For nearly three years in this column, I’ve shared stories of Nevada businesses and the people who operate them. This month, I’m revisiting some of the founders and businesses I previously profiled to see what has gone as predicted—and, more importantly, how they’ve pivoted.
Locally, fellow entrepreneurs are looking for ways to cut costs and maximize revenues, believing that growth may be slow until the current negative economic factors ease—including but not limited to tariffs, the government shutdown, interest rates, private investment, IPOs and the cost of capital.
Let’s start with Forml, which I profiled in April 2024. The brother/sister team of Satchel and Shaine Hirsh—University of Nevada, Reno, grads—have built a system that uses your data to create customized models that can solve whatever problem you throw at it.
Recall that they were focused on banking. “Our whole goal is to let anyone fully understand, analyze and get the most out of their data,” Satchel shared back in our 2024 interview. “We’re commoditizing (machine learning) and letting people who otherwise couldn’t reap those cool benefits access them in the best way and easiest way.”
So, what’s up with them now? “Our product has evolved and expanded quite a bit, and that has led to more long-term enterprise customer deals,” Satchel said. The high-level description is as follows: Operate and scale your enterprise while reducing costs. Use artificial and real intelligence to drive adaptive operations. This is how you dominate.
According to Satchel, “Forml unifies all of your data, across all sources and types, consolidating and understanding business context to run workflows and execute custom actions end-to-end. Leaner teams can operate and expand efficiently.”
The company’s features and benefits have grown along with the team. Forml now has a deep-learning engineer, 22 years old, who came from NASA. He also went to UNR for his undergrad! The other teammate, who is 20, is from the University of California, Berkeley, with an econ background, who is assisting with go-to-market initiatives and other growth tasks. That makes Satchel the old guy at 23, and Shaine is now a seasoned 20-year-old co-founder!
They have recently raised another round of funding, led by VC firm Draper Associates, and Boost VC participated again after an earlier round. They helped Forml launch back at the beginning with their early investment round back in 2024.
So, what’s next for Forml moving into 2026? According to Satchel, “Right now, we’re seeing explosive traction with business lenders, banks and other similar financial institutions. But recently we’re also getting deal inflow and requests from companies wanting to use Forml in other sectors, such as mining operations companies and mining financiers, logistics, insurance, recruiting firms, healthcare and more.”
Next, let’s look at the guys SLEKE. In June 2024, they were building a local startup dedicated to the building “dumbphone movement.” Since that column, I have begrudgingly caved in to allowing my twins to have their own smartphones, albeit with limited apps and no social media. I still know that there’s no going back, but there is hypervigilance. So, what are the founders of SLEKE up to?
I just found out from co-founder Austin Boer that this past year has been a whirlwind of growth. He reports, “We are currently hosting three interns from UNR, so we have enjoyed keeping the relationship with the Career Studio strong. We now have over 200 users spanning 10 countries. Most importantly, we have been able to save our users about a day in screen time (mobile, at least) a week. That’s time they are spending with their families and friends, and doing hobbies they had or have wanted to start. We are still trying to talk with as many users as we can throughout the month.
“We have worked out all of the critical bugs, so we have moved on to the last couple features that will help get us to full release. … They have proven stubborn but are necessary to help the user experience. All that being said, we have grown a lot over the year and are excited to see where 2026 takes us!”
Austin said his team is also looking at possibly moving into different markets such as phones especially for kids or older adults. “We are listening to what people would like,” he said.
Finally, how are the nicest co-founders in the candy biz—Andrew and Danielle Fitzgerald, from Tahoe Treats freeze-dried candy and ice cream? Recall they had the complicated issue of high growth and sloooow cashflow? That’s common for small business owners, and it’s frustrating.
According to Andrew, “The journey since your last article has been an incredible mix of explosive growth and the challenges that come with it. Our retail footprint has expanded dramatically. Locally, we’ve launched a sweet partnership with Mt. Rose Ski Tahoe, placing us in all their locations. Regionally, our successful pilots with leaders like Jacksons Food Stores and Golden Gate Petroleum have unlocked opportunities for chain-wide rollouts.
“Most significantly, our talks with a national travel retailer have accelerated, with their goal being a full West Coast market launch. This, combined with interest from another major travel retailer, has put us on the verge of a national breakout.
“The primary challenge remains the one you originally highlighted: managing the working capital crisis created by this success. Every new partnership requires a significant upfront investment in inventory, and the 30- to 90-day payment cycles strain our cashflow, creating a bottleneck to growth. Our focus now is securing the right financing to finally solve the growth puzzle you so accurately described.”
I wish Tahoe Treats their due success. My family buys their treats regularly, and you should too!
All of the above founders are on the journey, and they’ve all made it through to this point. Well done, each of you! With every passing month a startup stays in biz, it learns from the marketplace and the usual missteps. With every small win, the businesses are another day, week or month closer to customers, break-even, profits and ultimate sustainability.
These are the folks who drive the local economy, hire our students, and keep the local economy chugging along, while others struggle. Let’s all support our local businesses and continue to create the diverse economy that Northern Nevada needs to weather the building uncertain economic factors.