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We cover topics on healing, health, happiness, growing wealth and living wise in a world that often sabotages you.
Hi, everybody. Welcome back to Healthy, Happy, Wise, Wealthy. And I
have today a whole crew of people from Reno Startup Week.
So last year was my first year in Reno and I went to
Reno Startup Week and it was one of the really
fun, memorable events of Reno.
And this year I've volunteered and I am really
excited to have everyone here with us. We, we are also
doing a podcast called With Growth Pioneers. So Growth
Pioneers is a podcast here in Reno that Doug Erwin
is the host of. And so I am going to bring him up first
and ask the first question, which is what is Reno
Startup Week? Well, first of all, I just want to say thanks for having us
all on your podcast, Mary, and for all your commitment to
supporting entrepreneurship in Reno. So just really happy to be
here. You know, Reno Startup Week, this is our third year
putting on the event, but really what it's focused on is really bringing
together the entrepreneurial community. It's really a kind of a
marquee event that brings together a lot
of learning for entrepreneurs of all types, whether you're a
startup founder looking at the next AI, you
know, software platform, or you're building, building a
restaurant or a manufacturing company. So it's really targeted. Although it's called
Reno Startup Week, it's really broad based to support entrepreneurs on all
stages of their journey. And it's, you know, focused on all the things that
entrepreneurs need. Networking, connections, learning
and of course, a lot of fun. There's going to be a lot of great
fun activities along the way. So yeah, oh yeah, I can't
wait to talk about the fun stuff. So just for the list people who are
listening, what, what is the date of Reno Startup Week, it's coming up?
Correct. It's coming up end of September, September 28 through
October 3. So it is actually a full week. There's lots of programming and it's
going to be at the Reno Experience District. Everything will be focused there during the
day and then throughout the community in the evening. Although if you were there
last year, you do not want to miss the opening party at the top of
the rooftop at Red. It's like, I think it's one of the best venues in
all of Reno. Oh my Gosh. Last year you guys got talk about this with
me. It was, it was amazing, you guys. I,
I took so many pictures of that sunset up there and then
the people were great. And then you had Native Americans doing
in a dance and then it rained when they were doing the dance
and like, and then it stopped. And the whole thing was,
it was rather magical. It was Pretty magical. It's hard. We set a high
bar. I'm not sure that we can cue the rain again, but you know,
I. Think rain was cued. But, but the view and the
energy and you know, really just the whole celebration of
helping people create their business. I mean, I think that's, you know, we do a
lot of celebration of people that have had really huge success, but
I think we often, you know, forget that small business and entrepreneurs are
really the backbone of our economy. And so, you know, being able to celebrate
people that are taking their comfort from 0 to 1 or 1 to 100 is
a big part of what we're trying to do. So yeah, for sure. And
I know there's Startup Weeks, all this is an international
thing. So with Reno,
this is a free event for people because it's been invested in
by Washoe county. That where we're at and Nevada, is that correct?
Correct. So I think one of the key tenants of Startup Week is
keeping it free. We want to basically remove any barriers for
anybody who wants to attend. Super important, right? As we
cast a wider net, we want to make sure everybody who has an idea or
has always thought about being an entrepreneur, maybe didn't think that this is for them.
We really want that to be open. And so the Washoe county
helped create a grant and that was really the catalyst. But it's
fundamentally supported by sponsors throughout
the community. We have local banks and attorneys and
other entrepreneurial support organizations. So it's truly a community wide
effort. And that's one of the things I love about it is all of these
different people have come together to say we believe in entrepreneurial led
economic development and we're going to put not only our money, but like
you putting in your time to make this an event that really is
fulfilling for everybody. Yeah. And so this question
for anyone who wants to jump in, because I know we have some people who've
attended and different things, why does that matter that
it's the whole week is free and there's not a
$2,000 fee or whatever to come join as an entrepreneur,
I mean, why is that important? I mean, I'll kind of jump in.
So my name is Candi. I'm the director of Entrepreneurial Development at EDAWN and
I, I help with operations and sponsorships for
Startup Week. And I've been an entrepreneur myself. And so,
you know, for me I, I remember, you know, when you're starting
something and every single dollar counts.
Right. And so we never want cost to be the
barrier that keeps someone from getting all of
this great information and networking that takes place at
Reno Startup Week. So that's. It's like truly one of our core
tenants of the week is that it should always be free
for everyone to attend. Yeah, I love that.
Monica, could you say anything about that? I know you were there last year.
What is your thoughts on having it be free? Why did that matter?
Yeah, I think it sets an example for
the attendees in the community that there is
this ecosystem here that's really supportive
of each other and that there isn't this kind of
like, I don't think pretentiousness is the word, but it's like,
what is the entry to get access
to these ideas, to these resources. And sometimes it is
like a conference that is costly and you can't afford it and
you don't have support from your own company that you're working for. Like,
maybe you're like starting out entrepreneur. So I think
just having it accessible to all is
like one of our core values, I'd say. Yeah.
Oh, I can jump in here too. A
founder and an attendee. And so I'm Allison
Greene. I'm the founder of Deltium. So working
on cool science and innovation to help solve the
world's problems and currently working on mitigating smoke
during fires. And so this will be my third
year at Reno Startup Week and I'm helping plan the event
as a volunteer and just to
jump in and answer that as well. So when I first attended
year one, I will say that
it made the barrier to entry very low,
very easy. You know, it was. I actually wasn't even
totally sure of what I wanted to start. And so if there was
a cost to it, I would have had an extra thought of, you know,
okay, do I want to do this? But the fact that it's free
and I'll tell you, I know we'll get more into what it is, but
I can't believe it's a free event. It's amazing. There's so many
resources, so much fun involved and
yeah, it's wonderful. And I think for as a startup
founder who A, may not know what they want or B,
knows what they're doing but doesn't have the money to go do it, I think
it's great. Yeah. Just. Do you guys think that
just having it be free and having it have an
emphasis on entrepreneurship that is. Nevada and
Reno do put an emphasis on entrepreneurship, new business,
does it fuel more entrepreneurs? Does it fuel more business?
What do you think of that? I mean, I guess I think the way
I look at this is everybody has ideas. Not a lot
of people, not everybody identifies as an entrepreneur. And
you just like, so much of what happens, especially in early stage entrepreneurship, is
serendipity. And so we really just want to create the conditions where
people can. The magic can happen. And you never know, like, someone's got an idea
and they don't really know, and they go there and they talk to an investor
or another entrepreneur, and that's the thing that fuels them. So you just,
you really, I mean, you really do not want to create barriers for that.
And so I think that the opposite of that is creating a catalyst for it.
And, you know, there's always debate, well, if you don't pay, are you really committed
to it? But my ex, I was at the design school at Stanford one
time and they were discussing how if they put the
prototype lab more than 100ft away from the whiteboard lab,
people wouldn't go to the prototype lab. So, like, these
barriers are real. Like, it doesn't take much to dissuade
somebody. So we just don't want that to be the barrier
that prevents somebody from moving their idea forward. Because if
you think about an ecosystem, it's like a rainforest. You don't
really know. Everything looks like a weed, but you never know when that weed
is going to turn into, like, Google or something. I mean, you know, people forget
Google almost sold to Yahoo for like less than a million dollars. It was a
very small company at one point, and now it's the largest. And
so I just am a deep believer at the core that we need to
do everything we can to create the opportunity for magic to happen.
Yeah. Thank you, Melissa. We got you back. I have a question for you.
Why do you think this is important? It reaches all demographics. And
you're with the Nevada Governor's Office of Economic Development.
So I'll let you introduce yourself a little bit and then just tell us why
you think that's important. Hi. Thank you
for having us today. Yes. My name is Melissa Saavedra and I'm now the
new Director of Entrepreneurship for the Governor's Office of Economic
Development. And you know, it is important, you know, we touched
a little bit earlier with Doug and Monica and Candi,
that easy access for all communities is very important,
regardless of language barriers. We have looked for
opportunities to engage with our Latino communities, with
our black communities, our indigenous communities, to see that
it is accessible to
participate, receive free education as
well as, you know, what if the ones with hard of hearing. We
have set certain guidelines for our Speakers to ensure that they're
speaking loudly. There are prompts on our screens, there are various
signage leading to various parts of the event. So we
want to make sure that we're being mindful
of all of Northern Nevada. And so we're very excited
to, to be a part of this. I love it. Could
you speak also? Melissa, I'm going to ask you just a second question. Why, why
is this, you know, from a government perspective? Why do you think it's important, the
government? Why are they taking an interest in entrepreneurship?
Absolutely. So our office was just created a couple of years ago.
We're the first office of entrepreneurship chip in the whole
nation. And so we base this office off of
the idea that every business has the right
to start. And we're here to provide
advocacy. We're here to provide the navigation, the
tools to allow traditional small businesses, high
impact businesses, tech business innovation businesses,
the resources that they need to be able to
start, elevate. And if they
want to exit, we'll have a plan for them as well. And to have that
leverage within state government is very important because if there are
barriers, we are the ones who are facilitating those
conversations within state government. If there are issues, if there are barriers,
we're trying to remove those barriers. You know, if there's somebody who can't get ahold
of somebody at another department or agency within the state,
locally, you know, city, county, federal, we step in and
we are the voice for these businesses. Yeah, I love that
so much. And you know, I don't, I don't know that we're taught a lot
about it, you know, through high school and stuff, maybe lately, but
I certainly wasn't. So I think it's just nice to have
places to go where you can learn for sure.
Okay, so right now you guys are having a call for the
pitch competition. Daniel, is that your area to talk about
what that is? Not so much. I think I hand
it off to Candi or Allison.
Candi or Allison. Pitch competition. Yeah, I'm happy
to share, I guess the logistics of it. And then Allison
actually has pitched in the competition before, so then I'll turn it over to her.
So we've, we've partnered with Pegasus Tech Ventures
out of the Bay Area. They put on this global competition
called Startup World cup and we're a
regional qualifier for that, which is really cool. We're actually one of the last
regional qualifiers as well before the grand finale
in San Francisco. And so,
so yeah, we have our application open right now through
August 15th. So if you are a startup
in really anywhere we prioritize Nevada
based startups like headquartered or operating in
Nevada, but truly is a pitch competition that's open to
anyone. So the top 10 from the application
process will pitch on stage on Wednesday night
of Startup Week. Awesome.
So Allison, do you want to tell us about your experience with that and what
it was like? Yeah, so it was
awesome. I think as a founder
in general, whether your startup is brand new or you've been doing
this a while, while it is great to pitch and practice your
pitch and figure out how to squeeze everything into, I
think last year was four minutes and that was
a challenge, especially as a technical
founder, you know, it was really, really cool and important for
me to kind of practice smushing everything into four minutes
and you know, understanding who my audience
is and not giving only technical detail, but a
little bit of everything. And it
was a really cool event, a really big night. There are
investors there, there's, you know, room to mingle
with people and you meet other people who are also
founders who are also nervous to do this and
just a really, really cool event. And just
anytime you can pitch is
I think super, super helpful. So yeah, I would
definitely recommend it. Four minutes is not a long time
either. You really got to get that, that pitch down. I tend to talk
a lot, I feel like too, so. But I
did it. Somehow I did it. You got to get the point across. So
I don't think anybody last year actually had to be cut off. So I
think everybody did a really good job of getting their pitches like down
to four minutes. And you know, the application is pretty easy as well. You know,
it's just sharing, you know, what your company is, what, what you're
doing, the product or service that you're providing. And then you send us kind of
an initial pitch deck and then we have a whole committee that reviews
those applications. So we select, I should add this, we select the top
10 to pitch on stage and then the 210 runner
ups this year will be invited to the Startup Fair
which takes place right before the pitch competition. So it's all
at Whitney Peak Hotel in their cargo concert hall.
So from like 4 to 6 we have the Startup Fair where you can go
and mingle and meet, you know, startup founders. There's a people's choice
award, so that was really fun for everybody to kind of vote
on who their favorite startup was in the fair. And then we go
into to the pitch competition on stage where we have those top 10
companies come up. So, you know, even if you're a startup and you're
thinking like, oh, I want to apply. But four minutes sounds very
intimidating. Just note you can apply and then if you're selected
you can revise your pitch deck. You can do all of that leading up to
the event to like truly prepare yourself for four minutes
which mimics the grand finale. So we want to make sure all the startups are
prepared for that. Awesome. And do you have to be from this
area to pitch? No. You do not?
Yeah, no. So last year we had a few startups
from the Vegas area as well. So you know, we,
we really prioritize Nevada based companies in that
application review process, either headquartered in Nevada
or operating in Nevada. The application,
because we're part of Startup World cup, the application is open
to anyone to app but the
priority is for Nevada based startups. Yeah, great
answer. Okay, Resource fair. There's going to be a resource
fair. Daniel, this. Is this a you question this time?
I think it's mostly Melissa. Daniel. What?
I'm just, I'm just here to watch. I just hang out. I mean. Okay,
we're going to get to you, Daniel. Don't worry. Daniel's for you,
Melissa. Well, maybe Daniel could help with the times because
we're going to have two very special, I guess, resource fairs. So on
Tuesday evening we'll have the Latino Small Business Resource Fair.
And that is happening I believe about 5:30
until 7, I believe is what we decided on.
And it's going to be focusing on, you know, resources for
the Latino community. And then on Thursday
from 11 to 1:30 we will
be having the general small business Resource
fair. And we have invited our partners, our
sponsors, but also the resources that are important and valuable
for our any business or any
individual who has the thought of wanting to start a business, they will have that
information available and ready to help them in a
situation system. We're expecting 50 resources on
Thursday and we're expecting roughly 30 resources
on Tuesday. So we're very excited. On Tuesday
evening that will take place at our Reno Public Market
and on Thursday will take place at the Reno
Experience District, specifically at the Element, the hotel
that's located there. So we're very excited. Monica has been
very helpful and so between her and myself we've been
spearheading these resource fairs. So I don't know Monica, if
you wanted to add anything else. Yeah, Monica, jump in. And you got to introduce
yourself a little bit this time too. Yeah, I think I, I was caught
off guard. I thought you were referring to Allison when he called on me.
Hi everyone. I'm Monica Terrero. I'm the head of volunteers for
Reno Startup Week. And by day, I'm operation
analyst at Accio, which is a startup that makes AI tools
for marketers and agencies. And just to
echo what Melissa stated, that we're really looking forward to
having these kind of really two succinct fairs for
additional resources for not only the Latino community, but
just the community at large and just
helping coordinate logistics. And we toured the Element
Hotel, which is kind of on that red apartment
campus, and it's really lovely. And the folks there are super accommodating, so we're
super excited for that. Yeah, that's awesome. There's a lot of
volunteer involvement in this, so I love that.
Daniel, can you just answer any question? That's a joke. I'm kidding.
You have. I know.
I thought I had it. I just had to make a joke at this point,
so. Breakout sessions, Daniel. So, hi,
I'm. I'm Daniel. I'm a Program Manager for Entrepreneurial Development
at EDAWN. I'm also the head of content
committee for Reno Startup Week. The
breakout sessions are really kind of the main content of
Reno Startup Week. So this year we're gonna have 60 sessions
during the day where we'll bring in amazing
speakers, both from the community and from the
surrounding areas to come in and help inform
people on all levels of topics. We were gonna have
sessions dealing with, like, how venture capital works.
We'll have some sessions with just investors on panels talking about what
they're looking for, but we also have sessions talking about the
challenges that brick and mortar businesses face. Startup Week
really is about all levels of entrepreneurship, and so we want
our content to reflect that. And Reno has
so many just great resources and speakers, and there's such a
depth of knowledge here, which is why it's really great to
see how many people volunteered their expertise
when they did the sessions. To speak,
we had over 100 different sessions get
submitted for Startup Week this year from just the community.
And so it's amazing the outpouring of
support that we get from everybody here in Reno. And so it's just really
hard. We have to narrow that down to 60 sessions, which is a
difficult task. Doug and Melissa are on the
content committee with me. They know how. How challenging it is to really sift
through all those ideas and try and pick out the ones that are going to
be most valuable to everybody. But I'm really excited about the content this
year. Yeah. If I could just add real quick, I think this is going
to be one of our core values is raise the bar and I just the
quality of content. We listened to a lot of people from last year. There's going
to be a lot more founder stories, people kind of sharing their experience in the
trenches. And of course, I don't know if anybody noticed but like there's this new
thing called artificial intelligence that seems to be
around and kind of important. So a lot of like practical
like how do you use AI to build a business
much cheaper and faster? And I think that's going to. There's a lot of content
around that and which is really practical. I'm very excited
about anything that makes starting a business easier.
So I think we're going to see a lot of interesting content across the board.
Founder stories and AI and the whole gamut. Yeah,
yeah. I will say I don't want to get too specific because I think
we'll be doing some more targeted announcements but we
will have some really high profile founders come
and share their stories. Yeah,
yeah, just kind of like tease, you know, we've got a pretty major company that
their founder is going to come and speak and that'll be a really great. That
came through through a partnership with the Entrepreneurs Organization, which is a great
group of entrepreneurs who are supporting the community
and they're helping get us some pretty high profile speakers. So really excited
this year. Oh, that's super fun. Yeah, good
job everybody at that. I am
curious now too. So we've talked about Reno Startup Week. There's a lot that goes
on to help entrepreneurs and small businesses get started
that is really no cost and some of you work for these.
So we see here that a lot of you are with EDAWN.
So if any of you want to kind of tell us what EDAWN's all about.
Sure, Yeah. I mean EDAWN is a. We're a regional development
authority, which is just a fancy way of saying we're a non profit
economic development agency and we are.
We're kind of the boots on the ground for economic development in the region
and we really focus on three things. A lot of
what you see in the news is like the attraction effort. So like bringing larger
companies into the area that are expanding or relocating other.
Other markets. We also do a lot of support
of companies that are here and that are growing or like once
they get here, how do they be success? How are they successful? So think like
workforce development, helping develop programs to create
talent pipelines and things like that. And then the third thing we do
is really what our team does which is we call it entrepreneurial
development, largely that is what I would call
ecosystem building, which is if you, you know, how do we
create an environment, AKA our community to be a place where
entrepreneurs can be successful? And much like a garden needs
sunlight and soil and water, an ecosystem needs
talent, capital, customers, low regulatory
environment. And so we work on all of those things so that entrepreneurs can
be successful. We work one on one with a lot of entrepreneurs, but mostly we
do that work through our entrepreneurial support
organization partners like the Small Business Development Center,
like the Innovation Center, like Startup and V, all of those different partners. But
our purview is really about the ecosystem as a whole. And I think
that's why Startup League is a perfect, you know, a
perfect demonstration of bringing all of these things together. Yeah, I love
that. I'm curious about the kind of the interconnection of
how government's helping and then how the, the non profit is.
Is going well, I'll just say I. Think, you know, everybody plays a
role in a healthy ecosystem. And so I think
that's important to understand. I mean you. It's not all driven by the business
community, it's not all driven by government, it's not all driven by, by university. Everybody
has a really important role to play. And we're really happy that
the Governor's Office of Economic Development created the Office of Entrepreneurship
and that was really driven by the legislature. And what that really does is that
helps us create policy, bring in additional
dollars and resources, whether that's in the form of grants
for internships, but helping set state policy. You
know, Nevada being a low tax, low resource state,
doesn't make as big of investments in innovation as some other states. But
now with the introduction of the Office of Entrepreneurship that helps
us bring more money to support innovation.
And you can really feel this in the North. Our economy
is fundamentally different than it was even
six, seven years ago, but much more innovation
led. And that didn't happen
without, you know, really a partnership of the university, the
governments and all the different esos. So I. It really takes a
village to support entrepreneurships because it's really part of the ethos and
DNA of a community. So you need everybody's involvement. Yeah, I love
that. So Melissa, what what would you
your back add to the why it's important for government to
be involved with nonprofit and how that works to help with
entrepreneurs. Yes. You know,
Carson oversees our embed program which is, you know,
the innovation based economic development initiatives.
And so you know, he's helped to bring different programming to the
state of Nevada. You know, from you Know, Doug
spoke on the SSBCI program to funding through the
Knowledge Fund for Generator, Zero Labs
down in the South, Sage program. And so, you know, these
programs are what help kick off some of our founders
for our state. And you know, the Overall goal for GoED is to
attract entrepreneurs, business owners to come to
our state. But then we also want to make sure that they have the resources
and the tools to stay in the state of Nevada. That's our overall goal. What
can we do to supply different
everything that they need from, you know, funding to workforce
to connections with our, you know, partners and
organizations that are here, local and where can we make those
connections and connect the dots for them? So it is important for us to be
a part of it, involved in our
entrepreneurial ecosystem. And like I said
earlier too, you know, we are the voice for our small businesses in the
state. So we are here to amplify. And also, if there are
barriers, what can we do to communicate those barriers to our lawmakers?
Are there regulations? What
red tape is preventing our entrepreneurs from
being successful here? So we do create an annual report that our
lawmakers read, hopefully, and then we make
recommendations on what needs to be done to,
to move forward. So, you know, that's how it's important for government to be
involved. Yeah, I love that. And I know you are out and about in
the community all the time because I see you all the time. So thank you
for that. I try to be the soundboard, you know, try to listen to every,
you know, it's important to hear the good and the bad. The success stories is
important. So, you know, what may be good in a
community, can we take that and replicate in a
different community and maybe make some adjustments? What's working
here could work somewhere else just a little bit differently. You know, our
lawmakers don't want to just hear about the bad, they want to hear about the
debt as well. If you watch what happened, what has
happened historically is government over time
has favored larger business, like even like a small increase in the
business license fee disproportionately impacts small business. And so
the Office of Entrepreneurship was born out of the right to start movement, which
is really about how do we help government shift back to
help supporting all businesses. Because just as a nature of time and
power and all that stuff, it has shifted away in our country. And you've nationally,
you've seen a decline in entrepreneurship over the last 20, 30 years.
And so there's a national movement afoot to change that. And so we're just,
you know, we're on the forefront of it. And you know, you, you kind of
asked this before, but like, why entrepreneurship? Like, I mean,
just, I'll just say one thing. Entrepreneurs create
all the new net or the vast majority of the net, new jobs. So think
about that. Like, not the big firms, the small firms are creating the new
jobs. You know, I'm just going to pick one prompt. Engineer
did not exist two, three years ago. It wasn't even a thing that was
created by startups. So they, you really have to understand that startup companies
and small businesses are the engine of innovation and
job creation, not the large companies. And so that's really,
there's other reasons, but that's one of the primary reasons to support entrepreneurship from
an economic development standpoint. Yeah.
Anything to add to that, Melissa? You're nodding your head a lot. No, because I
agree with everything that Doug says. And you know, and Doug was such a huge
advocate for bringing, you know, the first office of
Entrepreneurship to Nevada. You know, we're the first in the
nation. So, you know, you know, we're very thankful to Doug who
advocated for, for this office as well as some others. You know,
with Heather Brown down in the south with the idea with the right
to start that every business has every right to begin and
elevate and grow in our state. So thank
you. Yeah. Awesome. If anyone's coming to
Reno Startup Week, are there ways to find out
about all these organizations there and get connected? Will that be something that
can happen at Reno Startup Week? Yeah, yeah.
I mean, that's, I think that's one of the primary things. I mean, there'll be
through the resource fair, through the mini talks, we're going to
have lots of opportunity for people to engage in a part of,
I mean, part. I mean, this is all about people. And so there'll be
really open access to people that run these
organizations. Their profiles will be available. So there'll be lots and lots of
ways for people to connect with the different organizations.
And just to jump in here too. I remember the
first, the first year I went, I was
definitely a little lost. And then honestly, within
the first day of going to the event, I was mind blown. You know,
I came out of that week with a business mentor with
a score mentor, which is another organization.
I learned about how I can work with the local university
unr to do some science. I just,
that resource fair was amazing. So yes, I
could vouch for everyone saying, you know, you'll come out
of it being mind blown as well. I'm
confident of that. I love It. Monica, do you have anything
to add to that too? I know you're on the, on the entrepreneur side here.
Yeah, I think it's. I think as an attendee,
you realize the breadth of the
type of entrepreneurship that Reno has. Like, I think when we think
of entrepreneurship, we think of a specific archetype, you know,
sometimes. And also kind of in our current climate, it's like, oh, it's the
AI entrepreneurs that are really leading the movement,
which. Yes, but like, it's
both. And like, yes, that is true. But there's also these
other types of companies, like not
only software technology, but the restaurant industry or the wellness
industry. So it's like a good way to kind of like, like really tap
into like the underbelly of what's happening here.
Yeah. So please attend. It'll be fun. I mean, just
a fun fact, like only like 1% of all companies get
venture capital. And so although, you know, we, we talk about
that and that's great because you see innovation happen with dollars and things like
that. The vast majority of companies that are the major employers
are not that. And so I think this is where the partnership with
entrepreneurs organization is so important. You know,
most of the entrepreneur. Well, to be a member of eo, you have to hit
a revenue threshold. And those are not generally
venture backed, angel backed companies. Those are traditional,
you know, service businesses, product companies that kind of, like you said, the
infrastructure of our community. So they're, you know, we like, we
value all entrepreneurship equally. I mean, I know that the AI stuff gets all
the headlines and so we're excited. But at the end of the day, if you
want to create a diversified economy, you want companies across
all sectors, you want them all to be successful. And
we're trying to create resources that support that. And part of that is just
that education process. People often see Shark Tank
and think, oh yeah, yeah, I need to go get an angel investor. And most
of the time that's not true. And so I think no is the
second best answer a lot of times. So if someone comes in and thinks, hey,
I need an angel investor. And they realize, hey, wait, wait, that's not for me,
that's a win. Because then they can focus their energy on getting
a CDFI loan or new
architecture credit to a revenue base. So I think part of that is just helping
people understand there's a lot of resources. But what are right for me,
for my business right now, if we can walk away with that, that would be
huge. And on that note too, if
whoever might want to jump in on this, but just for businesses that are already
established, I know a lot of them. From what I've been hearing from
businesses are asking about AI and maybe what they can do
to improve. So is there going to be some things there
for established businesses, maybe AI or other things that. That
will be helpful to business, current business owners? Yeah,
absolutely. As Doug was kind of talking about with the content,
there's a lot of sessions that will be focused on AI
and how you can leverage it to optimize your
performance, how you can make
your operations a lot more efficient. And even looking at starting a business,
you can start businesses now so much more
leanly because if you leverage AI effectively, you can
have less people involved. And it's amazing stuff
that you can do. And we'll have a lot of different people, a lot of
experts who are going to help and share their wisdom with
what they've learned with AI. So it'll be great opportunities for all levels of businesses
to learn how to use it effectively. Yeah, that's exciting. And I think
it could it be like, historically, what do you all think? That it just usually
the people that start businesses are the ones that have access to a lot of
money and then it kind of makes it harder for that barrier of entry
for people who don't have that money. Yeah, I think that's one of the things
I'm most excited about. AI. You know, you've seen different
iterations of this like Web 1.0 and SAS. They've lowered the barrier, but
this is, I think, the first time where you can. Where you it.
My optimistic view is this will democratize
entrepreneurship even more. You know, if you can
build something with fewer people and less resources in the
beginning, that just opens up that for much more people. So what you can really
do is de risk your business for much less money.
And then once you've de risked it, then it opens you up to different resources.
Historically, it took a lot of money and so it was. It shut
out a lot of people. But now if you walk in there and say, look
what I've done on $5,000 and you have proved that there's
a market that opens you up to a lot more capital. So those types of
efficiencies and tools really lower the barrier and
create a lot more opportunity for entrepreneurship. I was going to
jump in about like an attendee experience. Like, I
think there is this idea that
in order to attend that you have to like, want to
be a founder of a company. But there's so many roles in
business that like you don't have to achieve to be
a chief executive officer. Like, you could be really good at being
a controller or really good at being a people ops person.
So I think the educational element of Reno Startup Week is quite
valuable because you can, like, see yourself in many different
roles that are. That do exist, that maybe you didn't have access
to before. And what do you all think of
just the networking aspect of it, of going and meeting other business
owners or entrepreneurs or all the things in Reno?
I was actually just right after Monica spoke, I was just about to say
that, you know, even just as a networking opportunity,
I think it's. It's wonderful. You know, first of all,
if you are a founder, meeting other founders and sharing
your idea and just getting feedback over,
you know, the coffee, meet and greet in the morning or over,
you know, you grabbing food during a break.
But I actually encountered, you know, I shared my idea the first
Startup Week, and there were some students there
even that were like, oh, I'm a chemist, you know, I'd love to just
come work for you. What does that look like? Or there are a lot of
people from the financial industry and different banks
just coming to network and, you know, you
can learn a lot from them about getting business lines, loans,
and, you know, like Monica said, just being a controller
or. I. I think it's just everyone you meet there
is kind of a. At least for me, every
connection I got made another connection. You know, you share
your stuff, they share their stuff and what they do, and they're like, oh, I.
I know somebody. I can connect with you. And so,
yeah, I think one other thing that's really cool about
Reno specifically is the whole biggest little city
thing. And I moved to Reno about four years ago,
and that is so true. So you have an event like this
that you. You would get in a big city,
and it's the quality of something you'd get in a big city like San
Francisco. But the level
of interaction with people and
people are also just very nice here. I feel like it just.
Everything feels more reachable and you can talk to
a lot more people. It just. It feels. It feels good. And
I think that the networking aspect is huge. Even if you
don't go to any of the talks or anything like that.
Yeah, I agree. Oh, I was just
gonna say, you know, yes, every night we have kind
of a big headline event that's, you know, really
encouraged people to come and network. And sometimes I think people, you
know, just think networking in that traditional sense of like, oh, I'm Showing up to
an event where I don't know people, and I just have to, you know,
go, like, meet strangers and mingle. And, like, we
really make an effort to make sure connection
is happening throughout the whole week and very
organically, because this is feedback we've received over the last
couple of years, is that people are like, I just want more time, like, after
the sessions, to. To mingle with people and chat with the speakers and
all of that. And so we've. We've really intentionally built that
time into the schedule this year with breaks in between
sessions. We have Hub Coffee at Red.
Red is, like, our designated coffee shop this year.
So we're really excited to have a place that people can, like,
connect with somebody and just sit down and, like, talk a little bit longer about
their ideas. And then over the lunch hours, we're
bringing in food trucks, and Red has this, like, beautiful lawn
space in the middle. We're gonna have some DJs from K
-Wink, and just a place that you can feel like you can hang. Like,
you. You've been to sessions, you're kind of getting to know people, but you
can really deepen those conversations throughout the
week. So I think networking sometimes has, like, a bad connotation
of, like, oh, you just have to show up to an event with strangers. But
it. It happens so organically, and when we've heard that
over and over from the years, that people want more of it. Yeah, I know
when I first into Reno, which is not that long ago, I went to a
bunch of different networking events, and I feel like that's where I found my best
friends. It is. I don't even think I know. So it's like, if you're
in business and you have an entrepreneurial, like, you know, you might, you know, find
your tribe of people there that you want to hang out with, too. And
so. And, Doug, you also have the Growth
Pioneers podcast. You want to tell us about that for a minute? And is that
tied in kind of with this whole thing with. With entrepreneurship
and your passion with that? Yeah, for sure. I think that the core idea there
was. I just got to have all these amazing conversations with
innovators in our community, and I thought, well, it would be better if I could
have this, if other people could participate in that part of one of
the. You know, so that's. That was sort of the initial thought behind Growth
Pioneers. But also, you know, as you think about what we're really
trying to do, we're trying to create a culture of entrepreneurship, and
we're not trying to replicate Silicon Valley, but like if you go to Silicon Valley
you don't have to explain what startups are and why they're important
in communities that don't have as mature of ecosystems.
It's not always clear why startups are important. Right. And
so role models are a critical part of that. Like we need to be able
to show people, hey look, this is a pathway and you can make
your ideas happen and you can do it here. So that's one of the core
tenets of growth. Pioneers is to really showcase the
other the entrepreneurs and the innovators and the thought leaders that are really
driving change in Northern Nevada. So people a
see it can be done here but then also can be inspired by them or
meet them or collaborate. So that was really the impetus behind why we
started Growth Pioneers. Yeah, I love that and
great podcast and it's local to Reno. What I'm doing is a
little bit more national but Reno heavy because this is where I live of course
and where I meet so many cool people. But if you're
anywhere else in the country there are startups, startup weeks or
travel, you know, be proactive and do spend money
and get the hotel and travel and come. So,
so for anyone who wants to get involved, you can always come.
The event hasn't happened. But what, what are other things we're still looking for
to get involved with this? You know, this as we've talked about before, this
is a free event. So every dollar makes a
difference. This is a loss leader. You know, there's this all, every
dollar that we raise goes directly back into the event. So
sponsorships are critical. You know, we're
still working out. I think one of the things that we haven't really talked
about as much is, you know, something that's deeply important to me and I think
everybody here is the well being of entrepreneurs. So like we're talking
a lot about tactics and external game, how do I sell things. But
really a huge part of entrepreneurship is the internal game.
And so we are looking for people to help us create
some wellness opportunities. Whether that's meditation or breath
work or I'd love to have massage.
We have this really cool geodesic dome that the city
had for the western lights. And so we're looking
to activate that. So
yoga, all of those things. So we're still looking for people to help us activate
that. And I don't know, Monica, you've got a bunch of DJs. I
mean it's going to be really fun this year too. Got Music, there's going to
be art, there's all sorts of fun things that are happening. Yeah. So
why the emphasis on health and wellness? That's how we're, you know, we haven't talked
about that yet. Well, I think,
look, I think if you don't have your mind right
or you're not aligned, you're going to create something from the
wrong, from a place that's not the most effective. So, you know, having
been and worked with coaches and worked with lots of entrepreneurs, I think some
of the energy that drives entrepreneurship can also be
not the most helpful. Like it can be kind of a double edged sword. And
so my personal mission is to help get aligned
entrepreneurs. So I just. Plus, I mean, look, it's
like having a child and it's thankless at the top
sometimes and it's hard. And so making sure that you
take good care of yourself is the right thing to do for
your company, your people, all of those things. You can't
really separate out those things. I just think that
we haven't always talked about this and I think it's a really critical
component. If you look at YPO or
EO, the origins of why these organizations were created was
really around loss, around founders that took their
own lives. And so at the core, you
know, we want to do things that really help
entrepreneurs deal with the complications of this. I
mean it is very hard to go from something to nothing. And
it really is best done as a team sport.
And the community of support is here and we want to provide
those modalities to help people navigate the
complexity, whether it's, you know, education or internal or
anything along those lines. So Candi, maybe you have,
I'll add to that. I mean, I love wellness as well. Like I'm a
yoga instructor and yogi and like have practiced that
and I really got into that while I was an entrepreneur. Like I don't, I
don't know that I would have, I guess gotten that
curious about like myself and how I operate if I
hadn't stepped into that entrepreneur role. So to me,
like Doug said, they just go hand in hand. And then
also, I mean to be really like tactical, like even
Reno Startup Week in itself can be a long week. Like
there's a lot happening and you're taking in like all of this new
information and new connections and it's really exciting.
But then we want to, to give people the downtime as
well of like, how do you integrate that? How can you just take a few
moments to like reflect and find silence in this week where
there's so much happening. And so that's. We're. We're super
excited. We're calling it, like our decompression dome of, like,
activities in there and just a space where, again, you can find
that, like, peace. Last year when we were at the Paloma, people were just,
like, lounging on the couches and like, sitting and meditating, and
we wanted to still bring that into red. And then, you know,
with this being a free event, I think it's another great
opportunity for founders to have access to these modalities
that maybe they've never tried before or they. They wouldn't
try unless they were in a setting like this. So,
you know, a lot of people are like, I've never been to a yoga class.
I've never tried a sound bad path. I've never even tried meditating. So
it's a really accessible kind of format and
place to do that. I love that. I really. I love so much that
these modalities are coming into more commonplace and being integrated in
all the areas in work, you know, where we all need it too. So. And
I'm seeing that happen a lot, and I love it. Can you guys all just
give me as. As we kind of wrap up
what you're most looking for forward to in this or anything that's just the
most exciting for you. And. And then
someone talk about the closing party when we do that. Daniel.
Daniel. Poor
Daniel. It's like he has so much information. He's hardly spoken this whole time.
No, I'm kidding.
Yeah, I'm. For me, I think the.
I'm most excited to see the. The new connections that people make.
I always get really inspired seeing the growth that happens out of these weeks.
So I was there. I've been an organizer for all three years for. For
Startup Week. And I remember last year,
my. My favorite moment of last year was watching Allison pitch
at the World cup, because I remember having her come
to the first weekend like, oh, I kind of have ideas for business, but I,
you know, don't really know what I want to do. And now you're pitching to
go on to, you know, pitch for a million dollars. That's just such
an amazing impact that we can see this week has
on people. And it's. It's tangible and it's.
It's just really great. And so that's always my favorite part is just to
see that all the work that goes into this, all the community partnerships,
all the long nights, it means something at the end of the Day. And
we are. We are able to make a difference and impact people's lives.
And so that's always what I look forward to the most. Yeah.
Thanks, Daniel. And tell us about closing night.
So closing night, it'll be a really great event. We're
going to be out on fourth street in the. In the Brewery district.
This year, we are partnering with Offbeat Music Festival for the
first time, which will be a really great collaboration.
So the Offbeat Music Festival, their opening
concert is going to be at the closing party for
Reno Startup Week. So we're gonna butt up right up against each other.
It's gonna be so much fun. We'll have a great talk
beforehand for all the Startup Week attendees, and then that'll flow
right into a concert next door or. And
that's, like I said, that's all going to be in the Brewery district, which is
really up and coming. There's a lot of great renovations going on down in that
area. And so it'll be a great opportunity to kind of see a new part
of Reno come into life and just being
able to enjoy the music festival and just, you know, the week
is. It's a long week for everybody, for people who attended, for people who organized
it. And so the closing party is really just an opportunity
for everybody to celebrate a little bit.
Entrepreneurship is hard, and I think this whole week is in
itself an opportunity to celebrate and
just really cherish those times that we all put in. And so just
wait for us to come together and party a little bit. Yeah,
can't wait. Monica, what are you looking forward to? And
you've got a lot of volunteering. Yeah, I'm really looking forward to
getting to know the volunteers more and then also getting
to know folks who, like, as we get closer to the
event, also want to volunteer. I think
what I really like doing as a community member is
like being a social architect of sorts. So I want
to have the volunteers volunteer
at an event or at a session that's going to set them up
for success or, like, percolate their own interests and
why they wanted to volunteer with us. So I think also just
like, expressing gratitude to them too, by just working with them
throughout the week. Like, I'm just really looking forward to that. Yeah, love
it. Who's next?
Melissa? I
feel that I'm the most excited about how our Impact Committee
has made such an impact this year. You know, we are
bringing different types of sessions this year, different types
of events. You know, with. This is the first year that we're implementing
Latino Night. And it's going to be about free
resources celebration. You know, there may be some special
treats when you arrive. And I'm really excited
to implement all these different types of communities in into Reno
Startup Week. From culture to business to
entrepreneurship. I mean, you name it. I am
very grateful for the Impact Committee that
has stepped up this year because without them, I wouldn't be able to
be able to provide feedback to other members
of this committee. So I'm so excited and I'm so looking forward to how we're
celebrating this year. I love it. Allison, what about you?
I think as a result too, of the Impact Committee and
more sponsorships, I think this event just gets a little bit
bigger every year. And so I'm just excited to
meet new people and see what Reno has to offer. I think
historically the startup
culture wasn't always big until,
you know, you guys started this. So I'm kind of excited to
see what's coming. And, you know, over the past many years, people have
moved from the Bay Area and Reno's becoming more of
this hub. So I'm excited to just meet new people and see what.
What new startups there are. Yeah, I love it.
Candi, what about you? Yeah, this one's
really hard for me to answer because sitting on the operations
committee, I get, like, the inside scoop of all the cool things that
we're doing. So, like, it's impossible for me to pick even
one night. Like, I don't mean to tease too many things, but
like, fire dancers, live music, like,
pitch competition, like, there's. There's literally going to be a lot.
I know we mentioned, like, the opening party and the. Or, well,
the. The rooftop party last year was the closing night. And,
like, so many people are just like, this was amazing with, like, the dancers. And
so I feel like my operations committee has really taken it upon
themselves to be like, we're gonna, like, outdo that, right? Like,
how do we do that every night? And so we have so much good stuff
in store and also just huge shout out to
really all of the volunteers. We call them the launch crew
that get this thing up and going. There's like 40 plus people that serve
on all of our committees. So I know sometimes we become like
the face of it, leading each committee, but there's so many people bringing
so many ideas into this week. So,
yeah, I'm really excited for. I guess if I have to
sum it up. Okay, sorry, that was really lengthy answer. But summing it up,
really being at Red, the Reno Experience district as like, our
home Base this year, I think, is going to really makes
for some very cool vibes throughout the whole week. Just
giving us a place to kind of call home and, like, meet and mingle
and connect every day will be really cool.
Wonderful. Doug, what are your thoughts
and take us home. You might have some other questions, too.
Honestly? Yeah, I think. I mean, just for me,
I'm just super humbled by the fact that so many people have come together
to make this happen. Right. I mean, take from my
perspective. I've been doing this work for 13 years. And we first started, people thought
we were crazy, and now there's an entire community of
people who are willing to give their most valuable resources their time for the
benefit of the entrepreneurs. And that, to me, is
just deeply humbling. I'm very
excited about so many elements of it, but I have
called in some of my friends and entrepreneurial buddies from
around the country that will be coming in and sharing some of their wisdom. So
I'm really excited to share our community with some people that are near and dear
to my heart, that have been very impactful in their own communities.
So there's, you know, that's part of it. And just. I
don't know, I just love seeing the culture
evolve and the fact that we are casting a wider and wider net. And
it's not just lip service. We're working really hard at making sure
everybody that can be there will be there. So I think that
that feels great. And then, you know,
I'm excited about all the music. Honestly, I'm a big music fan, so, like,
daytime DJs, or maybe like some morning music partnering with
Offbeat. I mean, like, it's like chocolate and peanut
butter. They go really well together. I'm really excited. Like, it's cool. It's gonna be
super fun. So, um, yeah, I just. I mean, every aspect
of this, I just feel like this is like the culmination. This is a. It's
a beautiful demonstration of what an ecosystem is. I mean,
like, this is a network. Like, entrepreneurs live in networks,
and we're creating a magical network that will
hopefully have these emergent things that come out of it. So I, you know,
I. I'm just excited to see what comes out of it. I know that the
programming and the content, all that will be amazing and it'll be super fun.
And then, you know, this is. We'll just have to see
what the net result of this is. Usually it takes a while to really
feel that, but I think just year over year and just by
seeing the amount the amount of businesses and the sophistication level, the founders and all
of that keeps increasing. I think we're just. It's just going to keep
seeing more great things come out of it. So it's hard for me to say
one thing. I'm just. I'm excited about all of it, and I just really appreciate
the opportunity to come on to your show and to be here
with, you know, so many people that are instrumental to making it
happen. It's a real honor. I got chills, and I'm trying not. To get emotional,
so you guys are all so great, and I've had
conversations with, with all of you, and I am so
excited for this event. And I. I had never seen or experienced it
anywhere else. I've lived and I've lived too many places, I think.
So this is very exciting to me that there is something like this
in Reno that people can come to and, and really get
grounded on new ideas and a new direction forward,
maybe, and kind of rethinking what they've been doing and
restarting and it's, it's. Or, you know, starting just
right out of college or however they're doing it. So that all
of that is very exciting and I love your work and things. Thank you all
for. For coming on and for Doug for kind of
doing this double podcast. Do you have any other questions that you'd like
to ask that's specific to your podcast or. I
mean, generally, in my podcast, it would. I really
helped create the whole founder journey, I guess. You know,
Mary, I. You know, I'm. I'm curious about your journey.
I mean, that's what I. If we were on my podcast, it would be all
about your journey. So, I mean, I'm always curious about how you got here and
what you've done. Yeah, you know, I'm actually
given a talk in a couple weeks. I know I gave a talk last year
at Reno. Well, let me say this. At Reno Startup Week last year, I gave
a talk on how entrepreneurs or business owners can use
socials without losing their mind. Just, you know, so,
like, have some stuff on there, but plan it out, but, you
know, don't like, panic and have your phone a certain way.
Socials will drive you crazy because they are important for social proof, but not
necessarily like something you want to put all your time into, which you could do
that. That's my opinion. So, yeah, I am. This is.
I. I grew up in the Midwest, raised
kids in Nashville, Tennessee, moved to Atlanta, Georgia after divorcing,
and then have lived here for a year and a half. So was an
actor in Atlanta prior to this film television.
I raised seven children, three and adopted
four and helped my ex husband, I think, grow
his business. So that was a lot of what I did in those years.
Had some health issues with Lyme's disease. So it's like, yeah, my life has
taken several different, interesting
pathways. So one of the, one of the things I love
about doing this and the focus of this for me is healthy, happy,
wise, wealthy. So, you know, when you're
starting over, which I've done now, you know, it's very challenging to start
over. I, you know, I moved here by myself. Right. I
was not married. And so I'm moving to family,
but also moving away from family and moving into
kind of a new career, which is a combination, a media sale. So it's like
I'm taking the knowledge I knew from media and then the knowledge I knew from
sales, but also kind of gave up acting
in a way because that was. I was with a main. A
big agency in Atlanta where I'm getting auditions for
bigger shows. And that's. I do have an agency here, but it's
not as. Not the same audition
types, so. But I'm thankful for them, thankful for everyone
who's given me any kind of help along the way. And
with Erika, she's someone that I met in Atlanta, so I had done a
hosting show in Nashville when I first started getting into
acting, and then I did a segment in one in Atlanta.
So she's like, let's do a podcast. And I'm like, I don't think I could
even begin to try to do a podcast without her help.
So she is a rock to me and I'm so
grateful for her, I can't even tell you. So I decided to just, just jump
in. And even though life is busy and this is hard and so
but for this podcast, it really is about all these things in, in my
course of life that has been,
you know, like this led me a lot of different directions and to really. I
know I can speak the language of a lot of different professions, even in that.
So, you know, I've done real estate. My ex was in
insurance, so my parents are teachers. Like, there's not,
there's not a lot, you know, there's a lot of professions. I can kind of
speak the language of so to speak. So healthy, how do
we, when we're redoing, if life has not been great, if you hit some
real obstacles, how do you regain health? How do you regain Your
helping, happiness, wisdom,
and then wealth. So wealth is
a lot about what we're talking about here. Right. So how do you have rebuild
that with entrepreneurship? Starting a new direction,
starting right from college? It doesn't really matter. I really think I would like
everyone to find the direction they really love
in life, the area they really love. Buy a house and build a garden and
do yoga. So there you go. That sounds
great. I love it.
I appreciate your vote vulnerability. And I appreciate, you know, like, we're really
lucky to have you. I think, you know, go.
I wear. I wear a bracelet that says everybody needs your love. And it's. It's
just a reminder that everybody carries with them some thing that's not
always apparent, like divorce or disease or something like
that. And I just really appreciate, you know, how you.
You're turning in that you're transmuting that into something positive for the world.
And so we're just, we're very fortunate to have your community. And thank you for,
you know, creating this space where we can talk about the thing that we're overly
passionate about. Yeah. Thank you, Doug. And thank. And thank you
to all of you. I'm just, I'm so excited for this event and,
and so excited to see you all there in person. Probably we'll see you
beforehand too, but thanks for your time today. So
thank you. Take
good care. Thanks
for joining us on Healthy, Happy, Wise Wealthy. If you believe in stories
that inspire and uplift, then please like share
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next time. You all have a wonderful week. And
keep on keeping on feeling
like you're stuck in a hurricane because everything
around you just keeps on turning I can
see searching for one escape.