BoiseDev full coverage | Our Event Picks | Full Schedule
Boise Entrepreneur Week is back and fully in person! With dozens of events, there’s so much to do and see. We’ve picked a few best bets for this week’s events.
Tuesday, October 25
- Does Anyone Really Want to Work in Home Construction Anymore?
- 11am-noon, JUMP – 5th floor JUMP room
- The pitch: Young people preparing to enter the workforce today have more career options than possibly ever before. How can the home construction industry collaborate with educators to engage with the emerging workforce to help them be better prepared for or more interested in the jobs that are critical to constructing homes?
- Featuring: Jeff Roberts, Sean Kelly, Alex Beal, Pat Neal
- Successfully Raising Funds in Boise – A Founder’s Perspective
- 1pm-2pm, Trailhead (8th and Front)
- The pitch: Travis Hawkes, cofounder and managing partner of Capital Eleven, will host a fireside chat with two local founders. Landon Cooley, cofounder of PestShare, and Jonathon Fishman, founder of LeanLaw, will share their stories about building a startup in Idaho.
- Featuring: Jonathon Fishman, Landon Cooley, Travis Hawkes
- Past Pitch Competition Winner’s Panel
- 2-2:30pm, JUMP, 4th floor Inspire room
- The pitch: The proudest moment BEW over the last 7 years is awarding prizes to our pitch competition winners. Learn from the trials and tribulations of pitching at BEW and then going on to start and run your company from previous pitch competition winners;
- Featuring: Megan Lacy, CEO of Lumineye, Alexis Ranking CEO of Chillow and Adam Stock CEO of Cargo-Made. Moderated by Don Day of BoiseDev
- Local Solutions to Global Challenges for Entrepreneurs Today
- 3:15pm-4:15pm JUMP, The TENT
- The pitch: A Fireside Chat with Dilawar Syed and Mayor Lauren McLean.
- Women in Power Networking Event – Hosted by Idaho Women in Technology (iWIT), Women Innovators (W.IN) and Idaho Women’s Business Center
Wednesday, October 26
- VentureCapital.org Trailblazer Panel: Entrepreneurs Navigating a down market tips and tricks
- 1pm-2pm, Trailhead (8th and Front)
- The pitch: Mick Wiskechen CEO Idaho VCO will moderate a Founder and influencer led panel on how businesses can navigate down markets while scaling, raising capital and tips and tricks to survive and thrive.
- Featuring: Jess Flynn, Jodi Whittaker, Mick Wiskerchen, Melanie Rubocki, Amanda Reed
- Higher Education in Idaho with Governor Brad Little
- 3pm-4pm, JUMP Pioneer room
- The pitch: Join Governor Little as he discusses the state of Higher Education with Idaho College and University Presidents.
- Featuring: Gov. Brad Little, Kevin Satterlee, Gordon Jones, Cynthia Pemberton
- Cybersecurity Pitch Competition
- 4:15pm-5:30pm, JUMP – The TENT
- The pitch: This is a ‘reverse pitch’ competition, which means you don’t have to bring your own idea. Participants will choose a problem provided by industry partners and propose a solution in the form of a new venture. Teams will compete for cash prizes as they solve cybersecurity challenges critical to industry growth. At the same time, they will be building a viable venture for themselves and making helpful connections to mentors and industry leaders.
Thursday, October 27
- A Fireside Chat with Saalt Founder Cherie Hoeger
- 9am-10am, JUMP Pioneer Room
- The pitch: Interested in doing good while doing well? Cherie Hoeger, co-founder and CEO of Saalt, shares challenges that drove her to create a paradigm-shifting product and insights from building a thriving company.
- Featuring: Cherie Hoeger, Karen Appelgren
- Treasure Valley Tech Community Gaps – How do we improve our community to support tech startups and talent?
- 10am-11:30am, JUMP – The TENT
- The pitch: The tech community in the Treasure Valley continues to expand as well as change with the influx of remote workers leaving large cities to start a new life in Idaho. How can we come together and embrace the change as well as identify ways to continue to strengthen the community. From meetups, office locations, events, fundraising, and business development, there are many ways for us to improve. This is a community focused session where we can all come together to collaborate.
- Featuring: Tiam Rastegar
- Main Pitch Competition
- 1pm-4pm, JUMP – JUMP Room
- The pitch: This year, Boise Entrepreneur Week will provide more than Thirty Thousand in funding. Aside from cash prizes for winners and runners-up, Connetic Ventures will select an applicant from the main pitch competition, Trailmix or Hacking for Homebuilding to offer $100,000 in equity funding. The main pitch competition has allocated $50,000 for its grand prize winners and $10,000 for runners-up. The finalists are – Librarium, Pay4Me App, Galena Innovations, Shadowscape, Textual; Carehandler, Cafe Mule, Idaho Justice Project, TheOutfitter.Guide, Topline Revenue LLC, Soleni Shoes, LONDR, Dharma Dr and Chatterquant.
- Trailmix Food Expo
- 3pm-4:15pm, Trailhead (8th and Front)
- The pitch: Join us for our Food Expo to taste national and local food and beverage startup products. The food expo is the precursor to our Trailmix Pitch Competition that features seven startups with exceptional products who will be competing for a grand cash prize and shelf space at Albertsons.
- Trailmix Pitch Competition
- 4:15pm-6pm, Trailhead (8th and Front)
- The pitch: Join the Trailmix pitch competition where food and beverage startups compete for a cash prize to help launch their products. Judges will asses innovation, market traction, taste, shelf readiness for large retail, ingredients and the unique value proposition of the food product. You won’t want to miss seeing these seven startups pitch in our Trailmix Competition:
- Three Sisters Meat (ID) – All-natural, Northern Spanish-style dry-cured chorizo
- Sunshine Spice Cafe (ID) – Saffron green tea
- Freeze Dried Depot (ID) – Freeze-dried healthy and fun snacks for children
- The Retrogradery (ID) – Herbal-inspired superfood boosts for women’s cycle wellness
- The Farmer Foodie (MA) – Cashew-based cheese alternatives that are shelf stable, sustainable, and plant-based
- Newell Farmlands (NY/CT) – Fresh Whole Ingredient Marinade & Cooking Sauce
- Big Sandy Organics (MT) – Hand roasted ancient grains, similar to Corn Nuts, only better
- Block Party
- 6pm-10pm, JUMP plaza
- The pitch: Join us at JUMP for bands Lowfi and The Shivas, visit with our amazing sponsors, including a “Build Your Own Succulent” with the Better Business Bureau, food and fun!
Friday, October 28
- Meta and Kuna: How We’re Building The Metaverse in Idaho
- 10:15am-11:15am, JUMP – Inspire room (4th floor)
- The pitch: Meta’s community manager for the Western U.S. will walk you through the Kuna data center’s anticipated economic impact to the region, the company’s sustainability and water stewardship goals, and give you a preview of the future of social connection: virtual reality, augmented reality, and the artificial intelligence that powers the Metaverse.
- Featuring: William Marks
- Looking into the Crystal Ball – What Does Boise’s Sustainable Future Look Like?
- 12:45pm-1:30pm, JUMP – The Loft
- Boise is fertile ground for entrepreneurs interested in developing green services and technologies. While Boise’s quality of life and environmental and social amenities are the main attraction for these “ecopreneurs,” supporting institutions and organizations are vital to facilitating green business opportunities.
- Featuring: Steve Bergos