With champagne bottles recycled, confetti swept and holiday decorations stored away once more, the revelry of the new year has passed. Now, it’s time to buckle down and tackle our resolutions.
In case you’re still scrambling for a 2017 goal and need some inspiration, or if you’re just curious what other members of the community will be working on this year, we’re here for you. We asked the CEOs from three Colorado startups — as well as our own — to share their New Year’s resolutions. Here’s what they had to say:
“At newmedia, we’re a high-touch, full-service, interactive agency,” said CEO Steve Morris. “It’s all about people. We plan to hire 100 more people in 2017, so my top goal for the year is to dedicate time and energy to refining and improving how we can continue to ensure the very best culture for our internal team, our stakeholders and our clients.
“On the DRUD side, it’s all about technology. We’re creating world-changing software solutions to streamline and automate the applications and services that run the Internet — websites, mobile apps, hosting, security networks — built on Open Source. My resolution for 2017 is to bring at least three of DRUD’s SaaS products to market by midyear and double the engineering team by year's end.
“Personally, I am continually grateful for both the challenges and the gifts of my life. I resolve to make more time to give back through charitable contribution, mentorship and community outreach.”
“Personally, be more present,” said Jacqueline Ros, co-founder and CEO of Revolar. “I find that often, I have so many different thoughts floating through my mind that I struggle with truly listening. My goal for 2017 is to carve out time for reflection and creativity so that I can be more present when speaking with others.
“Last year my professional focus was learning more about all the different social media platforms. This year I want to dive deeper into finance and Excel. My goal is to take at least one course for each of those to improve my toolkit.”
“My resolution for 2017 is to step firmly back from operations at SurveyGizmo and act as our CEO,” said Christian Vanek. “It might sound like it's a professional resolution, but it's really quite personal. For over 10 years I have been an integral part of projects, service and operations at SurveyGizmo. Now with a fully staffed and experienced leadership team, it's time to let them do their jobs. For an entrepreneur to successfully transition to CEO is difficult and rare and will take conscious effort.”
“In 2017 I am looking forward to taking more time to celebrate the ‘wins’ and encouraging my team and family to do the same,” said our own co-founder and CEO, Maria Katris. “In the startup race we live in, it is all too often we are trying to achieve yet another milestone each day, week, month and year. We become obsessed with the race that we rarely look back, reflect and celebrate achievement of those milestones.
“The same goes at home. As a mom to three amazing kids and a wife to an awesome husband, it is all too easy to run through life when there are two busy working parents and three young kids. Sometimes, it is the small moments when we sit on the couch, order pizza and talk about the awesome days we had that are the most meaningful.
“My goal in 2017 is to take more time to celebrate the wins and ensure my team and family know I celebrate their wins as well. As a CEO, you are in the constant position of motivating, inspiring, delegating and critiquing. It is important to also appreciate, reflect and celebrate. Happy New Year, and here’s to another awesome year for the Built In Colorado tech community.”
Photos via featured companies. Responses have been edited for length and clarity.
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