Mark Daoust is the Founder and CEO of Quiet Light, an entrepreneur-led group of advisors who help people buy, grow, and sell their online business for six, seven, or eight figures. He is also the co-host of the Quiet Light Podcast, and a contributor to Forbes, Entrepreneur, and Inc. You can reach out to Mark via email or LinkedIn to talk mergers and acquisitions, or for some good grilling tips.

Scott has been involved in recruitment advertising and technology for over 20 years. He served as the Online Director at the Argus Leader for six years prior to co-founding Classified Verticals in 2005. His team, in partnership with local television stations, launched and still manage 14 job boards in the upper Midwest, including KELOLAND Employment. In 2017, he also co-founded HIRECLICK, which offers a turn-key hiring solution and applicant tracking system to over 2500 small to midsized employers. Scott is a student of the growth of businesses, enjoys learning new technologies, and loves meeting new people. Outside of work, he loves to travel with his wife, Tara and their three great kids.

Tim Weelborg is the co-founder and managing partner of Homegrown Capital, a Venture Capital Fund investing in early stage, technology driven companies in the northern plains. Before Homegrown, Tim was the Executive Director of Enterprise Institute, an entrepreneur development organization that has created 14 angel investment funds to date. Under Tim’s leadership, Enterprise Institute was recognized by the South Dakota Hall of Fame’s Act of Excellence for its role in developing angel investing in South Dakota. Tim received his MBA from Colorado State University and his undergraduate degree from South Dakota State University.

Dr. Alisha Vincent loves to get things done. She’s a chronic entrepreneur who loves to take a problem, figure out a solution, and implement processes to make things happen. She has devoted most of that energy to building innovative nonprofit and educational programs over her 20+ year career, including a decade as a professor and administrator at Dakota Wesleyan University and several years working on community development and charitable initiatives in East Africa and across rural America. Since 2002, she's led, or co-led, processes to start ten for-profit and not-for-profit businesses, most of which continue to thrive today. Over the last 18 months, Dr. Vincent has engaged her brain and ambition as the co-founder and CEO of Easy Saturdays, a tech company that uses artificial intelligence to match people with great places to relocate or travel to based on their personal preferences, and then gives them important resources they need to get there. The company's manifesto is to make every day feel like an Easy Saturday for those they serve. When not educating or entrepreneuring, Alisha can be found drinking coffee, trail running, and cheering on her family (who are athletes, artists, and entrepreneurs themselves). Her drive and work ethic emerged from her life as a farm kid in Ola, South Dakota and she is proud to infuse those life lessons into all things she does today. Dr. Vincent earned an undergraduate degree from Black Hills State University, A Masters Degree from Walden University, and her Doctorate from the University of South Dakota.

John T. Meyer is on a mission to inspire others to be the best version of themselves. John has spent more than 13 years learning leadership on the job by trying, making mistakes, and pushing himself and his teams to be Better Every Day. In 2011, John co-founded Lemonly, a design firm that specializes in telling stories. As Lemonly's CEO, John built a strong company culture, gaining regional and national attention and becoming one of the best places to work in the Midwest. In addition to leading the Lemonly team and speaking about leadership and company culture across the region, John hosts the Leadmore Podcast where he interviews great leaders to help inspire others. John is now starting what he calls Chapter 3 - the No Fun Team. No Fun Team is a creative NFT studio, helping people and businesses enter the world of NFTs and Web3.

John is passionate about his home community of Sioux Falls and helping to grow the entrepreneurial ecosystem. He is married to his wife, Paige Pearson Meyer, and loves being a girl dad to Margot and Liv. John enjoys running, travel and Sioux Falls growing downtown. He's also a devout Minnesota Twins fan.

Nikkee Rhody is the Co-founder and Executive Director of Falls Fintech and the Executive Vice President of Strategy at Central Payments. Falls Fintech is a 12-week program designed to accelerate market readiness for early-stage financial technology startups.

With more than 22 years of experience in financial services and payments, Nikkee was a key contributor of Central Payments’ Open*CP Fintech API MarketplaceSM, one of the only ‘REAL’ banking-as-a-service (BaaS) payment platforms and the driving force behind the fastest growing prepaid card issuer since 2015.

Prior to joining Central Payments, Nikkee was part of another issuing bank and contributed to building a proprietary payments platform which grew to serve more than 1,200 banks and credit unions throughout the U.S. She currently sits on the advisory board for RiftPay, a fintech company that was part of Falls Fintech cohort two. She is also a host of the Fintech Brews & News podcast.

Mr. Crissman is the founder of Badlands Equity Fund (2022). Badlands Equity evaluates equity investments in software, technology-enabled businesses, and precision manufacturing across the Upper Midwest. Prior to starting Badlands, Mr. Crissman founded South Dakota Equity Partners which led investments in eight companies across software, solar, medical devices, and manufacturing. Mr. Crissman is the former President of Midwest Regional Association of SBICs and is a founding member of the Private Equity Advisory Board at the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University.

Laura Smith-Hill is Education Program Coordinator for the Lutheran Social Services Center for New Americans, where she has served refugee and immigrant adults from 65 countries over the past 21 years as an instructor and administrator. Coordinating the Education Program for the past 11 years, she designs and facilitates research-based educational programming to help more than 600 adult English learners annually develop skills in verbal communication, literacy, workforce readiness, and citizenship. Laura has provided leadership to statewide and regional conferences in this field since 2009. She coordinates and facilitates training for adult English Language instructors statewide for the Department of Labor and Regulation. Laura finds inspiration in the resilience and humility of the adult immigrants she serves and the passionate dedication of her staff and colleagues.

Megan Bartel is the Executive Director of Women’s Programming at EmBe in Sioux Falls, S.D. EmBe is on a mission to empower women and enrich lives.

Megan has been at EmBe since December of 2021 and hit the ground running developing and enhancing its many women’s programs; Co.Starters was one of them. Megan has enjoyed getting to know and work with Startup Sioux Falls and the other spoke organizations. She has taken much pride in helping recruit and run two cohorts for women entrepreneurs. She even went through the Co.Starters Facilitator program and became a facilitator herself.

Megan received her BS in Psychology and Social Work from the University of South Dakota in 2007 and maintains her SD Social Worker License. Megan’s heart belongs to her husband, Jeremy and three children, Rilynn (10), Briar and Bennett (6).