Jim Waldrop

Jim Waldrop is a seasoned senior corporate executive, serial entrepreneur, mentor, investor, and adventurer. He has an MBA from UCCS and a BS from Miami University. Jim spent a decade in the energy sector leading multi-million dollar financial system development projects. Upon leaving the industry he served as the Executive Vice President for Pulte Homes, Inc. a multi-billion dollar residental constuction company. After these incredible expereinces, Jim founded his own successful companies, eventually exiting his last startup in 2016. Since then Jim has become an avid supporter of entrepreneurial programming around the country.

Jon Rossi
Curious Entrepreneur, Startup Founder/CEO of a SaaS company with successful exit to a Fortune 100 Company. Community builder, Techstars Alumni, 2x Founder, Current Mentor and Advisor to Startups and Founders. Accredited Investor that finds interesting companies to invest in. Outside of my world of entrepreneurship, my wife and I spend time with our dog and we enjoy traveling to Mexico.

David Goodstein
David is an accomplished finance professional with over 30 years’ experience in enterprise and small business. David has a passion for telling the story behind the numbers and making it easy for business owners to understand theirs. His goal is to help business owners scale and grow their business. David has worked with companies in many verticals including technology, professional services, consumer products, real estate, pharma and light manufacturing. His hope is to develop a long-term relationship with the business owner and their team.  David has a passion for marathons – 29 and counting and lives in Colorado Springs with his wife Monica. His three children are in the Springs, San Francisco, and London.

Dr. JD McKenna
A 22 Year disabled Military Veteran, with a Doctoral degree in Business Management with emphasis on Strategic Planning and Organizational Development; with a minor in Information Assurance and Security from Colorado Technical University. I use my 25+ years’ experience in the IT and Business Management fields, supporting various government 3-letter agencies and commercial enterprises, as a trainer, mentor, and University Professor, to serve business leaders through my consulting and coaching hybrid business. By helping these organizations review their vision, mission, and strategic plans, we can then develop goals, objectives, and tasks to move the organization to successfully execute that strategic plan.

Check Out: Scaled Capability

Chris Kell
Chris Kell has mentored leaders across a wide range of disciplines to include business, non-profits, the military, and other government organizations. He makes it a point to listen, understand, and advise based on principals of empathy, experience, and practicality. He finds particular joy in helping people take a concept or idea, ideate on it, and grow it in ways that are ethically and fiscally responsible. He has helped to leaders to grow multiple ventures from start to finish, to include multiple special operations missions across the world, automation integration into warehousing in Japan, and his own business from concept to a highly successful and award-winning CPG business. He is incredibly excited and honored to mentor and work with great people doing great work!

Cherissa Kell
Cherissa grew up in the Springs assisting her dad in his multi-million dollar small business. She learned a lot about what it take to be successful and, after college, took that experience and consulted early-stage start-ups on how to be profitable by finding where they were bleeding money and helping streamline processes. After doing that in several sectors for years, she wanted to learn from bigger business so she took on a sales role with a advertising company and then as a Director of Business Development with an organization in the Springs focusing on DoD sales. Today, Cherissa, alongside her husband, Chris, run an emerging CPG brand in the food and beverage space where they have learned the ins-n-outs of grassroots marketing, DSD, navigating retailers and distributors, the value of a great tax partner, and how to land nation recognition, for free, to scale a business profitably without VC funding. As a graduate of UCCS, and a person who was raised in the Springs, Cherissa is excited to mentor others to see the city she knows and loves attract amazing start-ups to continue to showcase the amazing community of Colorado Springs. (She secretly thinks it’ll be the next Austin!) Cherissa and Chris reside in Jacksonville, FL with their two young sons (5&6), their two dogs, and spend their time, when not building a business, traveling, surfing, racing, and sailing.