This event is brought to you by Wildfire in partnership with Elevate Rapid City. 

Early-stage founders face constant pressure to grow fast while juggling limited time, people, and capital. This session provides a clear, practical framework for shifting from chaotic growth to sustainable, high-performance leadership.

You’ll learn how to apply lean principles and the “Information Architect” model to eliminate operational waste, design better systems for decision-making, and protect the culture that actually enables scale. At the core of the session is one essential question every founder must confront: “If my company doubled tomorrow, what would break first—my systems or my leadership?”

Key Takeaways

1. Trade Chaos for Lean Discipline - Stop reactive "firefighting" by replacing the chaotic growth habits with lean tactics. This shift eliminates operational waste and builds a foundation for sustainable, high-performance scaling.

2. Master Information Architecture - Move from micromanager to Information Architect by designing systems that streamline communication, you remove yourself as a bottleneck and empower your team to lead. 

3. Build a Fireproof Culture - Scale without losing your soul by aligning incentives with core values. This ensures your organization remains resilient and culturally intact even under extreme pressure. 

 About the Speaker:

Mike Vetter

Mike has spent his entire career building software companies. He started his first software company out of his parents basement in college, and since that time has helped found, grow, and sell 6 SaaS companies. 

During his years building businesses, Mike has personally worked on each aspect of building a software company – marketing, sales (yes including cold calling), product architecture and development, and operations management, fund raising, and everything in between.

Mike earned a BS in Computer Science & Information Security from Dakota State University in Madison, SD. Mike is based in Brandon, SD with his wonderful wife and four children. Mike loves overlanding and backpacking with his kids in the most remote places. This is probably because Mike was born in Canada where wilderness is everywhere.

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