Pitch Day 2023 Panelist Bios
Kendra Kolb Butler
A former Manhattanite and 20-year beauty industry veteran, Kendra Kolb Butler first created Alpyn Beauty for the clients at her Jackson Hole apothecary, Alpyn Beauty Bar. She’s led sales, marketing and public relations initiatives at leading luxury beauty companies from Givenchy and Dr. Dennis Gross Skincare to Clarins and Coty, yet her proudest achievement to date has been finding the courage to trade her high-power NYC lifestyle for (quite literally) greener pastures.
In 2015, Kendra swapped her high-heels for hiking shoes, moving west to Wyoming in search of open spaces, fresh mountain air, and serenity—husband, baby boy, and German Shepherd in tow. She became instantly enchanted with the wild forests of arnica and chamomile, which make up her new backyard, and became the basis for Alpyn Beauty- a fast-growing skincare brand utlizing hand-harvested Jackson Hole wild plants combined with clinical ingredients. The brand is currently sold in all Sephora's nationwide as well as Amazon, Bluemercury and Credo Beauty.
Gordon Finnegan
Gordon Finnegan has spent his career around startups and finance. Raised in the Tetons, he’s since been an entrepreneur, investment manager, fund manager, and Big 4 financial consultant. In addition to some private investments, today Gordon oversees Wyoming’s new venture fund, WYVC, as the Equity Portfolio Manager at the Wyoming Business Council.
As a former Silicon Couloir board member, he spent years volunteering with the organization helping to facilitate the angel group, pitch day, and mentor program. In true Teton fashion, Gordon spends his free time skiing, trail running, cycling, and “ing” on the water. He's a graduate of St. Olaf College in Economics and Finance and holds an MBA from the Leeds School of Business - CU Boulder.
Carli Sapir
Carli Sapir is the Founding Partner of Amboy Street Ventures, a Jackson based $20M Venture Capital fund that invests in women’s health and sexual health startups. Since the fund inception in 2021, Carli led Amboy Street to invest in 9 leading women’s health and sexual health companies. Carli is on the 2023 Forbes 30 Under 30 list for her work on the fund.
Prior to founding Amboy Street, Carli was a Vice President at a Private Equity fund that is now a subsidiary of KKR in NYC and LA. She also founded and ran the Female Founded Club a global platform that introduced VC investors to high-quality female founded startups. Before that Carli was a civil and environmental engineer.
Carli is incredibly grateful for the Silicon Couloir community as you all significantly helped her get Amboy Street Ventures off the ground.
Bruce Thaler
Bruce Thaler is a serial entrepreneur (and former dentist) with a long history of success and a flair for thinking outside the box. Bruce has founded businesses his entire life, beginning with a lemonade stand at ten years old. From a business selling TV guides during high school to a “chain” of produce stands in town, Bruce loves the challenge of figuring out a new business.
This passion has led Bruce to start businesses across a wide variety of industries including commercial real estate development, homebuilding, hospitality, retail franchises for a variety of products and services, and most recently food manufacturing and CPG sales. Bruce has developed projects from convenience stores to shopping centers, buildings hundreds of semi-custom homes to building and operating a hotel in Erie, Pennsylvania. Never one to sit idle, in his current role as the CEO of Jackson Hole-based Kate’s Real Food, he has overseen rapid growth while launching an adjacent manufacturing business to allow the brand to scale. He looks forward to continued growth across all of his operating companies and is excited for his latest “new project” – developing an 82 acre industrial site and bringing it to market in Bedford, Pennsylvania. Bruce specializes in entering new businesses, developing a total understanding of their operations, and driving success and growth across all relevant fields.
Bruce attended The Hill School in Pottstown, PA, Dickinson College and the University of Pittsburgh for his undergraduate degree in 1983, and ultimately the University of Pittsburgh Dental School in 1987. He took the GMATs upon graduation from dental school but instead decided to return home to practice dentistry with his father. During the two decades that he owned his dental practice Bruce purchased two additional practices, but he could not shake the entrepreneurial bug and gradually transitioned away from dentistry and embraced his passion full time.
Bruce enjoys running his companies with his son Mark and daughter Brittany. He spends his time between Jackson Hole, Wyoming, Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania and Highland Beach, Florida. He is an avid skier, hiker, biker and swimmer. Bruce recently purchased a building lot on Saddleback Mountain and is looking forward to building a home there and enjoying the skiing and fishing at Saddleback Mountain Ski resort in Rangeley Maine.
Nona Yehia
An accomplished architect by training, Nona Yehia built Vertical Harvest from the ground up as North America’s first vertical hydroponic greenhouse. She also pioneered the company to focus on inclusive, customized employment for people with physical and/or intellectual disabilities alongside her co-founder Caroline Croft-Estay. She conceived the company based on her experiences growing up with a brother with developmental disabilities, love of fresh and local food, obsession with great design and long-standing community involvement. And her organic connection to all aspects of the enterprise continues to fuel Nona’s insight into the business and her dynamic leadership style has led to recognition as a CNN Champion of Change and Vertical Harvest being named a finalist for Fast Company's Best Places to Work for Innovators - Diverse Innovators Award. She is also a Tony Hsieh Award Fellow, working to reimagine the role of Human Capital in business and a World Economic Forum’s "Global Future Council on Cities" Member.