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.

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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.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

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: Revenue Complete 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/ Website Facebook Instagram LinkedIn 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