Meet Dakota Business Lending’s 2026 Entrepreneur District · Fargo INC!
Businesses
Meet the 2026 Entrepreneur District Cohort
Five business owners working out of Dakota Business Lending’s Entrepreneur District share how their companies began, what they’re learning and how they define success.
In shortDakota Business Lending's 2026 Entrepreneur District cohort in Fargo includes five service-based business owners sharing workspace, mentorship, and monthly accountability meetings at no charge.
3 things to know
1Applications for the 2027 cohort open November 2 and close December 4, 2026; applicants must own an operating, state-registered, for-profit small business and work full time as a solopreneur.
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Working for yourself can mean making every decision yourself. Dakota Business Lending’s Entrepreneur District gives business owners a place to ask questions, compare experiences, and work through those decisions together.
This year’s cohort brings together Ashley Mikkelsen of Srta Spanish, Chalsey Falk of Full Mood Studio, Jesse Hoss of Delegated Task, Rachael Wilmot of Bloom & Borrow Co, and returning participant Mackenzie Brimm of BRIMM Marketing, who is facilitating the 2026 group. Based at Dakota Business Lending’s Fargo offices, the program combines workspace at no charge with mentorship, business resources, and regular opportunities to collaborate.
In the following Q&As, the five entrepreneurs share how their businesses began, what they’re learning, and how they’re defining success on their own terms.
Apply for the 2027 Cohort
The application window for Dakota Business Lending’s 2027 Entrepreneur District cohort runs November 2 through December 4, 2026. Designed for service-based entrepreneurs, the program provides office space at no charge and connects business owners with mentorship, education, business resources, and fellow entrepreneurs.
Applicants must:
Own an operating, state-registered, for-profit small business
Work full time as a solopreneur
Need physical office space and be able to work from the Fargo Entrepreneur District office at least eight hours per week
Ashley Mikkelsen. Photo provided by Ashley Mikkelsen.
Can you please tell us about yourself?
I often say that I’m an “accidental entrepreneur”! I’m a Spanish teacher on a break from classroom life while my kids are young, and I’ve been so surprised to find that many aspects I love about teaching are present in this role as a business owner, too! There’s lots of space for creativity, problem-solving, and hard work, which are three things that bring me a lot of joy.
Can you please tell us about your company?
Srta Spanish is here to help teachers find time-saving activities that support language acquisition through research-backed methods, without spending hours searching for the perfect source of comprehensible input for students.
What are you trying to achieve with your company?
The goal of Srta Spanish is to support secondary Spanish teachers with ideas and resources to save them time and energy while they are lesson planning so they can achieve a healthy work-life balance, finding joy both in and out of their classrooms.
How did your company come to be?
Srta Spanish evolved from a social media feed into a blog and then into a website full of activities, ideas, and lesson plans to support secondary Spanish teachers.
Why did you join the Dakota Business Lending cohort?
I try to adopt the attitude of “You don’t know what you don’t know until you learn it!” throughout life. There’s so much room for growth in all things, and this seemed like such a good opportunity to learn from others’ expertise.
What has your experience been like with the cohort so far?
It’s been great! For some of us, this is the second year working together, so we’re really getting to know the ins and outs of what we’ve been working on. Our new cohort members are bringing a fresh perspective, and it’s fun to learn about their businesses, too!
What is the five-year plan for your business?
Short and simple — Continue focusing on the needs of teachers and creating what they need for their students!
Can you describe a challenge your company has faced and how you overcame it?
The biggest challenge has been learning how to balance and set boundaries. I love what I do, but it’s not healthy for anyone to work all of the time. Something that helps me is to set specific hours to be active on social media and respond to emails instead of being available at all moments.
What trends in your industry are you most excited about or concerned by?
I LOVE the push for reading in our classrooms! There is so much research behind reading for language learning, and we’re seeing so many novels written for language learners from a variety of perspectives and authors. It’s so much easier to find a book for students that matches their interests and reading level.
How do you measure success in your role and for your company?
From one perspective, it’s looking at the feedback for a resource and seeing how it fulfilled the needs in a classroom, reading comments sent by teachers, and taking their experiences into consideration.
With a more quantitative approach, I track data such as visitors, conversion, average order value, and more to help me better identify which resources are being used in classrooms. I compare that data to determine if what I’m doing is successful in fostering growth in those areas.
What has been the most rewarding part of running your business?
I LOVE getting messages from teachers telling me about how a resource has helped them and their students. It’s absolutely the best!
Is there any technology or innovation that you believe will significantly impact your industry in the next few years?
AI is certainly being used in education in a variety of ways! It will be interesting to see how the role of AI in classrooms and schools evolves.
What advice would you give to other business owners out there?
Remember why you’re building your business in the first place and keep that compass point headed north as you’re working!
I’m Jesse Hoss. I grew up in Hawley and graduated from M State in Moorhead with an associate of applied science degree in business. I’m someone who genuinely loves connecting with people. That’s honestly my superpower. I get energy from being around people and talking through problems with them, and that’s a huge part of why I do what I do.
Can you please tell us about your company?
Delegated Task provides business administration and marketing support to local and national business owners. We bring clarity, structure, and ongoing support so owners aren’t drowning in tasks.
On the administrative side, that looks like inbox management, calendar coordination, document creation, and building out structured systems. We also provide social media management with content calendars, scheduling, and analytics so their presence stays consistent without them having to think about it.
What are you trying to achieve with your company?
I want Delegated Task to become the go-to agency in town for task delegation: the first name that comes to mind when a business owner feels overwhelmed and needs someone to help them create clarity and structure.
How did your company come to be?
After I graduated, I started talking with local business owners to figure out what was next in my career, and I kept noticing the same pattern. Business owners are constantly overwhelmed with administrative and marketing tasks. The work is never-ending, and people are expected to wear every hat when, really, their individual talents and skills are better suited to growing their business and generating money.
That’s where Delegated Task came from: my desire to help people keep doing what they love doing.
Why did you join the Dakota Business Lending cohort?
I gained so much energy from surrounding myself with other ambitious people who are in the same stage of business ownership as I am. I also commute into town, so having the physical office space has been really convenient. It’s become my home base up in Fargo, where I spend most of my days.
What has your experience been like with the cohort so far?
What’s stood out most has been the accountability. The monthly meetings have been really helpful for staying on track and keeping the big picture in mind. We set goals and work through business problems together, and hearing other entrepreneurs’ perspectives and working through problems with them has been huge for me. I’m someone who learns by implementing, not just through theory, so this has been really valuable.
What is the five-year plan for your business?
My five-year plan for Delegated Task is to nurture it so it can grow as big as it possibly can. The question I’m trying to answer for myself every single day is: How do I create a service-based company that’s as efficient and organized as possible?
Running a service-based business is hard. I know that firsthand, and all of my clients are service-based, too, so I understand how much there is to keep up with day to day. The only way to make that manageable is to build systems, create efficiencies, remove bottlenecks, and automate as much as you can. In five years, Delegated Task will be running as efficiently as possible with an intentionally lean and adaptable team.
What has been the most rewarding part of running your business?
Being able to connect with people all day, every day. That’s truly my superpower: being able to talk to people. I love people. I get energy from being around them, no matter what they do.
I’ll come home from an incredibly busy day of back-to-back meetings and still want to keep talking to people to recharge. That’s just who I am, and I need to lean into that even more. I love being a connector and someone who listens.
Is there any technology or innovation that you believe will significantly impact your industry in the next few years?
AI agents and automation, and their capabilities. AI agents are already here doing some incredible stuff, but I think we’ll see a rapid expansion of what they can actually do, especially their autonomous abilities: being able to actively and proactively solve problems. That’s the biggest opportunity I see in the next few years.
But the real edge belongs to people who understand these systems and can set them up in a way that actually applies to business owners, because you have to give an AI agent context on what’s going on. Individual knowledge and real experience are going to be increasingly valuable. The intersection between AI and an actual person in the loop is my biggest edge right now, because what happens when your AI agent breaks? AI can’t do everything, and the person who can coordinate those systems is going to be incredibly valuable.
What advice would you give to other business owners out there?
Stop putting a fake glass ceiling over what you can actually achieve. I don’t think you fully understand your own potential and what you’re capable of. Stop telling yourself your dreams are pie in the sky, and stop making excuses for saying no to opportunities and not taking action.
Also, love what you do. One of my favorite quotes is, “If you love what you do, you’ll never work a day in your life.” Don’t let people who hate their job and their life convince you that you can’t love yours.
Don’t limit yourself. Take action. And love what you do. Then you’re golden.
Jesse Hoss, Delegated Task
Delegated Task: delegatedtask.com | LinkedIn
Chalsey Falk, Full Mood Studio
Chalsey Falk. Photo provided by Chalsey Falk.
Can you please tell us about yourself?
I’m Chalsey Falk, founder and creative director of Full Mood Studio. I’m excited to celebrate my fifth year of running this business full time! As a designer and business owner, I spend much of my time creating brand kits and websites while also planning mural projects.
Outside of work, I’m drawn to experiences that expand my perspective. Right now, that includes herbalism, gardening, spirituality, workshops, and personal development. These interests are closely connected to my values as a creative and inform the clients I love to serve, particularly those working with nonprofits, food systems, art, culture, and wellness. I’m most energized by helping people build brands that feel aligned with who they are and strengthen their connection to their communities.
Can you please tell us about your company?
Full Mood Studio is a creative partner for businesses ready to grow with intention. I offer strategy, branding, marketing, websites, and murals. These services help business owners feel more confident in their next stage of growth. My work is thoughtful, contemporary, and grounded in real collaboration.
What are you trying to achieve with your company?
I want to uplift businesses that reflect values of collaboration, community, and purpose. My goal is to help create a stronger local creative ecosystem while making the Fargo-Moorhead region an even more connected and inspiring place to build a life and business.
How did your company come to be?
I started Full Mood Studio after working with agencies and larger companies in Minneapolis and San Diego. I wanted to create a more human and collaborative approach to creative work, one where strategy and design truly support the people behind a business. Building my own studio also gives me the opportunity to create a healthier and more intentional work life.
Why did you join the Dakota Business Lending cohort?
I joined to experience the camaraderie, accountability, and fresh perspective that come from being part of a professional community. I love the flexibility of working independently, but the cohort has reminded me how valuable it is to have peers who understand the realities of entrepreneurship and cheer one another on.
What has your experience been like with the cohort so far?
It has been genuinely energizing. The programming, our monthly meetings, and goal-setting workshops have provided helpful resources and meaningful connections. This cohort has created exponential momentum for each of us that is much harder to build alone from a home office.
Can you describe a challenge your company has faced and how you overcame it?
Learning to trust what comes next has been an ongoing challenge of running my business. There are moments when I wonder what will follow a busy stretch of client work, only to receive new inquiries at exactly the right times. I have learned to trust the value of relationships. Meeting people, making genuine connections, and staying involved in my community have led to consistent, meaningful referrals from creatives and business owners both locally and across the country. Those relationships have helped my business thrive, and I’m deeply grateful for my friends and colleagues.
What has been the most rewarding part of running your business?
The most rewarding part is having the freedom to create work that aligns with my values and to participate in community initiatives that matter to me. I also love seeing clients gain confidence in their businesses when they finally have a brand, website, or visual presence that feels like them.
Is there any technology or innovation that you believe will significantly impact your industry in the next few years?
As we go through this technological paradigm shift with AI infused into seemingly everything we do, we will look back and better understand just how profoundly it changed the way we create, work, and communicate. While AI makes many routine tasks easier, I believe it will also create a stronger desire for real connection. Creators and entrepreneurs will increasingly look for work that feels human, thoughtful, and grounded in genuine experience. I believe this will create more space for creativity, relationships, and work that reaches people on a deeper level.
How do you measure success in your role and for your company?
As I continue to unlearn the traditional definition of success, such as climbing the ladder or working endless hours to grow a business, I tie success to mental and physical well-being. This means caring for myself, honoring my body, and building a business that supports my life rather than drains it. It also means creating work that meets both my own standards and my clients’ needs. I measure success by how well I understand a client from the beginning, including their challenges, strengths, and what makes them different. When I can meet them where they are, create something that lights them up, and help produce meaningful results, that feels like success.
What advice would you give to other business owners out there?
It’s very easy to get overwhelmed by everything you COULD or should be doing. Clarity comes from choosing what is most effective and aligned and building from that.
Sit down and write out everything you need to do as a brain dump. Then pick your top three from there. Give yourself peace of mind by focusing your efforts on what matters most.
Mackenzie Brimm. Photo provided by Mackenzie Brimm.
Can you please tell us about yourself?
I’m Mackenzie Brimm, founder and creative strategist at BRIMM Marketing, a boy mom, a creative, a community builder, and someone who really loves bringing people together. I value authenticity, creativity, relationships, impact, and having fun along the way. When I’m not working on BRIMM, you’ll usually find me with my boys, working on a creative project, volunteering with various organizations, checking out something happening around Fargo-Moorhead, or spending time with the people I love.
Can you please tell us about your company?
BRIMM Marketing is your brand’s hype team! In a world that can feel pretty negative, we want to bring some positivity to the businesses we work with. We build bold brands and strategic campaigns, deliver results, and make our clients happy.
Our BRIMM Process focuses on Brand, Relationships, Impact, Media & Messaging, and Magic. It helps us look beyond individual marketing tactics and understand the full picture of how a business shows up, communicates, connects with its audience, and creates an experience people remember.
What are you trying to achieve with your company?
Our mission is to help businesses make marketing feel more achievable and a lot less overwhelming. The bigger vision is to build BRIMM into a company that can meet growing organizations where they are, give them the strategy and resources they need, and become a trusted extension of their team.
How did your company come to be?
In 2024, I was given two weeks’ notice that my position was being eliminated due to restructuring. I went home and thought: Why keep waiting to do my own thing? Now is as good a time as any. I had spent years working in internal marketing roles across different industries and saw a real need among growing businesses that needed marketing expertise but weren’t ready for a large internal department. BRIMM was my opportunity to build something around that need.
Why did you join the Dakota Business Lending cohort?
I joined the District because I wanted community. Starting a business can feel isolating, and I wanted to surround myself with other entrepreneurs who understood the wins, challenges, and weirdness that come with building something of your own. The office space was a great benefit, but the relationships are what made the biggest impact.
What has your experience been like with the cohort so far?
I love the District! I loved it enough that I stepped into the facilitator role for the 2026 cohort. It has been really rewarding to go from being a resident myself to helping create that same sense of community, accountability, and connection for the next group of entrepreneurs.
Can you describe a challenge your company has faced and how you overcame it?
One of the biggest challenges has been learning how to grow beyond myself. When you start as a solopreneur, you get used to doing everything your own way. Hiring, delegating, documenting processes, and trusting someone else with pieces of the business have involved a huge learning curve, but they have also been among the most important steps in BRIMM’s growth.
How do you measure success in your role and for your company?
This past year, I added my right-hand gal, Abby Marthaller, to the BRIMM team, and watching her grow has changed how I think about success. Building a company where someone else can learn, grow, and take ownership is a huge win for me. I also measure success through our clients. Every referral, review, repeat client, and kind word tells me that we’re doing something right.
What has been the most rewarding part of running your business?
Seeing the results for our clients. When a business gets more customers, sells more, fills an event, launches something successfully, or finally feels good about how they are showing up, that is why we do this. I love knowing our work helped move someone else’s business forward.
Is there any technology or innovation that you believe will significantly impact your industry in the next few years?
Beyond AI, I’m really excited about something we’re building at BRIMM. So many of our clients come to us frustrated by the marketing landscape. They feel pulled in 500 directions and constantly feel like they aren’t doing enough.
We’re developing a software platform designed to help small and midsize businesses simplify their marketing, build a strategy they can actually execute, and focus on showing up where their customers are really looking for them. The goal is less noise and more intentional marketing.
What advice would you give to other business owners out there?
Great service, a great product, and solving a problem people actually have will outlast any trendy marketing tactic. You can’t market your way around a lack of demand.
Mackenzie Brimm, BRIMM Marketing
Get really clear on your offer, know exactly who you’re talking to, and get really good at communicating your message. Then repeat it. You might feel like you’ve said it 100 times, but your audience is probably just starting to remember it.
Rachael Wilmot, Bloom & Borrow Co
Rachael Wilmot. Photo provided by Mackenzie Brimm.
Can you please tell us about yourself?
I’m Rachael Wilmot, owner of Bloom & Borrow Co, a wife, and a mom of two. My family is my biggest motivation behind building a business of my own. I’ve always loved creating beautiful things and thinking outside the box. I’m someone who puts a lot of thought into the details, whether that’s the florals I design or the relationships I build. I genuinely enjoy getting to know people and understanding what matters to them. My hope is to build a business that allows me to do what I love, be present with my family, and make meaningful connections along the way.
Can you please tell us about your company?
Bloom & Borrow Co is a faux floral design company that uses high-quality flowers. We offer custom designs for life’s important moments, professional settings, and everyday spaces, bringing beauty without the upkeep, worry, or seasonal limitations. This past year, we have specialized in wedding florals and have had the honor of working with 23 couples so far!
What are you trying to achieve with your company?
Bloom & Borrow Co aims to offer an alternative floral option for clients in the Fargo-Moorhead region. We strive to design florals that are just as beautiful as the real thing. Your weddings, events, and spaces matter to us. Our clients no longer have to stress about seasonal limitations, worry about the longevity of their florals, or wonder where they’ll go at the end of the night. We are a rental company offering beautiful faux florals that are stress-free, stay perfect all day, and make the most of your floral budget.
How did your company come to be?
I started this business with a drive to create: to create something of my own and to create with intention and meaning. I have always loved the challenge of designing by listening. Bringing that vision to life through design inspires me. I chose faux flowers because of their lasting beauty, flexibility, allergy-friendliness, sustainability, and minimal upkeep.
Why did you join the Dakota Business Lending cohort?
I was looking for a space to grow professionally and to work on my business. I wanted a space where I could focus on the business side and also meet clients in a setting more professional than a coffee shop.
What has your experience been like with the cohort so far?
The Entrepreneur District program offered me the support and space that helped my business grow. The warmth and professional feel of the people and the space are wonderful. I look forward to the monthly meetings and getting advice from fellow entrepreneurs.
Can you describe a challenge your company has faced and how you overcame it?
When I first started the business, I was thinking of the many ways faux florals could be used to add warmth, professionalism, and beauty. I thought about arrangements for businesses, sympathy arrangements, and arrangements for everyday spaces such as homes. However, I’ve learned that the need in our community for faux flower arrangements is in weddings and special events.
What trends in your industry are you most excited about or concerned by?
The floral industry is evolving. I am most excited about the growing acceptance and appreciation of faux florals as a versatile, elevated alternative for weddings and special occasions. The high-quality “real-touch” florals I source are getting better and better. I am able to offer a wide range of colors and types of flowers no matter the season, and I feel I can get even more creative.
How do you measure success in your role and for your company?
Success for Bloom & Borrow Co is rooted in positive feedback from my clients. I prioritize a high-quality product and an even better client experience. When someone sends me pictures of their event setup or wedding day, or even just a kind word, it truly means so much to me. The testimonials I receive from my clients have been amazing!
What has been the most rewarding part of running your business?
The most rewarding part of creating and running a faux floral shop has been when a client takes the time to share kind words and sees the intention, care, and passion behind what I’ve created. That joy has been the most rewarding part! I also feel so fortunate that I am able to prioritize my family while running this business.
What advice would you give to other business owners out there?
Show up even when it feels quiet. And trust that the right people will find you.
Rachael Wilmot, Bloom & Borrow Co
Bloom & Borrow Co: Instagram
Thinking about joining the next group? Applications for the 2027 Entrepreneur District cohort close December 4. The full cohort feature from Fargo INC!’s November 2026 issue is below.
Editor of Fargo INC! — covering the founders, companies, and ideas shaping business in Fargo-Moorhead. Eleven years in, still no opinions, no politics, all business.
