We wanted to meet real entrepreneurs exactly where they were. That meant starting the first week with a simple but revealing exercise: everyone pitched their business as it actually stood. No polish required. No pretending. Just the real picture of where they’d come from, what they’d built, what they were stuck on, and where the gaps were. And the gaps were different for every single person in that room. One founder had a compelling product but no clear path to scalability. Another had the customers but not the language to make the business investable. Someone else had the vision but needed to be pushed, hard, on the financial architecture underneath it. That’s the thing nobody tells you about early-stage entrepreneurship: the work isn’t one-size-fits- all, and a program that treats it like it is will fail the people who need it most. So we didn’t.

What followed over the next eight weeks was built around what each entrepreneur actually needed. They got honest, no-BS input from people who’d been in the arena. They sat across from high-level experts and had the kinds of conversations that change how you think about your business. They were matched with mentors who understood their specific sector, their specific challenges, and their specific stage. And week by week, the businesses they were building became sharper, more defensible, more real. The goal the whole time was bigger than the pitch. It was to help each of them design a business built to scale…a business that builds wealth not just for the founder, but for a team, a community, a future beyond themselves.

On the final day, we brought in investors and key stakeholders from the Santa Fe community. And the seven businesses that stepped up to pitch were not the same businesses that walked in on week one. They were investable. They were ready and the people behind them had grown in ways that went well beyond the whiteboard.

Here are the founders who made this pilot what it was:

Meet David Swope, founder of Makers Farm, a 148-acre rural agricultural campus.  A 7th generation New Mexican and combat veteran, David is currently a student at Santa Fe Community College’s premier and nationally known aquaponics program studying under the ever-affable and highly respected Charlie Schultz to plot out one key revenue driver of the farm – modern greenhouses growing leafy greens sold in pre-packaged lettuce kits – aiming to take but a slice of the $12.6 billion market. David’s regional distribution hub greenhouse model will service the southwest’s lettuce demand first, then scale to include additional agri-products distributing Makers Farm products nationally.

Sitting on plenty of available incentives to develop the land into a productive, sustainable farm featuring multiple revenue streams, Makers Farm sets its sights to become the best of development projects.  And with a ‘local for good’ philosophy, creating a family-like environment with its onsite greenhouse workforce housing, New Mexico’s blue skies as far as the eye can see appear to be the only limit.

Meet Grace O’Grady, founder of Pollinators, a creative collective and marketing agency that blends art, community, and business. Pollinators design immersive experiences, workshops, markets, music, and installations that connect local artists, businesses, and audiences to increase visibility, engagement, economic traction for artists and to develop long lasting relationships that will carry forward Santa Fe’s prominent artistic reputation.

Having worked at Santa Fe’s Goldleaf Framemakers as a production manager, where she hand-carved 18th-century Spanish frames, gilded with real gold, using techniques dating back to the ancient Egyptians, Grace observed first-hand how the northern New Mexico art scene is packed with enormous talent, assets and innovative thinkers who are often disjointed and unable to connect into the broader community – not only to gain exposure for their artistic creations, but to win jobs, commissions and partake in and contribute to the business world and public spaces. Pollinators’ vision is to change this dynamic, lead new conversations, drive important public and private projects and solidify Santa Fe’s reputation as a unique art mecca well into the future.  ‘Local’ is Grace’s mindset and where her artist collective hopes to build its influential perch for good.

Meet David Aponte, Founder of Clean Aqua Solutions – a disruptor in algae water purification.  Dave is leading a demonstration pilot with the City of Santa Fe to create a sustainable and low cost filter solution with his innovative Sandia National Laboratory technology that purifies wastewater as recently profiled in the Santa Fe New Mexican. Congrats Dave!
https://lnkd.in/gkTEHg-F

Meet Austin Vantastic, founder of Ayurveda for Us, a wellness company taking aim at one of the largest underserved health markets in the country: IBS and chronic digestive issues. Austin’s work is deeply personal. After experiencing severe IBS that significantly disrupted his quality of life, he became determined to find real solutions. That search ultimately led him to Ayurveda, the traditional medical system of India, where he found a framework that helped him heal — and inspired the mission behind his work: Heal Your Gut for Good. From there, Austin studied deeply, developed his own protocols, and created a client-centered approach to digestive healing. He has now guided more than 200 clients and is building a broader, scalable model designed to expand access to this work by training and certifying other practitioners.

Looking ahead, Austin hopes to help make the Santa Fe region a destination for Ayurveda while expanding into additional wellness verticals, including fitness, longevity, yoga, and other specialized health markets.

Meet Kade Walenta, GUIA Entrepreneur-in-Residence and Founder and CEO of Kade’s Kleanup. Truly a natural-born entrepreneur, Kade started his cleanup/maintenance/junk removal business at the age of 15 to earn extra money. Now, just 18 and entering his 3rd year in business, Kade can be found nearly every night working, setting up for the next day, computer work, working events, drawing in new customers – following a full day managing his crews to get the job done. Kade constantly strives to give his customers and employees a 5-star experience. “We have 75 five-star reviews, team dinners to build comradery, systems developed to make jobs go smoother and much more.” Looking into the future, he has a plan and a vision. For now, Kade is constantly trying to get bigger with more complex jobs, learn skills, help his employees learn skills, attract business partners, buy better equipment and much more.

If you know anyone who needs a garage cleanout, give Kade’s Kleanup a call at 505-479-0720.

Meet Holly Lovejoy, Founder of un(Bound) NM LLC – a consent and intimacy forward sexual wellness model.  Building upon Santa Fe and Northern New Mexico’s world-class destination reputation, and a desire to introduce an entirely new generation of visitors and prospective residents to the region, un(Bound) NM LLC nurtures the market position that ‘pleasure is a human right’. Aiming to deliver a pioneer destination offering erotic hospitality and sexual literacy education while cultivating an intentional, safe culture to claim a share of the booming global sexual wellness industry, the resort especially centers underrepresented clientele who have often been left out of the existing market.

We are proud of all of them. Not just for what they built, but for how they showed up for each other and for the work. This pilot was proof of concept. It confirmed what we believed before we started: that when entrepreneurs in this region are given the right people, the right pressure, and the right support, they don’t just survive, they build things worth investing in. We are energized by what this cohort showed us, and we are just getting started.

Applications for the GUIA Fall Cohort are opening soon. If you’re an entrepreneur in New Mexico ready to do the real work, the kind that positions your business to scale and create wealth beyond you, we want to hear from you. Email rubina@guiasantafe.org with your inquiry.

It’s called the Silver Tsunami. Understanding it and doing something about it is central to why GUIA exists.

What We’re Talking About

The term “Silver Tsunami” describes the unprecedented wave of Baby Boomer business owners reaching retirement age, many without a clear succession plan for the businesses they’ve spent decades building.

The numbers are significant. According to the 2025 U.S. Bank Small Business Perspective Survey, more than half of U.S. small business owners are over the age of 55, yet only 54% have a formal succession plan in place. At the same time, the U.S. Census Bureau reports that by 2030 every member of the Baby Boomer generation will be age 65 or older, with approximately 10,000 Americans reaching retirement age every day.

This demographic shift is creating one of the largest transfers of business ownership in American history. Research from McKinsey estimates that approximately six million small businesses will experience an ownership transition over the next decade. These businesses represent trillions of dollars in economic activity and employ millions of Americans. According to the U.S. Small Business Administration, small businesses account for nearly half of private-sector employment and contribute approximately 43% of U.S. GDP.

The challenge is not simply that owners are retiring. The challenge is that many businesses are not prepared for what comes next.

When a business closes because no successor has been identified, the consequences ripple throughout the community. Jobs disappear. Tax revenue declines. Decades of institutional knowledge are lost. Local supply chains weaken. The businesses that have anchored neighborhoods and defined community character for generations quietly vanish.

For many owners, selling the business is not as straightforward as they expected. Industry experts in business succession and exit planning consistently report that a relatively small percentage of businesses brought to market ultimately complete a successful sale. At the same time, family succession has become increasingly uncommon. While many owners hope to pass their companies to the next generation, only a small percentage of family businesses survive beyond the third generation, and even fewer reach the fourth.

This moment presents both a challenge and an opportunity. Communities that proactively support succession planning, employee ownership, entrepreneurship, and next-generation business leadership have the opportunity to preserve local wealth, protect jobs, and ensure that the businesses built by one generation can continue serving the next.

The Silver Tsunami is affecting every community in America. The question is whether we are prepared to respond before these businesses disappear.

Why This Hits Differently Here

Every region in the country is facing a version of this challenge. But Santa Fe, the Los Alamos corridor, and the communities of northern New Mexico have a particular relationship to it, one that makes the stakes both higher and the opportunity more concrete.

The small businesses woven into the fabric of this region aren’t interchangeable with what you’d find in a suburban strip mall or a generic downtown. They carry cultural history. They are embedded in neighborhoods and relationships that took generations to build. The restaurant that has been a family gathering place for thirty years. The contractor who has been part of this community’s infrastructure for two decades. The specialty retailer or service provider that reflects the identity of a place like Santa Fe in ways that a national chain never could. Not to mention those that moved here, brought their wealth with them and built wealth generating institutions in Santa Fe.

When those businesses close because their owners had no succession plan, or no buyer, or their wealth gets re-distributed to family and kin outside of Santa Fe, what’s lost is not just a job or a storefront. It’s a piece of what makes this place what it is and the wealth that was generated to leave legacies, disappearing.

Northern New Mexico also sits within one of the most concentrated research and innovation corridors in the country. Los Alamos National Laboratory, just 35 miles from Santa Fe, is one of the world’s most advanced scientific institutions, employing roughly 13,000 people and actively supporting small business development through programs like the Feynman Center for Innovation and the New Mexico Small Business Assistance Program. Sandia National Laboratories, the Air Force Research Laboratory, and three research universities round out an ecosystem with extraordinary depth. New Mexico outperforms the U.S. average in overall R&D intensity, a fact that rarely makes it into the story people tell about this state.

That infrastructure creates a particular kind of entrepreneurial opportunity in this corridor: the convergence of deep technical capability, established Main Street businesses, and a community with strong values around local ownership and long-term stewardship. It’s a rare combination. But it requires entrepreneurs who are prepared to step into it.

What GUiA Is Building

GUIA was designed with the full picture of entrepreneurship in northern New Mexico in mind, not just the glamorous startup story, but the full ecosystem of what it means to build and sustain a business in this community.

Our program develops entrepreneurs who can lead businesses, not just launch them. Read about our first pilot cohort and the seven Founders that emerged.  We go deep on the fundamentals that succession and acquisition require: financial structure, scalable operations, investor readiness, leadership development, and the ability to articulate a clear and compelling vision to the people who control capital. Our mentors and expert network include people who have been through transitions like these — on both sides of them. Our community-driven model means that participants leave not just with a stronger business, but with genuine relationships to the investors, stakeholders, and fellow entrepreneurs who are shaping this region’s economic future.

We are also explicit about the kind of businesses we are trying to build: ones that create wealth beyond the founder, that build lasting value for teams and communities, and that treat succession not as an exit but as a continuation of something worth continuing.

The window for action is real, and it is finite. The retirements are happening. The businesses are coming to market. The communities that step up with prepared, committed entrepreneurs will retain their character, their economic vitality, and their identity.

GUiA is one answer,  built in Santa Fe, for northern New Mexico, with a clear-eyed view of what this moment demands.

If you are a business owner thinking about what your transition looks like , or an entrepreneur who sees the opportunity this moment presents, we want to be part of that conversation. Contact us!

Sources:

• U.S. Bank Small Business Perspective Survey (2025)
https://ir.usbank.com/news-events/news/news-details/2025/U-S–Bank-Small-Business-Survey-Finds-More-Than-One-Third-of-Gen-Z-and-Millennial-Owners-Plan-to-Acquire-a-Business-From-a-Retiring-Owner–But-Many-Older-Owners-Arent-Ready/default.aspx

• U.S. Census Bureau: By 2030, All Baby Boomers Will Be Age 65 or Older
https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2019/12/by-2030-all-baby-boomers-will-be-age-65-or-older.html

• McKinsey Institute for Economic Mobility: The Great Ownership Transfer (2025)
https://www.mckinsey.com/mgi/our-research/the-great-ownership-transfer-a-new-era-of-business-stewardship

• U.S. Small Business Administration Office of Advocacy
https://advocacy.sba.gov

GUiA is here to tell that story — loudly, clearly, and to the people who need to hear it most.

This is written for young entrepreneurs: the ones in their 20s and 30s who are still deciding where to plant their feet. The ones who grew up in New Mexico and feel the pull of this place but haven’t had a compelling enough reason to stay. And the ones across the country and around the world who have never thought seriously about building here — but should.

We have a solution to the narrative that has driven talented people away from this region for too long. And it starts with the truth about what northern New Mexico actually is right now.

A New Chapter Is Being Written Here

New Mexico has watched talented young people leave for decades. It became so normalized that the conversation shifted from urgency to acceptance — brain drain as a fact of life, something to study and manage rather than something to reverse. The systems that should have created opportunity didn’t move fast enough, and the case that this place was worth betting on wasn’t made clearly enough or confidently enough.

That changes now.

GUiA exists because we believe the next chapter of northern New Mexico’s story belongs to young entrepreneurs — and we are committed to giving them every reason to write it here. Not as a consolation prize. Not as a fallback. But as a genuine first choice, made with clear eyes and real information.
Because right now, in 2025, this is one of the most interesting places in the country to be a young entrepreneur. Most people haven’t figured that out yet.

That’s an advantage. Take it.

What’s Actually Happening Here

Let’s talk about what this region is — not the postcard version, but the economic and entrepreneurial reality.

Northern New Mexico sits in the middle of one of the most concentrated research and innovation corridors in the United States. Los Alamos National Laboratory, 35 miles from Santa Fe, is one of the most advanced scientific institutions on earth, employing roughly 13,000 people and actively working to build commercial partnerships with private sector entrepreneurs. Sandia National Laboratories, the Air Force Research Laboratory, and three research universities anchor an ecosystem with genuine depth in quantum computing, clean energy, aerospace, defense technology, and biosciences. New Mexico outperforms the U.S. average in R&D intensity. The state’s startup ecosystem grew more than 6% in 2025, with nearly $90 million in funding flowing into emerging companies.

Meow Wolf — born in a warehouse in Santa Fe — has raised over $169 million, redefined what an entertainment company can be, and proven that wildly ambitious creative ventures don’t have to happen on a coast to matter globally.

This is not a region clinging to a legacy. It is a region in early-stage transformation, with real infrastructure, real capital starting to move, and real sectors — clean energy, deep tech, creative economy, defense, outdoor recreation — that are growing in ways that create genuine opportunities for builders.

The story of New Mexico is being rewritten right now. The people who write it will be the ones who showed up.

The Opportunity Nobody Else Is Pitching You

Here’s something that every young entrepreneur chasing a startup should know, and almost none of them are being told.

Across northern New Mexico — and across the country — thousands of profitable, established small businesses are coming to market as their Baby Boomer owners retire. These aren’t struggling companies. Roughly 78% of them are cash-flow positive. They have loyal customers, working operations, experienced employees, and reputations built over decades. And many of them have no one lined up to take over.

For a young entrepreneur who is prepared — who knows how to lead a team, modernize operations, and position a business for its next chapter — this is one of the most significant wealth-building opportunities available right now. Not the grind of building from zero with no customers and no proof of concept. The acquisition path: stepping into a business with a foundation, a community, and a future that needs a new leader.

This window will not stay open forever. And it is most accessible right here, in the communities where it is most needed. If you want to build wealth, create jobs, and do it in a place where it genuinely matters — this is your moment.

The Life You Can Actually Build Here

We’ll be honest about this, because it matters.

Santa Fe and northern New Mexico offer something the major startup hubs have lost, or never had: the ability to actually live while you’re building.

You can finish a morning of deep work and be on a trail in twenty minutes. You can afford space — real space, for your life and your work — at a fraction of what you’d spend in a coastal city. The food is extraordinary. The culture is real and layered and not manufactured for Instagram. The art scene, the outdoor access, the architecture, the community — it adds up to a place that does something to how you think and what you’re capable of.

For a generation that has watched the major hubs become impossibly expensive, exhausting, and disconnected from any sense of place or community, northern New Mexico offers something different: a place where your quality of life is not something you earn after you succeed. It’s something you build your life and your business inside of, from the beginning.

The work-life integration that everyone talks about wanting is not a perk here. It’s the structure. The land makes it real.

You Won’t Be Building Alone

This is the other thing we want you to know.

GUiA exists to make sure that young entrepreneurs who choose northern New Mexico don’t just land here and figure it out alone. We are building a community of founders — people who have made the same bet on this place, who are working through the same challenges, and who are building together. We connect our entrepreneurs to mentors who have built real businesses, to investors who are paying attention to this region, and to stakeholders across the Santa Fe corridor who are committed to making this ecosystem stronger.

We are recruiting nationally and internationally, because we believe the talent that would thrive in northern New Mexico is not just the talent already here. There are young entrepreneurs in cities around the country and around the world who are looking for exactly what this place offers — and who just haven’t been told about it clearly enough, or honestly enough, or urgently enough.

Consider this that invitation.

This Is the Moment

For too long, the conversation about young people and New Mexico has been reactive. A problem to manage. A trend to study. A loss to absorb.
That’s over.

This is an active, direct recruitment. We want young entrepreneurs — from Albuquerque and Santa Fe and Taos and Española and every small town in northern New Mexico. We want young entrepreneurs from Austin and Denver and New York and Chicago and LA, from Mexico City and London and wherever you are in the world right now, looking for a place to land and build something that matters.

We want you here. We want you to see what we see: a place with real infrastructure, real opportunity, real quality of life, and a community that is ready — finally ready — to support the people who choose it.

Come build here. Stay and build here. The question is no longer whether northern New Mexico is ready for you.

The question is whether you’re ready for it.

GUiA Fall Cohort applications are opening soon. Contact us!