It’s not every day that you see the beginning of somebody’s dreams come true. But it is every year, thanks to the Casper Start-Up Challenge.
Years ago, the minds behind Advance Casper wanted to do just that; they wanted to advance Casper. And they knew that, in order to do so, they had to give its people a chance to advance themselves.
Thus, the creation of the Casper Start-Up Challenge, an “annual opportunity [that] helps entrepreneurs put their ideas to the test, while receiving valuable business coaching and start-up support.”
Every year, five finalists are chosen from a list of incredibly talented, incredibly brilliant local minds. This year, the five finalists featured a diverse slate of entrepreneurs, athletes, restaurant owners and more, and each finalist more than proved that they belonged on grand stage during the Casper Start-Up Challenge Pitch Night. The finalists were, in no particular order:
- Jim & Lauren Childs, Jimmy’s Small Batch Salsa
- Heidi Foy, Bullfrog Recruiting Solutions
- Josh Kalinowski & John Heisey, Chilly Dip Ice Spas LLC
- Auston Larson, SLP.tools
- Jake Milne, ReviablEnergy
Each of the five finalists wowed the audience, as well as the panel of judges. But three winners were announced on that night: Chilly Dip Ice Spas, SLP.tools and Bullfrog Recruiting Solutions.
“The judges deliberated long and hard,” said Eric Schlidt, managing partner of Breakthrough Ventures. “It was very difficult to choose the winners. I was fortunate enough to sit in on the deliberations, and the judges just thought that these particular companies had the ability to really grow, and leverage Casper. They thought that the other two finalists were doing a lot to grow and leverage Casper as well, and they believed that all of the finalists, regardless of winner-status, were going to be successful.”
The five companies wouldn’t have made it to the final round of the Casper Start-Up Challenge if they didn’t have the plans, the potential and the ability to offer real, viable business additions to Casper and beyond. But there could only be three winners, and The Chilly Dip, SLP Tools and Bullfrog Recruiting Solutions were the businesses that were selected.
And for good reason.
The Chilly Dip, as its name implies, is a versatile “tub” that can be used at home, on the go, at gyms or sporting events, in a backyard or garage or, really, anywhere one could think of.
“Say goodbye to horse troughs and awkward lake jumps,” the Chilly Dip website states. “Our cold plunge tub brings the ice bath right to your own home. Whether it’s your backyard, garage, or anywhere you fancy, you can get your chill on anywhere.”
Ice baths, or cryotherapy, are on the rise — and not just for athletes. Cryotherapy offers a variety of benefits for men and women of all ages. And the goal of Kalinowski and his team is to create a business that offers those benefits to people, while keeping money and bringing in more money to Casper, and Wyoming as a whole.
“We really want people to understand the benefits of cold therapy and what it can do for the longevity of life and the comfort of life,” Kalinowski shared. “We also want to make sure that people recognize that, at any age, this can be a benefit for them. And we want it to be affordable. I really feel like, with the product we’ve designed — the durability, the functionality of it and the price point that we’re going to be in the market — I think we’re really going to be able to disrupt an industry that has needed to be disrupted for quite a while.”
Speaking of disrupting an industry, the use of artificial intelligence, or AI, has disrupted a number of different industries, for better or worse. But Auston Larson and SLP.tools are using AI to assist speech language pathologists and the clients they serve.
SLP.tools was designed by Larson to serve as a semi-assistant to speech language pathologists.
“Speech language pathologists work with individuals who have communication disorders,” Larson stated. “And with SLP.tools, I sort of provide the tech backing. Across the board, SLPs are under-resourced and kind of overwhelmed. And so, what our platform does is offer a number of different AI tools that help speed up certain aspects of the job.”
For example, Larson said, if an SLP is planning a therapy session for a person, and they need specific resources when they’re working on specific diagnoses that an individual may have, SLP.tools is able to create personalized therapy materials in minutes, from interactive social stories to tailored articulation exercises and more.
Additionally, SLP.tools is able to assist SLPs with their documentation and reporting. The SLP.tools website invites users to “Leverage AI to transform how session notes and client reports are created [by providing] succinct summaries and goal-tracking reports, allowing for more time spent with clients and less on paperwork.”
SLP.tools is just that, a tool. It’s designed to “take the load off” of SLPs and allow them a little bit of assistance, so that they may catch their breath throughout their workdays.
“I really believe in what we’re doing,” Larson said. “I think we’re helping out individuals in a profession where they are traditionally very overworked, with high caseloads. We’re trying to help ease that burden. We’re trying to help people.”
And that’s exactly what SLP.tools is doing. Of course, there’s more than one way to help people, though, and Bullfrog Recruiting Solutions is helping young cowboys and cowgirls find the perfect rodeo, and the perfect school, to hone their craft and build their brand.
“Bullfrog Recruiting Solutions has created a portal that’s very similar to NCAA Sports, only it’s very specific to college rodeo,” Heidi Foy stated. “So, if you’re the parent of a kiddo that participates in youth or junior high or high school rodeo, this is a great place to go to figure out what kinds of questions you should be asking your kiddo.”
Foy also said Bullfrog Recruiting Solutions is a good resource for the students themselves and for college rodeo coaches.
“For coaches, this is the place to get your college program out there, to get your rodeo program out there, to talk about what your background is, what your coaching structure is, what your philosophy is, so that those students and parents can find out where you are, and what you’re about, to decide if that’s the school for them,” Foy said.
The database itself is extremely user-friendly for students, parents and coaches. The directory is searchable, so if a student is looking for a specific academic program — whether it’s nursing, welding, business or anything else — they can search the directory by academic program. Students can also search by location if they want a college in Texas, Tennessee or somewhere else entirely.
Additionally, Bullfrog Recruiting Solutions offers a life-skills training course, called “Outside the Arena,” which offers workshops on financial literacy, time management, social media training, regular media training and more.
The company was created to help raise up a new generation of rodeo athletes, and it is the perfect Wyoming-born, bred and built business to invest in.
That is what Advance Casper has done. They’ve invested a lot of time and a lot of resources into these three budding businesses…and they’re planning to invest even more.
“These three companies have won the ability to come back to the judges and ask for seed funding,” Schlidt said. “They will come back with very specific asks and the judges will have very specific requirements and benchmarks for them to get to their next step.”
In essence, Kalinowski, Foy and Larson will approach the judges and outline how much money they believe they need and what, exactly, they will use the money for. Like their initial pitches, the three winners will make a presentation detailing exactly what their plan is over the next three months, six months, year, etc.
“The seed money comes from different Advance Casper organizations,” Schlidt revealed. “The organizations put it through Advance Casper, and then Advance Casper serves as the intermediary. These organizations very much trust Advance Casper, as the economic development organization of Natrona County, to help build and promote this. They trust us to make sure that the winners are doing what they say they’re going to do and we want to make sure that these companies are really putting the money where it will most advance them, and where it will help advance, and grow, and benefit Natrona County.”
Among the biggest donors to the Casper Start-Up Challenge are:
- The TW Foundation
- Casper Area Economic Development Joint Powers Board
- Wyoming Capital Access
- First State Bank
- Jonah Bank
Each of these sponsors is directly responsible for the success of the Casper Start-Up Challenge, and Schlidt said that Advance Casper wants to be “good stewards” of the money that their donors are putting up. It’s a responsibility they do not take lightly, and while Advance Casper is thrilled to be able to support these new start-up companies, its mission is also to bring Casper, itself, to the next level.
It’s not just money that these businesses receive, either.
“We’ll continue to work with them in ways similar to the ‘boot camp’ that we ran during the initial pitch process,” Schlidt said. “A lot of these businesses, a lot of these entrepreneurs, continue to be successful over the years and we continue to work with them. They might be a part of Advance Casper. They might join the Casper Area Chamber of Commerce. They become public figureheads in this community.”
It’s a process that has proven to be successful over the last several years. Countless small businesses have risen from the Casper Start-Up Challenge, and countless more will continue to do so over the coming years.
Disa Technologies won the Casper Start-Up Challenge almost six years ago, and now they have almost 40 employees and are continuing to grow at a rapid rate. Backwards Distilling Co. has become one of Casper’s most well-known and sought-after distilleries. McGinley Orthopedics has become a staple of the community, literally making its place in the center of town. Several other businesses, whether they actually won or not, have thanked the Casper Start-Up Challenge for giving them an opportunity.
“All of these companies have to start somewhere,” Schlidt said. “And for most of them, it just starts with an idea. So we do what we can with the Casper Start-Up Challenge to help foster and grow that idea, because we want these ideas to stay in Natrona County. Wyoming is a hard place to start and/or grow a business sometimes. But we believe that Casper is the best place to do it, and we just want to give people a chance.”
In many cases, that’s all these entrepreneurs need; they need a chance, an opportunity. They need a little bit of support, a little bit of money and a little bit of faith that they can create something truly special.
And make no mistake about it — The Chilly Dip, SLP.tools and Bullfrog Recruiting Solutions are each offering something very, very special to Casper.
“Thank you,” Larson said. “Thank you to the judges, Advance Casper, and the people of Natrona County for believing in our vision. Their support has been an incredible motivator and has given us the momentum we need to grow SLP.tools and contribute to the broader goal of expanding economic opportunities in Casper. We’re dedicated to building a platform that helps speech language pathologists focus more on their clients and less on administrative tasks. This win is just the beginning, and we’re excited to make Casper proud as we push forward and expand our reach.”
Casper is already proud — of the three winners, of the five finalists and of any of the businesses that chose to work with the Casper Start-Up Challenge. There were only three winners, but the turnout for the challenge has proven time and time again that Casper, and Wyoming, is home to countless brilliant human beings who will create businesses that make their world better.
That’s what Heidi Foy hopes to do with her business, and she said that the Casper Start-Up Challenge not only provided support and, eventually, financial backing. Maybe most importantly, she said, the challenge affirmed her idea and gave her the confidence to make it bigger and better. The judges believe in her, which makes her believe even more in herself.
“One thing that this Start-Up Challenge has done for me is validate my idea,” she stated. “When you think of something like this, and build it from the ground up, and work in it day in and day out, you can almost get to the point of just being lost in the fog of all the things that still need done. The Start-Up Challenge allowed me to dream a little — a lot — bigger about the impact that my business could have on the next generation. When I was plugging through it, one subscription and one month at a time, it was really hard to let myself dream and imagine just how far and big of a reach I could have. Knowing that I have equity outside of my own revenue has allowed me to accomplish some milestones much sooner than I could have reached on my own.”
The same can be said for Kalinowski and his partner. The support that the Start-Up Challenge has put into his business, and the others, validated that he’s doing the right thing, and he’s going the right way.
“Winning the Casper Start-Up Challenge is an incredible honor for us at Chilly Dip Ice Spas,” Kalinowski stated. “It’s a validation of our mission to make cold therapy accessible, fun, and something that everyone can enjoy, regardless of their experience level. The support from this challenge shows that there is excitement around what we’re doing, and it gives us even more confidence to move forward. We’ve poured our passion into creating ‘The Chilly Dip,’ and being recognized by the judges and the community reinforces that we’re on the right path.”
That path, for The Chilly Dip and the other finalists, will be a long and winding one. There will be successes. There will be failures. There will be ups and downs and countless loop-the-loops. But these businesses will succeed. They already have. They will continue to make Wyoming proud. And they will continue to advance Casper…for many years to come.
To learn more about Advance Casper and all that they do for Natrona County, visit their website or follow them on Facebook.
