All Episodes

I met Dr. Heather Rubin at the Innovation Showcase Event held at the Warehouse Innovation Hub in Loveland in late August. Heather took home 2 of the 4 awards presented that day - the Most Disruptive Business Model and the People’s Choice Award! Heather’s journey is an inspiring one, and I was struck throughout how her focus on collaboration was the key to unlocking this potentially disruptive journey. Initially hired as a consultant to evaluate university research technology, Heather fell in lo...

Marc Torres started his journey with Cheba Hut in perfect “cheba” fashion - a failed drug test foiled his job prospects with the City of Fort Collins, and a snarky friend said “you should go work at Cheba Hut, I bet they don’t drug test!”. Marc started on the front line (and claims he remains an excellent sandwich maker) and worked his way up in the ranks to store manager, and eventually became the primary trainer for new franchisees. He managed a premier location owned by the founder of Cheba H...

Greg Roeder is a 2nd time guest on The LoCo Experience, and was my guest with then-partner and co-founder Josh Guernsey of Waypoint Real Estate, in Episode 45. They were celebrating their 5th anniversary and had already grown to a staff of over 30 - focused on commercial brokerage, market data, and property management. Greg, however, was increasingly focused on residential real estate, and providing white-glove service to a discerning clientele. In March of 2023, Greg made the decision to join S...

I was introduced to Cameron Singh by our mutual friend, Fort Collins Mayor Emeritus Wade Troxell, and we’ve enjoyed some wonderful conversations in the few short weeks since. During the first, Cameron shared his experiences in the aviation industry, how he’d come to Northern Colorado, and the vision of creating a world-class private plane services company with Discovery Air - a Water Valley Company. He was serving as the Director of Business Development, and was the point person for bringing the...

Kristin Todd joined the Community Foundation of Northern Colorado in April of 2021, continuing a career of impact in the realm of philanthropy. Prior to joining the Community Foundation, she spent over 15 years with Daniels Fund based in Denver but serving much of the Rocky Mountain Region, and before that was with El Pomar Foundation in Colorado Springs. In this episode, you will learn all about the behind-the-scenes of foundation work, and particularly the differences in how these various org...

Matt Gettig is my neighbor of 14 years, and his home at the corner of Whitcomb and Laporte in Fort Collins is the epicenter of a neighborhood phenomenon known as Lightning Mini Golf. During the summer of 2020, Matt and his son, Ray, built a mini golf hole on a hard-to-grow section of his lawn, set it up with putters and balls and signage welcoming players - and within days found lines of people waiting to play! Soon followed by a second hole, and a third on their property, and new holes installe...

Sean Follin is the Founder and Principal Consultant of Encounter Strategies, based in Fort Collins, Colorado but serving clients nationally, and occasionally internationally. He’s a great example of Fort Collins as a choice city - if you can choose to live anywhere, where do you choose? (It turns out - in my neighborhood!) Sean is a remarkably experienced strategic planner for his age, and worked his way up through two consulting organizations in Washington DC before making his way to Colorado. ...

Jennifer Lewis grew up in West Loveland in an entrepreneurial family and started her career with Mr. Neat’s Formal Wear when she was 15 years old. She excelled in sales and relationship building, and became a store manager and part of the leadership team at the age of 19! She took classes at UNC and quickly shifted from a medical track to a business track in her education - and stayed on with Mr. Neat’s as they grew to a total of 19 locations before selling to a larger enterprise! - that she soo...

Colin Jones and partner Neil Fisher founded WeldWerks Brewing Company in 2014 in a long-vacant property just off Highway 85 in Greeley. Neil had been a talented homebrewer for years, and Colin was the Director of Technology at Flood and Peterson Insurance prior to the founding. Soon, both were full-time and more at Weldwerks, and they buckled up for a high-growth journey from there - growing production and revenues at an average rate of over 100% per year! An early focus on systems and processes...

Hope Hartmann, Kat Hart, and Lisa Hudson are the leading ladies, respectively, at the Larimer Small Business Development Center, Loveland Business Development Center, and East Colorado Small Business Development Center. These regional SBDC’s in cooperation with other partners will bring us the Unstoppable Women’s Conference on October 10, 2023! Hope has been on the podcast previously (Episode 93), so this episode was particularly focused on Kat and Lisa’s journeys, in addition to all the ladies ...

Dan Garvin is the President of Colorado Iron & Metal, one of our region’s largest metal recycling centers with locations in Fort Collins and Loveland. This was my first time really digging into the industry, and I was surprised by both the complexity of the operations, and the similarities to an industry I grew up around - grain elevators. They take in various commodities, sometimes clean it up or blend it for max value, and then sell to a limited number of potential customers. In 1995, Kent Ga...

Jen Henderson is the Founder and CEO of Tilt - a SaaS platform and team that provides companies with professional, consistent, and compliant leave management. As with many founding stories, Jen’s mission developed from her own experience. A fast-rising manager with Starbucks and later Noodles & Company, she had promotions and trajectories twice interrupted by the birth of her children, and decided to do something about the vagaries she experienced when she shared the news of her expanding family...

Nathan Scott is arguably one of Fort Collins most interesting people, and this podcast episode was spawned, in part, by Nathan’s introduction of so many inspiring guest candidates! He’s one of the show's biggest fans, and he’s journeyed a fascinating career from impact role to impact role. Nathan spent time in the Navy after high school, and after a tour with Americorps, he landed a leading role in Up With People - a travelling collection of international musicians and actors, with stops in 11 ...

Dr. Kristen Truman-Allen is the Founder and Chief Experience Officer at PULP Leadership Coaching, and a LoCo Facilitator for the Catalyst Collective chapter, a post she’s now held for about 8 months. Kristen founded the business and began coaching soon after her first experience being coached, during a time when she was balancing working as an ER Nurse, obtaining her first graduate degree, and raising a 5 year old as a single parent! Kristen is an amazing human. She had a baby only a few days a...

Aaron Everitt is back in The LoCo Experience studio for our quarterly-ish real estate update, where we always remember - there’s opportunity in every market! We talk about current interest rates and inventory especially, along with longer term forecasts and trends you’ll want to be aware of. We also get into the dark horse candidacy of Robert Kennedy Jr., the still unreleased files surrounding the killing of JFK (60 years, really?), and drift into some misinformation and discussion around free s...

During Dr. Trevin Cardon’s residency with Poudre Valley Hospital, he determined to follow a less-traditional path. He and his wife Allison founded Hometown Family Health. A Direct Primary Care (DPC) office, Hometown Family Health offers a monthly membership whereby patients receive regular check-ups, discounted testing and blood work, and most importantly - a relationship with their doctor! This episode explores the business of medicine, the respective family stories of Trevin and Allison, and ...

Tim and Ami Lindgren started Lindgren Landscape while they were engaged to be married, and still in college at CSU. They’ve been building the best backyards in Northern Colorado ever since, and have also developed a substantial commercial maintenance division. They employ more than 80 full time employees at peak season. Tim & Ami share a business journey that overlays the entirety of their relationship, and the growth and changes and course corrections that allowed the development of the Lindgr...

Dan Bennett is in his second season with Lightning eMotors, previously known as Lightning Hybrids, and has had a front row seat to the evolution of a significant local enterprise, now employing over 200 as the anchor tenant at the Forge Campus in Loveland. Initially offering hydraulic-hybrid drivetrain modifications to enhance fuel efficiency, Lightning Hybrids subsequently shifted its entire business model (and name) to instead provide fully-electric drivetrain systems for mid-size commercial t...

Rayno Seaser founded The Egg & I in 1987, as a breakfast and lunch restaurant in what is now mid-town Fort Collins. Before long, additional regional locations were added, and though a franchise was never the plan - the market demanded it. Rayno grew the enterprise to around a dozen locations before selling 90% of the franchise company, and then watched The Egg & I grow to over 100 locations before being acquired by First Watch - which was one of Rayno’s first restaurant industry contacts going b...

Warren Yoder is the CEO of the Yoder Family of Companies, which includes numerous Weld and Larimer County enterprises - namely Weld County Garage, Yoder Chevrolet, ABRA of Fort Collins and Greeley, The Carriage Shop, Kayman Direct, Iron Clad Manufacturing, Truck City, Drivewise, and Driven Financial. All are in the automotive industry and adjacent, and Warren has spent his whole career in the automotive sector - which like any sector - is the people business. This episode runs fast through a se...

Sean Fox and his partner Zac Horton founded Mjolin Technology in 2018, after working together at Greystone Technology. We might call it a boutique IT agency, named after Thor’s hammer! Sean’s family has a long banking heritage, and before getting into technology, he was a Loan Officer / IT Administrator for their family banking organization - and he remains CTO today! We talk about a lot of nerdy stuff in this one - building and maintaining secure systems, common mistakes business owners make w...

Antonio Barbera is the Founder and CEO of Table Tennis Connections, a 501c(3) Non-Profit Organization that builds community and empowers neural development through table tennis AKA ping-pong! Dr. Barbera has developed the NeuroPong™ system to forestall and even reverse the effects of neurodegenerative diseases such as Multiple Sclerosis, Parkinsons, and cognitive impairment - and is highly effective in supporting youth with Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder - AKA ADHD. Dr. Barbera began hi...

Chas Greener, formerly a Dance Director at Mountain Kids in Fort Collins, transitioned into content creation after an injury in 2019. She now runs Chas's Crazy Creations with over 10,000 YouTube subscribers and an active website. Additionally, she operates Site Consulting Services, assisting creatives in maximizing their online presence. This episode zooms in on the life and journey of a creative solo-preneur - how to build community among creatives with authentic communications, intentional pa...

Samson Jagoras was a Division I football player at CU, and soon became an early-stage and key leader and eventually minority partner in Madwire/Marketing 360. Darius Bell came to know Samson while he was a standout employee at Madwire, and is a lifelong student of brand and marketing. Together, Samson and Darius have created the Pain to Profits Podcast, and are building a business education and brokerage platform for the next generation - Clearly Acquired. Their mission is to simplify business ...