Start Dakota: Recent Episodes
Startup Sioux Falls
At Startup Sioux Falls, our dream is to empower founders to solve problems and start businesses that build a better future for themselves, their families, and their communities.
Start Dakota is a show by Startup Sioux Falls where we:
Dispel misconceptions about starting a business Uncover unique challenges faced by founders Highlight today’s problem solvers And build a stronger startup community for tomorrow
This project is powered by the SBA.
In this episode Terry Liggins, a CO.STARTERS facilitator and Brady Barr, a participant in our Bootcamp, share their experiences with the program and how it can benefit small business owners.
Website: https://www.startupsiouxfalls.com
Facebook: / startupsiouxfalls
Instagram: / startupsiouxfalls
LinkedIn: / startupsiouxfalls
Address: 100 E 6th St. Sioux Falls, SD 57104
In this episode of Start Dakota, Amos Buelow, Alisha Vincent and Scott Petersen discuss the nuances and building a tech company and the benefits of taking part in Startup Sioux Falls' upcoming software business accelerator.Website: https://www.startupsiouxfalls.comFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/StartupSiouxFallsInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/startupsiouxfallsLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/startupsiouxfallsAddress: 100 E 6th St. Sioux Falls, SD 57104
Chris Hintz shares the story of his business, Pinnacle Productions. Learn how it started and where the business is today!
When Julio Fuenmayor noticed that supply chain issues were causing problems for farmers and ranchers in the midwest, he found a way to innovate and create a new product that would solve cattle ear tag supply chain delays.
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Address: 100 E 6th St. Sioux Falls, SD 57104
In this episode, Brad Edwards shares his journey of stepping away from his corporate job and into entrepreneurship.
On the latest episode of Start Dakota, Startup Sioux Falls’ president, Brienne Maner, sits down with Saugat Pradhan, an ambitious young entrepreneur juggling both college and a career in real estate.
Pradhan is also a recent graduate of Startup Sioux Falls’ CO.STARTERS program, which he says proved instrumental in helping him define his ideal real estate customer.
At the beginning of the episode, he shares his experience growing up in a refugee camp in Nepal and moving to Sioux Falls in 2011. While it was challenging to relocate to a place where everything was unknown, from the people to the language and customs, Pradhan says he loves being in Sioux Falls.
“We didn’t have much in Nepal — we really depended on the government for food and basic needs,” he said.
He goes on to talk about his family’s experience as refugees and how that inspired him to pursue entrepreneurship.
“My parents came to America to give us a better life because they loved me and cared for me. I wanted to give back to my parents, and after I got here, I really liked the idea of owning your own business, working for yourself and not really depending on someone else to give you money or feed you,” he said.
Pradhan had part-time jobs as a teenager, but even then, he says he hated working for someone else. He began buying items at thrift stores and reselling them online. He would then take the money he earned and invest it into other ventures.
At just 21 years old, he is finishing up a degree in business administration online through the University of South Dakota, but he also has his real estate license with eXp Realty. He discovered the world of real estate investing online and quickly became intrigued by the possibilities.
“I met with other realtors in town, and they encouraged me to get my license so I could learn about the industry and then invest. As I started selling properties, I was like, ‘Wow, this is amazing. I can help people while I learn about what I want to do?’” he said.
He especially enjoys helping people from his community and from other countries who don’t understand English or need assistance navigating the world of real estate. He has been dedicated to meeting potential customers using tactics like cold-calling and networking all over town.
“Anywhere I go, I introduce myself to people,” he said.
In fact, that’s how he first heard about CO.STARTERS. He met one of our facilitators, Terry Liggins, at a Toastmasters event, and he encouraged him to apply to the program.
“The most important thing I learned in CO.STARTERS was figuring out your customer base … what kind of customer fits your business and marketing to those customers to build and expand your business,” he said.
He shares the following advice for aspiring entrepreneurs.
“Business is a hard field to get into, and you're not going to get results right away. It's going to take months, or even years. My advice would be to just learn about the business. What do you want to start, or what kind of field do you want to get into? Find a mentor or someone that knows about that field, and learn from them.”
There’s so much more to hear from this episode. Tune in today, wherever you listen to podcasts!
Show Notes:Connect with Saugat on LinkedIn. https://www.linkedin.com/in/saugat-pradhan-a24280206/
Submit an interest form for CO.STARTERS https://www.startupsiouxfalls.com/accelerator/
CO.STARTERS Challenge: RevenueComplete your “fieldwork” before the next episode:
Identify your revenue streams.
Add it to your business model canvas.
Track and identify trends and opportunities.
Business Minute: Learn more about the Community Navigator Program at startupsiouxfalls.com/start
Website: https://www.startupsiouxfalls.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/StartupSiouxFalls Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/startupsiouxfalls LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/startupsiouxfalls
Address: 100 E 6th St. Sioux Falls, SD 57104
On the latest episode of Start Dakota, Startup Sioux Falls’ president, Brienne Maner, sits down with Kesmond Willert, co-founder of Unseen Outdoors and a graduate of our CO.STARTERS program.
Willert started his business, which is focused on creating portable hunting concealment products, with his co-founder and childhood best friend, Dylan Dulas, during his sophomore year at South Dakota State University. Growing up hunting and fishing, he always had a passion for the outdoors, and in college, he began creating content for a successful YouTube channel called MinnDak Outdoors.
At the time, he and Dulas were shooting DIY-style videos for the page, and in the process, they ended up repurposing an old ice-fishing shack into a duck blind.
“We just had this feeling of ‘I don’t think we should post this, we might have something here,’” he said.
Dulas is a mechanical engineering graduate, and Willert, whose skills are more in marketing and PR, says the two complement each other well as business partners.
They took their duck blind prototype and began working on e-commerce plans, but after graduating, progress started to dwindle.
“We needed to get back on the right track,” he said. “We got out of college, had to pay the bills, and it felt like we were beating a dead horse for a while there.”
Moving forward with the product would be a financial risk, and Willert says they panicked a bit. However, he ended up connecting with Carrie Kuhl, a Brookings native and CO.STARTERS graduate. She encouraged him to check out the program, and to Willert, it felt like just what he needed.
“That's one of the things that's awesome about CO.STARTERS is you put yourself in a room with entrepreneurs — like-minded people. You have these great connections, but the other thing, too, was pivoting … sometimes you have to be willing to let go of your baby, essentially, and pivot a little bit to make something that can feed your baby,” he said.
Going through the program pushed Willert and Dulas back to the prototyping phase, and Willert says the product they have now is significantly better than what they originally created. Additionally, the CO.STARTERS team was able to connect them with Sean Weaver, head waterfowl rep for First Lite, a company Willert says they aspire to be like one day. “We ended up calling him on the phone around 6 p.m. and talking until about 10 p.m.,” he said. “That’s what’s cool about entrepreneurs … I think they understand the struggle and how much work it does take to get going.”
He continued, “One of the things is that you want to be wise and not smart. You do things that are smart based off of what you’ve learned … where being wise is you learn and listen from other people’s past mistakes and implement your decisions from there. In a matter of three to four hours, [Sean] probably gave us a year’s worth of knowledge.”
There’s so much more to hear from this episode. You don’t want to miss this one. Tune in today, wherever you listen to podcasts!
Show Notes: Learn more about Unseen Outdoors on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube. Submit an interest form for CO.STARTERS. CO.STARTERS Challenge: Distribution Complete your “fieldwork” before the next episode: -How you will distribute your products or service? -Use your canvas to visualize your distribution plan. -Identify if there are any missing steps or gaps.
Business Minute: Learn more about business financing from internal or external sources. This project is made possible through a partnership with Startup Sioux Falls and grant funding provided through the Community Navigator Pilot Program, powered by the SBA. More information can be found here: https://www.startupsiouxfalls.com/resources/community-navigator/
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Address: 100 E 6th St. Sioux Falls, SD 57104
On the latest episode of the Start Dakota podcast, Startup Sioux Falls’ president, Brienne Maner, sits down with Terry Liggins, CEO of TLC Services, founder of The Hurdle LIfe Coach Foundation, and a recent CO.STARTERS facilitator.
Through The Hurdle Life Coach, Liggins offers mentorship, coaching, guidance, and facilitation services to organizations looking to build bridges with people from different communities.
“My cup overflows with the work I get to do,” he said.
When asked about the “why” behind what he does, Liggins says the biggest thing for him is the importance of community and how it matters to families.
“I want our community to be a safe place for my 10-year-old daughter, and I want that for everyone else’s family, too. I want all people’s families to have prosperous, safe upbringings,” he said.
He adds that, as a person of color and business owner, it’s a powerful inspiration for kids who grew up like him.
“They may not be exactly like me, but we're very similar in some of our conditions and our similar upbringings, and I know that by being in business for myself, by letting my vision come to fruition, that's also giving people hope that they can have the same thing happen for them in their lives.”
Liggins went full-time with his business three years ago in 2020 after working for Lutheran Social Services (LSS) providing reentry services for adults coming out of incarceration. He says it was a wonderful opportunity, but he wanted to go deeper than the scope of his role.
The challenge of entrepreneurship was, in his words, figuring out “how business works.”
“I didn’t have that type of mentorship around me in my upbringing. I’m a first-generation business owner, and I had the passion, the spirit, and the faith, but the understanding of how to incorporate, how to stay in good standing with the law, that was all a learning curve for me,” he said.
“Now, I’ve learned quite a bit and am able to pass that on to others.”
In a way, his journey has come full circle, as he recently had the opportunity to facilitate a CO.STARTERS cohort through LSS’ Center for New Americans, one of Startup Sioux Falls’ partners through the SBA Community Navigator program.
Liggins says one of the major takeaways from that experience was the importance of cultural humility.
“It’s a posture and a mindset that allows all of us to stay in that learner seat as it takes us working with people from different cultures than our primary culture. Sioux Falls is filled with so many different cultures, so many different languages, so many different ethnicities, and that's a strength, and it's beautiful to see. But in order to leverage it, we have to keep the humility intact.”
That’s just a taste of the conversation. Tune into Maner and Liggins’ full episode — available now wherever you listen to podcasts!
Show Notes:
- Learn more about The Hurdle Life Coach Foundation.
- Learn more about LSS’ Center for New Americans.
- Submit an interest form for CO.STARTERS.
This project is made possible through a partnership with Startup Sioux Falls and grant funding provided through the Community Navigator Pilot Program, powered by the SBA. More information can be found here.
Website: https://www.startupsiouxfalls.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/StartupSiouxFalls
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/startupsiouxfalls
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/startupsiouxfalls
Address: 100 E 6th St. Sioux Falls, SD 57104
In this episode, Desiree Donovan shares her journey in taking the leap into entrepreneurship along with her CO.STARTERS experience. Check it out!
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David Clifford, founder of Trap Tipi and Director of Communications at Thunder Valley CDC and Brienne Maner sit down to discuss David's entrepreneurial journey.
On Episode 8 of the Start Dakota podcast, Startup Sioux Falls’ president Brienne Maner sits down with CO.STARTERS graduate and AMPO founder, Amy Pokela.
The two discuss Pokela’s vision for her business and the supportive environment created by the CO.STARTERS program.
AMPO is a tech-based business with a goal of creating solutions for nonprofits.
“I’m really working on building a web ecosystem where small and mid-sized nonprofits will be able to go in and get their tools, products and services right there on the web without having to contract with anyone,” she said.
“A lot of times, people say, ‘We need to be teaching people how to fish.’ Sometimes, you just need the fish. So with my business and what I'm doing, I just want to give people fish, and then that might help them at some point in time where they’re like, ‘Okay, now I want to learn a little bit more, and I want to read more about the strategy.’”
Maner asks Pokela what drove her to go out on her own after spending the majority of her career in the corporate world.
“I just reached the point in time where I was like, ‘I have knowledge, and I'm not scared to take risks, and I was sick of other people not really being willing to jump off the cliff with me, so I decided to do it by myself,” she said.
Having the confidence to go out on your own doesn’t mean you automatically have it all together though. The CO.STARTERS Canvas provides a structure for entrepreneurs to assess their business or concept and identify the gaps and challenges that are in their way.
During her CO.STARTERS experience, Pokela dug into the barriers she faces when it comes to building a tech business. She was able to pinpoint three primary needs: web development, content creation and customer acquisition.
Additionally, Pokela says she deeply valued the community that CO.STARTERS provided during a time when she was looking for answers and confidence as an entrepreneur.
“I really can’t say how invaluable the experience was. I’d be lost without it.”
That’s just a taste of this fantastic conversation between Maner and Pokela. Tune in to hear more about Pokela’s business journey and how CO.STARTERS provides a supportive, collaborative environment for entrepreneurs to move forward with their businesses.
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Address: 100 E 6th St, Sioux Falls, SD 57104
Jackie Wilson, founder of Who I Am In Christ share her passion for supporting other women and how it inspired her to start her own business. She also talks about her experience with the CO.STARTERS program facilitated by one of our spoke organizations, Embe.
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Address: 100 E 6th St, Sioux Falls, SD 57104
CO.STARTERS graduate, Kendra Cersosimo, shares her experience of going through our accelerator program and taking her business full-time. Hear what she has to say and learn more about the value entrepreneurs get out of our CO.STARTERS program.
Website https://www.startupsiouxfalls.com/startdakota/
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/StartupSiouxFalls
Instagram https://www.instagram.com/startupsiouxfalls/
LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/startupsiouxfalls/
Ryan Hussman, Social Enterprise Coordinator at Thunder Valley CDC (formerly) and Brienne Maner, President at Startup Sioux Falls, discuss their passion for supporting entrepreneurs and small business owners in their communities along with the challenges that come with it.
In Episode 4 of the Start Dakota podcast, Startup Sioux Falls’ president, Brienne Maner, sits down with Laura Smith-Hill of Lutheran Social Services (LSS) and the Center for New Americans.
They kick the conversation off by discussing an anecdote Maner had run across which posited that immigrants and new Americans tend to be more entrepreneurial and more likely to start a small business than people born in the United States.
Smith-Hill agrees, noting that entrepreneurship often comes up in her conversations with refugees and immigrants.
“They have this really organic entrepreneurial spirit, and when we have conversations about the type of work that they did before coming to the United States, it is not at all uncommon for people to say they had a shop — like a small shop that a family establishes in their community to solve problems and meet the needs of their neighborhood,” she said.
She adds, however, that it becomes more challenging for those folks when they try to do the same thing in the United States and come up against different structures and regulations.
“There are not a lot of barriers for people to do that in their country of origin. It looks a little different than it does here in the United States.”
Smith-Hill has been working with LSS for 21 years, and in her time, 47 different nationalities have been through LSS’ adult education program alone. Meeting the needs of such a variety of communities is a challenge, but it’s one LSS is deeply committed to.
“It is one of the delightful challenges of the work that we do in our little education program — and when I say little, it's between 400 and 700 students a year, typically. It's relative, but it feels small, because we're morning, afternoon and evening, and we are classroom-based, so we’ll have a group of five to 10 in this room, and five to 10 in that room,” she said.
Customization and adaptation are key when it comes to meeting varied needs and skill levels, and that’s a challenge Startup Sioux Falls has been tackling through the Community Navigator program as well, in part through its partnership with LSS’ Center for New Americans.
“When we were selecting which spoke organizations would be best to work with, it was a no-brainer to work with you guys, and the more you talk about your resources and your process, it's just so apparent to me that you're equipped to take on these challenges with grace and strength,” Maner said.
Megan Bartel, Executive Director of Women's Programming at EmBe and Brienne Maner, Executive Director of Startup Sioux Falls discuss the complexity of supporting women and families while accounting for individual barriers.
This project is made possible through a partnership with Startup Sioux Falls and grant funding provided through the Community Navigator Pilot Program, powered by the SBA. More information can be found here: https://tinyurl.com/p78avvep
In Start Dakota episode 2, "Building Communities of Rural Founders," Paula Jensen, Vice President of Program Development & Community Coach at Dakota Resources and Brienne Maner, Executive Director of Startup Sioux Falls, discuss empowering rural founders through their partnership, which is made possible by the SBA Community Navigator Pilot Program.
In our first episode of Start Dakota, Brienne Maner, Executive Director of Startup Sioux Falls and Jose Alfaro, CEO of CO.STARTERS discuss the impact that CO.STARTERS has on supporting communities of founders and how it can be a strategy that complements traditional forms of economic development. Tune in for an inspiring conversation between two leaders who are passionate about helping people start building.