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When the Game Ends, Another Begins

Cory Finney’s story begins in the mountain town of Durango, where his upbringing shaped not only his love for the outdoors but also his deep sense of community. As a sixth-generation Coloradan, Cory grew up immersed in a small-town environment that valued resilience, resourcefulness, and hard work. For much of his early life, baseball was at the center. He poured his energy into the sport, with dreams of competing at the college level.��

However, that dream came to a sudden halt when he broke his wrist before his senior year of high school. For many, such an injury could have felt like the end of the road. But Cory now sees it as a gateway into other opportunities. It closed one chapter and opened another, giving him the chance to reimagine his future beyond the baseball field. Without the weight of pursuing athletics, he leaned fully into academics and personal growth. He first spent a year at San Diego State before realizing his heart belonged in Colorado. The mountains called him back, and he transferred to the ����, where his true entrepreneurial journey began.��

For Cory, all of this would become important to his career. The switch from athlete to student, to now entrepreneur, opened doors he never would’ve envisioned. His entrepreneurship journey is filled with experience. From co-founding - now the largest run student Tedx event - to being a partner at , his adventure reflects a culmination of events in his life.��

The Launch Pad for Entrepreneurship

At ����, Cory studied finance while also diving into every entrepreneurial resource the school had to offer. He earned a Certificate in Entrepreneurial Studies, a program that pushed him to think creatively about business ideas and sharpen his ability to turn concepts into reality. He also participated in the , which exposed him to the global financial system and introduced him to venture capital, which became a discovery that would later define his career path.

Beyond the classroom, Cory found himself at the center of CU’s growing entrepreneurship ecosystem. Programs like the New Venture Challenge and , ran by , gave him the chance to test his ideas, build networks, and gain hands-on experience. Cory describes these programs with Brad as some of the most pivotal moments of not only his time at CU, but his entire life, mentioning how it laid the groundwork for everything up to today. The Deming Center for Entrepreneurship, most notably , also provided support and mentorship in important moments, offering guidance from faculty and alumni who believed in his potential.

Mentorship, in particular, became a cornerstone of Cory’s CU experience. He participated in the Young Alumni Mentors Program, first as a mentee and later as a mentor himself. The relationships he built through that program created a lifelong network of peers and friends, many of whom continue to collaborate with him today. To this day, Cory still mentors students through CU’s Peer-to-Peer Mentorship program, seeing it as a way to give back to the community that helped launch his own journey.

“I feel very appreciative for all the support and help that I got from the CU ecosystem, and so the smallest thing I can do is to put some energy back into that network.”

��ñ���� wasn’t just a stop on Cory’s educational path, but it was the launching pad for his entrepreneurial career. It was there that he first learned how to transform ambition into action, and how to lean on a community of innovators for support.

Venture Capital with a Local Heart

Cory’s professional path reflects a theme of building ventures that connect people and ideas. His first major leap came during college with , an automated ski rack and locker company. What started as a business plan project for his entrepreneurship certificate grew into a real venture he chose to pursue instead of a traditional job after graduation. SnowGate ran for three years and ultimately achieved a small exit, giving Cory his first taste of startup life.

From there, he launched a consulting company for startups, helping young businesses navigate finance and fundraising. That experience led him to in Boulder, where he served as Entrepreneur in Residence. In just three years, Cory worked directly with 45 different companies, sharpening his skills as both a mentor and a financial strategist. It was at Boomtown that he realized his passion for venture capital, helping startups secure the funding they needed to grow.

Cory went on to co-found Kokopelli Capital, the Rocky Mountain region’s first pre-seed fund. Alongside his partners�� and��, he invested in dozens of early-stage companies and deepened his understanding of what it means to support entrepreneurs at the most fragile stages of their journey. During this same period, the three also launched TEDxCU. A community-building project between students and Boulder entrepreneurs has become a cornerstone event that continues to inspire thousands each year.

Today, Cory is Managing Partner at the Greater Colorado Venture Fund. Greater Colorado Venture Fund is a venture fund dedicated exclusively to rural Colorado. For Cory, the role feels like a perfect blend of his upbringing in Durango, his entrepreneurial background, and his deep commitment to activating untapped potential across the state. With more than 50 investments already made in rural communities, the fund demonstrates his belief that innovation isn’t confined to major cities - it thrives wherever people build.

Resilience as a Way of Life

Cory reflects on entrepreneurship overall as both his lived experience and his philosophy as an investor. To him, entrepreneurship isn’t only about ideas, but rather how you execute on them. Whether it’s a lemonade stand or a venture-backed startup, entrepreneurship means forcing an idea into reality and making it part of other people’s worlds.

“Entrepreneurship is taking an idea and brute-forcing it into not only your reality, but making it become a part of other people's realities.”

Cory also keeps a more personal motto close at hand, one that shaped his early consulting business: FITFO - meaning Figure It Out. To him, this phrase embodies the resilience and problem-solving mindset at the heart of entrepreneurship. No matter the scale of the problem, entrepreneurs must continually adapt, push forward, and create solutions when none seem obvious.

His journey, from small-town Durango to ��ñ����, as well as a student founder to venture capitalist, illustrates this mindset in action. Cory has built a career on figuring it out, whether starting a company, mentoring students, or investing in rural entrepreneurs. It reflects how entrepreneurship is about taking an idea, bringing it to life, and helping others see it’s value.