The Door Is Open

Live from SUMMIT 2026, Salt Palace Convention Center

“Who gets to be an entrepreneur”

Clint Betts stood on stage at the Salt Palace this morning and asked that question.

The old answer was: people who know the right people. People who went to Stanford or Harvard. People who could pass what Marc Andreessen openly describes as a “networking test” designed by insiders for insiders.

Forty percent of venture capital executives attended just two schools. A quarter of all seed funding goes to founders from three universities representing less than half a percent of American graduates. Companies founded solely by women receive 2.3% of venture capital—a number that hasn’t changed in 30 years.

As Clint put it: “The system isn’t broken. It’s working exactly as it was designed. It just wasn’t designed for most people.”

This Isn’t Abstract to Me

I’m not writing this as an observer. I’m writing this as someone who experienced exactly what Clint described.

I started building Read By Ear in 2016, when I had no coding skills and couldn’t raise venture capital. It’s the kind of app that, ten years ago, five years ago, even five months years ago, would have required a team, investors, and months of development.

I built it solo. No team. No venture capital. No warm introductions.

How? Claude Code.

“A single person can now do what used to require 20 people. You can automate operations, generate content, analyze data, handle customer service, build products, ship code—all with a fraction of the resources it took five years ago,” Clint said.

That’s not hypothetical for me. That’s my last six months.

The speed wasn’t the revelation, though the speed was remarkable. The revelation was what that speed meant. It meant I could build something without permission. Without gatekeepers. Without fitting someone else’s model of what an entrepreneur looks like.

Breaking Down Barriers

My academic work focuses on breaking down information silos in organizations—creating environments where information flows freely, where knowledge reaches the people who need it. I’ve spent years helping my organization overcome the structural barriers that keep people from accessing what they need to do their jobs.

What I realized building Read By Ear is that AI tools like Claude Code are doing the same thing for entrepreneurship.

The startup world was built on gatekeeping. Warm introductions. Network effects that favor insiders. Access to resources, knowledge, and mentorship that required already being in the room.

AI doesn’t care about your network. It doesn’t check your credentials. It doesn’t require a warm introduction.

The door that was locked is now open.

The Start School Announcement

That’s the context for what Clint announced today.

Start School is where Utah entrepreneurs come to learn from the top 100 founders in the state’s history. Completely free. No pitch decks. No demo days. No pressure to raise money. No giving up equity. No hidden agenda.

Silicon Slopes is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. They’re not looking to invest. They won’t take advisory shares. They have no angle.

Start School exists for one reason: to help entrepreneurs build sustainable businesses.

The mentors come from Founder Circle—CEOs and founders who have built companies valued at $100 million or more. In any other ecosystem, access to founders at this level would require connections, introductions, and luck. At Start School, it requires a willingness to learn.

”You don’t need to know anyone to get in,” Clint said. “You don’t need a warm introduction. You don’t need to have gone to the right school or worked at the right company. You need to show up, do the work, and give as much as you take.”

The Give-Back Model

Start School isn’t just about what you get. It’s about what you give. Every participant commits to giving back: mentor a fellow member, share what you’ve learned, contribute resources to the community, help welcome future cohorts.

Reed Hastings once told Clint: “If you can’t lead yourself, you can’t lead others.”

Start School starts there. It focuses on leading yourself first. Then on getting revenue—actually selling something, collecting money. Then on using AI to punch above your weight. Then on unit economics, personal finance, and growing without giving up control.

This is what entrepreneurship looks like when it’s built for humans, not headlines.

The New Answer

Clint ended where he began:

”Who gets to be an entrepreneur?”

The old answer was people who already had access.

The new answer—the answer Start School represents, the answer AI tools are making possible—is anyone who’s willing to learn, willing to work, and willing to give as much as they take.

If you’ve ever felt like the startup world wasn’t built for you, you were right. It wasn’t.

But Start School is.

Applications are open now at siliconslopes.com/start-school.