Kandace Anderson’s determination and passion really shine through in her cohort story interview. She’s serious about the work that she’s committed to and honest about her journey (who doesn’t take the occasional nap during the normal workday?). She shares with us what it took to dive into developing Departmynt, an AI driven app that turns a vast women's apparel marketplace into a personal boutique for every user, a moment of reckoning regarding power and intelligence (and CEOs), and a bit of her background and inspiration.
AccelerateHER Cohort Stories: Juli James
When Juli James discusses design, content, and tools for online learning, you know that she knows exactly what she’s talking about. There’s confidence in and expertise behind every tip and tool that she recommends.
Combining her passion and self-proclaimed, proud geek side, Juli tackles everything she does sincerely and brilliantly. After a conversation with her, whether it’s about education or balancing life/work/self/sanity, you walk away a better person. Read on for her interview with Stoke as an AccelerateHER Fall 2020 participant!
5 Things You Should Know About Coworking
Stoke Member Spotlight: Randi Skinner
Randi Skinner has 15+ years of experience as a marketing and business development professional and works to help small businesses (who might have limited marketing budgets) with their marketing goals! Randi has mentored during Stoke’s Coffee + Convo sessions and has a way of making you think differently about any projects or problems you might have. Her positive energy is contagious, and we’re so thankful to know her!
AccelerateHER Cohort Stories: Leslie Brenner
Leslie Brenner founded Cooks Without Borders, a cooking website featuring spectacular recipes steeped in culture. For each recipe and story, Leslie seasons her writing and content with care and delight in sharing recipe knowledge and background to accompany them, not to mention the incredible photographs that tell the visual side of the story.
Her path into writing about food and wine began with a restaurant review for New York magazine, and it was a winding road into what she does today for Leslie Brenner Concepts and Cooks Without Borders. Read on to learn about what it’s like to walk (and run) in Leslie’s shoes.
Celebrating Global Entrepreneurship Week In Denton, Texas 2020
Why People Choose to Live, Work, and Play in Denton
People choose to live in Denton for advantages like lower cost of living, the unique contributions that higher education institutions offer the community, the vibrant culture and family friendliness; all factors that make it a prime spot for remote workers and people who can choose where they work from or who are deciding where to set up shop.
Business Planning: Ask Questions & Take Notes
We’re continuing our elaboration on 5 Tips For Starting a Business in Denton (linked) with the next blog in the series, Ask Questions & Take Notes. This step will also help you with writing your business plan, whether that’s a lean startup version or a traditional business plan.
Stoke Member Spotlight: Noel Winslow
Big Ideas 2020 Recap
We were so impressed by the presenters at Big Ideas this year! Thank you to everyone who participated.
Speaking to Denton’s creative culture, we heard ideas for a Peterbilt Park (reminiscent of Cadillac Ranch in Amarillo), public spaces for theatrical performers and dancers, and complete neighborhoods where you can take a ten-minute walk and in that span, pick up your groceries, grab coffee, and visit with a neighbor instead of spending 15 minutes in your car to run those errands.
Side Gigs & Seasons Of Sacrifice
Tuesday, April 7th for Coffee + Convo, we chatted with Juli James, the cofounder of two ed tech companies, Playable Media and Wildcards, and professor at UNT in the Mayborn School of Journalism teaching game design, digital media, and digital design + journalism. We talked about how she balances her side hustles, main gig, and life outside of/alongside work. She shared with us a few things to identify and implement for our wellbeing as we live the hustle.
How To Do Better: Mentorship
Need help starting to plan your business or in the middle of preparing to launch your startup? You might find that having someone to act as a sounding board or hearing from a person who’s been in your shoes before is just what you need to begin or keep going. Whoever fills roles such as these could be considered a mentor.
Denton’s Creative Mixers: The Past, Present, and Vision for the Future
Who thought of turning an old warehouse into a pop-up music venue for 35 Denton (and where did they meet?) How do initiatives like beginning a startup and tech nonprofit like TechMill happen? What *finally* brought liquor to Denton County?
Dentonites sharing ideas and making connections at past creative mixers.
Stoke Member Spotlight: Terrance Menyweather
What Can You Do To Find Balance and Avoid Burnout?
You have the Sunday blues, dreading Monday and the work week. You’re exhausted just thinking about the upcoming meetings and calls that you’ve scheduled out for yourself. You tell yourself, “this is the dream!” but you’re still yawning. The work that you once approached enthusiastically now seems to require cups of coffee just to open and respond to the emails in your inbox.
Maybe these are exaggerations, or maybe it’s your reality.
Whether you’re an employer, an employee, or self-employed, burnout can have serious consequences for your productivity and work performance, making the difference between operating a thriving business or one that will have to close its doors.
9 Coworking Space Myths
In a coworking space, you’ll find people working diligently on their individual businesses, projects, and endeavors while sharing workspace. The idea of a shared workspace is often associated with misconceptions like it’s too noisy, only entrepreneurs and startups work in coworking spaces, and membership is too expensive.
Building Company Culture While Shifting To Remote Work
We’re exploring how to develop and engage in a supportive company culture for the future of work and to strengthen teams in distributed workforces. We sat down for a talk with Ryan Plauche, Software Engineer with satellite software startup Kubos, who worked remotely from Stoke but had to transition to working from home during Texas’ stay at home order.
Stoke Mentor Spotlight: Patrick Peters
Build The New: Pivoting Your Business
We sat down in a Zoom call for a Coffee + Convo session with Emile Stewart, founder and owner of Wildflower Art Studio, where Amazon best-selling calligraphy and brush-lettering kits are packaged and shipped off to help fuel creativity in people across the world.














