This annual Venture Madness event is sponsored by the Arizona Commerce Authority and was held at the Tempe Center for the Arts on Feb 20, 2020.
The pitch competition event features over 225 startup business leaders with companies across four tracks – consumer products, tech, SaaS and medical devices.
“This is an honor to keynote early-stage Arizona companies who are driven to innovate. Susan Koehler, Footprint’s Chief Sales and Marketing Officer, “Five years ago, Footprint was co-founded by two Intel material science engineers, Troy Swope and Yoke Chung. Together with Kevin Easler, Footprint’s Chairman of the Board saw a need to eliminate single-use plastics from grocery stores. Today, Footprint has become a thought leader in solving the greatest issues of our time: plastic pollution, the negative health impacts of plastic, and climate change.”
Her talk covered the key success factors of Grit, by Angela Duckworth and how to measure Passion and Perseverance. She also shared the importance of a Growth Mindset, suggesting they read, Dr. Carol Dweck’s, Mindset. Susan shared her career experiences, which spanned the four tracks of consumer (The Dial Corp/Henkel), technology (Microsoft), SaaS (Infusionsoft) and medical (Parke-Davis) to encourage the early-stage businesses to keep innovating.
The Venture Madness Startup competition concluded with companies pitching to southwest and west coast investors, including Trinity Capital.
Susan Koehler of Footprint delivers Keynote at the Venture Madness Startup Competition (February 20, 2020)