Taos-based startup, Denver company each awarded $10K at annual Ski Lift Pitch event

TAOS  — Founders of a Taos-based startup aimed at supporting workers in the outdoor recreation industry and a Denver company replacing legacy telecom systems with cutting-edge digital tech each walked away from Taos Ski Valley on Tuesday $10,000 richer and with renewed faith in their business concepts.

CNM Ingenuity’s Ski Lift Pitch brought together 10 startups in the mountains east of Taos for the annual capital investment competition, which, for the first time this year, introduced a second $10,000 prize for out-of-state companies.

A total of five companies in each category were chosen to compete. They started their day out riding the ski lift and hitting the slopes with a team of investors and guests from across the country, in keeping with the core concept of the event, which started 12 years ago.

Four finalists, the New Mexico-based companies Guide Theory and ChainWeave, and out-of-state companies SouthLight Services and Botco.ai, were then invited to compete in the finals inside the Martini Tree Bar at the base of the resort.

All four companies gave their best pitches before a packed audience of guests, sponsors, investors and judges in a Shark Tank-style format, with Guide Theory winning the in-state category and SouthLight Services taking home the new out-of-state prize.

“I think we’re different than a lot of tech companies in that, you know, we’re new, we’re figuring out our demand, we’re figuring out our model,” said Guide Theory founder Sasha Clonts, who plans to use the prize money to fund a rebranding project. “Honestly, I felt more comfortable pitching on the ski lift than on the stage, because I just got to tell my story and literally point to the liftees and the instructors around us.”

In addition to the funding boost, Clonts said meeting with attendees of Ski Lift Pitch helped her and her podcast director, Hailey Stern, generate new ideas for how to refine their business model, which is designed to help rethink how the outdoor recreation industry supports and sustains its workforce.

SouthLight founder Tina Telson was a vice president of unified communications and contact center sales at Lumen Technologies before she launched her business in June 2024, when she saw an opportunity to replace aging analog copper telephone lines with more modern, cellular-powered infrastructure.

“The prize money is gravy for us,” Telson said, noting that this was her first pitch competition. “It’s going to help us go to a trade show in about another month, so that’s great.

“But it was really about the people we met,” she added. “Meeting like-minded entrepreneurs is kind of a big deal for me. I thrive on that. And just getting introduced to different investment funds and stuff like that — all in one place — was fantastic.”

Karina Armijo, director of the New Mexico Outdoor Recreation Division, served as a judge for this year’s event and said she was impressed by the field of entrepreneurs chosen to compete.

“The Outdoor Recreation Division has proudly sponsored Ski Lift Pitch for several years, an event that highlights the powerful intersection of innovation and the outdoors,” she said. “Serving as a judge offered a firsthand look at New Mexico’s growing entrepreneurial ecosystem.”

John Miller is the Albuquerque Journal’s northern New Mexico correspondent. He can be reached at jmiller@abqjournal.com.