The seed of many ideas is personal experience, and Everplans’ origin came from a tragic accident in the family of one of its founders. Like many others, we have personal experience with a parent who passed with great intentions and limited organization in their personal affairs. Everplans is not just a company we were proud to represent; its product is one we have and continue to recommend to friends and colleagues. You should have one too.

Botanical was founded in 1995 by Judy Seaborn and Curtis Jones. Experienced gardeners themselves and focused intently on serving their growing community, Botanical became known for its bright and informative seed packets and service to independent garden centers, and soon developed a fiercely loyal tribe of customers. The Company has a broad national footprint, with its products available in over four thousand retail stores…

In 2004 Paul Batchedler and Dena Raley, colleagues at a large health care company, pooled a few thousand dollars and started Clinimark. From a small initial laboratory, they continued to refine their process and approach, eventually building the business into a leading expert in pulse oximetry and both invasive and non-invasive blood pressure.

Particularly with the economic shock from the COVID Pandemic, the need for solutions to help displaced workers remains fierce. We were pleased to serve as financial advisors to LiteracyPro Systems in the divesture of their CommunityPro Suite (CPS) software product to PAIRIN.

ClearCreek Partners served as exclusive financial advisor to CEO Anne Salemo and Charter Software in their acquisition by Constellation Software. Charter provides cloud and installed business management software, featuring its flagship ASPEN product, for small and midsize equipment dealers and distributors.

We're pleased to announce that HOMER Energy has been acquired by UL (Underwriters Laboratories). HOMER provides the leading software platform for microgrid and distributed generation power system design and optimization, and is based in Boulder, CO.

Just less than a year ago, on December 21st of 2018, an article in The Motley Fool listed the seven most anticipated IPOs of 2019. Here are the four companies that made it out the door, with the S&P 500 for comparison. Slack is down 56%, Uber is down 55%,…

There is a remarkable story over at The Hustle where a self-described middle-management cog in a corporate machine bets his family’s savings on crypto, watches it fall by 60%, doubles down (!) — and his $300k risked pays off to the tune of $13 million.

We're pleased to announce that SugarWOD has been acquired by Daxko, the parent of Zen Planner and a portfolio company of private equity firm GI Partners. SugarWOD, based in Boulder, CO, is the leading community platform for high intensity interval training…

Truthfully, we're fascinated by bullsh*t. No kidding. Honestly. Trust us. We've written on how betting can serve as a check on bullsh*t, but most of the literature is opinion and conjecture. So we perked up to encounter an academic study…

The usually excellent Program on Negotiation from HBS recently had an unintentionally hysterical post advising negotiators to "Dress the Part" and providing as an example investment bankers wearing form-fitting yoga attire from Lululemon in a failed bid to win their 2007 IPO… 

ClearCreek served as exclusive financial advisor to Second Phase in their recent acquisition by Billtrust. Based in Boulder Colorado, Second Phase provides SaaS eCommerce and Product Information Management (PIM) solutions to wholesale distributors and manufacturers…

Betting, as the saying goes, is a tax on bullshit. Opinions are easy  — you can have as many as you choose, often crowding contradictorily around the same topic. But a wager where there is something significant to be gained or lost tends to filter out all but the most serious perspectives…

Five really good blogs we read this month: a fascinating first-person account of the days leading up to Redfin’s IPO, from non other than their CEO; venture fund FirstRound’s 30 best pieces of advice to entrepreneurs (our personal favorite: #17: Demo your product with the young, the old, and the drunk)…

Startup death is a fact of startup life; most of us don’t need to hum Circle of Life to understand that it’s not all unicorns, roses and IPOs at the end. Indeed, the startup obituary has almost become its own literary genre, with lots of founders baring their souls about the individual circumstances of their company’s demise…

If there is an industry that thrives on upsetting unconventional wisdom, it’s tech. Don’t talk to strangers? How about hailing a ride — or renting a room — from someone you have never met. People will never buy things if they can’t hold them first. That sort of stuff…

We were fortunate to provide advisory services to Mike Barsch, founder of Soda Jerk Presents, on his transaction with Live Nation Entertainment.  There is an engaging story behind every deal — this was no exception with the basics well captured in the accompanying Denver Post article.

Among the best pieces we’ve read recently (and yes, this is a pretty liberal use of “recent”) are: Dan Primack on Unicorns and the market for seed funding; a cogent Voxplainer on microgrids …