Regional Marketplace Programs Combine for Boot Camp
Photo Credit: Patricia Morales | Alaska Business
Thirty Indigenous entrepreneurs from across Alaska participated in McKinley Alaska Growth Capital’s four-day Alaska Marketplace Business Boot Camp. The event on August 5 through 8 brought together aspiring entrepreneurs for an intensive business training designed to enhance their entrepreneurial skills and support the development of their new or expanding business ventures.
For the first time, the program brings together participants from the flagship North Slope Marketplace with its regional counterparts, Bristol Bay Marketplace and Aleut Shareholder Marketplace.
Prep for Competition
Training included financial modeling and projections, business structuring, human resources, pitching techniques, and marketing tips and tricks. At the UAA ANSEP Acceleration Building, participants engaged in hands-on exercises, workshops, and mentorship sessions. Participants also visited three Alaska Native owned or led businesses.
Core to the program is the concept of Triple Bottom Line (“people, planet, profit”), and values-driven business planning is woven into all the program’s curriculum. One highlight of the week was a panel discussion with Alaska Native elders, who provided invaluable insights into how traditional cultures and practices can be integrated into modern business strategies. Participants also had the opportunity to visit their respective Alaska Native corporations and learn from leadership exactly how these organizations operationalize their values to serve their shareholder communities.
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November 2024
The lessons of the boot camp were preparation for competition. Each entrepreneur is working toward winning Alaska Marketplace awards (three for each region) that will be announced in February 2025. Last year, three Marketplace winners in each region won $25,000 to help kick-start the business ventures they worked on through business boot camps.
Expanding the Entrepreneurship Model
Arctic Slope Regional Corporation (ASRC) launched the Marketplace competition in 2009 for its shareholders. In partnership with the Alaska Small Business Development Center, the original format provided training for innovators who won the seed money. In 2019, the formula shifted to provide training before grants were distributed, so entrepreneurs walked away armed with knowledge to make the best use of the money.
In 2022, ASRC sold the subsidiary, Alaska Growth Capital, that operated the North Slope Marketplace. McKinley Management bought the subsidiary and became McKinley Alaska Growth Capital, with the assurance that the marketplace would continue. It turned out to be a boon, as McKinley, not strictly tied to ASRC, was able to expand the model to two other Alaska Native corporations: Bristol Bay Native Corporation and The Aleut Corporation.
Although participants are gearing up for a competition, the overarching feedback from boot camp was that they felt they had already won. Over the next three months, entrepreneurs will write formal business plans, due as a final submission to the regional competitions on November 6.
“We are incredibly proud of the progress these entrepreneurs have made during this Boot Camp,” says Mary Miner, vice president of community development at McKinley Alaska Growth Capital. “The services they are bringing to their communities are invaluable, and we look forward to supporting them as they continue to develop their business plans over the coming months.”
McKinley Alaska Growth Capital partnered with Spruce Root, Northrim Bank, Aleutian Airways, Anchorage Community Land Trust, UA Center for Economic Development, Element Agency, Alaska Small Business Development Center, Grant Aviation, ANSEP, The Aleut Corporation, ASRC, and Bristol Bay Native Corporation to make Alaska Marketplace happen. Organizers say the partner contributions have been instrumental in empowering the budding entrepreneurs to create positive change in their communities.
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