Below is a list of alumni entrepreneur coaches for our Lassonde for Life program (in alphabetical order). Members of the program are welcome to request a meeting with any one of these individuals. Meet to discuss your startup idea, get answers to your most urgent business questions, or explore a related topic. Use the link below to request a meeting.
Taylor Bench
Managing Director, Summit Venture Studio
Before founding Summit Venture Studio, Taylor Bench was the Director of the New Ventures team at the Technology Venture and Commercialization (TVC – now PIVOT) office at the University of Utah since 2009. Taylor was responsible for managing the equity portfolio of over 110 startups that spun out of the University as well as the Software Development Center (SDC), the grant writing component of TVC, the Entrepreneur in Residence (EIR) program and Get Seeded, a student startup funding program.
Tim Cooley
Founder, TLC Collective
Tim Cooley is the author of the #1 best-selling book on raising capital, The Pitch Deck Book: How to Present Your Business and Secure Investors, creator of the PitchUs.io podcast, and consultant at PointB. He is the former Executive Director for Park City Angels. He has worked with Fortune 500 companies as well as 100s of early-stage companies in marketing, sales, product development, fundraising, and operations.
Sarah Duke
Co-Founder, Acrely Farms
Sarah grew up on a family farm in the Midwest and completed her undergrad in agricultural business. After working in large-scale corn and soybean production, she realized her values did not match those of the chemical and GMO companies. She moved to Utah and became involved in organic vegetable production with the International Rescue Committee’s New Roots Program. In 2019, Utah legalized the production of hemp and Sarah obtained a license to grow. Acrely Farms was born in 2020!
Stephanie Geisler
CEO Coach, Vistage Worldwide
Stephanie Geisler is an executive coach for CEOs and other business leaders in Salt Lake City. She has experience as a company founder, growing a startup to $25M annual revenue in the third year. She has owned four different companies, served as chief operations and customer officer at a local tech company, and led the full-time MBA program at the Eccles School for five years. She has expertise in culture-building, executive coaching, strategic planning, employee retention, change management, and product management across many industries including technology, medical, higher education, direct sales, manufacturing, and marketing.
Josh Hadley
CEO, Hadley Designs
Josh Hadley is the founder and CEO of an 8 figure e-commerce business. His career began in a leadership development program at American Airlines. While Josh was employed at American Airlines, he and his wife started a custom wedding invitation business that they worked on together in the evenings. Since then, their business has pivoted into a stationery empire with over 1,300 products. Josh loves working together with his wife in their business as they raise their 3 children.
Chad Jardine
CEO and Founding Partner, CMO Zen
Chad Jardine is the CEO/Founding Partner at CMO Zen, a fractional CMO firm specializing in early-stage companies. He has spent the past 20 years as a marketing executive and CEO building and growing micro-cap companies. Along the way, he earned a BFA from BYU and an MBA from the U of U. He has also been a mentor for startups at VentureCapital.org and Boom Startup. He teaches FINAN 6300 and 6310, two graduate courses in venture capital in the business school at the U.
Katy Luxem
Founder and CEO, Big Dill Pickleball Co.
Katy Luxem has more than 15 years’ experience with eCommerce, as both an Amazon corporate employee in the US and UK and an Amazon consultant (including Panasonic, Honeywell, and Ocean Spray). She founded Big Dill Pickleball Co., a pickleball paddle and gear company focused on the fun, inclusive elements of America’s fastest-growing sport. Her business has been featured in Forbes, The New York Times, USA Today, and others. She is a graduate of the Master of Business Creation at the University of Utah.
Chuck Sharp
CEO Coach, Sharp Analytics
I’ve founded and sold three businesses and currently starting my forth. As Dynata Managing director, I lead a large, global team of market research professionals. As Sharpr founder/CEO, I led the inception to purchase. As Sharp Analytics founder/CEO, I led the inception to purchase. As ValueMags cofounder, I led the inception to exit. I have three crazy/fun kids, an amazing wife, and a love of backcountry skiing and trail running.
Dylan Turner
Co-Founder and CPO, Doxy.me
Dylan Turner is a co-founder and Head of Product for a global telemedicine called doxy.me. Doxy.me has over 1,000,000 healthcare providers signed up for the service, and these providers have seen over 150 million patients on the platform. Dylan was responsible for scaling the product and operations to support the product over the past 9 years. It has been a great sense of pride to know doxy.me has helped so many people during the global pandemic.
Josh Webber
Co-Founder, Big Red Jelly
“Only entropy comes easy” – Anton Chekhov. In short, I feel a deep sense of satisfaction from building something long-lasting and valuable with people I love. Big Red Jelly represents a team, product, and bundle of world-class services that we built together, and I enjoy seeing it grow and provide value to fellow business owners.
