Before I ever gave back to Cheyenne, Cheyenne gave first. People tend to ask me about the giving side of running my business: the causes we support and the campaigns we run each year. Fewer people ask what came before that: the support I received from this community long before I had anything to offer in return.
Key Takeaways
- My philanthropy story is incomplete without acknowledging it started on the receiving end, not the giving end.
- The Cheyenne, Wyoming business community extended credibility, introductions, and patience before any proof showed it would pay off.
- The organizations built to connect this community, like the Greater Cheyenne Chamber of Commerce, are part of why that kind of early trust exists here at all.
- Advice passed to young founders now traces back to advice this community gave Peter Kazan first.
What It Looked Like Before There Was Anything to Show For It
When my company was an idea with no revenue and no proof it would work, people in this business community treated me like it already mattered anyway. That's a specific kind of generosity, extending credibility to someone who hasn't earned it yet, and I don't think I understood how rare it was until I'd been on the other side of it for a few years.
The Infrastructure Behind That Kind of Trust
The organization that connects Cheyenne's business community has spent more than a century building exactly the kind of network that made my own early support possible: introductions between people who had no obligation to make them, and a general expectation that new businesses get a fair shot before they've proven anything. I don't think that infrastructure gets enough credit for the founders who quietly benefit from it, myself included.
Giving That Runs in Both Directions
Giving that came before any real success is something I've written about before, mostly through what I put back into this community. What I think about less publicly is that the same pattern applied to me first. People here extended time, introductions, and patience before I had earned any of it. I was on the receiving end of exactly the kind of support I now try to offer other founders.
Trust That Arrived Before the Proof Did
There's a specific kind of trust that only makes sense in a smaller, closer business community, the kind where people extend it based on who you are rather than what your numbers already show. I benefited from that repeatedly in my company's early years, in ways I couldn't have replicated by moving somewhere with a bigger, more anonymous market. I don't think that kind of trust is available everywhere, and I didn't fully appreciate how specific to this place it was until I had the chance to compare notes with founders who built somewhere else.
The Introductions Nobody Sees
Some of the earliest relationships that mattered to my business came from someone in this community deciding to make an introduction they didn't have to make. There's no press release for that kind of help, and most of the people who did it never asked to be acknowledged. I've tried to be the person who makes that same kind of introduction for someone else now, quietly and without expecting credit for it.
Passing Down What I Was Given
What I tell young founders who ask me for advice is often just a repetition of something someone told me first, back when I needed to hear it. The advice didn't originate with me. It got passed down through a community that decided investing in people before they'd proven anything was worth doing anyway.
Why This Isn't the Same Story as Our Holiday Campaigns
It would be easy to fold this into the same narrative as the causes I support each year, but I don't think that's accurate. Those campaigns are about what I choose to give now that I'm in a position to give it. This is a different story: a time when I wasn't in that position at all, and the community extended trust anyway. Collapsing the two into one tidy giving-back narrative would erase the part where I needed the help first.
Giving Back Only Makes Sense in Light of What I Was Given First
I don't think the story of my own philanthropy is complete without acknowledging that it started with me as the recipient, not the source. Every campaign I run now traces back to a debt I don't think gets fully repaid, only passed forward to the next person who needs the same kind of early, unearned trust I once did.
Frequently Asked Questions
How did Cheyenne's business community support Peter Kazan early on?
Mostly through things that don't show up in a press release: introductions people didn't have to make, and credibility extended before his company had any revenue or proof of concept to point to.
What role does local community play in a startup's success?
In a smaller, closer business community, trust can be extended based on who a founder is rather than what their numbers already show. That kind of early, unearned trust is harder to find in larger, more anonymous markets.
Why is Peter Kazan involved in Cheyenne's business community?
Because the support came first. His giving back only makes sense in light of the trust and help he received from this community before his company had anything to offer in return.
