WIN Venture Summit I - Little America Hotel
On October 5, 2022, approximately 500 Utah entrepreneurs, investors met in the large ballroom of the Little America Hotel for the WIN Venture Summit. The WIN Venture Summit is a single day conference covering useful and inspiring topics that are designed to assist the next generation of Utah entrepreneurs as they the next crop of successful, job-creating Utah startups. Topics include raising capital, growing and scaling a business, mentoring, innovation and disruption, policy and government relations, and issues surrounding social responsibility.
Whitney Johnson, bestselling author of Smart Growth: How to Grow Your People to Grow Your Company, a 2020 Top Voice on LinkedIn with 1.8 million followers, and BYU alum, keynoted the event with a dynamic presentation tailored specifically for this event.
The WIN Venture Summit is an event hosted by the Wasatch Innovation Network, founded in July 2021 to mentor and provide resources for Utah's startup leaders.
In the spring of 2022, the Wasatch Innovation Network launched the Wasatch Innovation Network Top 100 Entrepreneurs (WIN100). It's an initiative identifying and cultivating relationships among Utah's emerging and top Founders, CEOs, CTO, and venture talent in Utah.
The WIN100 is a community-nominated and peer-selected organization of the top 100 tech venture entrepreneurs in the state's ecosystem.
The idea of the WIN100 was driven by the concept that the crowd is able to successfully identify entrepreneurs “most likely to create a high growth company” in Utah.
The WIN Venture Summit brings together crowd-nominated and selected (by popular vote of the nominees) 107 WIN100 entrepreneurs. In addition, hundreds of the WIN100 nominees who were nominated by their peers, but were not selected this year to be on the WIN100 list, attend the Summit. Nearly 500 individuals attend the event, many as a part of a VC team, and the after-party reception, featuring live flamenco guitar, a charcuterie board, and a stack of individually-boxed, freshly-baked Crumbl cookies.
“Utah is becoming a magnet for capital, talent, and opportunity,” says Paul Ahlstrom, Co-founder of TechBuzz News and Board Chair of the Wasatch Innovation Network “These WIN100 founders are a part of the state's startup and investment ecosystem that will shape the state for decades. It's important to connect these founders on a regular basis with individuals and firms in Utah's investment community so that they can build strong relationships, collaborate, and build successful businesses.”
Founding sponsors of the WIN Venture Summit 2022 are the Salt Lake Chamber, IsoTalent and TechBuzz News.
Presenting Sponsors include Kickstart, Frazier Group, and the Governor's Office of Economic Opportunity.
Venture Sponsors are Atomic, Pando Ventures, Sweater and Sorenson Ventures.
Startup Sponsors are Diversified Insurance Group, Epic Ventures, EY, Hillcrest Bank, Mayer Brown and Peterson Ventures.
Entrepreneur Sponsors are Album VC, Assure, KHN Enterprises, Spacestation Investments and SpringTide.
More information about the Summit can be found here.
Summit Agenda:
Wednesday, October 5, 2022, Little America Hotel, Salt Lake City, Utah
8am - Continental Breakfast
8:30am - Welcome: Paul Ahlstrom and Elisabeth Nebeker
8:45am - Policy Making and the Legislative Process: How to move from an outsider to an insider?
Moderator: Steve Starks, The Larry H. Miller Company
Ginger Chinn, Salt Lake Chamber- Dan Hemmert, Governor's Office of Economic Opportunity
- Senator Ann Millner, District 5 - Davis, Morgan, Weber
- Katelin Roberts, BioHive
- Representative Robert Spendlove, District 42 - Sandy
9:30am - Get Smart About Growth - Grow your People to Grow Your Company
Keynote Speaker Whitney Johnson
Introduction by Robin Ritch, CEO & Publisher Deseret News
10:45am - How to Meet the Growing Importance of Social Responsibility in Business
Moderator: Glen Mella, Axcend
Jenny Ahlstrom, HealthTree Foundation- Sid Krommenhoek, Album VC
- Nate Randle, Gabb Wireless
- Davis Smith, Cotopaxi
11:45am - Lunch
12:30 -1:00pm - Utah's Culture of Doing Good
Moderator: Derek Miller, Salt Lake Chamber
- Lisa Eccles, George S. and Dolores Doré Eccles Foundation
- Gail Miller, The Larry H. Miller Company
1:15pm - Chips All In: Starting or Scaling a Startup During a Downturn: A Conversation Between Funders & Founders
Moderator: Jesse Randall, Sweater
- Gavin Christensen, Kickstart
- Dave Grow, Lucid Software
2:15pm - Know Your Worth: The Challenges and Pitfalls of Raising Capital
Moderator: Kat Kennedy, Kickstart
- Mark Bonham, Mayer Brown
- Morgan Davis, MarketDial
- David Frazier, Frazier Group
3:00-5:00pm - Networking reception, sponsored by TechBuzz and enhanced by charcuterie, Crumbl cookies, and Flamenco/Spanish/Contemporary guitar, featuring Salt Lake City artist, Antonio Garcia.
