Mike has spent his entire career building software companies. He started his first software company out of his parents basement in college, and since that time has helped found, grow, and sell 6 SaaS companies.

During his years building businesses, Mike has personally worked on each aspect of building a software company - marketing, sales (yes including cold calling), product architecture and development, and operations management, fund raising, and everything in between.

Mike earned a BS in Computer Science & Information Security from Dakota State University in Madison, SD. Mike is based in Brandon, SD with his wonderful wife and four children. Mike loves overlanding and backpacking with his kids in the most remote places. This is probably because Mike was born in Canada where wilderness is everywhere.

Ray Hespen is the CEO and Co-Founder of Property Meld, the nation's largest software Property Management Maintenance platform.

Originally born in Gillette, WY and attended the South Dakota School of Mines to become a degreed Mining Engineer. His early professional career started in manufacturing and operations, but quickly evolved when he joined David Kingman to start Property Meld, a software company, in 2014.

In 2024, the platform boasts 675,000+ rental units that are being maintained with the assistance of Property Meld and significantly improving the experience and efficiency of millions of repair requests - 2 million repairs in 2023 alone. The company has raised over $22 Million and is growing aggressively.

When not working on Property Meld, Ray is passionate about creating more great careers in Rapid City through entrepreneurial programs and business advocacy.

Carrie has over 15 years of experience helping clients with various tax issues and uses her experience to guide clients and provide expert tax answers. She specializes in tax preparation and consulting for clients in the real estate, hospitality, and medical industries. Additionally, Carrie leads KT's team that specializes in assisting clients in resolving IRS issues.

Carrie enjoys the complexities that her work brings and stays up to date on tax law changes so she can implement her role in disseminating information to staff and clients. She enjoys writing professionally for the firm, including newsletter articles, blogs, and other firm communications. You may have even seen her on the local news a time or two talking about taxes!

Todd Gagne is a seasoned software technology executive with over 30 years of experience in the startup and software industries. During his 19-year tenure at Concur, a leading travel and expense management company, Todd was instrumental in growing the company's revenue from $10 million to over $1.7 billion. His contributions in various senior leadership roles were pivotal in Concur's success, culminating in its acquisition by SAP for $8.3 billion in 2014.

In 2022, Todd co-founded WildFire Labs, a software accelerator based in Rapid City. WildFire Labs is dedicated to helping software entrepreneurs swiftly transition from concept to their first paying customer, providing essential resources and capital along the way. Todd's vision for WildFire Labs is to foster a thriving software ecosystem in western South Dakota, ultimately creating more technology jobs in the region.

Ladd McCluskey has an engineering degree from St. Cloud State University and comes from diverse background in management, engineering, consulting, training and entrepreneurship. Ladd feels fortunate to be a native of South Dakota and to have parents that were always teaching and providing a wide range of experiences from which he learned at an early age to problem solve.

Ladd is currently the President of Primary Mfg, an additive manufacturing and rapid prototyping company located in Humboldt, South Dakota as well as a founding partner of Latitude-Ag, LLC, a South Dakota based startup.

Latitude-Ag was formed in 2021 as a joint venture between DRT Corp and Primary Manufacturing. In partnership with Primary Manufacturing, DRT Corp produced the SRV2 Valve (Section Recirculation Valve) using the latest additive manufacturing technology. The Merlin IC System is an innovative product that addresses the recirculation and chemical injection needs of the sprayer industry.

Ladd is now focusing 100% of his time on Latitude-Ag with a goal of commercialization in 2025.

Beth Lambeth joined the South Dakota School of Mines & Technology as the associate vice president for research in innovation and entrepreneurship in April 2024. Beth is a connector that thrives on creating synergistic partnerships to drive growth within R&D, fully aligned with the university's mission to connect leaders, shape the future, and deliver groundbreaking innovations. Beth's experience in business development, strategy, and advocacy empowers organizations to collaborate, innovate, and make an impact.

Beth joins Mines after working as an Innovation Strategist with Sanford Health and as the Associate Director for South Dakota Biotech. Her first experience in research commercialization came through her role as the Technology Transfer Officer at the University of South Dakota. Beth has built and directed programs to assist tech entrepreneurs and to train students on technology commercialization pathways.

Beth has an M.B.A. from the University of South Dakota.

Kyle S. Coleman is a patent attorney at Goodhue, Coleman & Owens, P.C. From an early age, whether trying to repair a “junked-out” small tractor motor behind his grandfather's shop, helping his dad build a classic hotrod, or tweaking the suspension and clutch on his snowmobile, Kyle has enjoyed getting his hands dirty while learning from troubleshooting, repairing, and innovating new products and designs in both work and recreation. Kyle's passion for learning and innovating continued into college where he helped design a patented real-time health monitored composite for high stress fighter jet components while obtaining his bachelor's and master's degrees in mechanical engineering from South Dakota Schools of Mines and Technology (Rapid City, South Dakota), and later a law degree from the University of Wyoming. Kyle enjoys representing clients before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for inventions and designs relating to mechanical, electrical, biomedical, and material science technologies.

Jonathan's technical training is in chemistry. Adding to his background is a Master's degree in Bioethics where he focused his research and writing on the ethics of technological regulation at the federal level. His practice is in intellectual property law, including, patents, trademarks, copyrights, and trade secrets. Jonathan's patent practice focuses on inventions related to chemistry, nanotechnology, and materials science. Example industries that he routinely prepares and prosecutes patent applications in include the energy, medical, and cleaning industries. Representative clients that Jonathan has worked for include Fortune 500 companies, universities, start-ups, and individual inventors. Jonathan also actively litigates intellectual property lawsuits with experience in state and federal courts. He is also Chair of the Litigation Practice Group. Jonathan has argued at the Federal Circuit and before multiple USPTO panels.