VVP / 2026 Boulder, CO
Strategic insight for companies that are scaling.
Operator-led advisory and board engagements. 35+ years as a CEO, investor, and builder across nine sectors.
An operator who teaches. A teacher who operates.
Founder-CEO Counsel for the ClimbW. Bradley Werner has spent 35+ years operating and investing across multiple sectors. He has held CEO roles at Azumo, the display technology company he co-founded that was named one of Crain's Chicago Business Most Innovative Companies, and at WYO Trading, a proprietary trading firm he founded and ran for 40 years.
He served as Chief Business Officer of Icarus Quantum, a quantum photonics company with federal contracts across the Air Force, Space Force, NIST, NSF, and NASA, where he led commercial strategy, fundraising, and the company's path to product-market fit. He was a capital partner in Auberge Resorts Collection, a luxury resort operator that grew to 19 properties and more than 1,000 employees. He held a CME Group membership for 33 years.
He teaches entrepreneurship at the Leeds School of Business at the University of Colorado Boulder and has spent a decade in Colorado's deep tech and founder community.
Valley View Partners brings that operating judgment to founders and CEOs in the growth years. Much of the work is confidential, which is how clients prefer it.
Operator advisory for the scaling years.
Valley View Partners works with venture-backed companies past Series A, founder-owned businesses with real revenue, and PE-backed and family-held companies working through growth-stage decisions. The work is the same in each: an experienced operator helping the CEO sharpen team and operating decisions, manage growth and board dynamics, and execute the path through scale. Engagements take the form of paid advisory retainers, formal board seats, and advisory board roles.
Fundraising Strategy
The next round closes on your terms, at the valuation and timeline you set.
Investor narrative, deck architecture, pipeline management, and warm introductions across a national network of VC and growth equity investors built over 35 years.
Go-to-Market
Pricing, customer evidence, and commercial proof points that hold up under diligence.
Customer discovery, LOI strategy, pricing architecture, and evidence-based validation frameworks.
Team & Operations
A leadership team and operating cadence built to scale past the next round.
Hiring strategy, compensation design, leadership team development, and operating structure for companies in the growth years.
IP & Licensing
A patent and licensing position that supports the valuation story and survives acquirer diligence.
Portfolio strategy, exclusive license negotiation, freedom-to-operate analysis, and IP management for companies built on protected technology.
Non-Dilutive Capital
Non-dilutive capital stacked alongside equity rounds without distorting the commercial trajectory.
SBIR/STTR strategy, DoD and civilian agency relationships, federal program selection, and integration with venture capital plans.
Board & Governance
A board that earns its seats. Reporting that makes investor decisions easier.
Board composition, financial reporting, stakeholder communications, and governance frameworks for growing companies.
What the first ninety days look like.
Most engagements take the form of a paid retainer with equity participation. The structure below describes the rhythm of those engagements. Board seats and formal advisory roles follow the same diagnostic-first approach, scaled to the cadence of the board.
Diagnostic
A full review of the company across the dimensions of the engagement. Direct conversations with founders, key team members, lead investors, and customers where appropriate. The output is a written diagnostic with prioritized recommendations and a ninety-day workplan.
Cadence
A weekly working session with the CEO. Standing availability between sessions for the calls that cannot wait. Monthly review against the workplan with the leadership team. Quarterly check-in with the board or lead investor when the engagement structure supports it.
What you get
The diagnostic. The workplan. Decision memos on the calls that matter. Investor and board materials when the engagement covers them. Direct introductions across the investor, operator, and customer network VVP has built over 35 years. A second set of eyes on every consequential decision the company faces.
Where the experience comes from.
Operator
- 35+ years operating and investing across multiple sectors
- CEO and co-founder, Azumo (display tech; Crain's Most Innovative)
- CEO, WYO Trading (proprietary trading firm; 40 years, $20M annual recurring revenue)
- Former CBO, Icarus Quantum (quantum photonic interconnects)
Advisory
- Advisory board, GeoTrek, a Boulder-based premium adventure vehicle company
- Co-leads a translational research and IP commercialization program at the Weizmann Institute of Science, in partnership with BINA (the Institute's IP development unit) and the Leeds School of Business
Teaching
- Teaching Director of the Deming Center for Entrepreneurship at the Leeds School of Business, CU Boulder. The pattern recognition built across hundreds of venture evaluations is applied directly to client engagements.
- New Venture Launch operates as a structured accelerator funded by the Dobkin Intuitive Foundation, which also funds programs at MIT, Carnegie Mellon, and UC Berkeley. CU Boulder ranks #1 in the U.S. for launching startups from university research (AUTM, FY2024), and the role places VVP at the front of that pipeline.
- Co-host of Creative Distillation, the Deming Center research podcast, also on Spotify. 100+ episodes of conversation with the founders, investors, and researchers VVP works alongside.
Let's talk about what you're building.
Valley View Partners works with a limited number of companies at a time. If you're scaling a company and want an experienced operator in your corner, I'd welcome the conversation.
A paragraph on your company and the decision in front of you is enough to start.