By Martina Pansze

Blackfoot Communications’ accelerator C2M Beta announced the five companies participating in their current Winter 2021 program for Montana and Idaho startups. The participating businesses were selected based on the criteria that they offer disruptive technology experiences and impact the Montana and Idaho region. 

C2M Beta, which stands for Blackfoot’s tagline “Connect to More,” was designed in 2018 as an early-stage Idea to Validation incubator. The 12-week program was launched mid-January and will culminate in a Demo Day on April 13th from 3-4pm MST.

The Winter 2021 program is led by Stefanie Sample and Dave Danford, who are both deeply involved in the tech startup world. Sample is CEO of The Insight Studio and president of MTB Management which has a portfolio of companies. Danford had a 25-year career as a marketing executive with Microsoft after earning his masters in Business Administration from UCLA. He now sits on the advisory board for management and marketing in the University of Montana’s College of Business and is managing director of the Innovation Incubator.

In designing the program’s intensive curriculum, Sample and Danford spent a lot of time on the early-stage validation processes that are often skipped.

“We teach [the founders] how to prototype customer feedback, how to understand the market need, how to think really hard on if their product serves a market, and doing it without judgment,” said Sample. “Often the people in tech have strong opinions as if we all magically know what's going to work or not. And so we're working really hard to not judge or project our own opinions onto them, but instead helping them through their process.”

Past C2M Beta cohorts have included Montana-based startups such as AudPop, Prime Labs, and Patient One.

The Winter 2021 program is entirely virtual, which Blackfoot VP Network & Systems Joe Fanguy says has forced the program organizers to hone their skills and deliver value without in-person connection. Meeting online also allowed C2M Beta to serve founders in multiple locations including Missoula, Bozeman, Helena, and Laurel, Mont. 

The five companies participating in this year’s cohort are:

• 406 Bovine: Laurel, MT: Using artificial intelligence and machine learning, 406 Bovine (founded by Bryan Elliott) is creating the most advanced cattle facial recognition software in the market today. The technology, which can be used on a cell phone from up to 40 feet away, improves overall production and efficiency across cattle operations and increases food safety by offering reliable worldwide tracking and traceability.

• Check This Out: Bozeman, MT: Nicholas Wickes founded Check This Out, which enables restaurants and other retail businesses to accelerate and amplify their word-of-mouth marketing and business growth through a text-based, incentive-driven, and highly trackable SaaS platform. 

• Inspired Classroom: Missoula, MT: Inspired Classroom builds bridges to connect learners to real-world experiences regardless of geographic isolation or opportunity. The company empowers individuals and organizations who have rich educational content to mentor learners. Founded by former educators Alli DePuy and Kathleen Dent, Inspired Classroom uses proprietary mentor-based, scenario-driven software supported by masterclasses to elevate teaching and learning.

• ShopDot: Missoula, MT: Founded by Michelle Huie, ShopDot is a technology platform that integrates with any front-end ecommerce platform and creates an ecosystem between brands and retailers to support end-to-end product and content distribution. ShopDot will enable small-to-medium-sized retailers to effectively compete with marketplaces like Amazon and to offer an enriched experience for their customers through omnichannel capabilities and personalized, data-driven engagements to deliver the right product at the right time.

• Svvarga, Inc.: Helena, MT: Svvarga is a technology company co-founded by siblings Ryan Rebo and Sharayah Clancy. Svvarga’s flagship product Rubrikk is an AI-powered, cloud-native platform that transforms unstructured information from images and documents into clean, ready-to-use data.

Inspired Classroom is an EdTech software company in Missoula that connects project-based educational content from museums and nonprofits to 3rd through 12th grade educators. Founded in 2015, the company is planning to launch the next version of their product a year from now. Their software, which is scaffolded for students and teachers, will translate the ‘aha moments’ from experts at their customer organizations into the digital realm.

Inspired Classroom co-founder Alli DePuy said that Danford and Sample’s outside perspective has been invaluable in the crucial steps of deeply understanding her market. 

“The experience they bring has helped us get into the mind of an investor or get into the mind of a customer and pushed us to think that entirely through,” said DePuy. As a former art teacher, she understands that developing an in-depth learning plan is incredibly complex and time-consuming. 

“It's easy to say, ‘I know who my customer is, I know what they want. I know what my value proposition is.’ But to have somebody come in and say, ‘Well, have you thought about it this way?’ Or, ‘I don't think you hit the mark.’ I appreciate that. I appreciate that so much, because, well, it shows how much they care. But it also shows that they're not afraid to do the hard work with us.”

This year was the first that the C2M Beta curriculum is available online to startups outside the official participants. Seven additional companies have joined the accelerator’s meetings as observers and worked through the content at their own pace.

Fanguy noted a trend in the cohort and the tech space generally where more and more concepts that weren’t traditionally thought of as venture-fundable are now becoming so.

“Ten years ago, it was only SaaS [Software as a Service] or a new platform being funded. Today, you're seeing e-commerce brands getting venture funding, which is opening the door, I think, to a lot of diversity,” said Fanguy.

In 2020, just 2.3% of VC funding in the United States went to startups led by women. The C2M Beta cohort, however, is more than 60% female.

“Overall, we have started seeing more people getting involved, more people imagining themselves in this space, and then starting to pursue it in a way that I haven’t seen in the past,” said Fanguy. “More of our cohort is female than male, which is really cool. But it’s their ideas that are venture fundable. Whereas just a few years ago, people would have told them that they didn't have a place in the tech industry.”

Although the selection criteria gave preference to female founders, the organizers made it clear that the startups selected were the strongest applicants. “We didn't reject a different company in order to make a spot for a female founder,” said Sample. “These were the best options.”

C2M Beta is one of more than 100 accelerator studios that are part of the global startup accelerator network GAN, which spans six continents. But its leaders also see an opportunity to help cultivate an entrepreneurial culture and values unique to Montana.

“It feels like we're at this pivotal moment where we are going to define what [our tech ecosystem] looks like here,” said Sample. “Are we going to become a mini San Francisco and turn and burn founders, not care about mental health, succeed at all costs? Or are we going to step in and as a community define a new way of doing startups?”

About the Publisher: Launched in 2014, the Montana High Tech Business Alliance is an nonpartisan nonprofit association of highly-engaged high tech and manufacturing companies and affiliates creating high-paying jobs in Montana. For more information, visit MTHighTech.org or subscribe to our biweekly newsletter.

About the Author: Martina Pansze is the Communications Director for the Montana High Tech Business Alliance. She graduated from Whitman College with a degree in Film and Media Studies.