Boost’s UVU conference brought founders, leaders, and students together for candid discussions on fear, resilience, action, and identity. Speakers shared hard-earned lessons on momentum, mentorship, and building companies through uncertainty and failure.
Orem, Utah — November 14, 2025
Today at Utah Valley University, Boost gathered students and local entrepreneurs for a day built around one idea: momentum comes from action. Host Tyler Jennings, Director of Entrepreneurship & Ecosystem Development with the Governor's Office of Economic Opportunity, framed the event with a simple question—how do you help people move past the hesitation that keeps them from pursuing what they want?
A Dive into Torus
The conference opened with Torus cofounders Nate Walkingshaw and Gilbert Lee, who offered a clear-eyed look at what it takes to build and scale a product. Jennings set the tone by reminding the audience that overthinking—not failure—is what stops most people.
Walkingshaw illustrated that point with a story about ending up in a motor home with $800,000 in debt. The fear he’d built up around failure, he realized, was worse than the reality. He told founders to stop tying their identities to their products and instead focus on getting to the truth about market fit as quickly as possible.
Lee shared his own path—moving to the U.S. at 14 without speaking English and navigating a long stretch of difficult years. Mentors and resilience, he said, shaped his trajectory. Both founders echoed the same message: progress favors people who act, not those who wait for perfect conditions.
Even with Torus now valued at $1.3 billion, doubt still shows up. Lee admitted that just yesterday he felt like he was failing his teams and leaders. His honesty highlighted a theme that resurfaced throughout the day—fear doesn’t disappear as you grow; it just shifts.
Walkingshaw closed the session by underscoring the importance of flexibility. Reflecting on his earlier company, Paramed, he said founders need a loose relationship with their ideas. When customer feedback points in a new direction, he pivots immediately.
See recent TechBuzz coverage of Torus.
Shauna Smith on Hands-On Leadership
Entrepreneur and CEO of the Savory Fund Shauna Smith followed with a perspective rooted in her Alabama upbringing, where “hospitality is in my DNA.” She emphasized the power of clear values—hers are humility, integrity, and positivity—and the discipline required to build a company from the ground up.
Smith described long days, constant learning, and doing every job in the business, including running the register for the first ten years. Integrity, she said, is the standard that guides every decision in her organization.
For founders wrestling with doubt, her advice was direct: be patient with yourself. Negative self-talk is normal, and entrepreneurship isn’t supposed to feel easy.
Shauna Smith was previously featured in TechBuzz here.
Senator John Curtis on Resilience and Values
Senator John R. Curtis, who serves Utah in the U.S. Senate, has an entrepreneurial background: he was a small-business owner, co-owning Action Target, a global company that builds shooting ranges. Before his time in Congress, he served two terms as Mayor of Provo—earning a 94% approval rating—and later represented Utah’s 3rd Congressional District in the U.S. House.
At Boost, Senator Curtis said his early career in business and public service still shapes how he faces challenges, stressing that resilience and strong personal values are more important than any professional win. He underscored his belief that “no professional success can compensate for failure at home.”
Earlier in the week, Senator Curtis showcased his commitment to community and bipartisanship. On November 12, the senator co-hosted a town hall at UVU's Noorda Center with Arizona Senator Mark Kelly. Partnering with UVU’s Herbert Institute for Public Policy, the discussion addressed political violence following the September 10 assassination of Charlie Kirk on campus and modeling ways to "disagree better," even on the most divisive issues of our day.
Moderated by CNN’s Dana Bash, the event gave students and the local community a chance to share their experiences and concerns, while also highlighting collaborative legislation such as the Algorithm Accountability Act, which Curtis and Kelly are advancing to hold big tech accountable. The town hall underscored Curtis’s belief that Americans can disagree while still working together respectfully and supporting one another through difficult moments.
Inside the Alianza Story
Alianza founder and CEO Brian Beutler framed his talk around Roosevelt’s “Man in the Arena,” a fitting backdrop for his story of building through setbacks.
Brian launched Alianza at 23 with no experience but a strong drive to try. Early momentum—winning BYU’s business plan competition and raising a $2M Series A—masked a shaky foundation. When revenue collapsed and the Great Recession hit, the company nearly fell apart.
What followed was a decade of grit: 42 bridge loans, countless small checks, maxed-out credit cards, and layoffs that shrank the team to 12. It took years to find real product-market fit, and even early wins were fragile. After a temporary boost from Clearwire, Sprint’s shutdown of its network erased that progress overnight.
Brian ended with a point that resonated across the conference: success comes from staying in the fight. Keep getting back up. Keep getting in the arena. Fail forward.
See previous TechBuzz coverage of Alianza.
A Community Built on Mentorship and Momentum
Throughout the day, Boost reinforced a single message: doing something new requires effort few people are willing to take on. The conference showcased a community built on mentorship, action, and the determination to keep moving—especially when the work gets hard.
Learn more about Boost here.