Subject Matter Experts

Del Mackey is the founder and CEO of Peak Innovations Group LLC, a small business assistance organization dedicated towards helping innovative companies move further towards a successful commercial undertaking. Del has over a decade of experience in the SBIR/STTR programs, where he worked both sides of the fence; in one capacity as part of a small business seeking funding and in another capacity as part of a FAST awardee team helping hundreds of businesses go after these funding opportunities. Del brings this expertise to bear at Peak, focusing on grant writing and proposal creation, market exploration and understanding, product planning and pipelining, and funding opportunity matching. Del has a BIS from National University and an MBA from New Mexico State University.

Thierry Lepoutre is Founder and President of Boostr Consulting LLC, providing consulting services to help innovative companies successfully claim R&D Tax Credits and obtain refunds from the government. Thierry has over 20 years experience in recovering R&D Tax Credits for innovation (R&D) companies in all industries, ranging from one-person startups to large multinationals.

Sara Knudsen is the owner of Gold Stripe Consulting, LLC, a consulting firm which provides graphic design, digital marketing and website development services for small businesses, non-profit organizations and government agencies. She is also the executive director of the Colorado Business Development Foundation, a non-profit organization that develops and funds small business resources across the state. Prior to opening Gold Stripe Consulting, Knudsen was the Deputy Director of Communications for the Colorado Small Business Development Center Network, where she managed federal and state government grants totaling more than $2 million annually as well as all aspects of planning more than 10 statewide businesses training conferences, including securing speakers, sponsorships, travel, marketing and more. Knudsen was also responsible for the statewide branding across the entire statewide SBDC network, in which she standardized both print collateral and online presence. Knudsen graduated magna cum laude from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln with a bachelor’s degree in marketing and Spanish.

Chris is a partner and co-founder of Catalyst. His practice focuses on representing high-growth companies, venture capital, private equity and angel investors and entreprenrus. Chris represents clients in a variety of corporate and finance transactions and matters, including:

• Equity and convertible securities financings
• Recapitalizations
• Mergers and acquitions
• Divestitures
• Entity formation and startup strategy
• Founders’ disputes
• Corporate governance

Prior to co-founding Catalyst, Chris was a corporate attorney in the Boston and Colorado offices of Cooley LLP. There, his practice focused on representing venture capital and private equity firms and emerging growth companies. Chris is a graduate of UCLA and Boston University School of Law.

In the past 15 years, Sharon and Boulder SBDC have worked with over 7,000 entrepreneurs from startups through 2nd stage companies, from “Main Street” retailers through highly scalable manufacturing and advanced industry ventures. In 2018, Boulder SBDC was named the nation’s best SBDC by U.S. Small Business Administration — the Center of Excellence and Innovation. Sharon leads the Colorado SBDC TechSource: Commercialization Program statewide (technical assistance and programming for SBIR/STTR grant funding), as well as the Tech Venture Accelerator (TVX) in Boulder. Sharon partnered with NASA to produce their national SBIR event (Innovation & Opportunity Conference) in Colorado in 2018 and 2019.  Sharon’s first business was a vintage clothing store in upstate NY.  Just before joining the SBDC in 2004, Sharon converted and re-branded a franchise hotel into the independent Boulder Outlook Hotel, in which she was an investor. In the 30 years between, Sharon has been an entrepreneur, marketing executive and consultant for small (and larger) businesses in a wide range of industries.  She holds an MBA from Cornell University, certification in Technology Commercialization from University of Houston and is nationally-certified by the Edward Lowe Foundation and Kauffman Center for Entrepreneurship.
Mollybeth (Molly) Kocialski and the Rocky Mountain Regional United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO)