SPEAKER: Philip Anson

Founder EVOL burritos

Born and raised in Los Angeles, Philip Anson had a deep interest in food from a young age.  He began working in restaurant kitchens at the age of 15, and continued to do so through high school and into college in Denver, CO, where he attended the University of Denver.  After receiving his BA in Communications in 1999, Anson went to work for Roy Yamaguchi's Euro-Asian Fushion Restaurant, Roy's, and helped open and run that restaurant from 1999-2002.  In early 2002, on a rock climbing trip in Joshua Tree, Anson realized that he was bored and hungry for something more entrepreneurial than his mundane Line Cook Job at Roy's.  On that trip, he decided that he would try his hand at making burritos in his Eldorado Springs Cabin, and sell them hot out of coolers to rock climbers.  Although that initial idea flopped, Anson pursued the burrito concept by selling them made fresh daily to convenience stores and coffee shops in Boulder, CO.  Eight years later, the company has grown and evolved into a broadly distributed national consumer packaged goods brand.  As CEO of Phil's Fresh Foods, Anson has grown EVOL Burritos from a one man show selling 500 burritos per week to local mom and pop coffee shops to a nationally recognized multi-million dollar natural foods / lifestyle brand selling in more than 4,000 points of distribution.  In March of 2009, Anson attracted a substantial amount of capital from BIG (Burrito Investment Group), lead by Bear Naked Granola co-founders Tom Spier & Brendan Synnott.  With a cash infusion and all-star management team, EVOL Burritos is poised to continue its aggressive growth pattern and hopes to become the number one selling burrito brand in the nation.

PANELIST: Lisa Cratty

Co-founder of Teagan and Mack, Sew Specialized and Mama Jane’s

Becoming a mother changed Lisa Cratty in a way that she could never have predicted.  Lisa became a lot more in tune with what’s going on in the world today, the effects on our environment and the toxins our children are exposed to.  She decided that it was time to be a part of the solution and was inspired to found Teagan and Mack, an eco-friendly baby clothing line.  Founding Teagan and Mack gave her an intimate understanding of the process that entrepreneurs go through when developing products and taking them to market. 

Sew Specialized, is their design and development company, where they specialize in helping other entrepreneurs bring their concepts to market. 

In January of 2011 Lisa created the concept of Mama Jane’s, an online marketplace for moms with a social environment.  She created this model due to a gap in the market.  The popularity of online shopping diminishes the social connection for moms.  Mama Jane’s is a place where moms can connect and shop while never having to leave the site.  They saw an opportunity to capture an exploding market in a revolutionary way and plan to launch the business in November of 2011.

Lisa currently lives in Louisville, CO and she is grateful everyday for the ability to do what she loves while spending so much more time with her family.

PANELIST: Roger Toennis

CEO and Founder of Liquid Media LLC

Roger Toennis has over 20 years experience as a technology products visionary and team leader at organizations like Navy Research, NASA, Lockheed-Martin, Lucent/Avaya and several successful technology startups.

He is currently CEO of a startup company focused on disrupting how Marketing and Advertising is done in the "Age of Social Media".

A continuing career focus on the generation and initiation of new products/solution concepts. Extensive experience leading teams in the integration of Voice of Internet Protocol (VoIP) with Web2.0-Internet technologies and solutions. A champion bringing new concepts to initial funding and then forming top talent teams that deliver those solutions to market. A primary inventor on 3 awarded patents and a named inventor on 10 pending patents.

HOST: Brian Tsuchiya

Founder of Startup Guru

Brian Tsuchiya is an authority on crowdfunding, after spending the last 8 years researching a variety of methods he has unique experiences with crowds. Including having a company entirely funded with "sweat equity" from over one hundred people. Managing that many shareholders is unique for a privately held startup. Brian also has raised over $2M of private equity.

Brian is the founder of StartUp Guru and started his entrepreneurial journey 18 years ago and has since launched ten startups. Startup Guru is the culmination of this extraordinary journey. He has openly shared for the first 40 years of his life he primarily served himself and lived a life without purpose.  Then in June of 2006 he read a book that would change his life forever.  He embarked on a journey that connected his life purpose with his entrepreneurial career.  Through this work he understood his patterns and defined his life in a way that revealed his purpose.  Forged in him was the way of the entrepreneur.