Episode #82 - Developing a Strong Tech Community

welcome to the cyber rants podcast
where we're all about sharing the forbidden secrets
and slightly embellished truths
about corporate cyber security programs
we're ranting
we're raving
and we're telling you the stuff that nobody talks about
on their fancy website and trade show giveaways
all to protect you from cybercriminals
and now here's your hosts
mike ratando
zack fuller
and loro chavez
hello and welcome to the cyber ants podcast
this is your co host
zach fuller
joined by mike ratando and laro chavez
the usual suspects
but we also have a guest joining us today mr
j larson who is the founder and president
of the idaho tech council
j thanks for joining us
thanks so much
appreciate being here
zach hey well
we're looking forward to diving in a little bit
to what makes a good tech community
what brings organizations together
to really support a good tech ecosystem
so we're going to get into that today a little bit
but first we're going to kick it off
in the usual fashion with the news
mike good morning
and welcome to the news
as if flying wasn't bad enough
us airport sites taken down in dds tax
by pro russian hackers
several us airport websites taken offline
in twenty twenty two
internet websites are the preferred portal
for airline passengers to book change
cancel travel reservations
a fact that hasn't gone unnoticed by criminals
last week a pro russian activist group named killing
that turn their attention
to several us airports
and executed
an impressive ddos attack against their websites
the ddos attacks have overwhelmed the servers
hosting these sites with garbage requests
making it impossible for travelers
to connect and get updates
and about their scheduled flights
and book airport services
they've also recently attacked government websites
operated by colorado
kentucky and mississippi
so good luck with those flights
a text message scam is making the rounds
i know personally
i've gotten a ton of these
so they're out there
people who have accounts with amazon
are being warned about a new text message scam
customers have reported receiving texts
reportedly from amazon
asking them to follow a link to secure their accounts
after an attempted login
however once they log in
the scammers
are able to steal their personal informational
criminals are increasingly leveraging test messages
scams to lure victims towards their cologne blog sites
at the opi and credit card data
a smartphone's tiny screening
and the lack of security software to intercept moses
messages contribute to the excess of these scams
blaze ploy making the rounds
purports originate from a leading online based store
the message claims that the system detected potential
unauthorized login
and township
which is bogus
these are not only coming from amazon
they're coming from banks and other places
so be really careful
what you click on when you get a text message
fourth largest
hospital system still offline after attack
hospital chains
patient portals
other it still offline
patient care continues to be disrupted at the us
us fourth largest hospital system
as its response to a cyber incident
enters a second week
it's rumored to be ransomware
a chicago based catholic health provider
boasting a hundred and fifty thousand employees
and a hundred fifty two hundred and forty two hospitals
it's the second largest non profit
and fourth largest hospital system
a ransom reactor
believed its network would be a lucrative target
and proceeded to infiltrate its network
several weeks later
the network is still crippled
the patient with portals
e prescription site
and multiple it sub networks
are inoperative and negatively impacting patient care
subsequently from soho
sophos reports that
two thirds of the healthcare organizations
surveyed reported ransom attack
in twenty twenty one
ransomware attacks on healthcare doubled
sixty six percent of healthcare organizations survey
were hit by ransomware in twenty twenty one
up from thirty four percent
in twenty twenty
a more challenging healthcare threat environment
this sector saw the largest
highest increase in volume
sixty nine percent
and perceived complexity
sixty seven percent of
cyber attacks
and the second highest increase in impact
fifty nine percent
and lastly healthcare is most likely to pay the ransom
ranking first was sixty
one percent of organizations paying the ransom
to get encrypted data back
compared with global average of forty six percent
this is almost double the thirty four percent
who paid the ransom
in twenty twenty
that should really be zero percent
because all you're doing is funding terrorism
take care of your backups in your system
over seventeen thousand fortnite devices exposed online
are very likely vulnerable to cve
twenty twenty
two four zero
six eight four
we reported on this before
and confirmed
that many systems are still vulnerable to the tax
and explain the cve
zero day vulnerability
fortnite is urgent customers
to address the recently discovered cve
unfortunately
the number of devices that have yet to be patched
is still high
after multiple medications for
for still significant number of devices
that require medication
and following the publication by an outside party of
of poc code
there's active exploitation of this vulnerability
based on this development
fort in that again
recommends customers and partners
take urgent and immediate action
as described in the public advisory
so if you got fort in that
patch it for all of those
you working off of rdp
venus ransomware targets publicly exposed
remote desktop services
threat actors behind the relatively new
venus ransomware
hacking into publicly exposed
remote desktop services
to encrypt windows devices
venus ransomware
appears to have begun operating the middle of august
twenty two twenty twenty two
and has since encrypted
victims worldwide
however there was another ransomware
using the same encrypted file
existence since
twenty twenty one
we don't know if they're related
but it really doesn't matter
one victim in the bleeping computer forums
also reported irdp
being used for initial
access to their network
even when using a non standard port
for the service
when executed
venus ransomware
will attempt to terminate
thirty nine processes
associated with database servers
of microsoft office applications
the ransomware will delete the vent log
shadow copy volumes
and disable data execution prevention
when encrypting files
in ranchware
will pen the dot
venus extension
and each encrypted file
the ranch wear
will add a good gamer
thumb marker
and other information
at the end of the file
and the ransomware
will create an hta
ransom note in the
in the temp folder
that will automatically be displayed
when the ransomware is finished
encrypting the device
so be careful
there's two stories about this
microsoft three sixty five
message encryption
can leak sensitive inserts info
microsoft office
three sixty five
message encryption
doesn't ensure confidentiality
researchers have discovered
what they call
a vulnerability
of microsoft
three sixty five
tied to the
use of a broken
or risky crypto algorithm
it could be exploited to infer
some of all
or all of the content
encrypted emails messages
they warned
what microsoft
has declined to address this issue
per microsoft
the report was not considered
meeting the bar
for security servicing
nor is it considered a breach
no code change was made
and so cde was issued
for their support
so gotta love microsoft
that's the last story
there's a couple headlines
there's a car steps ring
using software
to steal hundreds of vehicles
without the physical key fob
there's another new apache
vulnerability
that's coming out
they're starting to see
in the wild
microsoft warns of unusual
ransomware attacks
an introduction
of state and local
cyber security
grant program
that's a new
federal program
and verizon
is notified
prepaid customers
their accounts
were breached
so lot going on
with that laurel
what do you get
for man mike
thanks for that good news
i've got some
i've got some relevant
exploits this week
before i dive in
i just want to remind
the leadership out there
that may not understand why we do
the exploit
part of the news
you're probably aware of the vulnerabilities
but i hate to use
the relation of
a gun because
that's a complicated target
i'm not gonna get into
but vulnerability
is a lot like
having a gun
but not having any bullets
for the gun
so a lot of software out there
is like that
and a lot of the vulnerabilities
that you find
are like these weapons
and so having a gun
with no bullets
is a boatweight
it's useless
once someone develops
a projectile
to be used in this gun
now we have something
that can be used
and that is exactly
what an exploit is
this is the code
that allows
a framework
like metasploit
to push this
like a bullet
towards the vulnerable target
and execute the code
in the weakness
allowing us
typically to get
remote shell
or on server execution
which is what
we hope to have
in memory execution
so to couple
on to mike's fort os
scream for help
again please patch if you have fort in it
there are active payloads out there right now
initially this was for sale so it was
it was limited because a lot of the
a lot of individuals may not wanted to pay for this
now it's being listed for free
the exploit essentially does just that
exploits twenty twenty two
forty six eighty four
and allows essentially the
this is for the api
but allows you to gain access to choose accounts
and then it
it adds an ssh
key to the authorized keys of the chosen account
allowing you to log into the system
with the chosen account
successful exploitation will result in remote code
execution on the ford net
so like mike said
please patch
please patch
anybody out there using this zimbra collaboration suite
there is a tar path traversal exploit
so there's a traversal patch versa
that allows the injection of a tar file
that will then execute
unwrap and execute whatever payload you choose
so if you're running the zebra collaboration suite
nine or eight dot eight
make sure that you patch those versions
to get you rid of
twenty fifteen
this is old
a twenty fifteen
eleven ninety seven
and a twenty twenty two
forty one three fifty two
last but not least
there is spring cloud gateway out there
if using the api management for your spring cloud
integrations
take a look at those
there is a new metastability module
free to the community out there at hand
so if you've got gateway versions three to three
dot o six make sure you patch this right
unfortunately
will actuate
an unauthenticated attacker can use the s p e l
expressions to execute code
and take control of the victim machine so again
server side code execution is part of this payload
i've not tried it out
but i've got the lab spun up
so i will have results shortly
with that mike
zach we have a guest today
i'm super excited to talk to jay larson this week
let's get rolling
we will be right back with our guest jay larson
idaho technology council
here in just a moment
after a quick commercial break
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and we're back with the cyber ants podcast
today we have special guest jay larson
idaho technology council
founder and president
jay thanks again for joining us
i tell you what
it is an honor for me to be here
and i'm tremendously
looking forward to our conversation
you know there are
in different markets around the country
there are people that have had huge influence
on the influx of technology companies
on the ability for organizations to start up
and be successful
and you're an integral part of that
here in idaho obviously
and with what's going on here
the ecosystems growing
things are happening
and it's pretty exciting to see that
why don't we start out with a little bit i mean
you have a strong background in a variety of areas
from verizon to quest to government work
what's your
would you share a little bit about your career path
and what led you to start the idaho technology council
yeah zach so it's you know i
i worked for about twenty two years and you know
in the wireless and telecommunication industry and
what really led me to do this is i
you know i from boise
and then moved down to run
about a two hundred million dollar piece of business
with verizon down in utah
and when i was there what i
in the community i lived in
almost everybody were like sea level folks right
they were at these early stage
or midsize companies and they
it was up outside the park city area
and they all would drive down the
and there was just so much fervor going on
then i had the chance to move back to boise
and what i saw was that it wasn't all of this
major fervor
there wasn't this coalescent force that was going on
idaho is extremely entrepreneurial
but it also has a very independent vent to it
and because of that
we get fiercely independent on all the things we do
like get it out of our way type stuff
so in addition to that
there was some major
significant changes taking place
with some of the major corporations
where mk was major trouble actually
they were already filed for bankruptcy albertsons
had just gone through their merger with american stores
and now we're getting about ready to be sold to
supervalu and
oreida had now been moved from boise back to pittsburgh
and boise cascade wasn't anywhere close to it
so all the companies that when i was back growing up
that were these strongholds of innovation and growth
were now in trouble
the only one that was still kind of doing really good
good obviously
was sim plot and micron
hp was still doing pretty good too
but they were in a different spot
than they were in the nineties
but anyway the
so the question you asked me was
you know my background was
watching all of these things and building it
i had several meetings with people down in utah
where i was leading the brides and violence down there
where i met with governor levitt
and he was very complimentary of idaho
he said man
i'm so envious of you guys
you've got hp big up
there microns great
inls strong
we don't have anything like that in fact
albertsons was just buying american stores at the time
which is a big thing
and so they said this
that when they
their ability to succeed
was going to rest on their ability to build a
grow technology companies from five employees
to fifteen to fifty to a hundred
and have them organically grow there
and they actually he talked about how he brought in
you know brad of ascursion
who's been the ceo and leader at count
he brought in his uncle who worked at i omega
to be the technologies are
to be able to help grow these companies
and this was underneath governor levitt
in the mid nineteen nineties
so probably about nineteen ninety eight
and so you can see where they've grown significantly
so i was in
i was down there watching all this
saw all the stuff that took place during the olympics
saw the fervor came back up here
and i saw that we just didn't have the same
the same provers
so that's why we started the ideo technology council
and on top of that you had the financial collapse
what also pills back the onions and start
the onion starts you really identifying what
the true coarse drinks are of your area so
yeah so that's that's
well i'm glad you decided to do something about it and
and start bringing people together
because it's pretty amazing what's going on now
can you just tell us a little bit for those people that
aren't here living in the boise area in idaho
just give people an idea
of what the idaho tech community is doing
how it's been changing over say
the last ten years
and where you think it's headed
yeah it's it's
so the tech community has been very
let me go step back a little bit
i takes it generally
and this is not
it's just a rule of thumb
it will take about
you know twelve to fifteen years
for a company to really get the lift
that really needs to be able to have significant
scaling and grow
like the companies that have done really well in idaho
and the boise area
and by the way
the idaho technology council is the voice for ministry
to drive innovation and technology
so we're really
it's all about industry
that's the ones who should really be making the helping
because after all
that's who takes the risk
to be able to put r amp d
and to be able to generate new products and services
it's industry right
and that's the one who's going to create new jobs
and do all of the things that are necessary there
so what's happened is that if it takes that
you know ten to twelve
fifteen years to really get a company to get a lift
and all the companies i'm talking about all the way
would be nwi
animal health
it would be pet iq
count clearwater analytics
truckstop com
and i can probably go on about twenty visit pay
it could be about twenty thirty more like that
those are all companies that really started
in that two thousandish two thousand five range right
and now they're doing really well
but if you came that's
and that's what
that's how you can really determine the strength of it
of your economy
is when you have these entrepreneurs that are starting
that are getting the lift out of them
the now are acorns
i mean excuse me
they just grow crazy right
so you see this growth
and then you see the infusion of capital around that
you see talent development
that's really taking big
and then you also see tech to market
let me give you a quick thing on the tech to market
it's all about intellectual property
in nineteen eighty
eighty percent
of a company's wealth was on tangible assets
land equipment
you know all the things they manufactured
in today about ninety to ninety two percent
of a company's assets
are in intangible assets or intellectual property
and so if you take a look at that
i'll give you a quick illustration on this sec
they had patents
they measured patents
so our first
like in nineteen seventy six
we only had forty three patents filed in idaho
in twenty twenty one
we had five thousand one hundred sixty nine patents
filed in idaho
now you could see a constant growth
that's really taken place that
but if you would take from nineteen ninety five
when we were really good
we probably actually
have about a twenty multiplier on that
so from what we did in nineteen ninety five
so you when you look at all of this
there's some really strong stuff
and really what it does is it's
we have a lot of companies
that are creating new products and services
that are meeting their customers needs today
but more importantly
the wayne gretzky effect
how it's going to be in the future
so you're skating to where the puck's going to be
type stuff so
yeah that's amazing what
types of activities are for those people that maybe
aren't part of a technology council in their state
what types of activities are technology councils
generally involved in
between the public and private sectors and such
what how does that spur that growth and innovation
you know it's fun
because we had brad felt
he came and he spoke
he was largely responsible for a lot of the growth
that took place in boulder colorado
and his big thing is
at the core of everything you do
you have to have the entrepreneur
because that's the person
that's going to be taking the risk
or the entrepreneur at a company
it's already existing
you know have a mortal legacy company but
the the core at this whole thing
is that you have to have come entrepreneurs that are
that are doing amazing things
because those are the people that are taking risks
of you don't have those then you're gonna be
you just your
your ecosystem will be um
won't be innovative
it won't have new products and services coming out
the reason you
a company is in existence is so that it can
provide products
to be able to get a customer
and more importantly
to keep that customer
so the only way they keep the customer
is they continue to iterate and find new ways
to be able to make sure
that they're taking care of the customer today
but more importantly
into the future
that's called innovative disruption
according to clayton christensen's model
so if we're doing all of that
then good things happen
so what the idaho technology council is
is just to help be a catalyst
to be able to create the network
to be able to help all these things take place
so we focus on three things
and the three things that we look at are first
the talent necessary to build a
grow the innovative platform
companies that are really growing and skilling
in the company
we've been very focused on making sure that
boise state university
when we first started
they had nine faculty members
had twenty graduates a year
they're now at twenty seven
faculty members
and they have about a hundred fifty graduates a year
and a phd program
and they also integrate
get this one
they integrate more in their program
much more significantly
cybersecurity
once they did
ten years ago right
so they've got all of the ideas
and their industry advisory board
is very much engaged on trying to help them
and ninety percent of the people who graduate
from boise state
stay and work in the valley
still here in boise
the second area that we look at
is really making sure the capital
if you want to know the
if somebody really believes in what you're doing
ask them if they would invest money in you
if they bet you out
and they say they're good for money in you
then life means that good things will happen
if they sit there and look at you and say not now
or that everybody doesn't want to give you money
then you probably
ought to rethink what you're doing
and start something new
and the other part of that is
if you're an entrepreneur
you want to create meaning
you're not going to create
you want to make money
that's to exist
but you've got to create meaning
and that's how you create customers
and the second and third part is just making sure
that we have the right environment
to be able to get ideas to market
so that people are really doing those type of things
and so that's where we taught tech to market
and i'll put this one last thing
benjamin franklin said
run your company
or it'll run you
and the same thing is
we have to have pollen
we have to be a
we're a political engine
to be able to make sure that we have a unified voice
to build the
drives a right environment
with our political ecosystem
to make sure innovation is
supported here
so we won't get involved in anything
unless it really drives innovation and technology
but it's the voice that we have from
our membership
to be able to drive innovation and technology
and honestly
every time we've
approached our legislator or governor
they've been very receptive
and very supportive of doing
the innovative things here in idaho
which has really helped idaho be a successful place
that that's outstanding
i would never want to live in an environment where the
the government is suppressing
innovation and the free market economy right
i mean that's
that's been proven over and over
to do so much good for society
so it's pretty awesome to do that
to hear that
and it's great to hear too
that concept of
essentially test your theories on check writers right
on the actual customer
people are gonna give you money
and yeah i get that
it gives me a good feeling
because people are always trying to give us money
and we say no
stylish sectors the way to place to be man
that's the i love
i know well
and you know what funny
what go ahead sorry
hey it's funny
the cybersecurity industry in general
there's a lot of investment activity going on and so we
you know we hear a lot about that stuff but it's
you know that that's
i think you're exactly right
when having been in the private equity world
in my previous life that
that was exactly it
if somebody's not willing to write a check
it's probably not a viable idea
and that's zach
i think that's where you take a look at that
and i'm sure all the way
when you really take and pill back that onion again
and laro and mike
i know you guys have the same with this one
it would be
it would be one of the easiest places
you talk about where you put your money
mean and you
everywhere you have disposable income
and you want to make sure you get a good return
or you want a good investment
i mean people it's just
and it's a smart thing
we track with blake hanson and also allison johnson
are co chairs of the capital connect side we track
the we have to do a deal flow report
and in that
we see how much money comes into private placement
you know ipos
mergers and acquisition
and what industries they come in
and majority
like last year
fifty one percent
of the investments that were made in ida
were in technology or software companies
so that's a good indication
and a lot of good
things that are taking place in idaho idaho
has been one of the fastest growing states
the fastest growing states with software industry
the second behind it was north carolina
so we've got a lot of really positive things
that have really taken place
that are taking place
the other one that i really like to do
like i would ask you three right now in fact
let's do this really fun
and i've got to sit there and
maybe i'll just do this because
mike i know you're down in arizona
but let's talk the boise ones
within fifteen miles where you live
tell us the most
tell the most innovative person you know
and the most innovative company that you know
who would it be
what pops in your mind zach
well i live right down the street from tea sheets
and that was one of our first clients
in the idaho market
and just what they did there was outstanding
but there are actually a bunch i could name
you mentioned blake hanson
alturus capital
and the stuff that they're doing that's
granted he's involved in some start
some software ventures and such
but they also do traditional business
but the methodology that they're using is impressive
you know doing some great things for the community
is as a whole
so those are the first two that come to mind
they're great ones right
and you sit there and you take a look at what you know
with matt bristle
what he did with t sheets
and then how intuids come in
and that was
that was really
you know that's one of the
probably the second or third big snowballing stuff
that started taking in the area with capital
and then you have a
blake hansen that does amazing things because of the
his model and his entrepreneurial zil
it's fantastic so
i think laurel are you
do you have your hearing voice
you aren't you right i'm
i'm in an undisclosed location right now
jay i'm just kidding
i'm actually a
left i mean that's a good example of
they did a lot of innovation too
to really i think
hone their practice
to a point where they were doing so well that
you know a large
that large organization came in
and purchased them within
i want to say they were in business eight years
i think that's about how long they were in
fantastic so that's a good
you see these windows that are really
how they're growing and how they're scaling
and i think that's what really the answer is
if you live in an innovative area
you'll be able to think of a lot of different people
that come in your mind
zach you were just talking about
hey there are a lot
i mean just mentioned a couple of them
but man you could just sit there
and you can rattle off by quickly
several of them
but if you're sitting there
and you live in a community
and they start saying things like you know
the most innovative person is the football coach
at boise state
i mean granted
i love that type of stuff too
or they say
the mayor is the most innovative
you know what you need to do is
you need to sit there and realize
the most innovative people got to be
the people that create jobs
and create new products and services
and then i've been over in areas throughout idaho
because we obviously
want innovation to be part of every
the fabric of every community
if it is then that community will thrive
if it isn't
the community will be very much in a downward spiral
because the rate of innovation and moore's law
and everything it takes place is
the rate of change takes place so quickly
that if you don't keep up with those type of things
then you actually have more of a separation
between what you need to be doing
from a strong economy
and what you're actually performing at
thanks doc we've talked a bit about
entrepreneurship and
we can all point to case studies and different ventures
whether we've worked with them
or just other companies we see in the news across the
around the world
but what about those established organizations
we also see companies moving here and relocating
i won't name the states
but there were
there are a few states that drive a lot of companies
out right now and they're going elsewhere
this being one of the place
a lot are going to arizona and texas
you know north carolina you mentioned earlier
but there's a lot of movement going on
so if i'm leadership of a large corporation
looking to relocate headquarters
what am i going to be looking for in a market
in a potential viable market for my organization
wow you know it's
it's you know
we've done twenty focus groups throughout the state
so i would just probably take the three things
that i've already talked about really quick
and then add to that
but the twenty focus groups said okay
what really keeps you up or
what are the pain points of your experience right now
for sea level executives
and when you just ask that question
the number one thing they always have is talent
so if you don't have the talent to be able to drive it
i mean that's gonna be with my
with micron making the announcement
of the fifteen billion dollar expansion
they're gonna be doing for high tech
some of the most complicated and complex chips
and memory that you're having in the world
are going to be made out of our boise fab plants here
you know and these ones are going to require a lot of
technicians and engineers and everything
they're going to be helping do a lot of this
a lot of the engineering the micron does
is done here at their fat poor plant here in boise
when you look at that expansion
or people look at other ones
they've got to say
do you have the talent necessary to be able to do this
and we're going to require you know
anywhere from two to four thousand more employees
and then we have all these other type of things
that we're looking at
so they really look at
how they can develop their talent
i think that's one of the things that really come in
what there are two other areas that we've talked to
so many different people have come up
and one of those areas
where most people are coming into are california
the largest area of growth
probably in all the states you mentioned zach
and in idaho
has been the number one state
where people are coming in from
uh like twenty six percent of the people coming in
growth of idaho residents are from california
and the majority of those are coming from
and then the second largest is coming from seattle
and the majority of people are coming
always say two things to us this is a
the reason they're coming
is because of the quality of life that people have here
and so we can go into that a little bit more
and the second item to come
is because of the values of the area
and so i always ask
what does values mean
and generally what that means
is this place where they're safer for their kids
that is safe
that the homeless rates
the crime factors
the way innovation plays in the community
so the community is thriving
those are the type of things that they really look at
and those are the things
and so idaho has had a lot of cities in the livability
right before the covid set happened
boisey was named the most livable city
in the united states
the second most livable city at that point was raleigh
north carolina
and the reason boise fell off the map
about seven months later
is because the cost of real estate rose so quickly
that it really took that index of affordability
it really fell off on us
but the reason it was on so strong is because we had
so many people were coming here
and they were so attracted to the innovative culture
and climate that was taking place here
that's what we need to continue to build
and the cities that kind of still get that
and still understand the balance
that needs to take place on the values equation
and making sure that you have
an easy government that really
i shouldn't say easy government
that's not the right term
a government that's supportive
innovation and technology and business
and also balances all the things necessary
to be able to make sure you have a good climate
that you're taking care of your environment
your natural resources all those type of things
and idaho does that
one of the major reasons i moved up here
doing business up here with a handful of companies
it just realized that
the business environment is just different
it's much more community oriented
much more relationship based
and i love that
i think that's how it should be
and i just really enjoy that
so i can certainly understand
where people are coming from
when they come up here and see the same thing
let's talk about some of the idaho tech council
things coming up
if just last few minutes here
if we might
i know we have the hall of fame coming up
there's several other events throughout the year
you have ongoing spark series
you want to just share a little bit about
what's going on with the tech council
and what people might want to join
yeah you know
it's our biggest crescendo event that we do every year
is about the same time
on november second
we're gonna have our hall of fame gala
and at that we recognize
this is what we do really quick
we recognize people that have done extraordinary things
with innovation
technology and growth
so their legacy
of what they've done in their life has been phenomenal
this year we're inducting steve appleton
and he was nominated several times for this award
and it was ten years from his passing
and he was one of the most
critical and visionary leaders for micron to build
having extraordinary growth
during his growth
and i think he worked at micron for ten years
and became one of the youngest ceos in the nation
at the age of thirty four
when he took the helm
he but extraordinary
so we he's going to be inducted
and the stories are just rich and phenomenal with that
so then we also have the motivational words which are
the new technologies are coming
the companies that come through
the turbulence of startups
and now we're doing highly successful
and we have a visionary part of that
so that's extraordinary
and then the last part of that is we really have
policy champion
and two that we
there's a elected official
that's done really good things to build
sport innovation
and two stem teachers
so that's what that night
so put that on
if you can make it
we have it like the grammys
you'll come
you'll be entertained
and you'll be able to network and build
and meet a lot of people
that we anticipated
said the boise center will probably have about
seven hundred to eight hundred people there
um and the other
other things that we do is we do spark series
so you can watch on
on our website
where we just did a spark series
where we had the person over
cloud computing
the cloud services for micron
talking about cloud services
and why it was so important
and how they made shifts significant shifts
through micron and we have those monthly
we have a big thing in november
there's going to be a cyber deal over st
luke's middle of november's i think it's on sixteenth
we'll have a capital connect conference
it's going to be in april
and also in february we have our develop ida
which are a big crescendo event
to be able to grow the quality and quantity
of computing professionals in idaho
so look at all those act
those are really ones that go on
but at the heart of what we want people to do
at the heart is we want people to learn how to be
there are two things you do in life
you either become um
transactional or you become relational
and if you do things you want
we want people to develop relationship building as
because that will make it so they're actually
building long term success
when you're transactional
you're just gonna get transactions done
and you're not connecting and building the network
and we just love people to be more relationship based
so that's at the fundamental part of what we do
and our board is having a
we get on the second
we're having a board meeting where
we get to take everybody through the fab four plan
where they do all the r amp d at micron
we just love to build a connect
and have people build a stronger idaho
and the way we do that is by supporting each other
and that's a big part of what the idc does
well excellent
excellent initiatives
and love the events
what any final words of wisdom or advice for people
that don't have a strong
tech ecosystem in their community
if they want to build one or want to get involved
start bringing
to get people together
how would you recommend they get started
you know it's a
it's a hard thing
because i've been around people
they always are concerned
how do we start something
i've got an idea
how do we get it going you know
so one thing that you want to do is you want to
you want to work with
if you have a prototype
you have tech help
over a boise state
or they have it all throughout the state
you can get somebody to do a prototype for you
the small business development center is really good
about helping you kind of refine your messaging
and really identify what you do
but get this part
if you have an idea
one of the best things to do
is to be able to look at how
who's in the space right now
and identifying
who you would be competing against right now
do you have a lot of competition
are they doing really well
or do you see an opportunity
for that product to be able to be
come out on market
because that's what it comes down to
you've got to have somebody
who's gonna buy this product
that you're talking about doing
the next part is that we've got a group that's called
getting fifty companies in the a round of funding
it's really about getting runway companies
so we're happy to look at your company
and look if we can put it on the runway
and then if it looks like it's
something we can help with
will help maybe make the connections
to be able to get it to the a round of funding
which is basically about five to fifteen
million dollars
invested by
some organization
and then the other part of that one zach
is that we have a person that helps lead
our advisors that have been
people have been through all of this before
so we got a whole truckload of people
that have been an advisor
their advisors
part of that
because they've been through
the war of starting a company and the battle
and the person who's doing that is leaving that group
his name is paris cole
who also used to be
the chair of the idaho technology council
and the ceo of truckstop com
he just retired
and this is one of the things he wants to give back
and he's just got wealth of information
but he's can also help connect companies to
other advisors
so that's what i would do
first of all evaluate
and then if you have something
and you start making some progress on it
let's talk about how we can get you on our runway
as a runway company
and then get you connected with some of these advisors
outstanding
outstanding
well jay thank you so much for joining us today
this has been
it's been great
and appreciate you sharing your insight
people can find out more about the idaho technology
council at idaho tech council org
any other ways they should get in touch
or is that the best method
that's the best method
and if they want to call
you can connect to me
you can connect to our staff through that
and then look at
you know use that calendar to build
look at other things you can participate in with us
so that's good zach
i'm highly excited about silent sector
and the success you guys are having
so keep up the good work will you
thank you definitely
we are having a lot of fun doing it
and customers are happy
so we're gonna keep
keep the course
so thanks again jay
thank you everybody
for listening to the cyber rants podcast
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if you're in other states
look for your local tech council
get involved
get to know the community
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and i think it will
help you tremendously in your endeavors
so thanks everybody
and we'll see you on the next episode
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