Nicole Glaros | It's About the How, Not the What

“It's so much more powerful to be a 'we' than an 'I.' You get so much further when it's ours, not mine." — Nicole Glaros

This week's guest is Nicole Glaros, partner and chief investment strategy officer at Techstars, a venture capital firm in Boulder, Colorado. Nicole joined Techstars in 2008, bringing her experience as a three-time startup founder and her work with an early business incubator. Since joining Techstars, she's helped build it exponentially from a small firm to a global powerhouse and serves on the board of a variety of companies.

Nicole is in transition, having decided to step away from her role at Techstars. She describes her current position as being at the top of the mountain and looking around. You spend so much time just climbing up there, you don't have little time to rest or look around, she explains. Nicole is now figuring out her next steps on her journey, stopping to ask what she wants rather than reacting to whatever comes her way.

Nicole values people helping and supporting others. When she first came to Colorado, there was little going on for entrepreneurs and startups. It was through the active engagement and openness to giving advice and collaborating that it has become a flourishing, vital scene for startups. Unfortunately, COVID did some damage to this culture, and Nicole acknowledges that the next generation needs to step up and start doing the work previous generations did of helping others. Nicole explains that this kind of thinking stems back to the question of, "If not us, then who?"

Similarly, Nicole believes that peer groups can play an important role for entrepreneurs in supporting and encouraging growth. She doesn't believe people learn by reading or passively taking in information. Instead, we learn by doing, and CEOs need to model the types of behaviors and habits they want the people who work for them to follow.

As a board member and startup advisor, Nicole also understands the challenge of making hard decisions and concludes that it's more about the how than the what. She explains in an example how one company was told they had to cut expenses by laying off half the workforce. Instead, the CEO explored other solutions, and with the support of employees, found alternative ways to cut expenses.

In this episode of Leading with Genuine Care, you’ll also learn:

Nicole's thoughts about "conscious" entrepreneurship, and what term she likes better
The one thing she did that made a huge impact on her productivity while at Techstars
How and why peer groups can help entrepreneurs
How your thoughts and beliefs can impact your life
How to shift your mindset through awareness
The question CEOs could ask that might mean a huge shift in work culture
What she gets out of participating in challenging sports like mountain climbing and boxing

Connect With Nicole Glaros

Websites

Nearly Nicole

Techstars

LinkedIn

https://www.linkedin.com/in/nglaros/

Twitter

@nglaros

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