Entrepreneurs win big at Silicon Pitch Day
By Alex Viveros
TOWN AND HEALTH REPORTER, JACKSON HOLE NEWS & GUIDE
Stuart Lerwick and Emily Jarrell have been making the long drive from the University of Wyoming in Laramie to Jackson Hole nearly every two weeks since early August. The two students, who founded the startup Cowboy Country Milling, made the repeated journey to meet with coaches tasked with preparing them for Silicon Couloir’s 14th annual Pitch Day competition.
“It really pushed us to create connections,” said Jarrell, 23, who is the company’s chief marketing officer and an MBA student.
Their efforts paid off during the Pitch Day event on Oct. 7, when 20-year-old Lerwick joined entrepreneurs representing four other startups in pitching their companies to a room full of actively engaged audience members at the Center for the Arts in downtown Jackson. When all was said and done, Cowboy Country Milling — which is focused on milling flour — walked away with the judges’ top votes and a supersized $25,000 check.
“I was excited because it’s truly another vote of confidence in you, another vote of confidence in Wyoming agriculture, it’s a vote of confidence in Wyoming entrepreneurs,” Lerwick said. “It feels good as a young CEO with good, awesome partners to just have a vote of confidence in what we’re doing. It shows me that we’re going in the right direction and we have the tools to get there.”
The evening was filled with entrepreneurs sharing their companies’ stories, explaining their visions for the future and fielding questions from a panel of five judges. Those ideas included a critically-praised sunrise alarm clock, a tasty mouthwash that is safe for kids to swallow, a device that is intended to improve focus, and an AI-powered blood test.
Startup businesses from across the Teton region participated in Pitch Day. Prior to the event, Silicon Couloir Ecosystem Director Rebecca Reimers described this year’s applicant pool as particularly competitive. All five finalists came into the competition having already sold product.
“Super glad I don’t have to be up here this year competing,” said Zach Rachlin, who won Pitch Day’s Audience Choice Award last year as the founder of ing Outdoors. “Pretty amazing competitors. Congrats to all of you.”
Finalists were given eight minutes each to pitch their companies to the judges and audience members. Prizes were aplenty. Although Cowboy Country Milling walked away with the top award of $25,000, Kwat Medetgul-Emar of the startup Caucell earned the $18,000 Audience Choice Award.
In his presentation, Medetgul-Emar shared how he and his family had immigrated from the mountains near Kazakhstan to Los Angeles when he was a teenager. A battle with acute lymphoblastic leukemia inspired him to pursue a science-based career.
“Thank God I survived,” Medetgul-Emar said. “For the past 18 years, I’ve been studying blood, and Caucell is the product of my experience as a cancer patient.”
Medetgul-Emar is currently a medical student and a biophysics Ph.D. candidate in a Stanford University physician-scientist training program. His startup, Caucell, aims to make testing blood for autoimmune conditions easier.
Lerwick, of Cowboy Country Milling, integrated his Wyoming roots into his presentation. He hails from a fifth-generation family farm that was founded in 1908. Lerwick argued that, compared to European methods, the industrialization of the American flour mill has led to the overprocessing of wheat in this country.
Cowboy Country Milling’s goal is to slow the process down. Lerwick spent his minutes in the spotlight explaining to judges and audience members how the company intends to take 36 to 48 hours to temper the wheat — soaking it before milling — in water without using chemicals. This, he said, would improve the quality of the resulting flour.
“Our plan is to bring this slow, intentional process back to America using a mill that’s perfectly created for our solution,” Lerwick said. “Our process will be slower, using the highest quality grains, prioritizing your health, no cutting corners, delivering the healthy grains which I harvest every fall to your table.”
The company aims to build its own mill, which he said would bring jobs to Wyoming. When a judge asked him about scaling up, he added that while the goal was to grow eventually, the company wanted to prioritize the slow tempering process first.
“We can’t outgrow our story in a way that doesn’t lead us back to our roots,” Lerwick said. “We have to stick to our roots, because without them, it’s just a normal flour farm.”
Tina Kramer was presented with the $10,000 Bob Arndt Community Caretaker Award. Her company, Simple Learning, makes a sound device worn like a necklace that she said improves focus and fosters productivity for children with ADHD. She was “totally shocked” when she heard her name called for the award.
Kramer said she was “incredibly grateful to be able to have that financial support and that recognition and be a part of a great group of entrepreneurs.” Like other finalists, Kramer said she benefited from advice she had received prior to the presentation.
Lucas Wall, the 21-year-old co-CEO of MayPall, described the coaching he got before the event as “amazing.” His company sells a safe-to-swallow mouthwash that uses a natural compound found in maple and green tea to fight cavities. The product is based on scientific research done at the University of Wyoming.
Both MayPall and Rise Centered, a wellness brand based in Jackson that makes a sunrise alarm clock, were awarded $3,750 finalist participation stipends.
Following the presentations, entrepreneurs and community members gathered in the lobby for a reception.
For MayPall, that involved connecting with audience members and offering them free samples of the company’s mouthwash.
“Everyone got to try the MayPall, and we had a bunch of people come up to us, which was really awesome,” Wall said. “Overall, I thought it was really great. It was well worth the six-hour drive from Laramie.”
