs or desires of the market. There are a lot of great ideas out there, and many people will say they’re willing to pay for them if you ask. 

But what will they actually pay for? That’s the true measure of product-market fit. If no one is doing what you’re planning to do, there may be no paying market for it. So don’t invest a lot of time, money, and effort until you’ve determined that there’s a strong paying market for your product or service. 

One way to test the market is to use a “minimum viable product,” or MVP. Create a stripped-down version of what you plan to do and see if customers are willing to pay for it. You’ll also learn how much people are willing to pay, which helps develop the full product. 

If you’re struggling to understand the market, some business education might help. An MBA can be a huge catalyst for those who want to start a company. Among other things, an MBA allows you to network with like-minded people. 

A Lack of Financing 

They say it takes money to make money, and often that seems like a significant barrier. However, you don’t usually need as much money as you think, especially just to get started. 

You can start by using your own money or borrowing from friends or family. Start with the basics of getting a website and building a minimum viable product to test the market. Consider working with a co-founder who has skills you don’t have and pool your resources.  

 Once you have a good idea and a bit of traction, you can start trying to raise money. This requires marketing your business idea to investors who are interested in your sector. Make sure you partner with an investor whose vision matches yours. 

Fear of Failure or Embarrassment 

One thing that stops many entrepreneurs from ever getting started is a fear of failure. They aren’t 100% sure that the venture will work, so they don’t move forward at all. If you fall victim to this barrier, you’ll stay stuck in your unfulfilling day job and won’t leap to pursue your dreams. 

 To overcome this obstacle, create a strong plan and strategy for your business. Work on your mindset and start to expect good things in your life. Think about your dreams and imagine the life you could have if you pursue them.  

 Don’t worry about failure, either — it’s rarely final. Many entrepreneurs who have a venture fail to take what they’ve learned and go on to found a successful business afterward. 

Conflicting Priorities 

Wanting to start a company and be your own boss is tempting, but it may not be the only priority in your life. Sometimes you have other goals that seem to conflict with the entrepreneurial lifestyle. 

 To overcome this barrier, just remember that entrepreneurship can take on many forms. If you have kids, for instance, you might decide to start a business that allows you to work from home and doesn’t require you to travel. Instead of inventing a product, you might choose to be a freelance service provider. 

 Starting a business doesn’t have to mean developing new technologies and moving to California. You can stay right here in Colorado and manage the other elements of your daily life while still being your own boss. 

An Uncertain Environment 

With COVID-19 and other world concerns, today’s environment might seem like a bad time to start a company. But the truth is, there’s never a perfect time to start a business. There are always political and economic challenges that you have to navigate. 

 The key is to understand the environmental challenges and find ways to overcome them. For example, starting a business during COVID-19 might help you become more resilient and have a variety of fallback mechanisms that will help your company thrive for years to come. 

 Don’t see uncertainty as a dealbreaker. Instead, take advantage of the opportunity to create a stronger, more flexible company. 

Are You Ready to Start Your Business? 

Colorado is an excellent place for budding entrepreneurs, whether you have a new technology idea or want to become a freelancer. Starting your business here will give you many opportunities to grow, expand, and overcome obstacles. 

 If you’ve been dreaming of owning a company for years, don’t wait any longer. There’s never a perfect time. Take a step forward, and then another, and then another. In the end, you’ll be amazed at how far you go! 

3 lessons learned from first-time entrepreneurs

When my sister Maddy and I decided to finally follow our dream of starting a business together, we were ready with the key pieces we thought we needed: a solid business plan, some seed money and unlimited determination.

The universe had other ideas.

Maddy and I launched C.B. Dough, the only ready-to-bake CBD infused cookie dough, in early 2020. Between my experience in marketing and Sammy’s background as a chef, the business was a perfect fit for our talents and goal of helping people feel good, in every way.

However, our launch aligned almost perfectly with the start of the pandemic, and suddenly our plans went out the window and we found ourselves in uncharted territory.

Through ingenuity, hard work and some luck, we’ve been able to not only weather the storm, but thrive, and learned three important lessons as first-time entrepreneurs along the way.

1. Lack of Experience Can be a Positive

Neither Maddy nor I had started a business prior to C.B. Dough. While some might think that being first-time entrepreneurs during a pandemic would be a hindrance, we found it quite the opposite. We didn’t have preconceived notions of how things had to be done or past experience contributing to tunnel vision.

Instead, we’ve approached our challenges–and there have been a lot–being open to all solutions. This resulted in turning our business model on its head. Once stay-at-home orders hit and we realized our initial business-to-business model wasn’t realistic, we decided to shift to a direct-to-consumer model.

Our openness to making this wholesale change required the type of flexibility that, we believe, can come more easily when you don’t have past experience to color your judgment. All options were equally on the table because, frankly, we didn’t know any better. While experience can be a huge benefit, there’s also tremendous value in the openness that comes from being a rookie.

2. Don’t Undervalue Using What You Know

Once we moved to a direct-to-consumer model, we had to figure out how to market our products in an entirely new way. We couldn’t rely on retailer support or consumers discovering us at a grocer.

Fortunately, I had experience in influencer marketing. While influencer outreach didn’t have a major role (nor budget) in our initial business plan, we quickly recognized the value in pulling on my past experience to drive awareness and sales.

My experience was in marketing, but every entrepreneur comes to his or her business with areas of expertise, and it’s important to recognize the value in that experience, even if it’s not evident at first. Plus, it doesn’t just have to be you. Relying on the expertise of those in your inner circle who want you to succeed can be just as powerful.

3. You May Have to Pivot to Find Where You Fit

CBD-infused cookie dough is a premium product, and premium isn’t necessarily where you want to be during a pandemic. However, what our cookies do provide, thanks to CBD, is calm and relaxation–two things in high demand during the stress of COVID-19. Plus, they’re delivered with a no contact model and you bake them in the safety of your own home.

Once Maddy and I recognized where our products fit in the current cultural landscape, we were able to help our consumers figure out where our products fit in their lives. The realities of the pandemic are unique, but the idea of discovering how your products or services meet the needs of where consumers are today isn’t. And, this may change over time, and that’s ok too.

While launching our business during a pandemic brought unforeseen and very real obstacles, it taught us valuable lessons as first-time entrepreneurs that have made us a stronger business. We’re excited to see what the future holds, and the new lessons it’ll teach us along the way!

Sammy Davidoff, along with her sister Maddy, founded C.B. Dough in early 2020. The sisters wanted to combine their talents to create products that could help people feel good, in every way. At the heart of C.B. Dough is the philosophy that wellness and self-care can come one cookie at a time.

Hurricane Andrew

Andrew got me pumped up today! He found me on the web and wanted advice about planning for business growth. He’s just getting started, growing rapidly, and I’m not the right resource, but I pointed him toward a couple of solutions to help. Our 30-minute phone call was probably more helpful for me, however, than him.

Capitalism hums when entrepreneurs find an addressable market and throw their energy into it! Andrew knows a lot about what his customers need and what technology will satisfy that need. He must, however, learn how to run a business. Based on his enthusiasm and courage to ask for help, he will.

With so many large-scale problems right now (COVID-19; a blockhead who wants a permanent residence on Pennsylvania Avenue; people struggling while Congress fiddles; etc.), it’s easy to forget what made our country and economy strong. People like Andrew did.

Andrew will survive in a Democratic administration just about as well as in a future Republican administration (if the party doesn’t self-destruct by then). He’ll provide employment for more and more people, and their families will prosper. He’ll pay increasingly more taxes that will help build infrastructure. The service he provides his customers will help them grow, and they’ll provide the same benefits to us that Andrew does.

Good business is good for everyone. It wasn’t an inconvenience to talk to Andrew today; it was an honor.

Stand up for capitalism and well-run business! Support those voices that encourage business as well as environmental and social reform. (They are not mutually exclusive!) Many people don’t understand the relationship between business, GDP per capita and all the good things that come from it. If you’re willing to look, there’s a lot of information proving that the Andrews of the world do more good than “do-gooders” do.

Go get ‘em, buddy! I’m rooting for you!

3 Colorado startup founders share the best (and worst) pieces of advice they’ve been given

Working in the creative agency space in Denver for the past 10 years, I have seen every type of startup come across my desk: From the side-hustle, bootstrapped, get-rich-quick idea that rarely pans out, to the pre-funding, groundbreaking idea that ends up receiving millions in investments through multiple rounds of funding.

There is an interesting characteristic we find in the latter: they understand that there is no “standard;” no steps that are written in a book or mentioned in some keynote that will lead to instant success.

If there was a standard formula that led to success of a startup, every single startup would be successful—but the reality is quite the opposite. Most startups fail and the ones that succeed have battle scars and war stories that should act as scripture for those looking to follow in their footsteps.

In Colorado alone, billions of dollars in funding have been granted to varying businesses since 2015. We recently spoke with two local startup founders that have received pieces of that pie, and asked them about the best and worst advice they received in their early stages, in hopes that it will help others on their journey as an entrepreneur.

Denver native Matt Talbot, CEO of local field management software GoSpotCheck, went through the Boulder Techstars program in 2011. As GoSpotCheck started scaling, they met with a mentor who “opened their eyes,” Talbot relayed to us, “to the fact that getting the people right, and having processes in place to develop and grow our people, was the most important thing. We ended up taking his advice and building out a People and Culture team, and it changed the trajectory of our company.”

Adversely, Talbot’s worst piece of advice came from a Fortune 50 C-Level executive who encouraged them to hire a COO that would’ve come at a very high cost. Talbot explains “he was so used to having a full staff around him to execute the day-to-day that he couldn’t relate to an early stage startup.”

Bob Paulsen is the Founder and CEO of PlayerLync, a learning management software (LMS) that closed a series B round for $12.5 M in 2019.

Paulsen’s best advice he ever received was to spend more time “listening and understanding your customers’ problems” and less time “focusing on their ideas for solutions as they are often based on other existing technologies already out there.”

He goes on to describe his relationship with early clients. Through his listening, he was able to “create the most logical pricing and packaging possible based on the value [their customers] saw in [the businesses] solutions.”

However the worst piece of advice he received was to start a company solo so that he can retain 100% of ownership, “that way, you don’t have to gather buy-in or gain other people’s opinions, and you get to keep all of the value created.”

Paulsen explains that, fortunately, he did not take that advice and emphasizes that “starting a business is really hard, and full of pitfalls and pivots.” He also stressed that “if you are going to win big there’s plenty to go around, and the way to win big is through a team that is engaged and feels pride in ownership.”

As I write this I think back to my first day as a company, sitting at my desk with zero clients saying to myself, “Groundwrk is open for business.” I look back now and that seems terrifying but there has not been one second of one day that I regret it.

The best advice I’ve ever received was from my long time business coach Brenda Abdilla. She encouraged me to journal in whatever way worked for me. No guidelines, no requirements, just journal. My journal keeps me organized, grounded, and grateful.

The worst piece of advice came from an old boss of mine at a creative firm here in Denver. In response to me bringing to her attention the use of the same creative for different accounts she said “if it works don’t fix it,” similar to the adage “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it.”

While this is true for car transmissions and air conditioners, this is an excuse for lazy creative. To this day I use both the advice I did and didn’t take as fuel for each project that flows through Groundwrk.

While each story is different, these stories tell an important truth. It is important to take advice and to ask questions, but when it comes down to it, you have to make the right decision for your company—even if that means going against the advice of your most trusted mentors.

Randall Hartman is the Interactive Director and Founder of Denver-based website and branding agency Groundwrk. Hartman has been leading web design and development projects since 2011 with clients such as Frontier Airlines, RE/Max, GolfTec, The Boppy Company, Air Methods, and hundreds of additional small to midsize businesses. He is currently an associate board member for Project Helping, a non-profit dedicated to suicide prevention, and donates 1% of all company revenue to local non-profits. In his free time Randall can be found posting an incredibly high score on the golf course or hanging out with his 120 lb pup, Charlie.