Member Spotlight

Meet the Vessel Team!


Describe the business/organization you work for:

Vessel is a Veteran-owned, employee owned, mission-driven company dedicated to reshoring and strengthening the resilience of U.S. manufacturing. At the core of Vessel is a custom-built technology, specifically designed to deliver measurable economic impact for private, state, and federal agencies that consult or advise underserved U.S.

manufacturers.


The Vessel Smart Assessment Platform (VSAP) enhances agency effectiveness by providing more accurate recommendations, fostering sustainable relationships, and enabling ongoing engagement through an evergreen approach. The technology integrates industry-specific, geography-based, size-based, and topical manufacturing assessments with

AI-matched agency resources, partners, and external supply chain data points. This tailored matching system ensures that the unique needs of each manufacturer are met with precision.


Vessel prides itself in being a self-funded team of innovators committed to delivering high-impact solutions across the United States. Originally founded as a consulting agency, Vessel helped manufacturers visualize, clarify, and implement strategies to overcome barriers to growth and profitability. Today, their consulting services focus on supporting partner agencies closely in managing the tools, strategy, and timely

recommendations more effectively, enhancing their ability to drive results and build lasting awareness and relationships with their network of manufacturers.


Vessel is dedicated to helping U.S. manufacturers not only compete but thrive in a global economy. By equipping experts with the tools, insights, and strategies necessary for success, Vessel aims to foster a more sustainable and prosperous future.


What inspired you to start your own business, or why did you decide

to work for this specific organization?

At Vessel, we are united by a shared belief in the power of U.S. manufacturing to strengthen the national economy. Every team member is driven by this mission, and we each bring our own experiences and dedication to advancing this vision. Over time, Vessel has refined its

focus to address the most impactful areas for U.S. manufacturers, leveraging our hands-on industry experience to develop technology solutions that empower small to medium-sized manufacturers and the agencies supporting them.


Our commitment is to fortify U.S. manufacturing through clarity in supply chains and operational alignment. We aim to give manufacturers the agility and resilience they need to thrive amidst global challenges, ensuring their enduring success and impact.


What sets this business apart from others in the industry?

Not many for-profit companies have the culture and shared belief that the Vessel team has. There are other software offerings that perform elements of what our Smart Assessments platform can accomplish, however we are the only multi-dimensional program with advanced and custom smart matching, data visualization, and dynamic reporting that infuses behind the scenes to create efficiencies and strength in data collection/reporting.


With our Vessel Smart Assessments platform now in multiple states across the country, we are able to reach into vertical markets to provide our tool as a solution across a variety of industries and use cases that include supporting Veterans as they transition into the workforce, bolster economic development, and support the full continuum of education onto meaningful careers. Our team has created an efficient and intuitive framework to analyze and visualize data and serve up AI-enhanced informed recommendations. We LOVE the work we get to do!


What challenges have you faced as a business owner or employee, and how did you overcome them?

Culture is extremely important to our team. Fortunately, for us it has been a way to separate out people that may have the needed skill sets but don’t have the passion for the work we get to do, or appreciation for the people on the team. On the flip side, our mission and culture have also been catalysts for finding really talented and dynamic people who deeply care about the work of Vessel and want to be a part of building a company and

product we can all be proud of.


What advice would you give to someone looking to join your

industry?

Being an entrepreneur is hard, overcoming external doubt is daunting, building technology is expensive, however, if you are willing to overcome those challenges, there is a seat at the table and a great need for supporting our U.S. Manufacturers and the cottage industries that fuel them.


Connect with Vessel HERE

Social Media Handles/Tags: @Vessel, #SmartAssessments #SupplyChainSoftware


by Tim Munkres 13 August 2026
Introducing: Mike Mallon, Founder & Fractional CIO, HimalAlan, LLC Describe the business/organization you work for: HimalAIan LLC is a Meridian, Idaho startup building CrAIg™, enterprise middleware that governs AI activity across multiple systems. As companies deploy more AI agents, those agents increasingly step on each other's decisions without anyone noticing until real damage is done. CrAIg detects those conflicts before they execute and gives leaders a way to see and stop the cost before it lands. What inspired you to start your own business, or why did you decide to work for this specific organization? After 20+ years in enterprise technology leadership, including serving as CIO for a major West Coast seafood distributor, I saw the gap firsthand: every AI tool a company adopts is built to optimize its own corner of the business, but nothing is built to watch the space between them. That gap is where real financial exposure hides, and I started HimalAIan to close it. What sets this business apart from others in the industry? Most AI governance tools compete with the AI systems already in place. CrAIg doesn't. Our positioning is "Not competing. Completing." We sit in the space between existing systems and catch the collisions no single tool is built to see. What challenges have you faced as a business owner or employee, and how did you overcome them? The biggest challenge has been building everything solo. Engineering, fundraising, patent strategy, business development, all of it, at once, without a team to share the load. I've overcome it the same way I'd tell any operator to handle a hard problem: break it into pieces that can each be moved forward independently, prioritize ruthlessly, and use every relationship and resource available rather than trying to do it all in isolation. What advice would you give to someone looking to join your industry? Don't wait for the market to hand you permission. If you've spent years watching a problem from the inside, the way I watched it from my experience in enterprise systems and technology, trust that domain knowledge enough to act on it. The technical build is hard, but it's rarely the hardest part. The harder part is staying in motion on funding, partnerships, and structure every single day, even when the feedback is slow or silent. About the Idaho Technology Council The Idaho Technology Council (ITC) is a member-based organization that champions innovation and collaboration to grow Idaho’s economy through technology. Representing a dynamic and growing community of entrepreneurs, industry leaders, and policymakers, ITC connects vision with action to position Idaho as a hub for innovation and opportunity. Learn more at www.idahotechcouncil.org . Connect with Mike on LinkedIn HERE Check out HimalAlan, LLC HERE
by Tim Munkres 9 July 2026
Protecting Yourself from Artificial Intelligence (AI)-Powered Imposter Scams – Tips from KeyBank
by Tim Munkres 8 July 2026
Introducing: Jeanne Allen, QA Engineer II, Destination Pet Describe the business/organization you work for: Destination Pet is a company that provides pet services like boarding, daycare, house sitting, and dog walking and grooming. I work on the Yourgi app, which is the online portal for booking appointments for your pets. What inspired you to start your own business, or why did you decide to work for this specific organization? I decided to work for Destination Pet because the team there is incredible, and I felt like I could make a difference and help the company grow. What sets this business apart from others in the industry? They really care about their customers and try to make every pet service something to remember. What challenges have you faced as a business owner or employee, and how did you overcome them? Working for a tech startup can be hard because the infrastructure isn't set up for development. I enjoy helping set up this infrastructure, so I'm working with the team to make their processes more efficient and enhance communication across teams. What advice would you give to someone looking to join your industry? Be curious and excited to learn. With QA, software development, and devops, there's so much to learn, and being curious is an essential part of the job. About the Idaho Technology Council The Idaho Technology Council (ITC) is a member-based organization that champions innovation and collaboration to grow Idaho’s economy through technology. Representing a dynamic and growing community of entrepreneurs, industry leaders, and policymakers, ITC connects vision with action to position Idaho as a hub for innovation and opportunity. Learn more at www.idahotechcouncil.org . Connect with Jeanne on LinkedIn HERE Check out Destination Pet HERE