Ryan Gardner helped build Bucked Up from a small startup into one of the fastest-growing sports nutrition brands in the country. What began as a supplement company has grown into a nationally recognized brand with a loyal following, major retail presence, and a culture that stands out in a crowded market.

In this Start School session, Ryan will share what it actually took to build Bucked Up in the early days, how the company broke through with bold marketing and brand building, and the lessons he’s learned while scaling a business in an increasingly competitive world.

We’ll also talk about entrepreneurship, leadership, discipline, building community around a brand, and how founders can stay focused while navigating growth, pressure, and uncertainty.

As always, this won’t be a lecture. It will be an honest conversation with someone who has built a company from the ground up, followed by audience Q&A and discussion with attendees.

June 30: Ryan Gardner

July 9 : Curtis Anderson

July 15: Ryan Caldwell

July 27: Joseph Woodbury

Most startup events are built for the one percent. The venture-backed. The ones chasing a 10x return for someone else's fund. The ones who measure success by how much money they raised instead of how much they built.

StartFEST is for everyone else. The solo founder. The bootstrapper. The person who wants to build a profitable business that supports their family. The company that grows slowly, treats its people well, and is still standing in twenty years. The best businesses rarely make the headlines. Start School is built for founders who know the difference.

More than 400 companies are now part of Start School. No tuition. No equity. No hidden agenda.

It's a free entrepreneurship program from Silicon Slopes, built in partnership with Mountain America Credit Union. Every dollar from StartFEST goes back into it. When you buy a ticket, you are paying for the next founder who shows up wanting to build something real.

Start School takes self-leadership seriously because the founders who last almost always do. It's the track you won't find at any other startup event, and it's the reason Start School exists in the form it does.

In this special encore presentation from the 2025 Go-To-Market Live event at Silicon Slopes headquarters, Amy Cook, co-founder and CMO at Fullcast drove a discussion with industry leaders to share the ideas behind the bestselling book, The RevOps Advantage, and why revenue operations has become one of the most important strategic functions in modern business.

As AI reshapes how organizations operate and go-to-market teams face growing pressure to do more with less, RevOps has emerged as the connective tissue that links marketing, sales, customer success, finance, and executive leadership. It's no longer enough to simply report on what happened. 

The most effective RevOps leaders help shape what happens next.

Get your FREE copy of The RevOps Advantage HERE

In this episode of Mental Health Momentum, Dr. David Morgan sits down with Cierra Clayson, Brand Manager at Minky Couture, Utah Valley BusinessQ 40 Under 40 honoree, and a mother whose journey has been shaped by profound loss, resilience, and reinvention.

After spending a decade as a stay-at-home mom, Cierra unexpectedly found herself navigating divorce, re-entering the workforce, and rebuilding her identity. What followed was a remarkable career transformation that helped grow Minky Couture into a nationally recognized brand through partnerships with organizations including the NBA, Paramount Pictures, Crumbl, BYU, UVU, and more.

But behind the professional success is a deeply personal story.

Cierra opens up about losing her five-day-old son, Jack, and the lasting impact that grief has had on her life. She shares how she spent years trying to stay strong for everyone around her, only to discover that true healing comes from allowing yourself to sit with pain rather than avoiding it.

Utah's technology community has needed this for a while. On September 11, 2026, it arrives.

STACKED Summit is Utah's premier event on AI, cybersecurity, SaaS, and data analytics. The inaugural summit takes place at Salt Lake Community College, and we built it for the people closest to the work: the builders, operators, engineers, and executives who are navigating the most consequential shifts in the industry right now.

Not networking for the sake of it. Not panels that go nowhere. Real sessions, real practitioners, and real conversations about the problems worth solving.

Six tracks. One room. Everything that matters in Utah tech right now: AI, Cybersecurity, Data, Systems, Builders, and SaaS.

Hundreds of founders, engineers, operators, and executives will be there. The first STACKED Summit is the one people will say they didn't want to miss. We'd like to make sure they don't.

Tickets are now available. Sponsorship opportunities are open. We are accepting speaker proposals.

Be part of the first one.

September 11, 2026. Salt Lake Community College.

Partner with Silicon Slopes, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, and amplify your impact across Utah's most dynamic tech ecosystem. Here, tax-deductible giving meets tangible ROI, innovation meets influence, and your brand connects with the builders shaping tomorrow.

Shape the Future of Silicon Slopes!