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Local communities have a wealth of resources to help brands grow and scale. Most brands overlook or don’t know how to access available resources. They can give you a significant and sustainable competitive advantage. More importantly, your success is their success.

The City Of Denver has set the bar high. They are committed to being the go-to resource for emerging and existing companies. In this webinar we will highlight the many programs and services available and how to access them. In addition, they have a Global Landing Pad as well as Global Partnerships and much more. Become a part of this connected community!

So our office exists for the sole purpose really of providing resources and connections to businesses so that they can thrive in our community. Plain and simple, right? And so I work specifically in an area known as business development, a team of about eight people or so, and our whole focus is business attraction and retention, right?

We want to attract the right businesses to our community, again, to kind of diversify that economy that I talked about earlier. And we want to make sure that we're able to connect them to the resources that they need, so that they can be successful. So that could be programming and education, mentorship.

It could be finances. It could be tax credits that are associated with locating a business in a particular neighborhood. It could be helping them attract the right talent.

As an example, that we have a whole workforce division that just works with businesses to ensure that they can get the talent that they need in order to grow and scale at the pace at which they're experiencing.

Ready to learn more about these great resources? Let's start the show. Hello, and thank you for joining us today

Welcome. One of the things that every founder and every CEO has in common is that they cannot possibly be an expert in absolutely everything that they need to know to grow and scale a brand. They need help.

And this is where big brands have a distinct and sustainable competitive advantage. Let's face it, they have deep pockets, and they can hire the best consultants and the best experts to help them anytime they need. And that's in addition to hiring the very best talent.

Whereas, if you're bootstrapping your brand, well, you need to do a lot of things on your own. So who do you turn to? Which experts do you need to look at?

And let's face it, not all experts are the same. There are a lot of people out there that are going to try to give you advice that really don't know the best. I've had the privilege of mentoring and working with hundreds of brands from pre-revenue to multi-billion dollars in sales.

And sadly, I see this all the time. Brands come to me that have worked with an expert or at least a supposed expert and they gave them really bad advice. It's disheartening to see a young brand try to clean up a mess that someone else made, pulling their hair out while trying to solve a critical problem and not waste any more money.

Well, what if I told you that there's a better way? That's exactly what today's podcast is about. In this case, you're going to hear how the city of Denver has dedicated a team to help you get a healthy start, to help you avoid the pitfalls that so many brands fall into.

They can also help you as your brand grows. They can help you find the right place to move into. They can help you with a whole host of things.

Now here's Michael with the City of Denver. So Michael, thank you for coming on today. Could you please start by talking a little bit about yourself and your journey to the City of Denver?

Sure, yep. Thanks for having me on here. I'm Michael Bevis.

I'm the Director of Innovation and Entrepreneurship for the City of Denver. I work in the Office of Economic Development and Opportunity. And I'm coming into this role, which was relatively newly created back in August of 2019.

And I came coming out of the higher education space where I was a director and teaching an entrepreneurship program at a local community college here.

And so why the City of Denver? What motivated you or encouraged you to go that route?

Yeah, that's an excellent question. I get that a lot. So I'm originally from San Diego.

And then people always look at me crazy, like, why would I leave San Diego? But I lived there my whole life and it certainly enjoyed it. And then a work promotion caused me to move to Chicago, where I quickly realized that winter was not my friend in Chicago.

So after spending two years in Chicago, I needed to get out and wasn't ready to go back to San Diego. And so I kept looking at great cities across the United States, and Denver kept hitting the top of the list. So I took the plunge and came out to Denver back in 2015.

And have a look back, I've moved my whole family here and loving every minute of it. So in the mountains every weekend, and Denver is such a great city to be a part of, especially right now with all the growth and opportunities that exist there, especially for entrepreneurs in the space. So an area that I'm super passionate about.

Cool. Well, and on that note, I mean, I like San Diego, but hey, I would never leave Colorado to go sweat. No, San Diego is great, but this is such a great place.

And like you said, it's a great community. And again, I'm thrilled that you're here. And thank you for sharing your programs with the audience.

The thing that, the reason I wanted to really have you on, the main reason I wanted to have you on, is to talk about as you were getting into the city of Denver and what Colorado offers. Can you talk more about that? And I'm a native, so obviously I'm biased, but I know best, right?

But the fact is, Colorado is such a unique community. It's all for one, one for all. And we're so not only just connected, but there's a great entrepreneurial spirit.

And there's so many resources here to help brands succeed and even grow. And the commitment that Denver's made to be the leader in this area is, that's inspirational. I love the fact that my hometown is leading that charge.

Yeah, it's really interesting. And as I mentioned, it's a super great opportunity and a fun time for me to be here in this role. This role was created as a result of all the growth and attention that Denver was getting in regards to being a great entrepreneur ecosystem and a hub for people to come.

And I have the pleasure of getting to talk with businesses from all over the world, not only within the United States, but actually all over the globe. And the theme that you'll consistently hear from all those businesses is Colorado in general, Denver and Boulder in particular, just so collaborative in nature. And they're so welcoming and opening to support one another in the success.

You don't get the kind of competitive feel or the mind first mentality that you might get in some of the coastal cities or things like that. And so that's the one phrase that definitely comes up more consistently is just the collaboration and the welcoming that you get here in Colorado.

Love that. In fact, I'm actually doing a podcast series right now, 30 Days to Prosperity, where I'm focusing on exactly that. The benefit of having a strong, supportive community, a community of mentors and other people that are walking in your shoes, that can help you grow and scale.

So with that, there are a lot of people that, well, I used to work with some, I used to be a part of an angel group that was trying to help brands come in and is more focused on technology, not food. And I know that Denver had a reputation for being more technology focused. So how would you view the landscape for an emerging brand?

And the reason I wanted to ask this question is because Boulder is the hub of natural for the entire industry. And Denver is such a great place with so many great resources, co-packers, branding experts, et cetera, that I was always surprised that Denver didn't play a bigger role in that. So your thoughts?

Yeah, it's an interesting comment. And again, long before my time here in Denver, the economy was very different, right? It was very, very reliant on the oil and gas industry.

And we saw what happened when you kind of pigeonhole yourself into just one industry sector there. And our leadership, not only at the city level, but at the state level, has done a really good job over the last 10 plus years or so of diversifying the economy, right? And really doing a nice job of attracting a wide variety of industries, you know, into our ecosystem.

And that's, you know, why we rank high as a city that's most likely to rebound from the pandemic, you know, that we're currently facing and all these kinds of things. And they've done a really good job with that. The interesting thing is there is a strong focus on tech.

But that's pretty common, I think, when you get into, you know, more major metro type of areas across the United States. But the one thing that Denver is doing really well, and it's probably not just not well known or mainstream yet, is there's a huge focus right now on ag tech. So when you talk about food and natural, like you get in Boulder as an example, Denver, I think, is taking the lead not only in Colorado, but likely across the nation on what's going to be happening to our food system earlier on in that process, right, before it becomes a CPG type of product or something along those lines.

And we have this really great development that's happening down near where the National Western Center is, and it will be an ag innovation center, likely the largest in the country led by CSU, which is a great research institution here in Colorado.

Well, and on that note, the Colorado, the Western Stock Show, which we didn't have this year, but that is such an incredible event. And even if you're not someone who raises horses and stuff like that, it's great to go to in the camaraderie, the ability to communicate and connect with people, but more importantly, understand where your food comes from. So I love the fact that you brought that up.

And one of the other things that I saw when I was working with those different groups is that investors don't really understand the food industry. They can understand the IT part. That's a lot easier for them to digest.

But the opportunity in food is something that they kind of overlook. And the reality is we spend more time eating and thinking about what we're going to eat and nutrition and diet and all that other stuff than we do playing with our smartphones even or whatever. And the point being that this is something that we need to be paying attention to.

I was talking to Phil Lemper, the supermarket guru, and he made the comment on the podcast that food is the new IT, the new Silicon Valley. And the fact that Denver is doing such a great job of providing the infrastructure and all the resources to help a brand, help anyone that's in this industry, succeed. And on that note, Mike Fogarty with Choice Markets came on, and he was talking about one of his benefits is that he was a lot closer to not only the consumer, but closer to where the food is actually produced for the brands that he works with.

So any more thoughts that you want to add about that?

Yeah, it's an excellent comment that you make there. And Colorado has really done a nice job, again, you know, collaborating across the entire state. So all the way from Fort Collins down to, you know, then you come down south to Boulder and Denver and Colorado Springs and Pueblo, and they're really doing a nice job of effectively working with each other to build what's kind of what I would refer to as a food corridor in that regard.

And there's a lot of interest coming in from some pretty heavy hitters from an investment standpoint to say, how do you build the resources that are necessary through this corridor so that, you know, not everybody's stepping on each other's toes, but they're working in more of a collaborative fashion. So you have the research sector, say, coming out of CSU led in, you know, in Fort Collins and then what the presence will be down in Denver. You have the natural aspect that happens in Boulder.

Colorado Springs has some really great stuff happening in the food sector space. And there's a really beautiful center that's being built down in Pueblo called the Water Tower Project. And this project will be a great hub for people that are making consumer based food products and a great way for them to kind of showcase that product.

And again, they're all kind of collaborating with one another as far as how the investment will come in and how it gets spread out across all those different hubs. So Colorado, I think, is definitely going to be leading the way here in the next few years and getting back to the phrase that I've heard is the bread basket of America. So it's going to be exciting to see what happens here.

Love that. And let's go one step further. One of the things that's really great about this industry that you're talking about, I love the food corridor, is that big brands tend to commoditize the shopper and the food.

And they use a lot of the same strategies, et cetera. It's not the healthy focus on what the consumer wants. The reality is you can make the best product in the world.

If no one buys it, then you don't have a brand. But if you're building a brand natural, let me back up. Natural is the R&D of the CPG industry.

And their natural companies are producing products that consumers actually want and want to buy. And they've got a closer relationship with those consumers. And as such, that's where the future is going.

So instead of the commoditized brands, the mainstream brands that you see other places, what's great about natural and what's great about what Denver and Colorado are doing is they're taking advantage of that and then elevating those brands. Focus on what the future is. So the analogy is perhaps skating to where the puck is going to be.

So again, thrilled that you're here and thrilled that we're having this conversation. You gave me a list of things that you wanted to cover. So I want to talk, let's back up first of all, and talk about what does your organization do and why does it matter?

What is important? Why should people be paying attention? Then I want to go through the comments on the Champ of the Small Business Lending Program, things like that.

Sure. So our office exists for the sole purpose of providing resources and connections to businesses so that they can thrive in our community. Plain and simple, right?

And so I work specifically in an area known as business development, a team of about eight people or so, and our whole focus is business attraction and retention, right? We want to attract the right businesses to our community, again, to kind of diversify that economy that I talked about earlier. And we want to make sure that we're able to connect them to the resources that they need, you know, so that they can be successful.

So that could be programming and, you know, education, mentorship. It could be finances. It could be tax credits that are associated with, you know, locating a business in a particular neighborhood.

It could be helping them attract the right talent. As an example, that we have a whole workforce division that just works with businesses to ensure that they can get the talent that they need in order to grow and scale at the pace at which they're experiencing. And so that's what we're here to do.

And it's rare, I think, that you, you know, a lot of people, I talk to businesses all day every day, and a lot of businesses say, gee, I didn't even know your department existed, or I didn't know that the city offers resources like that. So I strongly encourage businesses all over the world to work with your local government to see what opportunities are there. I happen to sit on the board of Colorado Companies to Watch, which is a nonprofit organization that recognizes the top 50 companies across the state of Colorado.

And I work with all the economic development, you know, my counterparts in all the other cities and counties across the entire state. And we're all offering tremendous resources to help support these businesses.

I'm so glad you said that because that's exactly what I'm focused on in that podcast series. The point being is that a lot of entrepreneurs think that they need to do everything on their own. And they don't.

And that's actually a big mistake. But finding the right people, the right talent, the right resources to help you. I remember years ago when big companies like Walmart would come into a neighborhood or into an area, and they had teams of people that would fan out and try to solve a lot of the problems that you're working on.

Well, as a small brand, there's no way I could do that. But as a city, as a group like you have, like you had, the cool thing is that a small brand, I could go directly to you and get that same level of support and resources. What's great about that is that you're bringing in local talent, you're bringing in businesses and you're giving them a reason to grow and thrive.

Instead of just saying, go plant your business over there or go start your business over there, but giving them the resources to be successful. And that's one of the things I love most. So Colorado Food Works and Naturally Boulder have both been promoting this, this particular podcast episode.

And what's great about those organizations is that they're so well connected to the communities that they support. And in addition to that, that's where a lot of entrepreneurs are. And this is exactly why I wanted to have you on, to help not only those groups help their members, but to help other people understand why it matters to come to a group like you, to a community like this.

So can you talk a little bit, did you want to add something to that, by the way?

No, I just nodding over here because those are two great organizations that I work pretty closely with and collaborate with on a regular basis and refer a lot of new, newer businesses their way.

So great groups, I absolutely love them. And the fact that they're actually expanding, not only just in Colorado, but throughout the country. They're naturally Boulder, naturally Bay Area, naturally Chicago, etc.

So this is where the model is. So the fact that you guys are tied together, that's really cool. Talk about the Commons and Champa.

What is that? And for a brand coming in, how would they leverage that to their advantage?

Yeah. So the Commons on Champa is what's known as a public-private partnership. And so it is, in short, it's a free co-working space that early stage entrepreneurs can come in and get free Wi-Fi and free coffee and have the same experience that they might expect in a typical kind of co-working space.

There's no monthly fees or subscriptions or anything that they have to sign up for there. And it's just a great place for people to come in and collaborate and kind of bounce ideas off of each other. There's desk space and meeting rooms and conference rooms and events.

There's a large event space where we can host kickoff events. We do a lot of events in there with early stage companies. They're going to do a launch party or something like that.

And we can host up to about 200 people in that space on a pretty regular basis. In addition to that, we offer a ton of resources in there. So my team offers advisory hours in there.

So businesses can come in at any stage of journey to ask for support. It could be anything from how do I write a business plan to a marketing strategy to, I think I created something that needs a patent. How do I go about doing that?

Whatever the case is. And we'll connect them to the right resources or get them, you know, paired up with a subject matter expert in that space. We use a free app that they can connect with one another either while they're in the building or even if they're outside of the building to connect with the resources there.

So we try to categorize and catalog all the resources that we offer throughout the entire ecosystem there. We offer programming. Like one of the great programs that we offer there is a program called Co-Starters.

So it's a nine week long, what I refer to as a pre-accelerator program, really geared up for individuals who created something great, they're really passionate about it, but don't necessarily have a strong business background or previous business experience. We'll get you kind of brought up to speed. You'll have a business plan fairly well shaped with a pitch deck and a pitch opportunity.

At the end of it, we always say the theme with the Commons on Champa is that if you're starting up, you start here, right? And it's kind of your first step and we'll get you connected and plugged in to some other great resources that are available to you in the city. It typically serves as the hub for Denver Startup Week as well, which is the largest free entrepreneurial education event in the country.

Which is a great opportunity because I've been attending a lot of those throughout the years and just the commodity and the ability to collaborate with other people, that's great. Having an accelerator though, that's interesting. And the reason I like that is because a lot of brands have to compete to join an accelerator, some of the different accelerators.

And the reality is that some of the different accelerators are really sort of a job interview from a big company to see whether or not they want to buy your company. And you're learning how to do things their way, which may or may not be right. In other words, if you're a natural brand, you need to be really innovative.

You don't want to learn how to do something the way that a big brand does that is struggling on the shelf. So I love the fact that there's that collaboration, that ability to learn from like-minded people, etc. And the fact that I don't have to jump through a lot of hoops to join the program.

I don't have to wait to be accepted into the program, etc. So that's great. What is the Small Business Lending Program?

You were talking about ways that you can put brands in front of people, investors. One of the things that's great about Colorado is that, like I said, this is the hub of natural, etc. How do you help those brands align themselves with the right investors?

And as a part of that question, how do you teach brands how to eliminate or reduce the amount of risk, not eliminate, but reduce the risk that they would pose to an investor to make them an even more attractive investment?

Yep, that's a great question. So one of the resources that we offer, as I mentioned through our office, is something that we call the capital matrix. And so we kind of piece together all the different financing options that exist throughout, not only just Denver, but the entire state of Colorado, from traditional banking and lending options all the way up to VCs and second stage, late stage financing options in there.

The city as a whole, we offer a program that we call the Small Business Lending Program, and basically what it is is gap financing. And I say that it's financing that's available for companies that are starting out or growing, but not yet quite bankable. And what I mean by that is that typical bank financing, you got to be showing profits for at least three years and come in with your tax returns and show all these great things.

And if you're not a super strong candidate in that area, it's very difficult to get traditional kind of bank financing. If you're looking for debt financing outside of equity options and things like that, we work with local, what we call CDFIs, Community Development Finance Institutions. So these are institutions that are typically geared towards funding projects based on character, less so on credit and previous history and those kinds of things.

And then we offer a program that I mentioned there, and I call it gap financing. So we never fund 100% of any project. We typically fund 50% or less of a project.

And we can do loans typically between $50,000 and $400,000. It's really a cost-effective way to do some debt financing. But basically what we're doing is we're partnering with another organization.

It could be a bank, it could be a CDFI, it could be the business owner's own personal capital or some outside investor capital that has come into the project. But it's just not quite enough to make the project a reality. And we can then help kind of fill in that gap.

And that's what we do. So the program was created to help businesses grow and scale that, again, aren't yet quite bankable. And quite frankly, the project might not be able to move forward without our type of financing in that space.

Through the programs, the second half of your question, through the programs that we offer, we help coach them in their storytelling piece and how to approach investors and how to tell their story and how to communicate how they intend to mitigate the risk and the expectations that the investors will typically ask in that scenario.

Thank you for sharing that. One of the biggest challenges that I have when I'm working with brands that they have is that when brands are seeking investment, typically people won't even look at them until they're up to $25 million run rate. There are some that will do a million dollar run rate, but then they ask a lot more of the brand in terms of equity and everything else, which you can put a stranglehold on the brand.

And so the notion that you're providing resources to help a brand get there quicker is fantastic. And there are a lot of programs, for example, in Colorado, where if you're a local company, in fact, let's talk about that for a minute. If you're a local company, there are a lot of advantages for you to get onto a retailer show.

Can you talk a little bit about that? I mean, I suppose to where if you're not, if you wanted to get your brand in a store that's outside of a different country, outside of Colorado, you would need to pay a lot for slotting and a lot for getting the product on the shelf. So can you talk about some of those benefits of being in Colorado?

Yeah, you know, so as you mentioned, Colorado is pretty big on in the food scene, and there's a lot of collaboration that happens there. You mentioned some great organizations like Naturally Bolder and Colorado Food Works that do a really good job of helping support one another, you know, as far as their members go. In opening some doors, you know, I know some distributors or I know some, you know, whatever the challenges that you're facing as far as the, you know, being in that food space, they do a really nice job of that.

And so that's kind of where our office comes into play as we help point them in the direction of the resources of the subject matter experts that are doing good work in that space. We offer a program, one of the programs that we offer to help businesses with kind of some of the challenges that you talked about. It's not specific to food, but we do get a lot of food businesses that participate in the program.

It's a program called Scale Up. So Scale Up is a program that I refer to as kind of a post accelerator program. So typically, we work with companies that have been through an accelerator.

These are not hard and fast rules, but these kind of a typical framework. They typically have raised a little bit of outside capital, you know, maybe in an angel round or friends and family round kind of thing. And they're typically generating some revenue, but they're stuck a little bit, right?

How do I get more shelf space? How do I get more exposure? How do I scale this business outside of my local Denver footprint, say, as an example?

And we help them over the course of a six month period in kind of a cohort model, overcome what I say are their three biggest challenges. So distribution as an example is one of those challenges. We help connect them to the resources that will help them get that extra exposure and, you know, additional shelf space that you talked about.

Great. And on that note, one of the things that some communities do, and I don't know if they're still doing this today, but if you are launching in a specific community, there are some retailers that will make it easier for you to get your product under their shelves. They will waive some of the menu fees.

They will waive some of the slotting fees, et cetera, to make it easier to be more welcoming for local communities. And then another big thing is we've got Colorado Proud and some of those other groups that are going out of the way to support those brands and promote those brands that are based in Colorado. So thank you for sharing that.

Next, you have on the list, you had a global funding, global lending plan. Global landing plan, sorry.

Yeah, so that's a good example. So we have our scale up program as an example where we try to support local businesses. And this is kind of the normal natural flow that we see businesses come through our pipeline, so to speak, as they start out the Commons on Champa, they go through, you know, a co-starters type of program, and or then into a regular accelerator program, then into my scale up program.

And typically, when they're in the scale up program, we're looking at two different things. So our office has a kind of a global division where we not only work with companies that are outside the United States that are, you know, seeking opportunities within the United States, and we reach out to those companies and we provide something that we call the global landing pad. And really what it is, is basically it's about a two week long, we'll call it a boot camp model, where we take those companies again and kind of a cohort model.

We kind of give them a hard and fast introduction to what it means to do business in the United States, specifically in Denver and throughout Colorado. And we bring in subject matter experts, could be anything from legal to HR personnel, how do you set up your business in the United States, how do you hire people properly, and help them identify locations, whatever it is that they need, we help them in that process. The program is really well received, and it's a little bit intense, I'm not going to lie.

The schedule and the agenda is pretty full every day, but it's definitely worthwhile content. And then typically what we see is we see a lot of those companies say, yeah, Denver, I'm coming to the United States, and Denver is definitely the place that I want to be. I've seen San Francisco, I've seen New York, I've seen Boston, I've seen whatever, and I get the most support here in Denver.

And that's kind of what the intention of that program is, and we do see a lot of great successful companies that come through that program. Then they might end up in my scale up program as an example, or they don't have to be outside the United States companies, but companies that are now doing business here in Denver, participate in that scale up program. And then we have kind of a follow up program where we do a delegation trip typically to foreign countries for, I say, businesses that have had great success, not only in Denver, but typically in the United States, and now they're ready to expand overseas.

And so examples of this, we take a delegation trip to London every year for London Tech Week. So they're typically tech-based companies that participate in that program. And we do the same thing.

We introduce them to high-ranking government officials, all the key partners that they would need, their potential investors, site location, potential customers, whatever it is that they need, we help get them plugged in. So again, their home base is here in Denver, and now they have the opportunity to expand and scale out. So we do that in London, we do that in Canada, we do that in Australia and some other countries as well.

And so those are also been ways that we help support businesses continue to grow and scale throughout that. We have plenty of success stories, not only just in the food space, but across a variety of different sectors, where they have taken advantage of all of those resources and had some great success in some of those other countries as well.

You know, it's interesting because I get a lot of brands asking me questions about how do I grow outside of the US. And interestingly enough, more interesting is that I get a lot of companies from overseas that want to come here. And you're filling the needs of both of those groups.

So thank you for sharing that. Can you talk about the Denver Innovation Landscape?

Yeah, so, you know, that's kind of where my role comes into play a little bit. And as I mentioned to you earlier, our leadership has really done a nice job of diversifying the economy a little bit. And we want to be kind of on the forefront of, you know, what innovation looks like.

And for me, you know, true innovation doesn't happen unless you have, you know, kind of two different ideas colliding together and creating that spark of something that's truly new and unique. And so one of the projects that I'm working on is simply I'm just calling an innovation space for now. I don't want to call it a center or district or a hub or a pavilion or anything that's currently out there that's improperly labeled, but will be a physical space.

I'm eyeing something probably upwards of 150,000 square feet of space or bigger that will combine large corporate entities working alongside one person startups. We've seen some successful models like this in various parts of the country. We have here in Denver, as an example, we have one of the largest, we have the largest healthcare tech integrator is what it's referred to.

And we've seen a lot of success there where they combine large, say, hospital systems and medical companies working right alongside one person startups who are creating great things in the healthcare space. We want to do this in a more industry agnostic way within that space. The two components that will exist within the 150,000 square feet of space that don't currently exist anywhere is what I'm calling just kind of a shared lab component.

So companies can buy for the opportunity to utilize the lab for low or no cost, to get through their R&D process and small batch production and things that they need to do that are really cost prohibitive to companies, early stage companies, because it doesn't generate revenue right away. Get through that process, prove that they have something that can be brought to market, and then we'll help try to attract some financing to them so that they can grow and scale and kind of launch from that space. And then the other two concepts that would be in this space would be a maker space kind of incubator.

So if you're making a physical product, you know, a widget, and you would have access to equipment programming and mentorship. But then there would also be a retail component to it. So we could showcase that product live to the general public and get real time feedback during that that prototyping and small batch production phase so that we have something that's refined before it's ready to go out for mass production.

And then the other incubator would be food specific. So again, working with companies that, you know, whether they want to be, you know, catering, food truck, restaurant concepts, CPG type of concept, they would have access to the commissary kitchen that they need, test kitchens that they need, programming and mentorship, and again, a retail component. So we can, you know, talk about, like, how's this thing going to sit on the shelf?

How does it move when it, you know, it's in this particular aisle as an example within this kind of common space? So these are just some examples of the things that I'm working on. I'm working on a couple other hubs like that that are more industry specific.

I mentioned the ag innovation concept earlier down near the National Western Complex. We have some stuff that's happening in the youth space as well to kind of get, you know, entrepreneurship more mainstream for youth while they're still at the high school phase and different things like that. So we're trying to be on the front edge of that.

My team and I have had the opportunity prior to the pandemic to get out there. And we've seen, you know, successful innovation centers and some not so successful innovation centers actually all across the United States and a couple of different countries as well. So we think we know what's working and what's a good fit for us.

That's going to put us on the map. The idea is that anywhere in the world when people say, oh, you want to create a business that does that, you got to come to Denver because they got this thing. And it's going to be the thing that helps you get there faster.

What a great program. Love that. Absolutely love that.

And let's back up a little bit. If I'm a brand, I'm trying to figure out how to build what I want. I built it in my kitchen and now to grow, to scale it.

There's a lot to that. Do you have access to food scientists and people that can help you make sure that you're using the right ingredients, etc.? Is that part of the program or are those people plugged into your program?

That will be part of the program and the innovation space that I talked about earlier. They'll be right down the hall type of thing where we can have access to them immediately. Right now, again, it starts at the Commons on Champa.

You come to us and you tell us what you need and we'll get you plugged into the folks that you need to help get to that next level.

So end in anything that a brand needs to get started, get a good start, and then launch. The City of Denver is committed to help them achieve.

Absolutely.

Plus the networking, plus the outsides running groups, and OK, the best environment ever.

That's my final sales pitches. There's over 300 days of sunshine here a year.

Oh, it is. And it's amazing. I ride my bike every day over the spillway.

So I'm so thrilled about being able to do that. Thank you so much. What are the things do you want to share?

And I know that I want to respect your time. I know you've got a busy day. What are the things that you'd like to share and you'd want people to know about?

Just again, to look to your local government for support. There's a huge movement right now, especially in the entrepreneurship space, all over the globe. But some cities have better resources than others.

I think we typically rank in the top as far as the resources that we committed to helping businesses grow and be successful. So I would strongly encourage you to reach out. Again, any stage of the journey, we work with businesses all the way from the ideation phase to the Fortune 500 types who say, hey, we hear Denver's the hotspot and we got to relocate there.

We got to open a second headquarters there or whatever the case is. Anywhere within that journey, we're here to help.

And it's such a great place to work. Sorry, go ahead.

I just want you to reach out to us first.

Oh, thank you for saying, yeah, and it's such a great place to live. I mean, part of me says, no, we don't need more people here because I remember when it was a smaller community. No, it really is a great community.

And there's so much to do in Colorado. And one of the things that's great about it is the outdoors. I mean, we're such a healthy community, not only in terms of the health of the community itself, but people like to get out and walk.

It's so friendly. So thank you for sharing all that. Any last parting thoughts?

Any last parting words?

No, just thank you for your time and having me on the show and looking forward to helping your members in any way that we can.

Thanks, Michael. I appreciate that. Have a great rest of your day, sir.

Thank you. You too.

Thanks. Bye-bye. I want to thank Michael for coming on, for sharing all those great insights about what the City of Denver offers.