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Entrepreneurs! Start-Up Week in Reno 2026 Starts Monday · Healthy Happy Wise Wealthy

• Reno Startup week 2026 audio [Mary Meyer] Welcome back to Healthy Happy Wise Wealthy. We are wrapping up season two which seems amazing to me. We've made it to 66 episodes and this week I want to revisit Reno Startup Week because last year we had the whole crew on. There's still a part of it and next week is Reno Startup Week. This is a time for entrepreneurs, so if you're in this area you can still register for it. I've spoke out at the last couple years and I'm not gonna this year. I'm going I'm going to attend and I'm excited about that. I'm gonna share a little bit about what is going on with it. So we have on this screen right now what is Startup World Cup. So World Cup is one, this is part of many cities so if you're not in the Reno area and you're like I'm still curious about this Startup Cup it does there is funds that goes out to startups to entrepreneurs this is your chance to kind of to shine a bit and also with that it's going to really be a chance to see if your idea has legs to it if there's a way you can to make it go. So Reno Startup Week is presented by GOED, the Governor's Office of Economic Development. They are part of the Reno Startup Week group. There's all kinds of sponsors with it also. I'm scrolling through their website. If you want to sign up go ahead and go to renostartupweek.com. So this week starting Monday September 28th is when everything is going to happen. The headline events for this year are keynote. The opening keynote is Dr. Chuy Cepeda. I hope I'm saying that right. So he's going to talk on Amplify and that starts with the Peppermill on Monday at 1130. Also on Monday the Startup Bar Crawl is happening that night in Midtown. We have our Latin community, Comida and Community. That's Tuesday 5 to 10 at Reno Public Market. Build Better Expo Wednesday the 30th at Reno Public Market. Startup World Cup live competition is Wednesday the 30th 5 30 to 8 30 and also the entrepreneurs playground. Thursday from 4 30 to 8 30 the Oddie district. This place is is so cool. I believe that's at the Generator too. So and the full schedule is there and so wanted to share all that with you and now we are going to hear from the people who are leading it. 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 are also doing a podcast with Growth Pioneers. So Growth Pioneers is a podcast here in Reno that Doug Irwin 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? [Doug Erwin] 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 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 you know the next AI you know software platform or you're building a restaurant or a manufacturing company. So it's really targeted all those 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. [Mary Meyer] Oh yeah I can't wait to talk about the fun stuff. So just for the list people who are listening what what is a date of Reno Startup Week is coming up. [Doug Erwin] Correct. It's coming up into September, September 28th through October 3rd. 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. [Mary Meyer] Oh my god last year you guys got to talk about this with me. It was it was amazing you guys. I took so many pictures of that sunset up there and then the people were great and then you had Native Americans doing a dance and then it rained when they were doing the dance and like and then it stopped. It was rather magical. [Doug Erwin] It was pretty magical. We set a high bar. I'm not sure that we can cue the rain again but you know I think rain was cute. 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 zero to one or one to a hundred is a big part of what we're trying to do. [Mary Meyer] Yeah for sure and I know there's startup weeks all this is a 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? [Doug Erwin] 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 you know has always thought about being an entrepreneur maybe didn't think that this is for them we really want it 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. [Mary Meyer] 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? [Candi Block] I mean I'll kind of jump in so my name is Kandi I'm the director of entrepreneurial development at EDAWN and I help with operations and sponsorships for Startup Week and I've been an entrepreneur myself and so you know for me I remember you know when you're starting something 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. [Mary Meyer] 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 what did that matter? [Monica Terrero] 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 looking for like maybe you're like starting out an entrepreneur so I think just having it accessible to all is like one of our core values I'd say yeah oh I [Allison Greene] can jump in here to a founder and an attendee and so I'm Alison Green 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 and 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 [Mary Meyer] great yeah do you guys think that just having it be free and having it have an an emphasis on entrepreneurship that Nevada and Reno do put an emphasis on entrepreneurship new business does it does it does it fuel more entrepreneurs is it fuel more business what do you think of that I mean [Doug Erwin] 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 know what you just like so much of what happens especially in earliest entrepreneurs with 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 there's always debate well if you don't pay are you really committed to it but my I was at the design school at Stanford one time and they were discussing how if they put the prototype lab more than a hundred feet 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 form 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 what when that weed is going to turn into like Google or something I mean 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 in 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 [Mary Meyer] 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 you as you're with the Nevada governor's office of economic economic development so I'll let you introduce yourself a little bit and then just tell us why [Melissa Saavedra] 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 ffice 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 of 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 [Mary Meyer] to to be a part of this I love it could you speak also Melissa I'm gonna ask you just a second question why is this you know from a government perspective why do you think it's important the government why are they taking an [Melissa Saavedra] interest in entrepreneurship absolutely just created a couple of years ago we're the first office of entrepreneurship 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 that if there are barriers we're trying to remove those barriers you know if there's somebody who can't get a hold 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 [Mary Meyer] I love that so much and you know 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 [Daniel Smith] your area to talk about what that is not so much I'm gonna hand it off to candy [Mary Meyer] or Alison pitch competition yeah I'm happy to share I guess the logistics of it [Candi Block] and then Alison actually has pitched in the competition before so they'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 in Nevada based startups like headquartered or operating in Nevada but it 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 Alison do you want to tell us [Allison Greene] about your experience with that when it was like yeah so it was awesome I think as a founder you know in general whether your startup is brand new or you've been doing this a 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 smooshing 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 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 [Mary Meyer] recommend it four minutes is not a long time either you really got to get that [Allison Greene] pitch down but I did it somehow I did it you gotta get the point across so I don't [Candi Block] 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 ten to pitch on stage and then the ten 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 four to six we have a startup fair where you can go and mingle and meet you know startup founders there's a People's Choice Award so that is really fun for everybody to kind of vote on who their favorite startup was in the fair and then we go into the pitch competition on stage where we have those top ten 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 know you can apply and then if you're selected you know 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 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 apply but the [Mary Meyer] priority is for Nevada based startups okay resource fair there's gonna be a resource fair Daniel this is this a you question this time I think that's Melissa I'm just here to watch okay we're gonna get you Daniel don't worry [Melissa Saavedra] maybe Daniel can help with the times because we're gonna have two very special I guess resource fairs so on a 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 and assist them 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 our Reno public market and on Thursday will take place at the Reno experience district specifically at the elements of the hotel that's located there so very we're very excited Monica has been very helpful and so between her and myself we've been spearheading these the resource fairs so I don't know Monica if you wanted to add anything else yeah Monica jump in and [Mary Meyer] you gotta introduce yourself a little bit this time too yeah I think I I was [Monica Terrero] not off guard I thought you were referring to Allison when you told me hi everyone I'm Monica Torrero I'm 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 you know echo what Melissa stated that we're you know really looking forward to having these kind of really to succinct fairs for additional resources for not only the Latino community but just the community at large and yeah just helping coordinate like logistics and we toured the element hotel which is kind of on that red apartment campus it's really lovely and the folks there are super accommodating so we're super excited for [Mary Meyer] that yeah 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 just had to make a joke at this point so breakout sessions Daniel [Daniel Smith] hi I'm Daniel I'm a program manager for entrepreneurial development at EDON I'm also the head of content committee for Reno Startup Week the the breakout sessions are really kind of the 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 you know 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 when they did this some sessions to speak we had over a hundred different sessions get submitted for 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 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 they're gonna be most valuable to everybody but I'm really excited about the content this year yeah like if I could just add real [Doug Erwin] quickly I think there's gonna 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 gonna be a lot more founder stories people kind of sharing their experience in the trenches and of course I don't know if anybody you'd notice that like there's this new thing called artificial intelligence that seems to be around and kind of important so it's a lot of like practical like how do you use AI to build a business much cheaper and faster and I think that's gonna 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 gonna see a lot of interesting content across the board founder stories and AI and the whole gamut yeah I will say I don't want to [Daniel Smith] 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 but yeah just kind of like tease you know we've got a pretty major company that their founder is gonna 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 very high-profile speakers so really excited this year oh [Mary Meyer] 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 and we see here that a lot of you are with EDON so if any of you want to kind of tell us what EDON is all about sure yeah I mean EDON is a we're a [Doug Erwin] regional development authority which is just a fancy way of saying we're a nonprofit economic development agency and we are 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 markets we also do a lot of support of companies that are here and they're growing or like once they get here how do they be how are they successful so I 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 and 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 visit development center like the innovation center like start and be all of those four partners but our purview is really about the ecosystem as a whole and I think that's why you know start things a perfect you know a perfect demonstration of bringing all of these things together yeah I love that I'm [Mary Meyer] curious about the kind of the interconnection of how government's helping and then how the nonprofit is is going well I'll just say I think you [Doug Erwin] 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 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 you know bring more money to support innovation and you can really feel this in the north our economy is fundamentally different than it was you know 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 government's and all the different ESO's so I really takes a village to support entrepreneurship speaks this really part of the ethos and DNA of a community so you need everybody's involvement yeah I love that [Mary Meyer] so Melissa 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 [Melissa Saavedra] entrepreneurs yes you know Carson overseas are in that 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 something you know these programs are what helped kick off some of our founders for our state and you know the overall goal for go at 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 small businesses in the state and 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 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 what needs to be done to move forward so you know that's how it's important for government to be involved I love that and I know [Mary Meyer] you are out and about in the community all the time since you all the time so [Melissa Saavedra] thank you for that it's trying to sound bored you know try to listen to every you know it's important to share 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 it in a different community and maybe make some adjustments what's working here could work somewhere else so just a little bit differently you know our lawmakers don't want to just hear about the bad they want to hear [Doug Erwin] about the good as well if you if you watch what's happening 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 businesses 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 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 a foot to change that and so we're just you know we're on the forefront of it and you know you kind of asked us before but like why entrepreneurship like I mean just noticing one thing entrepreneurs create all the new network 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 yeah I'm just gonna 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 [Mary Meyer] development standpoint no anything to add to that Melissa you're nodding your [Melissa Saavedra] head a lot no 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 web 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 that's awesome if anyone's coming to [Mary Meyer] Reno startup week are there ways to to find out about all these organizations there and get connected will that be something that can happen at Reno [Doug Erwin] startup week yeah yeah I mean that's I think that's one of the primary things I mean they'll be through the resource fair through the mini talks we're gonna have lots of opportunity for people to engage in a part of I mean part I mean this is all about people and so they'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 [Allison Greene] 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 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 [Mary Meyer] you have anything to add to that too I know you're on the on the entrepreneur [Monica Terrero] 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 really tap into like the underbelly of what's happening here yeah so please attend and just a fun fact like only like 1% of all [Doug Erwin] 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 yo you happen to hit a revenue threshold and those are not generally venture backed angel backed companies those are traditional you know service businesses product companies they kind of like you said the infrastructure of our community so there you know we think we value all entrepreneurship equally I mean I know that the AI stuff gets all the headlines is very excited but they 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 you know we're trying to create resources that support that and part of that is just that education process if people often see shark tank and think oh yeah yeah that's 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 CFI CDFI loaned or you know new architecture credits or 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 that's if we can walk away with that [Mary Meyer] that would be cute so 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 will be helpful to [Daniel Smith] business current business owners yeah absolutely as I 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 you know make your make your operations a lot more efficient and even looking at starting a business you can start businesses now so much more leanly because you can if you leverage AI effectively you can have less people involved and this 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 that they are so we great opportunities for all levels of businesses to learn how [Mary Meyer] 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 [Doug Erwin] that money yeah I think that's one of the things I'm most excited about AI I mean you've seen different iterations of this like web 1.0 and sass a lower 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 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 de-risk 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 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 [Monica Terrero] 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 in 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 [Mary Meyer] 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 [Allison Greene] 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 loans and you know like Monica said just being a controller or 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 wait 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've 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 is huge even if you don't go [Candi Block] to any of the talks or anything like that oh I was gonna say you know yes every night we have kind of a big headline event that's you know really encourage 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 right 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 really intentionally built that time into the schedule this year with breaks in between sessions we have hub coffee at 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 DJ's from k-wing and just a place that you can feel like you can hang out 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 I 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 heard that over and over from the year [Mary Meyer] some people want more of it yeah I know when I person to read it 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 yes I don't 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 you and so exactly cool 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 this whole thing with with entrepreneurship and your passion with [Doug Erwin] 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'd be better if I could have this other people could participate in that part of one of the units 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 tenants 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 it can be done here but then also can be inspired by them or meet them or collaborate that was really the biggest behind why we'd [Mary Meyer] sort of growth findings 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 somewhere I meet so many cool people but if you're anywhere else in the country there are startups start up weeks or travel you know be proactive and do spend money get the hotel and travel income 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 [Doug Erwin] 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 lost 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 as you know it's something that's deeply important to me and I 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 you know I'd love to have massage we have this really cool geodesic dome that the city had for the Western Lights and so that we're at we're looking to activate that so you know what you know 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 gonna be really fun this year too you've got music there's [Mary Meyer] art there's all sorts of fun things yeah so why why the emphasis on health and wellness that's how we're you know we haven't talked about that yet well I [Doug Erwin] think look I think if you don't have your mind right or you're you're not aligned you're gonna you're gonna create something from the wrong from a from a place it's not the most effective so you know having been in it worked with coaches and work with lots of entrepreneurs I think some of the energy that drives entrepreneurship can also be not the most helpful 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 like making sure that you take good care of yourself is the right thing to do for your 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 have you know 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 you want to do things that really help entrepreneurs deal with the complications of 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 that you want to provide those modalities to help people navigate the the complexity whether it's you know education or internal or anything along those lines so I guess candy maybe yeah I'll add to [Candi Block] that I mean I love wellness as well like I'm a yoga instructor and yogi and like to practice 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 give people this 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 where 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 piece 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 bath 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 [Mary Meyer] modalities are coming into more commonplace and being interpreted 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 forward to in this or anything that's just the most exciting for you and and then someone talk about the closing party Daniel Daniel more Daniel it's like he has so much information he's hardly spoken [Daniel Smith] this whole time no kidding yeah I'm for me I think the I'm most excited just to see 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 a 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 week and when 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 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 that's always when I [Mary Meyer] look forward to the most yeah Daniel and tell us about closing night so [Daniel Smith] closing night it'll be a really great event we're gonna be out on 4th 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 gonna 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 coming to 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 just celebrate a little bit entrepreneurship is hard and I think this whole week isn't isn't in itself an opportunity to celebrate and just really cherish those those times that we all put in and so it's just waiting for us to come together and party a little bit yeah [Mary Meyer] can't wait Monica what are you looking forward to and you've got a lot of [Monica Terrero] 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 [Melissa Saavedra] forward to that this next Melissa I feel that I'm the most excited about how our impact committee has made it 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 into Reno Startup Week from culture to business to entrepreneurship I mean you name it I am very great 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 [Allison Greene] it Allison what about you I think as a result too of the impact committee and even 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 [Mary Meyer] what new startups there are love it candy what about you yeah this one's [Candi Block] 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 pitch competition like there's there's literally gonna be a lot I know we mentioned like the opening party and the or well that the rooftop party last year was the closing night and like so many people are just like this was amazing with like the dancer and so I feel like my operations committee has really taken upon themselves to be like we're 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 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 I'm really being at the Reno Experience District as like our home base this year I think is gonna 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 [Mary Meyer] really cool wonderful Doug what are your your thoughts and take us home you might have some other questions to you honestly yeah I think I mean just for me [Doug Erwin] 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 you know I'm very excited about so many elements of it but I you know 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 the music awesome good music fans that are like daytime DJ's 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 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 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'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 of the founders and all of that keeps increasing I think we're just it's just gonna keep seeing more great things come out of it so it's hard for you 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 [Mary Meyer] not to get emotional so you guys are also 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 a 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 a 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 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 it specific to your podcast or I mean generally in my podcast I would I really [Doug Erwin] helped create the whole founder journey I guess you know Mary I you know I'm curious about your journey I mean that's what 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 [Mary Meyer] 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's well let me say this every start-up 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 and plan it out but you know don't like panic and have your phone is certain 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 I've lived here for a year and a half so was an actor in Atlanta prior to this television I raised seven children with 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 this is 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 it 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 of media sales 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 not in a in a way because that was I was with a main a big agency in Atlanta I'm getting auditions for bigger shows and 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 Erica is 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 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 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 were 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 it 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 any directions 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 by house and build a garden and do yoga so [Doug Erwin] I appreciate your vulnerability and I appreciate you know like we're really lucky to have you I think you know 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 appreciate you know how you you're turning in that you're transmitting 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 could talk about the thing that we're overly [Mary Meyer] passionate about yeah thank you Doug and think and thank you to all of you and just I'm so excited for this event and I'm excited to see you all there in person probably we'll see you beforehand too but thanks for your time today so thank you everybody take care