My 2015 Year in Review

2015 was a year filled with a familiar theme of reinvention. The company where I was the first employee bought the company I founded, and I found myself back. I continued with projects on my house, getting my hands dirty and learning how to do a lot of odd jobs. An ‘on again off again’ romantic relationship was on again and then off again a few times. I traveled around and spent time at my favorite places on the planet.

Sport:

I was able to go to a few Arsenal games in London:

I went to a few Colorado Buffaloes games as well. Most of my viewing was done via the road, but it was an exciting year for sport.

Professional: 

I was able to help out with a few friends’ businesses and see them grow and succeed. Looking back on the year, I think this is the most meaningful thing I did. Techstars companies continued to thrive and are now collectively $2.04 B Total Funding with a $5.0 B Market Cap. I’m back working with the brilliant team and as excited as ever.

Startup Week is expanding at a rapid pace and is helping out thousands of entrepreneurs. Here are some of the logos:

Travel:

I visited 16 countries: Mexico, Russia, Iceland, Switzerland, Malaysia, Singapore, Myanmar, Brunei, Philippines, South Korea, Australia, Hong Kong, China, Mongolia, Puerto Rico, and England. Is it more respectful or less respectful to call a territory a country? I’ll go with the definition of the people which is generally ‘own country.’ Apps like been also seem to count them this way.

I was even able to attend Burning Man and figure out what the hell Home means.

I even got to spend time at my favorite Black Mountain Colorado Dude Ranch, going for a couple of huge rides – one even included my Dad and Brother. 

Events:
I produced my favorite Boulder events in Boulder Startup Week, Ignite Boulder and TEDxBoulder. They are bigger than they have ever been, although the amount of time to run them keeps on going down. Ignite Boulder sold out for the 28th straight time, TEDxBoulder sold out for the sixth year.

I was also able to speak at SXSW and host IgniteSXSW!

Family:

I now have an awesome nephew: 

Everyone is thriving and Steven has fully recovered from his ski accident (never say ‘last run’).

Music:

Flaming Lips, Damien Rice, Van Halen, Colorado Symphony covering Bon Iver, Punch Brothers, and SHEL.

Food:

I continued my dinner parties while I was home. Nothing in the world compares to the Melbourne food scene – just incredible.

Here’s to a brilliant 2016!

Goals:

Fitness is at the top of my list. Ever since I was injured training for Ironman Arizona I’ve been pretty sedentary. I’ve finally figured out the mystery allergy that has been keeping me just sick enough to not feel myself, and I am looking for great wilderness challenges.

Professionally, I have a new role and am looking to help launch a few big projects this year.

Personally, I want to continue to try to get a bit better every day. As I grow older, the focus is so much more on the ‘what can I give back’ and ‘how do I be as nice as possible’ than in previous years. I’d love to find my partner in life this year. Can you call that a goal? I’d love to learn a new language and challenge myself to always be open to learning more ways to build things.