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Brad Revare is the Director of Business Partnerships at . CareerWise Colorado is a youth-apprenticeship system that provides students a practical learning experience to augment the classroom in fields such as healthcare, business operations, information technology, advanced manufacturing and financial services. Brad holds a J.D. from the University of Colorado School of Law and a BA in Economics from the University of Colorado.

Deming Center Venture Fund

As a law student, Brad participated in the Deming Center Venture Fund (DCVF). The fund is managed by a cross-disciplinary team of CU Boulder graduate students. Brad was attracted to the idea that students each play a key role on a self-governed fund and directly impact who they  talk to and ultimately, who they invest in.

“DCVF was one of the most formative educational experiences I had in grad school.”

One company the fund invested in while Brad was a member really enjoyed going through the fundraising process with grad students. “They supported us and engaged with us, treating us as equals, rather than students.”

Building public-private partnerships

After law school, Brad was offered a fellowship at Silicon Flatirons. Working with Phil Weiser, Brad led three key programs, including the Government Entrepreneurial Leadership Accelerator (GELA) and Startup Colorado. GELA puts law students and government employees through an accelerator program to teach the basics of entrepreneurship and apply the principles to solve problems the City of Denver faces. The first round of GELA culminated with four ideas being presented to Mayor Hancock, two of which were included in the next state budget. 

“All things lead to Phil Weiser.”

After Brad’s fellowships ended, Phil introduced him to CareerWise Colorado. The mission of the organization was right up his alley: working on entrepreneurship public-private partnerships to solve problems that neither sector can solve alone. “It was a little unconventional, but I was really excited to bring entrepreneurship into the public sector.”

Advice to students

Jump in and get involved! “Even if you don’t quite know what you want to do or don’t feel like you’re an entrepreneur yourself. You might be surprised." In law school Brad took the Philosophy of Entrepreneurship course, taught by Phil Weiser. Inspired by the class he started a tutoring business that helped him pay for school. “Entrepreneurship is one of the most valuable skills you can learn as a student. And it doesn’t require a certain pedigree or background.”

"My other piece of advice: my team at CareerWise is hiring! If you are an outgoing, entrepreneurial, and mission-driven/goal-oriented person, we are looking for people on our high performing business development team as we build the future of education and how businesses build talent pipelines. If this sounds like a mission you would like to be a part of, check out our job ."