Panel on go-to-market strategy moderated by Natty Zola, MD of Techstars Boulder.

Are you an IoT / hardware / physical product startup with questions on how to best go to market? If you have a hardware startup, you're likely seeing less mentorship in Denver than software companies. This panel of CO entrepreneurs will discuss their current and past companies' go-to-market strategies and challenges, how to navigate brick-and-mortar retail, scaling sales and distribution, how to best use Amazon as a startup (it's a must), and common pitfalls​​ that ​kill hardware startups that ​no one warns you about.

Here are the panelists:

• Colin McIntosh, Founder & CEO of Sheets & Giggles, a sustainable bedding startup based in Denver. S&G launched in 2018 with the largest Indiegogo crowdfund ever for the bedding category ($280,000+). Prior to founding S&G in October 2017, Colin was ​a Founding Team Member and VP of Business Development at Revolar, a Denver IoT startup backed by Foundry Group (Fitbit, Sphero, TrackR) and a member of Techstars Boulder's 2015 class. Aside from crowdfunding and B2C marketing experience, he has extensive retail sales and channel marketing experience, having brokered deals with people like Target, Best Buy, HSN, QVC, T-Mobile, Brookstone, and Amazon Launchpad.

​- Joe Houlihan​. For the past 4 years, Joe has been SVP of Global Sales at Sphero, the world-famous Boulder robotics company that makes some of the most popular toys in the world (if you've seen a smartphone-controlled BB-8, you've seen Sphero). Prior to joining Sphero in 2014, Joe spent 12 years at Brookstone as a store manager, buyer, district manager, and director. Having seen physical retail from all roles and both sides of the table, Joe is one of the foremost experts in retail in Colorado.

​- L​aura Sanchez, COO of Shinesty, a rapidly growing online retro clothing retailer based in Boulder. Shinesty is now a national brand with an extremely loyal customer base, and the company now has 40+ Boulder-based employees and a growing product line with thousands of SKUs. Prior to joining Shinesty, Laura was COO at Revolar (and Colin's manager), and prior to that she spent 4 years from 2010 - 2014 growing OtterBox's world domination as GM (Americas) and Managing Director (Latin America). She oversaw OtterBox's dramatic worldwide expansion into the brand leader it is today, and few people in Colorado have as much experience in scaling operations, supply chain, and distribution for physical product lines.