Apr. 18—CHEYENNE — gener8tor, a venture capital and accelerator firm, has been helping business owners in Wyoming get their start since 2020 through free programs. This year, they introduced a new program, gALPHA, which concluded earlier this month.

gALPHA is a four-week business creation workshop for those who have an idea for a business and want to move forward with it. It is in addition to the existing gBETA program, which assists businesses that may be more developed and are seeking venture capital.

"gener8tor's mission, essentially, is to provide opportunities for people in a state like Wyoming, North Dakota, Nebraska, Alabama, Wisconsin, Minnesota, all kinds of middle America states," said gBETA Wyoming Program Manager Stephanie Reece. "You won't see us on the East or West Coast, just because there's so much venture capital and accelerator opportunities there, and it's also really high stakes, and it's not as approachable. So, gener8tor really tries to target those [middle America] communities and put these programs in those communities so that it helps find those diamonds in the rough."

In its inaugural year in Wyoming, gALPHA accepted 19 applicants who participated in the course that concluded with an official business pitch in the first week of April.

Over the four weeks prior, participants virtually attended weekly presentations from gener8tor staff covering topics like identifying the ideal customer, revenue models, how to pitch and how to get into next-level accelerators.

They also met with Reece for an hour each week for coaching and to discuss goals. She would give them "homework," like cold-calling people, meeting with customers and interviewing people.

"It challenges people. It gives them some accountability every week, which is really helpful, as opposed to just having an idea and not doing anything about it," Reece said.

Reece also arranged group sessions, pitch practice and a wide variety of weekly guest speakers throughout the program.

"It was great. Stephanie was a great help," said participant Alejandro Romero. "There was a lot of people in our group that had great ideas that everybody could bounce ideas off of. It was a real friendly, real open environment; everybody was really cool. All the different professionals that [Reece] had come in, she had them from all different scopes, from whether they were a motivational speaker, or whether they were in marketing or someone in business, she kind of covered all the bases to really give you the background knowledge, or give you new insight on what we needed to do and what areas we needed to tackle."

Romero is a student at Laramie County Community College who founded Cultivate, a greenhouse construction and landscaping company. He said gALPHA approached him after he won first prize at an LCCC entrepreneurship contest earlier this year.

One of his current contracts came from the gALPHA program. Romero expects to graduate from LCCC's welding program in May and looks forward to participating in gBETA at some point in the future to feel more prepared to approach venture capitalists.

gBETA works with early-stage companies that are already established but don't necessarily need to have revenue. Since it came to Wyoming in 2020, the program has led to 87 new jobs, 30 portfolio companies, seven seed rounds, and alumni have raised over $16 million. The program runs twice a year, and applications for the summer program are now open. The application deadline is May 20.

Local gBETA alumni include Lexie Garrett, owner of the handbag shop Alexis Drake, and Rowdy Yeatts, founder of High Plains Biochar, which has expanded internationally.

Chuck Brannan participated in this year's gALPHA program. He said that even though his brick-and-mortar food service business idea was not normally what goes through the program, they were still able to get him started and connect him to resources.

"Even though my concept was a little bit outside the norm, the resources that they had were still just very abundant and very beneficial for me as I'm moving toward trying to get my concept off the ground," he said.

He hasn't started his business, but said the program helped accelerate that process by a year or two, and he could see the business opening in Cheyenne within the next six months.

"I was just very impressed with it, and very grateful that Stephanie Reece and other people within the community worked to get this program launched in Wyoming. I think it is outstanding," Brannan said. "I think our state and our community is really benefited to have this, and I think it's very enriching for our community and for our economy."

Gener8tor was established in 2012 in Madison, Wisconsin. The gALPHA program has been executed in other states, and alumni have raised over $7 million in funding. Funding for gener8tor's accelerator programs comes from Microsoft.

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Noah Zahn is the Wyoming Tribune Eagle's local government/business reporter. He can be reached at 307-633-3128 or nzahn@wyomingnews.com. Follow him on X @NoahZahnn.