Start-Up Success: Fundamentals 

Develop Your Frameworks for a Thriving Venture

Learn. Connect. Collaborate. Succeed.

Offered each spring by Silicon Couloir, this course is your gateway to building a successful, values-driven business. Join aspiring entrepreneurs, small business owners, non-profit leaders, and business-minded students to develop essential strategies and frameworks for your venture.

7-week intensive business start-up program offered by Silicon Couloir each spring

Program Overview

Start-Up Success: Fundamentals will be taught by world-class instructors Sandy Schultz Hessler and Liza Millet. Each week, guest speakers comprised of local entrepreneurs, mentors, and investors will share their insights and experience with students. 

This program is based on the highly successful Start-Up Intensive program, which Central Wyoming College offered in conjunction with Silicon Couloir for many years. SUI graduates enjoyed great success with their ventures and over 70% are still operational after 3 years. 

Class will be in-person.

Learn key business frameworks, tools, and financial templates along with developing answers to the essential questions for your start-up. Join fellow budding entrepreneurs, small business owners, non-profit leaders, and business-oriented students in the journey of building a proven framework for success. You will gain skills, strategy, confidence, and community as you build and develop a values-based business. Students will have the opportunity to pitch their business at Silicon Couloir’s Chance Meetings the first Monday in June to an audience of entrepreneurs, local leaders, and investors. 

In only 6 weeks you will:

  • Determine key need and benefit of your idea

  • Define your target audience

  • Understand the competitive landscape

  • Conduct qualitative and quantitative research

  • Identify core competencies and business value proposition

  • Build a detailed financial model and cash flow projections

  • Create your critical path toward launching your business

  • Learn from and interact with other successful entrepreneurs who have very successfully walked this path.

And walk away with:

  • Elevator pitch

  • Creative brief/look and feel

  • Target Audience Profiles

  • Competitive analysis and pricing matrix

  • ProForma & financial overview

  • Marketing frameworks

  • Powerful presentation deck 

  • 2-page corporate overview and power letter

Sandy Hesslar

Sandy is a seasoned marketer, social entrepreneur, and educator with extensive experience building brands and organizations. She began her career in brand management at Procter & Gamble, where she developed a customer-centric approach to marketing. Sandy co-founded Imagitas, a successful marketing services company recognized with a prestigious Hammer Award by Vice President Al Gore and later acquired by Pitney Bowes. Her academic roles include serving as Assistant Dean at Harvard Kennedy School and teaching leadership, marketing, entrepreneurship, and communications at the collegiate level for over 28 years. Sandy has provided strategic training and advisory services to high-profile clients including NASA, General Motors, and the Center for Women & Enterprise.

Liza Millet

Liza is an accomplished finance and business development professional with deep expertise in startups, strategy, marketing, and fundraising. She began her career on Wall Street, spending 12 years in investment roles before transitioning her skills to the entrepreneurial community in Jackson, Wyoming. Liza is the co-founder of Silicon Couloir, a nonprofit dedicated to aligning entrepreneurship with community vision in the greater Teton region, as well as the Silicon Couloir Angel group and the Start-Up Intensive entrepreneurial bootcamp. Recognized for her impact, she was named Wyoming Mentor of the Year in 2017. Liza holds an MBA from The Wharton School and a bachelor's degree from Dartmouth College.

Functional experts will be regularly brought in to teach different segments of the program. 

2025 Dates:

Weekend of 4/11 - 4/13

  • Fri: 5 pm - 8 pm

  • Sat : 9 am - 4 pm

  • Sun: 9 am - 12:30 pm

Wednesday evenings 5:30 pm - 8 pm

  • 4/16, 4/23,  4/30,  5/7, 5/14, 5/21, 5/28

Weekend of 5/30 - 6/1

  • Fri: 5 pm - 8 pm

  • Sat :9 am - 4 pm

  • Sun: 9 - 12:30 pm

Monday, June 2nd: Chance Meetings pitch (optional but encouraged)

TUITION: $1100  ~ Early Bird Special: $995 until March 15th

Non-profit employees may be eligible for a professional development grant from the Community Foundation of Jackson Hole. Those with an established business with payroll may be eligible for a Wyoming Workforce Training Grant.

Robb Sgroi Founder and CEO, Teton Bear Product 2021 Start-Up Success Graduate

“Silicon Couloir’s Start-Up Success course program brings business school level insight to the convenience of our mountain town. Silicon Couloir’s instructors and staff provide programming in marketing and business that provides students a realistic framework of what it takes to move a start-up from an idea to reality.”