Cairn

Founder stories from further up the trail.

Each Cairn is an evening where a founder who's further up the trail shares the story of how they got there, the successes and the hard moments included, with the founders coming up behind them.
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What is the Cairn Speaker Series?

When someone blazes a trail nobody has walked before, they leave cairns along the way, small stacks of stones that mark the path for whoever comes next. The Cairn Speaker Series brings Boise founders who’ve made the climb into a small room with the founders coming up behind them for a candid conversation about what it took, the pivotal moments and the hard calls included, and the lessons you can put to work in your own business.

What's Coming Up

  • Kevin corliss

    Kevin Corliss

    Partner, Forum Ventures

    Kevin is a partner at Forum Ventures, an early-stage B2B startup accelerator operating in the US and Canada. Before joining Forum, Kevin spent five years as the Founder & CEO of Roots, an HR platform that he scaled to millions in revenue, 400+ customers, and 20+ employees across six countries before its acquisition by Deel in November 2021. Bootstrapping Roots, followed by 2.5 years inside Deel’s high-growth environment post-acquisition, gave him a firsthand view of very different ways to build a company.

    Today, he supports dozens of early-stage founders each year on GTM, fundraising, early hiring, and culture building. Beyond the fundamentals of company building, he’s especially passionate about shining a light on the darker, less-discussed side of startup life: mental health strains, comparison traps, co-founder relationships, and the like.

    Kevin will be the featured speaker for the next edition of the Cairn Speaker Series, taking place on January 27, 2027.

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