Biz Therapy – Season 1 Episode 1 – Josh Hudnall & Brian Watson

Biz Therapy Launches With Proximity and Factory Co-Founders Talking Ups and Downs of Building an Entrepreneurial Ecosystem on Colorado’s Western Slope

In the first episode of Biz Therapy, host and producer Bryan Wachs of MySalesButler talks to Josh Hudnall and Brian Watson. They’ve become an integral part of Grand Junction’s growing entrepreneurial scene. As co-founders of Proximity and Factory, they’ve proven that one can succeed in areas off the beaten track. For Josh and Brian, it was by founding businesses that cultivate connections for startups and remote workers.

Over the course of an hour-long Zoom conversation, they talked about creating and sustaining an entrepreneurial space in rural Western Colorado and how COVID-19 will result in new remote working opportunities.

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Recorded: 04.22.2020
Duration: 58:15
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See the episode’s topics timeline and learn more about the referenced resources.

Brian Watson is a Grand Junction native. Josh Hudnall is a veteran of Chicago and Denver. They met in Grand Junction in 2012 and discovered they longed to start tech-based businesses. But could they succeed in an isolated region based on the agricultural and oil and gas industries?

Brian remembers friends telling him that he’d need to leave Grand Junction to become successful. Josh recalls the isolation he felt when he arrived from the big city. They parlayed those experiences and emotions into the creation of a regional entrepreneurial community.

They started by hosting events for founders, designers, and developers. Soon, a community of like-minded people took hold. Josh and Brian had built a digital network of 1,500 entrepreneurs and remote workers spread across western Colorado. The challenge was bringing them together.

Building a network through coworking

The burgeoning co-worker movement provided the answers. They would go on to open Grand Junction’s first coworking space, Factory. They also launched Proximity to provide management tools for other coworking spaces. They also sought to connect a network of thousands of remote workers. Both endeavors helped create a vibrant startup scene in Grand Junction. Almost overnight, Factory became a hub for entrepreneurs.

“Somebody would walk in, not looking for a desk, not looking for a place to work,” Josh explains. “But they would say, ‘I’m looking to start a business. Is there anybody here who knows how to do that?'”

Brian adds “We literally had people move to Grand Junction because they came to the co-working space a couple of times, and they’re like, ‘Oh, we can make it work here.'”

Riding the roller coaster of entrepreneurship

But their journey wasn’t without problems. As they were exulting in their successes, a landlord disagreement forced Factory from its prominent downtown location.

“I won’t candy-coat it,” says Josh. “I was hurt. I was sad. I was depressed. I was angry.”

But their resolve to succeed led them in a new direction. Today, Factory operates out of the Maverick Innovation Center at Colorado Mesa University, along with locations in nearby Montrose and Ridgway.

Now, with COVID-19 as a backdrop, they’re thinking of how coworking is changing.

“I think we’re going to see in the next year the levels of remote work across the U.S. and the world that we would have been looking for in 8-10 years,” predicts Josh.

“This is an interesting time,” adds Brian. “I would encourage everyone to keep your head up, hold things loosely, observe and listen as much as possible…”

Topics Timeline

Referenced Resources

• Proximity
• Factory
• GoCode Colorado
• West Slope Startup Weekend
• Colorado Mesa University
• Grand Junction Economic Partnership (GJEP)

Biz Therapy is a podcast where we can talk to each other about being a business owner, a freelancer, an entrepreneur. We’ll talk about the ups and downs of having your own business and what we go through on a day-to-day basis.

The podcast is produced and hosted by Bryan Wachs, CEO/Co-Founder of MySalesButler. Content Marketing is by Mark Duggan. The Biz Therapy theme was written, composed and performed by Clyde and the Milltailers.

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Building a business is a hard thing. Entrepreneurs go through the ups and downs of sales, customers, employees, partners, cash flow, and emotions. We aim to talk about the unspoken of being a business owner.