A speaker and connection series bringing Boise's business community together to hear fresh perspectives, explore meaningful challenges and walk away with practical ideas worth putting to work.
Next Event · Thursday, October 29, 2026
The Long Hunt: Turning Idaho Grit Into Successful Companies
Brad Brooks started Argali after a backcountry film project kept drawing questions about the gear he was using. Steve Speck started S&S Archery in a garage during the 2008 recession, then co-founded Exo Mtn Gear. Both now design technical outdoor equipment from Boise and sell it around the world.
Each will tell the story of building their company and what they learned doing it, followed by a panel discussion moderated by John Hanousek. You don't need to be a hunter to get something out of this one. These are stories about product design, knowing your customer, and building a durable company in Idaho.
- Date
- Thursday, October 29, 2026
- Time
- 3:30 PM–5:30 PM
- Location
- Idaho State Museum
- Format
- Keynote and panel discussion, with drinks, hors d'oeuvres and networking
Brad Brooks
Founder & CEO, Argali
Brad Brooks started making backcountry films in 2015 with no intention of building a gear company. The questions that kept coming — what are you using, and why? He turned that into an online retail business, which he shut down after a year to sell only gear he designed himself, because the brands at the top weren't building for people like him. Argali launched its first product in 2018 and now makes ultralight tents, sleeping bags, knives, trekking poles and clothing, sold through distribution in Canada, Japan, Australia, New Zealand and Austria. It took several wrong turns to find the core of the business, guided by one principle he hasn't moved off: make the best gear possible, whatever it costs.
Steve Speck
Founder, S&S Archery · Co-founder and CEO, Exo Mtn Gear
Steve Speck grew up hunting and exploring Idaho's backcountry. He joined his father's commercial construction company out of high school, and when that business failed in the 2008 financial crisis he started S&S Archery in a garage, still a deliberately three-person shop eighteen years later. In 2014 he and hunting partner Lenny Nelson founded Exo Mtn Gear to build the pack they couldn't buy: the comfort of an internal frame with the load-hauling strength of an external one, made in the USA. They launched by pre-selling packs to cover materials, and Exo runs debt-free today, with Steve deliberately choosing slow growth over scale.
Why We Do This
Why Flint & Steel
The best business insights rarely come from theory. They come from experience. Facing a challenge, working through it and learning something worth passing on.
Flint & Steel brings thought leaders from a range of disciplines, industries and backgrounds, both local and beyond, to share their areas of expertise with Boise's business community. We explore real business challenges, hard-earned lessons and ideas worth sharing. Each event offers a fresh perspective and ends with practical insight you can take back to your own organization.
No pitch. No one-size-fits-all answers. Just candid conversations, useful perspectives and connections with people who are curious about building better businesses.
Practical insight
Every session leaves you with an idea, perspective or takeaway you can put to work in your own organization.
A room, not an auditorium
Intentionally intimate, with enough space to ask questions and make conversation part of the experience.
Connections that matter
A room of Boise-area leaders, owners and operators who come ready to learn, share and connect.
There is no cost to attend.
Format
What an afternoon looks like
Arrival, hors d'oeuvres
Open networking
Welcome from Fusion
Brad Brooks & Steve Speck on The Long Hunt: Turning Idaho Grit Into Successful Companies
Discussion and open Q&A
RSVP
Join us
We keep the room intentionally small, so RSVP early. We'll follow up with confirmation, parking and arrival details — and feel free to bring a colleague who'd get something out of it.
Past Speakers
Who we've heard from
Leaders from down the street and from across the country, on the challenges this community is working through. Every session gets a written recap so the ideas don't stay in the room.
The same instinct, at a different scale.
Fusion embeds senior marketing leadership directly inside growing companies. Being in the room is how we hear what's actually hard — which is how this series finds its topics in the first place.