An Economist by background, Permjot is the Founder & CEO of MentorCamp and Co-founder of Flight and Partners Ltd. (a UK based FCA authorized fund). Permjot is a Pitch Trainer, Advisor, Entrepreneur-in-Residence and Executive Director for numerous business and economic development collaborations around the world. He is also an Angel investor, having invested in over 30 startups in four countries (Canada, UK, South Africa and US).

Mr. Diedrich is the Chief Executive Officer and co-founder of Covered. Covered is a venture-backed digital insurtech company. Under his leadership, Covered has been recognized on HousingWire's "Tech100" list of most innovative companies in housing, BuiltInColorado's "Top 50" list of startups to watch in 2018, and has been featured in WIRED Magazine and multiple other publications.

Previously, Mr. Diedrich was the VP of Structured Products and CD Trading at Nathan Hale Capital. Under his leadership, the Structured Products desk increased revenue 5.6x and achieved the highest ROI in the company. He was regularly in the top 3 traders in the country across multiple trading production categories. He was the youngest partner of the firm. During his tenure at Nathan Hale Capital, he achieved the prestigious Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation.

Melissa has extensive experience working with startups. In her most recent role, she was the managing director of MN Cup, the largest statewide startup competition in the country. She has a bachelor's degree in Mass Communications from Minnesota State University, Mankato and an MBA from the Carlson School of Management, University of Minnesota.

Luke is a U.S. Air Force veteran who studied at the University of Minnesota and Minnesota State University, Mankato. Luke finds energy and joy in helping people with their recovery journey because he personally understands the challenges of addiction. He is a certified peer recovery specialist and manages a sober house in St. Paul. He is also active in the local recovery community including Young Adults in Recovery.

Dhiraj Sharan has been in a software engineering career for 20 years during which he has founded two startups and has been an engineering leader in two more startups. His journey includes an IPO at ArcSight and getting acquired twice by HP Enterprise. Dhiraj has 10 patents (granted/pending) and has been a Cisco EIR Entrepreneur. He is a bachelor in Computer Science from IIT (BHU, India) and Certificate in Management from Harvard. His current startup Query.AI is building an AI assistant for Enterprise IT and Security teams and is incubated by BIC at the Research Park in Brookings, SD.

Paul is CEO of Western Dakota's leading locally owned CPA firm. He is also a venture investor in several technology, tourism and real estate businesses.

Ted Pettyjohn is a founder and Chief Executive Officer of Phase Technologies, LLC, a manufacturer of power electronics with products including phase converters and variable frequency drives (VFD). He is an investor and Managing Member of Memsense, LLC, a producer of high performance inertial measurement units (IMUs) for military and industrial applications. In 1998 Mr. Pettyjohn founded LZS, Inc., a consulting firm that provides sales, marketing and business development services to established companies and to start-up ventures. Prior to founding LZS, Mr. Pettyjohn held various positions in Sales & Marketing for Amgen, Inc., the world's largest biotechnology company. Mr. Pettyjohn has extensive experience in strategic planning, equity financing, sales and marketing, and has successfully established new technology companies. He holds a BS in Biological Sciences from South Dakota Sate University.

Brian Rupert is a dad, husband, entrepreneur, firefighter and community builder that believes in the power of connectivity and relationships. As an organizer of Startup Black Hills and Startup Weekend Black Hills my mission is to help ideas come to life and support entrepreneurs in their journey towards world domination.

Ray Hespen is the CEO and co-founder of Property Meld, a maintenance automation software company. Ray and his co-founder, David Kingman, started Property Meld in 2014 to eliminate the maintenance headache for property managers.

Ray's background is rooted in the manufacturing business. A degreed engineer, his previous roles have involved reducing operating expenses while improving quality and consistency. He has taken this operational knowledge and combined it with technology to streamline the maintenance coordination process which is incredibly burdensome for property management businesses.

First-time mom, long-time insomniac Dani Mason has as passion for the new. It's what led her to study and teach abroad before tackling a translation challenge of a different sort – working in marketing and communications at a science and engineering school, SD Mines. She co-owns a political, marketing, and communications consultancy with her husband, called Launch Collective, working with companies in energy, finance, healthcare, manufacturing, the nonprofit sector, and politics, and spends her free time running Startup Weekends. Now as Marketing Director at B9Creations, she's found her perfect fit – applying her passion to an emerging industry in a growing company all in the beautiful Black Hills.

Jesse is Co-Founder of Lost Cabin Brewery in Rapid City, SD.