Elevate: A Women's Leadership Institute Podcast
For a decade, we've been at the intersection of leadership, gender and the workplace. With our cornerstone product, The ElevateHER Challenge, we have worked to bring the vision and value to companies of creating more gender equitable workplaces.
To celebrate 10 years in this space, we share with you political and business leaders varying perspectives on the topic as well as the women who are creating change everyday in their workplaces and communities.
One conversation at a time, we work to change hearts and minds.
Pat Jones, WLI Founder
Nicole Carpenter, WLI Director
Patti Cook, WLI Director of Communication
Kris Jenkins, Tech Founder and Male Ally
#additivevalueofwomen
Elevate: A Women's Leadership Institute Podcast
Building Community and Capital: How Utah Tech Week Drives Innovation
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www.wliut.com
@utwomenleaders
Welcome to Elevate. Every community needs champions with vision and grit.
Speaker 1:Today I have three amazing leaders who have all come to the table today to discuss everything Utah Tech Week, venture capitalism, what's happening in this space in the state of Utah, and where we're going with it. So I'm excited about this conversation. We have Angela Smith, who is an investor and director of the Utah Innovation Fund All right. We also have Kyle Spencer, who is the chief of staff for Utah Tech Week, and we have my partner in crime, who is often a co-host here, chris Jenkins, co-founder of Mobley.
Speaker 3:That's right, yeah, thanks for having us.
Speaker 4:Yes, so excited to be here no-transcript actually started out my career as a high school teacher.
Speaker 1:Hey, thank you.
Speaker 4:I taught high school, middle school and middle school social studies for six years in Texas and the Bay and then came back to Utah and got my MBA and got involved in investing through Cougar Capital, which is a student-run venture fund at BYU, interned with Pellion Venture Partners and was just very welcomed into this ecosystem for someone who has a diverse background, for someone who has a diverse background, so lots of mentors in this space and then ended up working for Origin Ventures, which is a Chicago fund, for three years.
Speaker 4:I kind of was responsible for the Rockies, I guess, and did sourcing throughout all the Rockies for Origin Ventures. But I wanted an in-person team and when I found out what Utah Innovation was working on and how their whole mission is similar to yours to elevate the entire Utah ecosystem I was really excited about that. So I joined them in November and we are huge sponsors of Utah Tech Week and so I've been working and hosting since the first year of Utah Tech Week. But joining Utah Innovation Fund, we actually got appropriations from the state to help fund Utah Tech Week and so the state is behind supporting what Utah Tech Week is doing.
Speaker 1:Okay, I have a question, but I'll wait. And then your fun fact about you.
Speaker 4:Yeah, my fun fact is I love to garden. I have a cut flower garden and actually a little side business where I do flower arrangements for people. And I actually made a flower arrangement for your co-founder, Zach.
Speaker 3:Oh, you did when he just had surgery recently, so that's the one sitting on his desk that was from you.
Speaker 4:Probably Did you do a good job.
Speaker 1:It's beautiful.
Speaker 2:And you grew those flowers.
Speaker 4:I grow a lot of them. Not enough to support the business, but I grow a lot of them. That's great.
Speaker 1:That, but I grow a lot of them. That's great, that's very cool, okay, kyle.
Speaker 2:So always good to be here and talk about these things with you. Thanks for the invite. I am an entrepreneur. I've been in tech service businesses, real estate and when I'm not leading something, I've had fun helping other companies grow their companies or increase what they do. I had an exit a couple years ago from a grocery tech firm and I just looked at where I was and I said I just love the community that I'm in this tech community. There's so much going on and I said, well, how can I get involved? What's the best way? And I looked around and Utah Tech Week was happening and so I dove right in.
Speaker 2:It's very seasonal for me. When I'm not helping grow Utah Tech Week, I'm helping consulting or coaching small business owners or midsize business owners, and so, yeah, building community right now and doing consulting. And something that's a fun fact about me is I love to travel. I have a wonderful wife and three kids and we try to get on a plane and go visit parts of the world and country as often as we can. We spent last summer in Europe. We were there. We were in Amsterdam for most of the summer, but we also went down to Paris for the Olympics.
Speaker 1:Very cool. That's fun. Whenever I think of Kyle, it's always like he is community builder is definitely his word. He's always like how can I help or did you know about? And I think it is amazing. Like every time I learn about something, I'm like oh, of course you're attached to it, Of course you're building this here, so thank you for how you do that in the community.
Speaker 2:Thank you. Yeah, it's fun to be a part of a place where there's just such great things going on.
Speaker 1:Yeah, utah's a Great state for that. Okay, partner in crime.
Speaker 3:Yeah, happy to do it. I think Utah Tech Week just attracts people like Kyle and Angela, like community builders. I love that, so I'm the co-founder of Mobley and occasionally help you. Do you want to tell them what Mobley?
Speaker 1:is.
Speaker 3:I mean, it's an event tech platform. So if you're doing event marketing at all, you should be considering using Mobley to drive revenue. I mean, that's really what it's about, and I've got a lot of experience in Utah Tech Week. In fact, I would say that Mobley was born at Utah Tech Week. The very first Utah Tech Week, there was a pitch competition and we pitched and we didn't even have a product. How do you?
Speaker 1:pitch without a product that's a good question.
Speaker 3:They actually. I think there were 100-something applicants and five were selected to pitch, and it was based on some AI tool that makes those selections A lot of. It's based on who the founders are. We have a lot of experience. Maybe that was part of why we got selected. But yeah, we pitched and we got introduced to a lot of great funds and they encouraged us to keep going and it was a really great experience, and so Utah Tech Week is certainly.
Speaker 3:We hold it near and dear to our hearts at Mobley and we'll always contribute as much as we can to the community because it's a great, great ecosystem and a great place to you know, start building tech yeah, and it's definitely integrated into the Utah culture, but I want to just break it down.
Speaker 1:First of all, how long has Utah Tech Week been going on and what is it Like? There's pitch competitions, there's all kinds of different things, so let's just spend a hot minute on that.
Speaker 2:I'll take that one. Okay, I'll leave the hard VC ones All right.
Speaker 2:So Utah Tech Week has been around for, we could say, three years. It's not really full, three calendar years, but we've done three iterations of it and it really only lasts a week at present. We started it in 2023. And when I say we, I didn't really start it. It was Trent Mono. He had the first idea. He was at LA Tech Week. He was thinking about it. He's like this is cool, la Tech Week, hey, we have a lot of tech in utah, we should have a tech week. He was in a cab, maybe an uber, and he secured the domain name utahtechweekcom and then he called kat kennedy at kickstart seed fund and he said I think we should do a utah tech week. I've already got the domain name. And she's like yes, I would like to help and kickstart. And she got behind utah tech week.
Speaker 2:So they were some of the first sponsors and partners of it so I definitely uh, first dancer was trent, second dancer is kat kennedy, and we've all got lots of great sponsors and partners that support utah tech week moving. You know, now and in the past, moving forward, what it is. It's a lot but it but it's like a festival or a conference all put together. And so in 2023, we had 114 events with maybe some 90 hosts putting them on, and then in 2024, we had 197 events with about 160 some odd hosts, and then this past year we had over 270 events with over 200 hosts, and Utah Tech Week only does four events and it's the community. This is a community effort. It's free for the public, it's free to host, free to attend, and it's where people get to put on what they do panels, workshops, mixers, activities, pitch, competitions, parties it's a lot of everything all packed into one week.
Speaker 4:Yeah. So just to add to that, I think the really important piece of Utah Tech Week is it's grassroots. He talked about the community, but it's not really this top-down approach. Really, like Trent and Kyle, they just come in and say it's going to be this week, who wants to host something? And then he talked about all the different hosts and it's amazing, every year we have more and more hosts of just people who are willing to host their own event and that's kind of the magic behind it is it's community-led, it's grassroots-led.
Speaker 1:So there are Tech Weeks throughout the nation in different places. How do you think Utah's tech week compares to those in terms of community building and the offerings and its growth?
Speaker 2:So, from my understanding, I've been to a couple of the tech weeks throughout the nation. Utah tech week is very accessible. The tech weeks, San Francisco tech week, la tech week I'm not throwing them under the bus, I'm just saying it's hard to get into some of the events. Uh, in fact, hard to get into most of the events. There's hardly any events that you can't get into. Yes, there are some at utah tech week, that is. Yes, there are some events that are real, specific for venture capitalists, if you're not a venture capitalist investing in companies. We have capacity constraints and so not everybody get into every event, but most events people can get into. So it's very accessible and, for sure, people can be busy all day long, every day if they wanted to go to it.
Speaker 2:Most people don't go to like 30 plus events throughout the week. Even though there are a couple hundred, most people go to three, maybe four or five. Some might only go to one, but it's accessible. People can come and learn and find something that they need. They can find what we are hoping for, which are happy collisions, just like Mobley they came, they pitched, they had lots of collisions and now they're this rocket ship company that we just love to support and cheer on.
Speaker 1:That's a great saying, happy collisions and I do think it is accessible because there are things in the morning, at night, all throughout. You mentioned you had experience in pitch competitions you want to share a little bit about that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so the first I mean I want to say maybe the first event of the first Utah Tech Week was the opening pitch competition, and we had literally Were you there too.
Speaker 4:I was a judge there.
Speaker 3:Oh, look at that.
Speaker 4:I wasn't planning on being a judge. They literally pulled me out of the audience and said someone wasn't here. Can you?
Speaker 3:just jump in.
Speaker 4:So that was my role that day.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it was amazing and I'll just say that we walked in and the auditorium was packed. It was standing room only and we were very surprised because it was the very first. I didn't even know that many people knew about it, but certainly the word had gotten out and the experience was more the happy collisions was. I mean, it was a blur to me that the whole pitch and then being done and then talking to investors, but it was really all of the conversations with everybody afterwards. That was really great. And then from there, the itch to go to the next event was already started, and so we started finding what other events we want to go to. Where do we need to be? You know, we we hosted an event, uh, which is really crazy as a company that was of two or three people, you know uh which was really fun.
Speaker 3:So, yes, and and I've been to a few other tech weeks as well and, um, you know, I think Utah has opportunity to grow. Still Like there's a lot of companies that aren't involved that maybe can be involved. There's more support that could be provided. I think I saw Adobe got involved this year I went to their event, which was the first time that they really got involved and other big tech companies here in Utah. I think that can have a stronger presence and bring some of their like. I mean it's a great place to recruit, it's a great place to find good talent it's a great place to find investing or investors.
Speaker 3:So anyway, lots of really cool things and our experience has been nothing but phenomenal and always want to support it.
Speaker 2:It's kind of like a big frat party. Sometimes it feels like a party all week long.
Speaker 3:It does feel like a party all week long and I mean that in the best way.
Speaker 1:So I'm so glad we set that landscape so we know what we're talking about. Utah's tech sector now accounts for 10% of the state's economy and supports over 60,000 jobs. What factors have fueled this rapid growth in our state and how do we make it sustainable? Because now that, even in policy-wise right with the state's backing of it and funding, it's not going away in our state. In fact, we're encouraging it more and more. So how do we make this growth sustainable for those who are both in the tech industry and just those who have been adjacent to it? I think we're all. I am of the opinion, we're all in the tech industry yeah.
Speaker 4:Tech touches everything, yeah, for sure. I think there's a couple of things. First off, we have really great talent in Utah and I think that's why we're seeing the tech ecosystem really grow and thrive here in Utah. And there's a lot of efforts from the state, from Utah Tech Week, from the community to increase the talent, starting as young as K through 12,. The state is working on initiatives.
Speaker 4:We work really closely with Talent Ready, which is a government initiative and task force to how do we make sure that I'm not supposed to wave my hands over here, sorry about that how do we make sure that students are prepared to enter the workforce and be prepared for these tech jobs? So there are initiatives around that. There are initiatives with all of our higher education programs and just really focus on building the right talent. But I think another big piece of that is venture capital. We you know there were a couple early firms that really set the tone of we're here in Utah, we invest in Utah, and now we're seeing more and more capital pouring into the state. And there are efforts as well to how do we continue getting that momentum, getting more capital in here to support the tech ecosystem? So I think those are two big things that, like we have, and it's continuing to grow and will continue to help the tech ecosystem. But what are your thoughts, kyle?
Speaker 2:I definitely agree that it's the talent. There's VC here and I just think that there's a lot of hungry people that have ideas and we're very entrepreneurial in Utah.
Speaker 1:We're like, let's try this out. What about this?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I'll just throw in that third piece that there's a real entrepreneurial spirit here.
Speaker 4:And in addition to that, it's a very supportive ecosystem like people who, like take the chance to build. I see lots of people reaching out to support, to mentor, to help them, which I've lived in other ecosystems and I don't see that same like closeness that we really have in the Utah Tech. I mean, I was someone who kind of pivoted into the tech ecosystem here and was so supported by everyone around me. They're like this is awesome that you're doing this, you have this unique background, and so I think that's something we really have going for us in Utah too.
Speaker 3:I think, to add to that, you asked a question about how do we sustain this, and I think that there's a few things that are going to be required. One is you're going to have to see more of the $10 billion companies. We're going to have to see really big companies here in Utah, and that's going to take time and a lot of work. I think that those companies do exist here in Utah right now. They're smaller, but they'll likely be there in the next decade or so. And then, in terms of venture, I think venture is really important and has grown quite a bit, but we're still significantly smaller than a lot of the big ecosystems that are out there.
Speaker 3:I've heard and have been involved in, where it is a little harder to get investment, especially early investment. There's a lot more. It's not trepidation, but it is a little more. I think folks are just cautious about where they put their money, which makes total sense when you don't have a huge fund. We're getting bigger funds, though. We're starting to see some of these really big funds starting to be built, and that's going to help, I think, sustain this ecosystem long term.
Speaker 1:Interesting. You've been nodding your head. Do you want to add something?
Speaker 4:to that, angela. I mean I think to add to that. The reason I jumped over to the Utah Innovation Fund is the state sees there's a need for funding at the earliest stage for deep tech companies, because we have a lot of funding for B2B SaaS, for marketplaces, for tech-enabled consumer, but there's not a lot of funding in Utah going towards deep tech and explain what deep tech is. Deep tech is just it's cyber, it's aerospace defense, it's AI, but the infrastructure level.
Speaker 4:It's aerospace defense, it's AI, but the infrastructure level, not the application level, which we have those industries in Utah, but we don't have enough capital to support the next wave of really that sector growth. And so that's really why Utah Innovation Fund was created two years ago was how do we get funding at the earliest level, where people aren't willing to take that risk from traditional venture funds? The state is supporting it, the state is backing it, and then we help them get to that next level where traditional funds do invest in it.
Speaker 3:So you're right, there's tons of gaps.
Speaker 4:That's not just one of them, but it is cool to see that the state is recognizing where the capital gaps exist and trying to fill that gap this and trying to fill that gap Absolutely and in talking with the state.
Speaker 1:Right, sustainability is also like infrastructure, roads, affordable housing, like all those things. If we continue to grow a community, which is amazing, it's all those other things in the state that I feel like the state is having a wrestle with right now. Yes, yeah, okay. So as a Women's Leadership Institute, we always have a gender lens on things.
Speaker 1:Looking at that, and I know there are four, you know, forefront runners and, like Corrine Clark and Trina Limpert, and tech moms who've been doing really amazing work like this, with women making up only 22% of Utah's tech workforce and earning significantly less than men in this space, what steps can companies take to address these disparities and create more inclusive environments? I know that Chris and I have talked and, as we've brought other business leaders on, when you just first start up, you're looking to your friends, you're looking to the people that you went to school with, you're looking for people who are similar and you just want to grow, grow, grow. How do we integrate diversity from those very first steps? Right, because funding is obviously important. How do we get diversity in those very first steps, and have you seen any examples of how that's really impacted the growth of a company, the positivity that might come out of that.
Speaker 2:So I have ideas.
Speaker 4:I do too, but I want you to go first.
Speaker 2:First I'll say that at Utah Tech Week we have more women working than men, and they make more money too just for what it's worth. Okay, that's always good, because most of us are volunteers and we're just doing this as more of like a passion project, so to speak. But but my I say that to share that, like it's really good for the company to know where they're at, or the organization know where they're at, they need to know are we deficient in an area or not, and then make steps to change it yeah and in many countries in Europe, require, like surveys and like anonymized and non-anonymized information, going into tests to see where you're at.
Speaker 2:And we can do that here, we can do that in Utah. We know the United States. We can test organizations to see are we paying equally and how are we hiring for roles that are need to be more diverse? And the answer is most likely we're not where we need to be, and that's a fact in Utah. But if we're checking where we're at and trying to make steps to improve it, that'll get us to a better place.
Speaker 1:Yeah, thank you, angela.
Speaker 4:I'll just say this is a huge question and I think we could do an entire podcast series on this question. So trying to think through like what's the most important things or how to keep this like a really succinct answer, which is hard for me because this is a topic I could talk a lot about. There's a top down approach that needs to happen, but there's also a bottoms up approach and it's like both need to be happening at the same time to get more women involved in the tech world. And I think, top down, it's really important for leadership to really value different perspectives, to really value what women bring to an organization.
Speaker 4:And there's a lot of dangerous rhetoric out there right now where no one wants to say oh, like yeah, we need more women. It just is. It's kind of I'm seeing pushback right now in the general United States ecosystem of and of course, we don't want to hire someone just because they're women. We want to hire someone because they are very capable and have all the skills. But I think a lot of times, women are coming from nontraditional backgrounds. I was one of those women.
Speaker 4:I grew up with a mom who was a teacher and in my mind I was like, oh well, I want to be like my mom, I'm going to go be a teacher Like I love learning. I just didn't really even consider other options. And then I went and taught out in Silicon Valley and lived in Palo Alto and I saw all these incredible women working in tech and it was kind of my aha moment of like, oh, I could do this too. I just like wasn't exposed to it. So it's important to see other examples, to see other women doing this, and then to take that leap of, okay, well, I'm going to go see if I can actually do it.
Speaker 4:So I made the choice to go to business school to kind of open up opportunities, Came back to Utah, where I'm from, for that and I had so many incredible male mentors. I did not have a lot of women mentors throughout my MBA experience but there were a lot of men who reached out and said we want to mentor you. We know you have a different background. We know you don't have a business background. Blake Modrzewski at Pellion was huge. He gave me an internship in venture capital for being a teacher. Like it's kind of insane. But he's like no, we value different perspectives and so he brought me on. He's like we can teach you what we need like the other stuff, but like yeah you're capable, like you were this incredible teacher.
Speaker 4:We know you can do this job, so he was a great mentor. Gary williams, who runs cougar capital, was a great mentor. Um origin ventures, who hired me out of my MBA, said yeah, we would love someone with a different perspective. So I think it's really important for leaders to think about what are people from non-traditional backgrounds, how can we get them into our organizations and how can we kind of look past this traditional role of what I don't know, just what they're looking for?
Speaker 4:and see the value that a non-traditional person can bring to the table. And then it's really important for women to be like I can do this too and, to you know, kind of take the risk to try and put yourself out there. And it's important for the women who are in this space to be reaching out and mentoring. So there's a lot of things that need to happen but they are passionate.
Speaker 4:Yeah, and I mean there's been so many people who have helped me get to where I am today. So I'm just I'm really grateful that I've had the experiences I've had and that I was willing to take that risk to jump into this space.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I want to point out two things you said. First, you would never even considered it because you didn't have exposure to it right, which to it right, which I think is something that Utah Tech Week does a really good job about. And the second is the importance of mentors in this space and the community building that I think is around us. Like everyone I ran into, I'm not really tech savvy in this space, but everyone I ran into and asked questions of are very willing to help, very willing to partner, very willing to help me know what I don't understand and also have me say here's some things I can help you with. So I think those two are really key in this. I'm sure you have something to share. Well, I have a couple of things.
Speaker 3:One. I really like organizations like SheTech that are starting at the speaking of mentorship and seeing opportunities or possibilities, going in and volunteering. If you haven't volunteered and been a part of that, I think it's a great opportunity to do that. I think young girls need to see that there are opportunities, especially in the state of Utah where I think it has been more traditional roles in many cases and how people think.
Speaker 3:I do want to challenge just slightly, angela, what you said about not hiring women because they're women. I actually think that that's a change that sometimes we need to actually make to hire women for women, because when it comes to diversity, you might have the equal skill set, background et cetera, but like or feel similar, but you just have a unique. A woman has a unique perspective that a man doesn't. So in a team I would rather have not this homogeneous echo chamber in the conversation. It's really about having that uniqueness and it's a. It's a, it's a mind shift from you know it can be difficult to say, oh, we're doing diversity for diversity's sake, that's not why we do diversity, it's right and people would push back about they do yeah, and I and I think there's a just a little change we can make to think that, yeah, we actually do need for our teams to be high performing, to have that diversity and uh.
Speaker 3:And so I think, as founders, as as leaders and organizations, as hiring managers, we should be looking at the makeup of the team and see like what, who, who is supposed to be here that's going to contribute to the different perspective or the unique perspective to help us drive to the next level, because if I already have some voice that I don't want the similar voice, I already have that voice, so bring a different voice. And that's not necessarily challenging what you said. I just think it's interesting that you say it that way, because I do agree, yes, it's not just a hire for that, but it also, I think, we can shift our mindset to actually do it that way and it will be very valuable.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I think it's important to have the mindset I need women in my organization. That's right. But no woman wants to be hired just because she's a woman.
Speaker 1:She wants to be hired because she's capable, she can do the job as well, yeah, adding value, yeah, adding value, and sometimes it's okay to be the token.
Speaker 1:Sometimes it's okay because everybody's got to start somewhere right. So I appreciate that you pushed back on that, Because the thought that comes to my mind is we had someone in our career development series worked for a small ski company and she finally got a seat at the table. She worked her way up and they were talking about the design of the ski company and she finally got a seat at the table. She worked her way up and they were talking about the design of the ski clothes and she said I would never. That's not where I want my pockets, that's not what I want it to look like in this room full of men, Like they were all leaders. But the perspective that she brought is lived experience that they wouldn't even think to talk about. So I think that's a very good, a very good idea to keep in.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I've had a lot of experiences in teams where it's, you know, 95% men and the 5% women, or just the single woman and all men on teams. I've been in tech and generally in software teams or engineering teams. It's often that way, it can be that way and without you know, if you don't have that voice in there, then you don't learn as much as you could. When you do have that voice and my eyes have been opened so many different times where I had thought, yeah, in there, then you don't learn as much as you could. When you do have that voice, yeah, and my eyes have been opened so many different times where I had thought, yeah, this sounds like a good idea. And then you hear the perspective of the woman and you realize, oh, that's not as good of an idea as maybe I thought.
Speaker 1:Or here's our contemporary and we can move forward with it. That's right, yeah, and to me that's part of the sustainability piece, right it's part of the sustainability piece right Totally yeah.
Speaker 4:Any other thoughts on that before we move on? I mean, I think I just want to also say I've been very fortunate to have very positive mentors in my life who, the majority of them, were men initially, and now I'm starting to find more female mentors, but I have heard the opposite in this ecosystem. So if anyone's listening to this and being like that hasn't been my experience, I've heard that from a lot of people that they have had negative experiences, uh, being a female in this ecosystem, and so I do feel really fortunate and I I just want to point out they're really really great men out there and if you're having those negative experiences, go find the ones who are willing to help, who are willing to mentor, because they are out there and they're incredible.
Speaker 1:The thing that I've noticed is we've talked to different women NBCs who've come on the podcast. Is they understand nuance really well?
Speaker 4:They understand nuance really well in order to work in this space and be successful. And it's a mindset too. Yeah, you have to have.
Speaker 1:Yeah, okay. So I'm going to pivot just a little bit and I want to talk about. You talked about hundreds of events slammed into a week. Let's talk about how different personalities network, because really that's what this is all about, right, finding money, connecting with partners. How do you guys network at the events for our extroverts, for introverts, right, all the things, because you're all very three distinct personalities. So I'd love to hear that.
Speaker 3:I always teach my kids this saying don't be shy, just say hi. And I try to live that. I do try to show up and say hi to everybody that I can. Yeah, because you never know what kind of interaction you're going to have with somebody in the room. But in general I always try to have a plan before I go to the events. I know generally who I think is going to be there If it's interesting to me, what am I trying to target? And this is somewhat selfish in that I have business objectives in those as well. But just for personal networking, utah Tech Week has been phenomenal. I have some great relationships that I've built over the last few years simply from Utah Tech Week.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I agree, it's a great place. How about you?
Speaker 4:Angela. So I am an introvert and I hate traditional networking. Like when I walk into a room just full of people and like I don't know anyone, I'm like I have to go up and start a conversation.
Speaker 1:Like that terrifies me.
Speaker 4:Just say hi, hi, and then yeah and then. But I think the beauty of utah tech week is there's so many different types of events that you can look and really figure out. This is an event that's going to work for me, whereas this isn't, and we origin ventures. When I was with them for the first utah tech week, I was really thoughtful of, like I want to create an event that isn't like other events, and so my team, we actually created a pickleball tournament and you were assigned and you came in and you were at this pool, like you had this pool play. So you're on this court with six other teams and it was kind of like forced networking, but you're playing and you're an activity and you know where to go.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you know where to go.
Speaker 4:you know working, but you're playing and you're an activity and you know where to go. Yeah, you know where to go, you know, and it's just like a little bit different than walking into a room full of people who are just sitting around chatting around high boys, you know. But that's what's really great about Utah Tech Week is there's so many different types of events. There's fun ones, there's panels, there's like one-on-one like you can sign up for one-on one mentorship and things like that, and so that's what I love about it is you can really find what works for you at Utah Tech Week.
Speaker 1:Perfect, and then Kyle, our community builder. What's your take?
Speaker 2:Yeah, First I just echo what's being said here. Like you got to show up and you got to look for the things that might be the right fit for what you're interested in. Look for the things that might be the right fit for what you're interested in, and I love that. Angela is an introvert and she's got a lot of value out of Utah Tech Week because, Utah Tech Week has something for everyone. Our goal really is for Happy Collisions to be created.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And I appreciate that Chris mentioned that. Yeah, he has a business objective to be there Most networking. There's some type of business objective. Business objective to be there most networking. There's some type of business rejecting. But as I can like, definitely like, say, like chris shows up and he's there to learn and be genuine before he's there to earn, like he's gonna give value equally or way more value than he's going to get in most of these instances, and so I think if someone goes with the I, I need to care about these as people and not just as like a transaction, Because these networking.
Speaker 2:Things cannot be transactional or you will not be successful Because we are dealing with a time of it's a loneliness epidemic, like there are a lot of people who are just lonely and you can go to an event with a thousand people and walk away and be even lonelier, and that's not good. So it's on everybody to say hi. It's on everybody to be genuine and care about the people, find areas of commonality, and those commonalities may be mountain biking or they may be making money, and either way it's fun. And yeah, we have to be strategic about our time and the things that we do, but if you pick the events that are meaningful to you and you go and to give more than you take, it's going to be a winning situation.
Speaker 1:That was so fascinating that you brought up loneliness right In this tech conversation. When we are on our phones, when we're're developing, when we're like in a screen, that really we have to balance it with this community building, this relationship building, however we show up and whatever that looks like, and that really is the sustainability part as far as community and the state. So I appreciate that you brought that up. Patti, what was it like for you at the Utah Tech?
Speaker 3:Week. I mean I did go to a few state, so I appreciate that you brought that up, Patty. What was it like for you at Utah Tech Week? I mean you did go to a few events.
Speaker 1:I did go to a few events. Okay. So the first time, the first year, I saw it and I was like I have no idea how to integrate with that or what it is, and it all went by so fast. It all went by so fast. It's like six weeks. You're like then there's a whole bunch of activities and you're like, oh, that was great, but I have to wait a year.
Speaker 1:But this last year I went to things I felt comfortable with, especially like culture. I'm really interested in AI and so I just tried a couple different things and I was really surprised how applicable they were to my job in this nonprofit. You know how do I use AI. What am I thinking about? That One of the ladies, an actress. She's like what are life rights? Do I give away my acting, my image, to a company forever and they use it in perpetuity, until even after I die? So as far as lifelong learning, it was really really interesting. And as far as like leadership, it was really an interesting experience to watch people lead and how they lead and what they're focused on. So thank you for that question. I'm excited to come again and I'm also excited for WLI to host some events. I think there's a really good intersection there for us.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm glad you bring that up, because we strive to connect with great community leaders. That's what Utah Tech Week is. We create these happy collisions, but we create that by partnering with other great community leaders, and then it's a win-win yeah because we do not like we can't do it all ourselves.
Speaker 2:We are trying to get as many people who care about a cause to come together and put on events, this grassroots effort for others, because we don't have the same perspectives that all the people involved with Women Leadership Institute have. We don't have all the same perspectives as the people in Tech Moms, and so we try to partner with all of these great organizations to make Utah Tech Week better. We take feedback very seriously. The first year we heard some things that we were lacking. On Second year we heard a little bit of the same thing, so we made sure that we had more diversity and quality. And just another thing was the events were too distributed all throughout Utah, because we are Utah Tech Week, so we tried to create some centralization. But we really value partners like Women Leadership Institute and now I'm going to make sure you guys are involved.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm excited I've got a wild planet, so I'm on it. Okay, to wrap up, we were talking about storytelling before we started the podcast and I feel like so many great things are happening. It's like at WLI so many great things happen in our organization but everybody doesn't know about them. So, from your different perspectives, I'd love to hear some success stories that are happening in your spaces that could help people understand more about tech, vc, the culture here, any of that you want to start, chris.
Speaker 3:Sure, I think that it's difficult at times to tell your story.
Speaker 1:I think it's difficult to, especially when you're building and just running.
Speaker 3:It's very difficult. Everybody's doing something really cool and it's hard to always see that stuff, but I do think it's important that you do share. So if you do have a story, you do have a message. You are doing something. Lots of different ways you could get that out. I use LinkedIn more than anything else. It's the it's the most common place for me to really connect with the community and and see what's going on, understand where everybody's at Like, I follow what you're doing, kyle. I follow things that Trent's doing, I follow things that you're doing. I mean everybody and the things that they're up to, and the VC community. I mean it's that's where I seem to get the most insight. It's also good to communicate the things that you're doing right and let everybody know where you're going to be and the things that you're about. So, anyway, that's kind of the main way that I do that. I'm not sure that it's the same for everybody, but it seems to work here in Utah and for me, yeah Great.
Speaker 1:And you personally have found a lot of success in your company.
Speaker 3:Yeah, zach and I just happen to have pretty good networks, and so when we would talk about what we're doing, it just would reach a lot of people, and so that has been a unique advantage for us, for sure.
Speaker 1:That's cool, kyle.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I would say that there are many people that have stories to tell. Mm-hmm that there are many people that have stories to tell and even organizations that are making efforts and people can get involved to help tell those stories Like yes get on LinkedIn, do a post a week, or two posts a week or whatever.
Speaker 2:Make it exciting, make it engaging. But if you're not 100 percent sure about your story just yet, like go lean into some of these other communities like go learn about their story just yet, like go lean into some of these other communities Like go learn about their story, go help them amplify their story, especially if it's something that you care about, yeah, that's a great opportunity, because most of the nonprofits in this state and nation and world can't do it on their own. They need people to help raise their banner with them.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 1:Love that their banner with them. Yeah, yeah, for sure. Um, and I have also loved when people connect me and say, hey, I saw this. I think you would be really interested, but it might not be something that you have been involved in before. I think that's a really great synergy out of utah tech week 2 that I've noticed, so I appreciate it.
Speaker 3:It's one of my favorite. It's actually one of my favorite parts of networking is when you meet somebody that's interested in something and you recognize oh, I know somebody that they should talk to. Bring them to that person and have that conversation.
Speaker 1:That's a really happy coincidence.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and I think that's where you're adding the value, right. You're saying like you're elevating somebody else's story for somebody else.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I think that at Utah we do that really well, helping with that Maybe not well enough.
Speaker 2:We should have a podcast about Elevate hey look at that.
Speaker 1:Why don't we start that?
Speaker 4:Okay, Angela. Yeah, I think this is such an interesting question to end on because people really underestimate the value of telling their story and how they tell it, and I mean I think we're kind of trained from when we're young like, oh, don't talk about yourself too much, right?
Speaker 4:And especially here in Utah we're very like oh yeah, it's not me, you know, yeah, but people ask me all the time how did you go from teaching to VC? I'm sure it's kind of an insane jump and I just said I talked my way into it, like that's literally what I did. There were hundreds, like thousands, of other people more qualified than me, but I told a really good story that was compelling. And now, in my role as a VC, I hear stories all day, every day through pitches and through founders, and the people who can tell a compelling story are the ones who get funding, the ones who are successful, and so much of my work is working with founders and helping them tell their story better. Right now, I'm actually working on a program for researchers and PhDs and postdocs, because they are so brilliant up at the universities all across the United or all across utah they're working on these amazing things.
Speaker 1:They have no idea to tell how to tell the story yes, of what I have, their research, people who are so good and what they're so far wait, but they, they don't tell a compelling story.
Speaker 4:And then investors who are, yeah, honestly not that don't know how to connect.
Speaker 3:We're literally like what like what are you working on investors?
Speaker 4:that did not happen.
Speaker 3:I'm an investor did not happen to her.
Speaker 1:I did. I'm an investor, I can do it.
Speaker 4:It's fine, and so I'm creating a curriculum and a cohort for this specific group to teach them. Here's how you create a pitch deck. Here's how you take your research in deep tech, which is really hard for a lot of people to understand, and tell it in a compelling way, and there are a lot of resources out there. I also work with the Silicon Slopes marketing chapter and we've done a couple of different events purely around storytelling, and so seek out those opportunities. Seek out like opportunities to how do I learn and tell my story better? And then go out, go to Utah Tech Week, go to the events and tell your story, because you really only get good at it by practicing the BYU MBA. Literally every week they have you like tell your story over and over and over again, because that's how you get hired, and so I just don't.
Speaker 1:I think people really underestimate how important telling their story is A hundred percent, and I think that applies to all parts of life right, telling your story and sharing other people's stories so that we can all rise together. Okay Well, I have so many additional questions, but what a great conversation. Thank you for all of your work that you're doing in this, and I'm excited for Utah Tech Week next week. And for everyone to apply and let's all get this done for Utah. Thank you so much, Thank you.
Speaker 3:Thanks, Maddie.
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