MONTHLY CHANCE MEETINGS
Mon, Feb 6, 5 - 7 pm @ The Snake River Roasting Cafe ~ 50 W. Broadway
Please register below
Sometimes all you need is the right connection and a little inspiration. Well, what are you waiting for? Find both at our free monthly networking event. You never know...
Theme: Raising Capital: Entrepreneur Strategies & Approaches
Growing a company requires capital. For many entrepreneurs, one of the scariest and most daunting tasks is deciding how, when, and from whom to raise capital for their venture. What, for example are the advantages / disadvantages for different strategies? When do you decide to take a deal that requires compromise so you can remain in business? What really resonates with investors?
Join us at Chance Meetings on Monday Feb. 6th from 5-7 at Snake River Roasting Cafe to hear from a panel of successful regional founders as we explore these questions and more.
Panelists include Caitlin Iseler of happyly, Caroline Fabacher of All Hands Craft Cocktails, and Tana Hoffman of ILLA. Annie Morita, Silicon Couloir Board Member and experienced fundraiser, will moderate.
Caroline Fabacher is Cofounder and Chief of Staff for All Hands Craft Cocktails. To date, she has raised $10MM+ for her startup ventures.
Additionally, she is Senior Counsel at McGovern Law, PLLC where her practice centers on corporate law for venture startups.
Caroline made the leap to entrepreneurship as one of the three foundational partners of Canteen Spirits, an Austin-based canned cocktail company. After successfully launching the brand across more than forty states, she moved on to Springdale Ventures as Principal, where she invested in passionate, resolute founders of early-stage consumer brands to help them accelerate their vision while creating meaningful and sustainable value. Additionally, Caroline serves as the managing member of Spirit Bear Advising, which supports female founders across industries and entrepreneurs launching vice-industry businesses. She is also a member of the founding committee of BEAM, an Austin-based angel network dedicated to investing in female founders.
Tana Hoffman is a 3X founder, outdoor community leader, and Forbes Next 1000 lister who has been a part of the Silicon Couloir ecosystem since 2012. Most recently, she was selected to be one of the first Entrepreneurs in Residence at VF Venture Foundry (backed by VF Corporation: The North Face, VANS, Smartwool), where she secured funding to develop and launch ILLA: an adventure collective and friend-finding app enabling every outdoor woman to find adventure partners in their area, so that they always have someone to get outside with.
Caitlin Iseler is the CEO and co-founder of Happyly, the corporate wellness benefit that powers a connected and balanced workforce. With innovative scheduling tools and curated events, the happyly app makes it easy for teams to plan, gather, and share experiences in healthy ways.
Annie Morita is a tech and media executive who now calls Jackson home.
Before the global pandemic, Annie served as an executive with Apple, Inc. Based in Shanghai, China, she was business lead for the Internet Software & Services Division in Greater China, focusing on the App Store, and Apple Media Products (Apple Music, TV, iTunes, and Podcasts).
Prior to Apple, Annie held several key leadership roles at DreamWorks Animation including as COO for Oriental DreamWorks, DreamWorks Animation's first-ever joint venture in China. Annie worked on the creation of the joint venture and moved to Shanghai to set up operations and launch the new company.
A marketing and new media veteran, Annie has held top leadership positions at Warner Bros. Studios, Sony Pictures Entertainment, and Electronic Arts. Annie began her career with Turner Broadcasting System, Inc., as an assignment editor with CNN International before moving to Hong Kong as the head of marketing for Turner International Far East Ltd.
Annie holds a BA from Smith College and a master's diploma in patisseries and baking from Le Cordon Bleu. She currently serves on the board of 1% for the Planet, Grand Teton National Park Foundation, and Silicon Couloir. She is also a certified Wilderness First Responder (WFR) and a member of the Community Response Emergency Team (CERT).
NEWS AND NOTES
NOW ACCEPTING APPLICATIONS FOR START UP SUCCESS: FUNDAMENTALS
Do you have a business idea or want to take a new business to the next level? Silicon Couloir is offering Start-Up Success: Fundamentals, our annual business intensive program, this spring with world-class instructors Sandy Hessler and Liza Millet. Don't miss this opportunity to gain business skills, strategies, and tools with a community of your peers. This year, we've added an additional week at no extra cost.
Dates: April 14-16 (weekend), 5 Wednesday evenings following, May 19-21 (weekend), and Wednesday evening May 24.
“Silicon Couloir's Start-Up Success course program brings business school level insight to the convenience of our mountain town. Silicon Couloir's instructors and staff provide programming in marketing and business that provides students a realistic framework of what it takes to move a start-up from an idea to reality.”
— Robb Sgroi, Founder and CEO, Teton Bear Product
2021 Start-Up Success Graduate
JANUARY VISIONARY VENTURES: LET’S THINK ABOUT REDEFINING ENTREPRENEURSHIP
"When most of us think of entrepreneurism, we think of certain defining traits of an organization or venture, among them: scalability, rapid growth, and big financial rewards. However, over time, Silicon Couloir has come to recognize that entrepreneurism comes in all shapes, sizes and forms...The Teton region is full of small businesses started by individuals who took enormous risk and invested their own capital to build a successful enterprise. We believe those individuals who create small businesses also fit within our definition of entrepreneurship."
Read more to learn about how SC can support your business in the Teton region in our most recent Visionary Ventures column.
WORK SMART FROM THE COWORK SPACE
If you're looking for an affordable open office to work and collaborate, consider The Cowork Space. Full-time access to shared workspace and all amenities now available for $225 per month with no long-term commitment.
Located in the heart of Jackson, steps from the town square at 140 E. Broadway, The Cowork Space is an affordable communal work space inspiring creativity and productivity. We offer a workspace designed to create connections between the people who choose to work, live, and play in the Teton region.
Amenities include:
Fast, reliable internet
Dedicated and shared desk space in an open space filled with natural light
Phone booths for private calls
6-8 person conference room with projection and conference call capabilities
Kitchenette
24x7 access for members
Open 8 am - 5 pm, Monday-Friday for day pass holders
After-hours access when space is not in use for events
WELCOME TO NEW TRUSTEES
A warm welcome to new Silicon Couloir Trustees. Thank you to Wesley Chan, Anya Kopyleva, and Matt Wielbut for their generous commitment to supporting entrepreneurship in the Teton region.
Wesley Chan is the Co-Founder and Managing Partner at FPV Ventures, a $450M early stage fund that backs and serves mission-driven founders. He is an investor in five $10B+ "decacorns," his most notable being Canva where he is a member of the board of directors, led the Series A and C rounds, and is worth north of $40B. He founded Google Analytics and Google Voice and holds 18 US patents for his work in creating Google AdWords.
He was formerly a Managing Director at Felicis Ventures and one of the first General Partners at GV (Google Ventures). He led investments and/or held board seats in Xilis, AngelList, Opsera, Pendulum Therapeutics, ProteinQure, Okera, Ascend.io, Overture Life, TopFunnel, Spring Discovery, iPierian (exit to BMS), Transphorm (NASDAQ: TGAN) and Dialpad. Wesley also founded GV’s seed investing program and wrote first checks into RobinHood, Plaid, Gusto, RobinHood, Vungle ($750M exit to Blackstone), Lucid, Optimizely, DataPad (exit to Cloudera), Freshplum (exit to TWTR), Namo Media (exit to TWTR), and Parse (exit to FB). He holds a Bachelors degree in Computer Science and Electrical Engineering from MIT and completed his Masters degree at the MIT Media Lab. As a fan of the arts, Wesley is also a board member of the Met Opera in New York City.
Anya Kopyleva is a founding partner of Latin Pay, a fintech focused on providing a better financial experience for people traveling and sending remittances to as well as companies operating in Argentina.
Anya was a partner and portfolio manager at Gemcorp, an Emerging Markets focused fund based in London, from 2014 until 2020. She focused on the execution and management of investments across Africa, Latin America, and Eastern Europe.
She has spent most of her career prior to Gemcorp in Asset Management and Emerging Markets Trading at Goldman Sachs as an investment professional and trader in credit and macro and managing portfolios using quantitative strategies. Anya holds a B.S. in Math and a B.S. in Management (Finance) from MIT.
Matt Wielbut is the Chief Technology Officer of Openly, a tech-forward insurance company he co-founded in 2017. Openly offers premium homeowners insurance in 21+ states by combining insurance expertise, actuarial science, machine learning and other modern technology to create something completely new within the insurance marketplace. Some of Openly's earliest investors include Google (via their AI-focused fund, Gradient Ventures), Advance Venture Partners, Clocktower Ventures, and Obvious Ventures.
Prior to founding Openly, Matt spent four years as a Founding Partner at Elements Insurance, one of the fastest-growing property & casualty insurance agencies in Massachusetts, which he co-founded in 2013 and sold in 2020.
Matt began his professional career at Goldman Sachs as a Vice President in Engineering where he spent 8 years in New York and London
SPONSOR SPOTLIGHT
Welcome to our newest sponsor, Amboy St. Ventures, led by Founding Partner Carli Sapir. Amboy St. Ventures is the world’s first venture capital fund focused on Women’s Health & Sexual Health Technology startups. Sapir founded Amboy Street Ventures to initiate a shift in the funding landscape that has stunted innovation, investing in eight leading startups. Her portfolio companies including Contraline, a company developing the first long-lasting reversible contraceptive for men, Dame, a product line for female-focused sexual pleasure and Aunt Flow, a company providing free menstruation products to schools, business and public bathrooms.
"I'm thrilled to find a way to give back to SC as I really believe I wouldn’t have been able to start Amboy Street without you all," says Sapir.
In addition to being named to Forbes 2023 30 Under 30, Amboy St. is mentored by TEAMS.
ANNOUNCING FEBRUARY SMALL BUSINESS CASH
FLOW CLASS
Presented by Deliberate Dollars. Many people have a small business, passion project, side hustle or are an independent contractor but don’t know how much money they are personally making. What are your income goals? How much should be saved for taxes? Is your business working for you or owning you?
Deliberate Dollars’ Small Business Cashflow course will teach you simple financial systems to ensure that your business is serving you, paying your taxes and your cashflow can be easily summarized. Let’s make sure your business is working for you while you do what you love! No business is too small for this 3-week course!
Weekly group sessions (February 8, 15 & 22 6:00-7:30 PM) will be conducted online so people can join from anywhere. Individual sessions can be online or in person (Jackson, WY).
Interested? You can find all the details on the Deliberate Dollars website and specifically by clicking on Small Business Cashflow links. Space is limited to 4-6 people and the more accountability partners you recruit (aka participants) the greater your discount! Sign-up deadline to participate is Wednesday, February 1, 2023.
Any questions, please call or email Megan Smith, Chief Accountability Partner, megan@deliberatedollars.com, 307-699-0896.
LEARN MORE ABOUT SILICON COULOIR
HAVE NEWS TO SHARE?
As always, please feel free to send news of your company's press, events, successes, and milestones to Gary@siliconcouloir.com and we'll do our best to feature them in our newsletters!
ARE YOU A COMMUNITY CARETAKER?
Silicon Couloir strengthens our Teton regional community by empowering the entrepreneurial ecosystem. More than just business development, we believe in enriching our community character and enhancing our mountain town culture. Help us support business pioneers in the Tetons by becoming a community caretaker!
To offer your time or talent, please email us at Gary@siliconcouloir.com.