Startup Sioux Falls maintains forward momentum, welcomes two new team members
It’s an exciting time to be here.
On May 20, we announced our rebrand from the Zeal Center for Entrepreneurship to Startup Sioux Falls. We celebrated this news alongside the successes of some of our community’s finest entrepreneurs at the 2021 Hey Sioux Falls event.
It’s the beginning of a new season for Startup Sioux Falls—one that will redefine the look and feel of our entrepreneurial ecosystem. In recent years, we’ve realized that our purpose is less about providing a facility and more about cultivating a strong community.
As such, part of our rebrand includes a concerted effort to find a new home in downtown Sioux Falls. We see downtown as the beating heart of our city and the natural hub for entrepreneurial spirits, and we’re actively searching for a new location to start our next chapter.
Expanding the Startup Sioux Falls team
Moving forward with these goals requires the support of a strong team. In addition to Executive Director, Brienne Maner, the team has since grown to include community manager, Peter Hauck, and program and marketing manager, Sara Lum.
In May, we welcomed two new faces to the organization—Barb Glazier and Laura Arce Vieyra.
Glazier is our new bookkeeping and administrative specialist, and she fills a much-needed gap in our team’s skill set. She joined us on May 4 as a full-time employee, and her responsibilities are about 30 percent front-desk management and 70 percent bookkeeping.
Glazier is a self-proclaimed “numbers person,” but it wasn’t just accounting that drew her to the role with Startup Sioux Falls.
“Once I came in here and met with some of the people, I got really excited about how everyone is so forward thinking and positive,” she said.
“Everybody’s got a lot of energy, and they’re so friendly. It’s a great environment, and I get so excited about how everyone is talking about these big plans and where the city’s headed. It’s an invigorating feeling.”
Additionally, Glazier says she was ready for a role where she could work toward the greater vision of a company. In her past accounting roles, she was laser-focused on specific areas, like revenue, financial reports or accounts payable.
“I was looking for a position where I could do it all and get a good birds-eye view of how everything’s working,” she said.
Glazier grew up on a farm near Dell Rapids as the second-oldest of eight siblings. Today, most of her family still lives in the area, and she loves spending time with them as well as her five children, who are all either in college or out of the house. When she’s not at Startup Sioux Falls or spending time with her family, she enjoys the outdoors in her flower garden and backyard pond.
“I’m very excited to be here, and I’m looking forward to building more relationships and getting even more comfortable with everybody. It’s such a small family feel, and I love coming to work everyday,” she said.
Laura Arce Vieyra joined the team on May 18 as our summer events and marketing intern. She is a third-year international student at Augustana University, hailing from Mexico City, Mexico.
While at Augustana, Laura has stayed busy developing various projects around sustainability, including an on-campus apple orchard. Her advisor in the international programs office noticed her involvement and proactive nature and suggested she look into Startup Sioux Falls for an internship.
For Laura, who is majoring in finance and management with a minor in economics, the management and marketing internship felt like the perfect fit.
Currently, she sees herself pursuing a career in management, potentially for events or hospitality. At Startup Sioux Falls, she’s able to gain hands-on event management experience through events like our upcoming CO.STARTERS graduation celebration.
“I love seeing ideas come to reality and I wanted to be part of the process,” she said.
During her three years in Sioux Falls thus far, Arce Vieyra has appreciated the size and connectivity of the community.
“I would say that even though a lot of people know each other, there’s always room to grow your relationships,” she said.”
Getting plugged in with Startup Sioux Falls has enhanced that community even more.
“One of the things I didn’t expect was that the people are so nice. For me, that’s the biggest surprise, they are the perfect combination of extremely kind but also really smart, and you get to learn a lot in a healthy environment,” she said.
We are so grateful for the work that both Barb and Laura have already done for our organization. They’re playing a part in some exciting projects that will allow us to continue to expand our reach in the Sioux Falls community.
Next time you’re at our facility or at a Startup Sioux Falls event, make sure to introduce yourself to these two!
Interested in helping us shape the future of our new location? Take our Future of Flexible Work survey!