Jan. 18, 2024

This paid piece is sponsored by Startup Sioux Falls.

When Andy Jorgensen first became an entrepreneur, the startup community in Sioux Falls was there to support him.

Now, years later, Jorgensen is building on his track record of business ownership and found connections through Startup Sioux Falls yet again.

“With my first business, Fire Brothers Fireworks, I had 60 days to launch my business,” Jorgensen said. “I was 22, not competent enough to fix an old barn and figure out insurance, but I am competent at asking for help.”

The startup community connected him with everything from construction-related referrals to help with promotion and even selling fireworks.

Going on eight years later, he still sells fireworks and has become a mentor and leader within the startup community, helping to organize events for entrepreneurs and serving as an entrepreneur-in-residence.

Now, Jorgensen is turning his attention to artificial intelligence and the business opportunities he sees as AI is positioned to become a game-changing technology.

He organized the first AiEdge Summit in Sioux Falls last fall and is launching a business consulting operation around AI.

“The tagline is ‘We bring great minds in the AI space together.’ That’s what we did with the AiEdge Summit. We had 200 people there, and it was awesome,” he said. “Everyone is extremely hungry for the topic and looking at how they can optimize and automate, and we’re going to be cranking on that.”

He doesn’t have to look far within the startup community to find like-minded entrepreneurs.

Pavel Azaletskiy is originally from St. Petersburg, Russia, and came to the U.S. to work in Silicon Valley a decade ago. He formed his business, VSOptima, two years ago and moved to Sioux Falls last year because of his son’s hockey career.

“I was just looking for a co-working space and happened to walk in the center of the city and saw Startup Sioux Falls and walked in, and there you go,” he said. “It’s a nice location, and it’s a quiet environment where you can focus and work. Sometimes, working from a home office can be lonely, and here you have people around.”

His company is a SaaS, or software as a service, operations digital twin platform that allows companies to model operations of any complexity, identify issues through detailed scenario simulations, find optimal future states of operations and finally control their operations in real-time.

Built once, it always reflects the current state of operations, shows performance issues, predicts the business impact of improvement decisions and tracks change execution – along the way, using both generative and open AI.

“You can ask the platform questions, and it understands and can guide you through bottlenecks and opportunities to improve performance,” Azaletskiy said.

Both he and Jorgensen have participated in an ongoing monthly meetup held at Startup Sioux Falls where business leaders involved in AI learn together and share best practices.

“This is exactly the sort of resource we want to be and the type of collisions we want to help facilitate,” said Brienne Maner, president of Startup Sioux Falls. “Whether you’re an established entrepreneur like Andy or a newcomer to our community like Pavel, you have a seat at the table here, and we can begin connecting you with what you need to help you build relationships and help your business succeed.”

In addition to his co-working membership, Azaletskiy has found value connecting with potential angel investors and companies that might be able to use his software.

“It’s been awesome – very helpful for me,” he said.

Jorgensen connected to the new space too, serving as a founding member who occasionally takes advantage of the conference room and sees it as a valuable way to rub shoulders with like-minded people. He anticipates launching workshops with speakers and potentially a podcast in the coming year.

“I’ve told Brienne multiple times: ‘Nice job, good work. You’re doing everything you could have possibly done,’” he said. “The building and everything being done there is done as well as it possibly could be. It’s really hard to build a community, and when I look at the sheer amount of engagement Startup Sioux Falls is getting, it just shows how well the work is being done.”

The location and its programming are key, Maner agreed.

“That’s the benefit we anticipated about a downtown location, and we have seen it right away,” she said.

“Someone like Pavel, who is new to our community and naturally gravitated downtown, literally could see our sign and walk in the door and start to connect. That happens frequently. And when it comes to an emerging technology like AI, our entrepreneurs are seeing the future, and we’re positioned to be a resources to incubate their ideas and grow their businesses. That’s what it’s all about and why we’re so energized about the year ahead.”

The Startup Sioux Falls meetup group for AI skills meets the first Thursday of each month from 4:30 to 6 p.m. at 100 E. Sixth St.

To learn more and connect, click here.