(Riverton, WY) – Now in its 3rd year, the 2024 IMPACT 307 Fremont County Start-Up Challenge Finalist Pitch Night took place last night, April 9 in the Health and Sciences Building on the CWC Campus in Riverton.
Five finalists pitched their business ideas to a panel of local judges after they were selected from a pool of 54 applicants during the initial application process.
Winners will be provided with seed funding and guidance/mentorship from IMPACT 307 to ensure the future success of their business, and all finalists will maintain that partnership regardless of winning or not.
The Pitch Night was free and open to the public, and in addition to hearing pitches from the local entrepreneurs, they were treated to some delicious food provided by RJ’s Smokin’ BBQ.
Each finalist was given about 15 minutes to explain their business/products, what the economic impact on the community would be if they were awarded the funding needed to grow, how many jobs the business could create, and what their overall business model will look like in the coming years.
The finalists are listed below in the order they pitched, with a brief description of their business/product and some general highlights from their pitch.
Queens of Goodness – Susan Frost: Locally produced honey that has nutritional elements added. The target market is online customers, coffee shops, and retail locations.
AKA “Honey with benefits.” The creamed honey mix can be used to make “golden milk,” known for its many health benefits, which Frost made for the judges to sample. One judge commented that he has sampled a lot of golden milk, and this was “the best” he’s ever had. The business will utilize Wind River Honey and potentially expand to use other local honey producers in-state as needed. Frost hopes to expand into a production facility that will then provide jobs in the area. Additionally, Frost’s goal is to raise awareness about the health benefits of honey and turmeric, while also promoting positive lifestyle choices.
Burley Boy’s Rustic Furniture – Jim LaVine and Jeremiah Wehr: A producer of gun safes concealed in high end rustic furniture. Target markets include higher wealth individuals who would like hidden compartments for easy access to firearms.
Burley Boy’s Rustic Furniture aims to provide a quality product made from locally sourced wood. They plan to start slow with output to ensure they won’t be backlogged with orders and not able to adhere to the timeline they give customers for product delivery, but then they want to expand as they obtain new equipment and more skilled workers. Mentorship to the youth and teaching them the skills to build this type of furniture is important to LaVine, who brought along local student Jeremiah Wehr for the presentation. “Jeremiah does all the work, I just tell him what to do,” LaVine joked with County 10 later in the evening. He also wants to work with Wind River Job Corps to help train future builders. One of the judges asked if they would make regular furniture that doesn’t also have the gun safe aspect, and LaVine said they will “build what the customer wants.” Some of LaVine’s work is already available at Kusel’s, Gambles and Rocky Mountain Burl. The picture below is a sample of his work that LaVine brought to the Pitch Night, which was literally completed hours before the event.
Yellowstone Spice Company – Scout Fauth: This existing and successful local company, in business for less than two years, has seen rapid growth of its existing products. It plans to introduce an innovative hot sauce product aligned with its existing target market.
Yellowstone Spice Company currently sells its products at a number of local businesses like Mr. D’s Food Center and the Fremont Local Market. Scout said he just had a big win after a sale that will now see his product in 12 general stores in Yellowstone National Park, and is on the cusp a very big sale/deal with the Xanterra Travel Collection, which operates in Yellowstone and National Parks across the country. In addition to their line of products already available like Fry Dust, steak seasoning and rubs, Yellowstone Spice Company plans to expand with products like the in-development Hop Sauce hot sauce, and a Yellowstone Collection that will utilize products from the states that fall within the boundaries of the National Park. Scout attended the Taste of States national restaurant show in Chicago, and consistently takes his product to the Jackson farmer’s market. As the demand grows for the product, Scout hopes to expand his current production space and hire more help.
Grizzly Lures – Genivee LeClair: This business has been serving customers for a couple of years with its unique fishing lures. It looks to expand via its patent pending ice fishing pole holder concept.
Genivee LeClair is an avid outdoorswoman who has lived in the Wind River Reservation most of her life. She began making her own, unique lure designs after not being able to find ones that worked for her, especially when ice fishing at night. Since then LeClair has been making lures for herself and selling them to others for the last couple of years. “We don’t have a target customer, because everybody likes to fish,” LeClair joked, adding that they will rely on repeat customers who like the lures and fishing-loving families like hers. A very exciting product that is in the works for Grizzly Lures is an innovative pole holder, but details on that are still under wraps as its patent is currently pending. A website is also in the works, and in addition to selling their product at local stores like Rocky Mountain Sports and Hines General Store, they plan to sell at local trade shows and fishing tournaments/derbies throughout the year. Their goal is to end up in big outdoor retailers like Cabela’s and Sportsman’s Warehouse.
Dinwoody Geospatial & Services LLC – Brian Linton: An aerial imaging company with a focus on providing services to municipal governments, farmers, etc. It will have a nationally focused GIS consulting component as well.
By using drones and image capturing technology, Dinwoody Geospatial & Services LLC will help address the “lack of accessible and reliable geospatial services” in our area. Geospatial technology is used to collect, analyze and store geographic information, and is especially beneficial in terms of data collection. This service can help farmers/ranchers with land surveying, overall land development/management for a variety of types of organizations, and can even be used to collect data on things like potholes and hydrant flushing mapping for local City governments. Linton currently teaches drone operation classes at CWC, and recently helped his wife, a 4th grade teacher in Lander, with a project on snowfall levels. Linton aims to someday obtain a thermal imaging drone, which he says will help expand the services he can provide, which will then help with expanding the potential of hiring more drone operators for the business.
After about an hour of deliberation, the judges panel (which this year was composed of Paul Guschewsky, CEO of Chase Real Estate Development; Mike Hoyt, Director of the CWC Bootstrap Collaborative; Lauren Heerschap, Owner and CEO of Brunton International LLC; Jon Tonkowich, COO of Summit West CPA Group; and Josh Keefe, Assistant Director of IMPACT 307 for Laramie filling in for Kendall Hayford, who was unable to make the event), chose the three winners, and the audience favorite was named as well.
The judge’s selections, in no particular order, were Queens of Goodness, Yellowstone Spice Company and Burley Boy’s Rustic Furniture. The audience favorite selection was Dinwoody Geospatial & Services LLC.
“I’m looking forward to working with all of you,” commented Brian Young, who serves as IMPACT 307’s Assistant Director for Fremont County and the Pitch Night MC.
Seed funding/mentorship will now be provided to the three winners, and a cash prize will be given to the audience favorite.
The Startup Challenge is sponsored by CWC, Riverton’s Idea Inc., the US Economic Development Administration, the University of Wyoming and IMPACT 307, with the main sponsor being the Fremont County MOVE 1/2 Percent Program.