Minnov8

Entrepreneur and friend of Minnov8, Lief Larson of Workface, Inc and BusinessCard2 in Minneapolis, has leapt forward on his vision to make BusinessCard2 the delivery mechanism to, “…empower business people to create, promote, and broadcast their unique professional persona throughout the internet” by acquiring Card.ly.

Any offering like BusinessCard2 requires critical mass to be effective. The more that people adopt and use this free service, the more powerful it becomes. As Lief has accelerated the number of people using the service, he and his team won’t be satisified until it becomes the primary way people encapsulate their value propositions and is a one-stop-shop for contact info, marketing of products and services, and even more portable on the web than it is today.

For competitive purposes Lief keeps intentionally quiet on disclosures of the exact reasons for this acquisition, but I suspect the customer base was one reason (that critical mass imperative is why) but undoubtedly there was other value not readily apparent that makes this a smart move for Workface.

The press release is after the jump. Congrats Lief and team! (more…)

A local Minnesota serial entrepreneur, Philip Hotchkiss, gave me a heads-up on this post from a a serial entrepreneur turned VC, Mark Suster. After reading it I was compelled to post about it here on Minnov8 and strongly encourage you to read it.

Though I’m a glass-is-more-than-half-full kind of guy and am constantly seeking out silver linings, opportunities and the positive, I wouldn’t be a good risk manager if part of that seeking didn’t acknowledge input that pointed out the downsides and the negative so I could modify our business strategies.

Suster starts off talking about the “funding frenzy” occurring in 2010 and later in the article discusses why this concerns him. He points out that the US economy has structural employment issues, consumer’s “piggy banks” (i.e., their houses) are empty, the appetite for government stimulus has waned, and what he sees as an end-of-year stock market sell-off will negatively affect VCs and angel investors.

His argument is that 2011 is likely to be bleak and that this year’s initial funding rounds, while fabulous due to that funding frenzy, could leave entrepreneurs in a “funding gap” as VC money dries up.

If you have time, read the entire article of if not, this post was originally published in a shorter format in the Wall Street Journal online.  Either way, read it.

Our Startup Spotlight guest this week is Matthew Foust from Audiofile Engineering in Minneapolis.

Matt is the co-founder & grew up in Eau Claire, Wisconsin and began playing music at age 8. Not long after, his family purchased one of the first 10,000 Macintosh computers ever produced and began his journey into technology. While attending Beloit College, he honed his computer skills laying out a book (utilizing both Roman and Greek orthographies) in Aldus PageMaker for his advisor. He and Evan Olcott (his co-founder) established Integral Studio in 2000 and Audiofile Engineering in 2004 to concentrate on Mac-based audio tools for the audio industry as well as awesome iPhone/iPad/iPod-Touch tools like FiRe (Field Recorder).

Hosts: Steve Borsch, Tim Elliott and Phil Wilson (Graeme Thickins is off this week).
Music: Wiser Time & their song “Floating Blues” via the podsafe Music Alley.

Discussed during the show:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/furnari/177545342/

A survey of over 140 North American CEOs revealed that nearly half of their companies do not have a succession plan:

While 69% of respondents think that a CEO successor needs to be “ready now” to step into the shoes of the departing CEO, only 54% are grooming an executive for this position.

Part of the reason, as Felix Salmon points out, is that corporate boards like to hire the next big star to take over. That may work for big corporations (sometimes), but startups that lose an owner may founder and die without a clear successor to take over.

Startups are often personality-driven, but that does not mean they have to end when the driving personality leaves. A succession plan is simply an answer to the question “what do you want to happen if the owner leaves or dies or something?”

At a minimum, take care of these four things:

1. Pick and train a successor;
2. Make sure the owner’s will passes on the business;
3. If necessary, use a buy-sell agreement to pass on the owner’s interest; and
4. Fund the transition costs with a life insurance policy on the owner.

A succession plan is like a business’s will. And just like a will, you’ll gain peace of mind once you have one in place.

Sam Glover is a cutting-edge lawyer for cutting-edge Minnesota tech startups.

On my continuing quest to discover new sources of data and insight about startups, I came across a very interesting read today—and received something from TheDeets’ Ed Kohler—and wanted to share both with you.

A new study (PDF) by the Kauffman Foundation paints a very different picture about the importance of startups:

When it comes to U.S. job growth, startup companies aren’t everything. They’re the only thing. It’s well understood that existing companies of all sizes constantly create – and destroy – jobs. Conventional wisdom, then, might suppose that annual net job gain is positive at these companies. A study released today by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, however, shows that this rarely is the case. In fact, net job growth occurs in the U.S. economy only through startup firms.

The Kauffman Foundation was established in the mid-1960s by the late entrepreneur and philanthropist Ewing Marion Kauffman. Based in Kansas City, Missouri, the Kauffman Foundation is among the thirty largest foundations in the United States with an asset base of approximately $2 billion.

You really need to spend some time at the Kauffman site since they have a wealth of research reports (all free) as well as this nifty Flash-based startup visualization tool.

But while it’s interesting and enlightening to see all of the efforts going on with startups around the country, the data about Minnesota was a bit disconcerting…until I thought about it for awhile. (more…)

The Gang starts off talking about the net neutrality town hall meeting from Thursday night (Sen. Al Franken kicked it off with FCC Commissioner’s Michael Copps and Mignon Clyburn in attendance to hear from the community. Next we have on our main guest, Steve Nielsen, to discuss his next adventure MacroVentures, an investor in early stage companies in the technology and medical spaces.

Most recently, Steve served as President and CEO of PartnerUp, a wholly owned subsidiary of Deluxe Corporation (NYSE: DLX) and is a veteran internet and technology executive, having started and led a number of technology-focused ventures since 1996.

Hosts: Steve Borsch, Graeme Thickins and Phil Wilson (Tim Elliott is off this week).
Music: Rusty Wright & their song “Toppy” via the podsafe Music Alley.

Discussed during the Show:

+ Net neutrality Town Hall recap by Ann Treacy on Blandin on Broadband

+ Steve & Beth Nielsen in StarTribune

+ 32 Tablets are Coming!!

+ Fake iPads

+ SMBMSP at the State Fair

This just in from the folks at the Minnesota Cup, a phenomenal event for startup Minnesota:

“The Minnesota Cup is a statewide entrepreneurial contest that seeks out and supports Minnesota’s newest and most innovative business ideas, today announced the finalists for the 6th Annual Minnesota Cup competition. Finalists include a company that is developing the world’s first multilingual medical communication system and another with a revolutionary greenhouse technology for growers in any climate.

“Given the great success of so many of last year’s Minnesota Cup finalists, we’re thrilled to see some of the best and most promising business ideas in our program’s history this year,” said Scott Litman, Minnesota Cup co-founder. “These finalists are a true testament to the great entrepreneurial ideas that come from the state of Minnesota, and we look forward to honoring them at our awards ceremony in September.”

Read the full release after the jump. (more…)

The Gang has on Christopher Lower to talk about Foursquare, the fastest growing social media tool of its kind (and we briefly touch on his upcoming book) and then we dial up Justin Grammens of Recursive Awesome to talk about his new adventure, MobileVidHub.

Hosts: Steve Borsch, Tim Elliott, Graeme Thickins and Phil Wilson.
Music: Mean Gene Kelton & the Diehards & their song “Mean Guitar” via the podsafe Music Alley.

Discussed during the show:

• Deluxe Corporation’s PartnerUp group
• Christopher Lower and his: Site; LinkedIn; Twitter; Facebook
• Justin Grammens and his: RecursiveAwesome site; Mobile Vid Hub site; LinkedIn; Twitter; Facebook
• Shopkick & Best Buy deal
• ShareThis
• BlendTec’s Will it Blend?
• Solstice Film Festival
• Upcoming events:
  • Minne Bar-b-Que, August 22nd
  • 140 RoadTrip Tweet-up, August 26th
  • Social Media Breakfast–Minneapolis/St. Paul (Sometime during the State Fair)
  • Start-up Weekend-Twin Cities, September 17th-19th
  • WordCamp MSP, Saturday, November 13th

Direct link to the show

Podcast: Download (41.7MB)

The Gang has Julio Ojeda Zapata on this week to talk about a bunch of stuff…including Google’s killing of Google Wave.

Julio is the Pioneer Press’ consumer-tech reporter and writes a Tech Test Drive column about gadgets, apps and social media (among other things). He is the author of Twitter Means Business, one of the first books about Twitter (and his new one coming out tentatively titled, “iPad Means Business”). See his Posterous geekstream or contact him by e-mail or on Twitter.

Hosts: Steve Borsch, Tim Elliott, Graeme Thickins and Phil Wilson.
Music: Big George Jackson Blues Band & song “Tell Me” via the podsafe Music Alley.

Discussed during the show:

• Robert Stephens’ LinkedIn page showing he’s “Chief Technology Officer, Best Buy. Founder, The Geek Squad”
• Google kills Wave
• Rapportive for Gmail
• MailPlane
• Google.me
• FastMall
• Webcams.travel
• LogMeIn Ignition
• ChromeOS
• Jolicloud
• Quite differing views of the onrush (deluge?) of information—and our access to it via the internet—and what Nicholas Carr & Clay Shirky each think of how we’re dealing with it as humans.

Direct link to the show.

Podcast: Download (39.0MB)

Every day I scan hundreds of blog posts, articles and tweets having to do with technology. Included in that scanning is a 4-5 times per day viewing of Techmeme, the technology ‘conversation tracker’ that connects key articles and posts with those who’ve linked to it, enabling you and I to see what the hot stories are at the moment and at-a-glance.

What’s become clear over the last several years is one key shift: the rate of technological change is accelerating. Almost daily there is some key feature announced, a new product or service, or some new insight, which almost instantly makes its way across the internet and raises the consciousness and awareness levels of those of us paying attention.

The scientist Ray Kurzweil is arguably the #1 thought leader in the area of accelerating change after the publication of his 2005 book “The Singularity is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology” and the creation of his subsequent Singularity Conference.

The premise in Kurzweil’s book is the coming technological singularity and how we will be able to augment our bodies and minds with technology. He describes the singularity as resulting from a combination of three important technologies of the 21st century: genetics, nanotechnology, and robotics (including artificial intelligence).

Having attempted to read the book three times until finally succeeding on my fourth try, it’s tough to refute Kurzweil’s arguments that we’re living not only in a time of accelerating change, but that that change is exponential. That said, there have been several prominent thinkers and scientists who criticize his speculation and approaches.

What does accelerating or exponential change mean to you? Here is Ray Kurzweil telling you about the singularity in less than 7 minutes:

When you consider the technology shifts and changes your great-grandparents, grandparents, parents (and even you) have experienced already, I can only imagine the things we’ll see over the next several decades. Hang on to your hats…it’s gonna be a heckuva ride!