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Looking For Entrepreneurial Resources? Try Jackson Hole - Forbes
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Cheryl Conner Contributor
I write about communications, business and the ways the two intersect
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ENTREPRENEURS
1/21/2015 @ 10:35PM
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Looking For Entrepreneurial
Resources? Try Jackson Hole
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Quick, what’s the nation’s top mecca for entrepreneurial training and talent?
Before reading this headline, I’m betting you wouldn’t have said Jackson
Hole. Nor would I before talking to Liza Millet, a former Wall Street investor,
entrepreneur and co-founder of Silicon Couloir, a non-profit organization in
Teton County for the advancement of entrepreneurs.
I met Millet, a consummate lover of sports (she played four years of Division
1 ice hockey for Dartmouth, I learned) last September at a Summit event for
the Hero Partners, where she presented on funding strategies for
entrepreneurs.
At the event and afterwards she told me about the growing migration of
talent to Jackson, and what it means to aspiring entrepreneurs. In a nutshell,
as leaders achieve lucrative exits or reach retirement, they are no longer
required to live in the nation’s high metropolis districts. Free to live wherever
they please, many are choosing Jackson as a prime location for fishing,
skiing, rafting and riding and a myriad of art and culture events.
Michael Dowda, Facilities Director for the Center for the Arts, Jackson Hole, entrepreneur Liza Millet, and daughter
and future entrepreneur Zizi (nearly 4). (Image courtesy of Liza Millet)
By their nature, however, entrepreneurial icons rarely sit still. They often
divert their business attention to angel investing, mentoring and teaching
future entrepreneurs.
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Looking For Entrepreneurial Resources? Try Jackson Hole - Forbes
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Millet is one of them, and is heavily involved in coalescing the area’s rich
business resources toward programs to benefit the next era of entrepreneurs.
As a case in point, she’s joined with former Bostonian Sandy Hessler, a
former Assistant Dean of the Harvard Kennedy School, to create the Start Up
Institute, providing a focused training program for entrepreneurs in
cooperation with Central Wyoming College.
Start Up Institute Co-Founder Sandy Hessler was formerly Assistant Dean of the Harvard Kennedy School and a
serial entrepreneur. (Image courtesy of SiliconCouloir.com)
Participants gear up for a 10-week 200-hour program that meets 9 a.m. to 3
p.m. each Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday to accomplish MBA- and
MFA-level projects related to the ins and outs of owning and running a
business. Most days include live presentations from world-class
entrepreneurs who’ve already experienced great successes or who have
valuable information and experience to add. Members also learn from each
other, getting candid about what they’re good at and the realities of business
they hate.
“There are some tears occurring here several times a week,” says Hessler.
“The community we’re creating is learning a great deal about vulnerability
and trust.”
During the program entrants have use of the Institute’s sponsoring Co-Work
facility, Spark Jackson Hole (www.SparkJH.com). Entrants also get 10 hours
of post-program consulting from the team of resident experts that includes
serial entrepreneurs and an all-star cast of Harvard, Dartmouth and Wharton
grads.
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Looking For Entrepreneurial Resources? Try Jackson Hole - Forbes
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“Finals” take place in the form of a live pitch event at the Center for the Arts,
with pending graduates presenting their business, their story, and their
three- to five-year outlooks to an audience of local business people, mentors,
and yes, in some cases, prospective investors. (Millet is also a representative
of the investor roster—in her day job she is a portfolio manager for Income
Focus Portfolio Management.)
Start Up Institute can claim at least a handful of early successes including
Vera Iconica Architecture, which hired five full-time people since founder
Veronica Schreibeis graduated from the program in 2014, and she has also
achieved several international speaking engagements. Likewise,
GarageGrownGear.com launched its site, then its ecommerce engine, and
achieved an Honorable Mention at Silicon Couloir’s annual Pitch Day in
August, successfully raising an initial round of seed funding that was slightly
under $100K, Millet says. This company was little more than an idea when
founder Amy Hatch participated in the Start Up Institute program (and as a
side note, Hatch had given up her prior job just a week before the program
started to commit to her entrepreneurial dreams).
Speaking of presentations, many Jackson entrepreneurs including some SUI
graduates also participate in Silicon Couloir’s August Pitch Day events. In
this program, entrepreneurs pitch to a full-on crowd that includes some of
the region’s most active investors and boasts a growing list of good outcomes:
Yellowberry closed a 500K round in late 2014. (I profiled Yellowberry
Founder Megan Grassell in this September article.) Grassell has been in a
number of national media appearances, including acknowledgement as one
of Time Magazine’s Most Inspirational Teens of the year for 2014. I met her
last summer at—you guessed it—a Jackson Hole-based entrepreneurial
event.
Early warning gas alert company Alert Plus has achieved an angel
investment that closed just this week.
Green waste company BioPacr won Best in Show acknowledgement at the
Green Industry and Equipment Expo (GIE) in October, 2014.
GearWise (www.GearWise.com), a platform for increasing sales of sports and
athletic gear by obtaining reviews from professional athletes won the Best
Pitch and Hero Partners prize in the August 2014 Pitch Day and is in the
process of closing a round of funding.
Beverage company Dustcutter (www.dustcutter.com) closed a 500K round of
funding in 2014 after presenting at Pitch Day in 2013.
If your business idea is ready and your appetite is whetted, applications for
the next session of the bi-annual Institute program run Jan 1 through March
15 with classes starting April 7.
Additionally, and on a bigger scale, Jackson Hole news reports note that
Rocky Mountain Economic Summit co-sponsors Hero Partners (led by
Founder Rob Ryan of Ascend Communications fame and co-CEOs Justin
Hyde and Tyler Norton) have acquired the 780-acre golf course and resort
property Teton Springs. Among other ambitions, the group intends to finish
the property’s conference center and to launch a program called Hero Global
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Looking For Entrepreneurial Resources? Try Jackson Hole - Forbes
http://www.forbes.com/sites/cherylsnappconner/2015/01/21/looking-...
Initiative (I mentioned it last month when I recently participated myself) that
will create and support a global network of entrepreneurs.
The phenomenon of entrepreneurial hubs springing up in unlikely locations
is not exclusive to Jackson. Reports point to locations like Kansas City
(gigabit networking); Santiago, Chile (women entrepreneurs); Amsterdam
(friendly tax structure); and even Istanbul (a developing economy with
untapped marketing potential). But for those who favor an outdoor haven
with an upbeat cultural vibe, it’s hard to top Jackson Hole.
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