Episode 1:

Wildfire Origin Story-
Mike & Todd

In the first episode of Wildfire Tales, Mike and Todd walk through their entrepreneurial journey that led them to start Wildfire Labs, a pre-seed accelerator for software companies.

The wildfire founders share some jarring war stories of the challenges of starting and building tech companies in an isolated environment, and why it's important to build technology with the right tools.

The guys also share why the created Wildfire Labs and give you a preview of the Wildfire process.

Episode 2:

David Hanna from Paystubz.com

In this episode, Todd interviews David Hanna, a fintech entrepreneuer about how he started, built, and sold Paystubz, an online payroll service.

David shares his story of growing up in rural South Dakota, starting his first business selling candy bars as a kid, and what life was like growing up as a young entrepreneur.

David shares how he built and sold one of the most innovative payroll services companies in the region, and dives into lessons learned and how important culture was to building a successful company.

Episode 3:

Deb Clark from
Eval.com

Deb Clark is building one of the fastest growing property evaluation companies in the nation, and she's doing it with technology.

Deb started with nothing, and was even  homeless and living on the streets for a time. She went from that to bar-tending to learning the financial services business.

Today Eval.com is growing rapidly, and Deb shares the triumphs and challenges of that growth. She also gives us candid leadership insight on key lessons that have helped her continue her rapid growth.

Episode 4:

Jared Tiefenthaler

In this episode of Wildfire Tales, Jared shares his journey from college football to creating multiple technology startups. This includes creating a unique sports training app with his dad who is a former professional baseball player.

Jared also shares his experience building Signed Up Sports in the Wildfire Labs accelerator.

Episode 5:

Bill Trevillyan

In this episode of Wildfire Tales, Bill takes us through his experiences from growing up in Rapid City to moving to China, and his current work in Silicon Valley. Bill also walks through his journey of entrepreneurship including competing in business plan competitions and his massive quest to find a co-founder including interviewing over 300 candidates. Our episode concludes with Bill's perspective on the future of AI, a field his current startup plays.

Episode 6:

Ray Hespen

In our latest episode of Wildfire Tales, Property Meld Co-Founder and CEO Ray Hespen talks about his journey from working in a cement materials plant to running a company that has raised $22 million and is a leader in their space. Ray also shares lessons he's learned on how to scale a company from just a few customers and a couple people to a team of 50 that is prepared to more than double in size. Ray also shares how mentoring has helped him grow as a leader and allowed him to scale with the organization.

Episode 7:

Eric Broughton

In this episode of Wildfire Tales, Eric shares his experiences selling multiple companies including an exit to Expedia.com. Eric has a unique set of experience of using consulting gigs to find problems that he ultimately turned into a successful products.  Eric also shares his experience working with private equity and investment banking during his years pre and post exit.

Episode 8:

Crop Duster to Successful Real Estate, Tech Investor

Eric Martz

Eric grew up on a rural North Dakota farm starting his career as a crop duster. From there he spent time spent managing restaurants and then got into real estate investing and managing assisted living centers. Eric now invests in tech companies and helps new startups get prepared for capital at Wildfire Labs. In this episode you'll learn key lessons learned and how important people are to success. Eric also covers how being mentored and mentoring have played a huge role in his life, and how making tough decisions to balance work and home life has helped him grow.