Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained: How to Get Where You Want to Go

Kayte DemontFounder,
Mass Musings

Kayte Demont founded Mass Musings in 2012 as a place for creative individuals to find inspiration. Since its inception, Mass Musings has grown into a lifestyle and music collective that aims to connect people through creativity and community.

What makes Mass Musings stand out from other blogs is the photography and personality in each post. Kayte makes a point to truly collaborate with brands or other artists in order to create unique and authentic content. She believes that this is what builds community and how influence is made.

Katerina JengCo-Founder & Editor-in-Chief,
Slant’d

As a freelance Product Strategist, Katerina helps companies build delightful products through research, design thinking, and thoughtful strategy. She is also the co-founder and editor-in-chief of Slant’d, a print magazine that celebrates Asian American culture and shines a spotlight on #badasians: game changers who are shattering stereotypes and breaking through the bamboo ceiling.

Katerina started her career in marketing, where she’s launched Flickr’s iPad app, orchestrated Flickr’s inaugural 20Under20 program, and consulted for early-stage Silicon Valley startups. With the help of General Assembly, she was able to pivot her career into one that truly fascinates her each and every day. When she’s not busy with work, you can find her OM’ing in a hot vinyasa class, crafting stories for her blog, or jamming out to musicians ranging from Mendelssohn to Miguel.

Jaclyn FuCo-Founder & CEO,
Pepper

Jaclyn is the Co-founder & CEO of Pepper, an e-commerce company that makes better fitting clothes for small-chested women.

As someone who struggled all her life with finding a properly fitting bra, Jaclyn spent the last year learning, testing, and creating the perfect design for small cup sizes. In April 2017, she launched her passion project on Kickstarter and it was met with wild success. Pepper reached its campaign goal of $10k in just 10 hours, with 950 backers at the end of a 13 day campaign.

Before Pepper, Jaclyn was a product marketing veteran who successfully brought enterprise and consumer tech products to market at companies like Mozilla Firefox and Etsy. She also teaches yoga at QiFlow in Denver.

Bre PattersonFounder & President,
Basta Media

Bre is the youngest of five kids, born and raised in Chicago. She moved to Colorado in 2006 and has been in love with it ever since. She is passionate about rescuing dogs, spending time with her friends and family, and keeping busy with her other career as a food influencer under the name Bites with Bre.

Jeremy PriestLeader, Designer, & Maker,
Knotty Tie

Jeremy Priest didn’t have a background in clothing design when he and co-founder Mark Johnson decided to start Knotty Tie. They just had the desire to help refugees who had been resettled to Colorado. About 1,500 refugees arrive in Colorado every year and many don’t have employment opportunities due to limited English skills, but many do have exceptional sewing skills. Jeremy and Mark launched Knotty Tie in order to create a business that provided refugees with dignified employment, a supportive environment and fair wages, while at the same time, offering customers the ability to create unique custom-designed neckties with the help of a Knotty Ties designer. Since opening in 2013, Knotty Tie has expanded to offer even more products, including scarves and pocket squares, and employ even more refugees and asylees.

Tara BardeenFounder,
Go Play Denver

Tara Bardeen is no stranger to entrepreneurial efforts. Her parents started Pumpkin Masters Carving Kits when she was five years old and for most of her childhood the family business consumed not only her parents’ attention, but also the basement of their house in Denver’s Wash Park neighborhood. Coming home from school each day, she had a front row seat to watch the passion, struggle, hard work, and that little bit of luck, that drove the company forward to its eventual success. Inspired by the can-do energy of her family life, Tara started her first company around the age of 10, which offered reusable mesh vegetable bags she sewed herself. Weeks after graduating from the University of Colorado at Boulder with a degree in Chinese Language and Literature, she founded her second company, Rice Paper Kite, which produced high-quality, hands-on Chinese language and culture materials for children, teachers and families. Once hired to build the Chinese department at Colorado Academy, Tara found she didn’t have the time necessary to run Rice Paper Kite while also launching a new program and teaching, so she transitioned the company’s assets into a free online resource. In 2012, her current entrepreneurial effort came to life. Go Play Denver, Tara’s “love letter to the city,” is dedicated to connecting people to Denver’s arts and culture scene by making it easy to find free/low-cost events via a curated online calendar, guides, social media feeds, group outings and a free weekly newsletter. Tara believes that adults play through arts and culture and that a city’s cultural scene is the spark of magic that connects people not only to each other, but to their community.