Rebekah Sletten is an agricultural advocate in Iowa and tells stories for America’s Cultivation Corridor. Rebekah’s activity throughout the startup community has her connected into emerging agtech innovations and the future of food. Together, we discuss the value of building an engaged network outside of your own industry. We also learn about the Cultivo Virtual Academy, why she’s interested in web3, precision agriculture, and fresh ways to harvest innovation.
Welcome to my new weekly podcast, inspired by stories brewed from within. To celebrate the launch of You Don’t Need This Podcast, listen as I articulate a caffeinated manifesto for this podcast, introduce our friendly co-host (BEN BOT) and invite you to join in on the fun every Wednesday morning. Cheers!
I turn 41 at 1:41PM EST on May 19th, 2023.
As I reflect on a few recent birthday wishes, my 33rd birthday wish was granted, there’s less anticipation and a compelling sense of retirement from 39 remains on tap, and this year’s birthday definitely feels less poetic than Eclipsing 40, but I’m still here. Let’s celebrate.
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One word to sum up my work this year, is wild. I remain thankful for the privilege to perceptually learn through the art of connection, content creation, and exploration on the frontiers of technology. Here are a few ways we’ve continued to collaborate together!
Along with the wild in my work, I’m just as grateful for the health and happiness of family and friends. There are countless milestones that have brewed joy in different ways. While most will remain cherished without sharing, here are a few memorable moments that have art to accompany the adventure. Stay wild my friends!
©1982-2023
I have always loved listening to stories.
At home, my parents used to tell me stories whenever I’d go to sleep. In school, I enjoy listening to friend’s and telling my own stories as well. Lately, my growing interest in entrepreneurship has me listening to people discuss their entrepreneurial journeys. These stories of solving problems and building a business have captured my attention, but I had to go beyond the status quo to find them.
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This caffeinated contribution was written by Ani Soni. Anirudh is a student who is becoming indispensable as he explores entrepreneurship within a startup community.
As a student in high school, there are a few classes, programs, and clubs that hint at what entrepreneurship is all about, but they lack heart, let alone the realities that come from actually building a startup or small business. I enjoy hanging out with my friends, but they don’t share the same interest I have in building my own company. My family is supportive too, but I really haven’t had a way to consistently share stories about building a business.
To fill this storytelling gap, I started looking for ways to meet other entrepreneurs. While it took a little research, I found many ways to meet people who own their own business. I’m eager to continue exploring “entrepreneurial ecosystems”, but I feel lucky to have chosen to first attend a weekly program called 1 Million Cups. Attending 1MC has allowed me to listen and learn from the stories of entrepreneurs, but showing up wasn’t easy.
I was so nervous at first! As a high schooler, I wasn’t sure if or how to show up. I assumed everyone was more qualified and successful. I didn’t think I would be able to understand, let alone contribute to the conversations. In my own mind, I didn’t belong and it was like I didn’t deserve to be there. It would have been easier to say, “maybe someday”, but I’m glad I decided to take the training wheels off.
When I arrived that first Wednesday morning, everybody was welcoming, kind, and incredibly interesting! I was thirsty to return after experiencing the generous energy this room of fellow students, entrepreneurs, intrapreneurs, and community builders exuded. Attending 1 Million Cups week after week, I now realize that people of all ages enjoy sharing stories just like me. Entrepreneurs sure like helping one another as well!
It’s only been a few months, but I already feel connected to this community of entrepreneurs. In fact, I’ve offered to join the volunteer 1MC organizing team, because I’ve seen how stories create a bond, and perhaps that’s what it’s all about. No matter where you’re at within your own journey, I’ve learned we are not alone. Everybody helps everyone grow. Now I’m on a mission to learn from more entrepreneurs, to build into my own ideas, to ask for help, and to accelerate others however I can within the entrepreneurial ecosystem.
This year has been transformative. For me, 2021 was a beautiful blend of secluded serenity, new beginnings, expanded connectivity, and milestone moments.
Everyone was thirsty for meaningful connection as the pandemic lingered. Using the transitory popularity of social audio, we fired up an experiment that invited entrepreneurs and ecosystem allies to chat every Friday morning. My role became the AM radio host as the Iowa Breakfast Club invited special guests to lead inclusive conversations on a wide variety of topics. Students, entrepreneurs, intrapreneurs, and community builders enjoyed these enchanting interactions for 30 consecutive weeks, before the group decided to sunset the sparkle. A recap of this experiment still needs crafted, but for now, I’ll leave you IBC fans with something to smile…”Rise and shine, it’s breakfast time!”
The release of my first book, You Don’t Need This Book: Entrepreneurship in the Connected Era, was my brightest highlight of 2021. This was the literary project of a lifetime. The YDNTB softcover and eBook published on April 1st and it’s been a wonderful whirlwind ever since. Hearing from energized readers and mentoring more caffeinated authors will never get old and I’m so thankful for the overwhelming sense of peace this achievement brings.
Educational organizations play a huge and recurring role within all entrepreneurial ecosystems. Through my work as an ecosystem builder, a focus on the Iowa entrepreneurial ecosystem generated a growing amount of conversations with students, teachers, and administrators throughout the state. It soon became time to collide statewide actors with a goal of allowing more inspired people to learn from each other while also exploring fresh ways to collaborate. What started as an introductory email chain, quickly evolved into a monthly meetup online. Together, we explore the intersections of entrepreneurship, innovation, and education by sharing quick updates and upcoming events, then we import/export knowledge by welcoming a special guest each month. Here are a few of the caffeinated conversations we’ve shared and please drop me a note if you’d like to join us in the future.
I shared this full recap of my first Startup Weekend experience, but it felt like an important happening this year, as it was a catalyst to a much more involved ecosystem development role with Techstars. We have another statewide, Startup Weekend Iowa event coming together to kick off 2022, and it’ll be neat to see how more connected hackathons can continue bringing curious people together.
The peace that emerged from publishing YDNTB, creative work that feels like play, treasured family time, and perhaps my 40th birthday looming, seemingly came together to construct more space for mental exercise this year. I found myself thinking deeply about life through the lens of entrepreneurship, but far beyond business. This led to philosophic deep dives in the form of reading, writing, and an eagerness to spark more meaningful conversations. A daily meditation practice (the Calm app is great!) has also centered, relaxed, and recharged my mind, body, and spirit. I may try yoga in 2022. Not for the physical exercise, but more to expand this cerebral exploration.
Along with sharing my favorite travel tricks, it was good to quietly live in different places throughout the pandemic, and then finally return to being a bit more adventurous toward the end of the year. Trips to Chicago, Minneapolis, Omaha, Kansas City, Ozarks, Joplin, Cedar Rapids, and Iowa City were fun, but the two highlights were returning to where we got married in Florida and golfing on Keystone Mountain in Colorado.
I’ve been having coffee at 1MC every Wednesday morning since 2012. Yes, that’s a lot of coffee with a lot of entrepreneurs! As a founder, 1MC was my weekly dose of innovative energy. An appreciation for this consistent gathering led to the early opportunity to lead in Des Moines for many years, and has since evolved into my current role working within the Kauffman Foundation as the Midwest Regional Rep. Today, our leadership team supports and connects 125+ communities nationwide. Over 40 of these 1MC communities are in the 12-state Midwest region (map), which equates to around 200 caffeinated community builders I’m blessed to work with in small, medium, and large entrepreneurial ecosystems. Being a 1MC organizer requires time, curiosity, intellectual humility, generosity, a dedication to show up, a willingness to have fun working within complexity, and a devotion for supporting entrepreneurs. The pandemic has taken its toll on this educational movement fueled by interpersonal connection, but this is a resilient tribe that’s uncovered a silver lining of more connectivity nationwide. There is an evolving sense of renewal brewing and with what’s to come, 2022 will be an interesting chapter in the story of 1 Million Cups. Join us for coffee any Wednesday morning, by visiting www.1millioncups.com.
As a tech founder, I’ve always admired Techstars. When this global startup accelerator arrived in Iowa, it was a tremendous boost for the statewide entrepreneurial ecosystem. During the first year’s #TSDemoDay in 2020, I was talking with some of the founders about their interest in a place to land after their accelerator experience. In doing so, it dawned on me that we hadn’t hosted a Startup Weekend in a long time. This sparked an interesting conversation with my long-time friend and Managing Director of the program, Kerty Levy. She and I ended up crafted an innovative entrepreneurial ecosystem building role that gave me the freedom to holistically explore, support, and connect actors and factors throughout the Iowa entrepreneurial ecosystem. This ecosystem building work has been momentous, so when a position more involved with the actual accelerator emerged, it was a natural opportunity to get more involved. I joined Kerty in a hybrid role we titled Entrepreneur in Residence / Ecosystem Development. The 2021 Techstars Iowa Accelerator Class arrived in Des Moines soon after I accepted this expanded role, so it was definitely flying a plane while building it at the same time, but what a vigorous experience. We had ten different companies all building in different industries for 13 weeks. Along with working with each team, I leaned into fueling a community-driven culture with mentors and got to flex my event development skills by organizing mentor madness and a monumental #TSDemoDay that helped define our 2021 program. Looking forward, applications for the 2022 accelerator program open January 18th, so we’re talking with founders about their next moves. If your team is ready to scale, I’d highly recommend following @TechstarsIowa on Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn, then visit TechstarsIowa.com and hitting the green “Get in Touch” button to explore what Techstars can do for your startup.
Our beautiful startup that pays in love is my greatest achievement. I’ve realized that one of the best things about entrepreneurship, is that it’s allowed me to be a #1 DAD! I’ve worked 80 hours so that I’m not forced to work 40. Over time, this has unlocked a freedom to avoid routine while providing a choice to how I spend my precious time. In fact, this is one reason why I’m such an advocate for entrepreneurship! Life is too short not to enjoy how we spend our time and I’m lucky to have spent so much of it with our little girl. 2021 brought a milestone moment for our family, as our daughter went to Kindergarten. As a highly involved parent, I found myself experiencing a pie chart of emotions. I was excited for her, but also selfishly felt a deep sense of loss. I also had mixed feelings about the educational system and how our little one would behave in her new environment. Perhaps this is what many parents feel when they first send their kids off to school, but this mangled mindset inspired the realization I wrote about in One & Only. It was neat to start that blog not knowing where I was headed, but in the end, realizing that gratitude provides peace. Kindergarten has been wonderful and this passage turned out to be a wonderful life lesson I’ll always appreciate.
This was one of the most grueling, yet invaluable projects of my life. Building my own studio and narrating the audiobook version of YDNTB was fun, as recording an audiobook felt like performing art. The decision to then edit the entire thing myself is where the fun ended and the grind became real. I literally hand treated the accuracy, tone, and timing of every single sentence and all 37,456 words so that each listener would cherish a resonating experience. Grumbles aside, what kept me pushing, was the idea of having something I can be proud of for life. The YDNTB audiobook is now available everywhere and I can’t wait to hear what you think!
With the landmark effort required to publish my first book and my expanding work as an entrepreneurial ecosystem builder, all three of my own entrepreneurial ventures received less attention. With a watchful eye on my personal bandwidth, I was well aware of how this impacted my diversified career portfolio. The pandemic had forced beer festivals, open houses, and live video game events into hibernation, so 2021 was the perfect time to expand the impact of my work. As the pandemic subsides, it’ll be difficult to regenerate momentum, but FliteBrite has a tasty beer festival app and incredible potential with our electronic serving system… OpenOpen is an open house scheduler expressly designed to save substantial time for home builders and real estate agents… and Jet Set Studio will always remain an epic hobby that pays.
I’m grateful for the privilege to have consistently delivered these Roasted Reflections every week since activating this literary practice on December 14th, 2020. Along with this achievement I’m thankful for, the added layer of recapping each month’s writings into a threaded tweet (example) creates a shareable, linked index that also acts like an accountability pit stop to refuel my own potential to persevere.
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Reading helps us understand the world.Writing helps us understand ourselves.
I hope you’ve enjoyed these weekly ruminations. This threaded relic I shared on Twitter includes ALL of my Roasted Reflections from 2021, organized by each month’s contemplative recap. I built into this shareable index all year and really enjoyed this summit before the ball dropped on New Year’s Eve.
Cheers to the wonderful whirlwind that was 2021, and to all that comes next in 2022!