cu-boulder
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Jens Nicolaysen
Jens Nicolaysen is the co-founder and Chief Marketing Officer of Shinesty, the Boulder, Colorado apparel brand whose stated mission is to force the world to take itself less seriously. A 2010 marketing graduate of CU Boulder's Leeds School of Business, he spent his early career doing brand strategy and innovation consulting for large consumer companies before launching Shinesty in mid-2014 with fellow Leeds alum Chris White. The company began as a vintage-clothing resale operation with buyers scouring thrift shops in college and ski towns, pivoted to original designs in 2015, and grew into a direct-to-consumer underwear and loungewear business best known for its trademarked Ball Hammock pouch underwear, its holiday and theme-party outfits, and a joke-first marketing voice that Nicolaysen oversees across email, paid media, catalogues and video. Shinesty's story became a six-episode MTV2 series in 2017, the company was named an Inc. 5000 honoree in 2022, and it has raised roughly $8.2 million through a Series A.
Tyler Hernandez
Tyler Hernandez is the CEO and co-founder of Tynt Technologies, a Boulder, Colorado deep-tech company commercializing Reversible Metal Electrodeposition (RME) - a patented platform that lets glass and plastic surfaces tint from crystal clear to full blackout in seconds, without continuous power. A co-inventor of the technology, he earned a chemistry PhD at Stanford under Professor Mike McGehee and was named to Forbes' 30 Under 30 in 2023. Tynt began chasing energy-saving smart windows, then pivoted in 2024 to lenses for AI-powered eyewear, drawing interest from Google, Meta, Apple and Samsung. Hernandez took the CEO seat in 2026 and is raising to deliver an AI-eyewear-ready lens.