Have a safe and happy Memorial Day and thank a veteran, active service member or the families who are sacrificing so we can enjoy it. We’ll be back next week!
Archives for May 2011
CoCoMSP Adds the “M”
CoCoMSP, the premiere coworking space in the Twin Cities, announced yesterday that they will open a Minneapolis coworking space on July 5, 2011, on the historic Trading Floor of the Minneapolis Grain Exchange (see more photos here). This adventure is being done along with Project Skyway, Minnesota’s first tech accelerator program for motivated entrepreneurs.
Don Ball
I talked this morning with CoCoMSP’s Don Ball about this fabulous new facility which, I mentioned at the outset of our discussion, made my jaw drop when I first heard about this 16,000 square foot space.
“You won’t believe it until you see it,” Don said. “We’re actively doing construction now in order to be ready for our July opening.” He described in some detail the new space and what they’re doing with it. It sounds fantastic and I can’t wait to get a tour.
One thing that struck my eye as I read through the press release was this paragraph, “CoCo will also host educational and social events for the region’s creative, technical and business communities. Later in the year, CoCo will begin to offer hosted and facilitated meetings geared toward innovation breakthroughs.” With previous events held at the St. Paul facility (e.g., UnSummit and these events) that have been resoundingly successful, I’m really looking forward to the ones that will be possible in this new space.
Joining CoCoMSP and Project Skyway on this adventure are two innovative companies: CoCo Minneapolis is being designed by Target Commercial Interiors and will feature collaborative work and meeting settings from Steelcase.
The reason these two matter is what’s come out of previous conversations I’ve had with Don. Both Steelcase and Target Commercial Interiors are clearly pushing-the-envelope with coworking as they see the huge trend and obviously it will materially impact their respective businesses. For the City of Minneapolis it promises to bring a lot of new people to the downtown area, and arguably when a Project Skyway startup reaches critical mass, they might be so inclined to stay in the downtown area looking for bigger digs.
The bottom line? None of this matters if there wasn’t a groundswell of people working for themselves, in small startups or businesses, or working for a large company ,who are all eager to pay to have an office at a coworking facility. Working out of a coffee shop is fine for an hour or two but unless you buy that next muffin they’re unlikely to want you to camp out there all day. Working from home means you don’t network or collaborate with other humans and it gets pretty lonely. These are just a few of the drivers making coworking such a great alternative.
So this new facility not only finally makes the “M” in “CoCoMSP” meaningful, there sure seems to be a lot of obvious wins for everyone involved.
Minnov8 Gang 124 – No Rain in This Cloud
The Gang has on Mike Sowada, CEO of VISI. Mike has been a leader in technology management for over 20 years, co-founding Digital North, a leading provider of business-class hosting solutions, as well as a career as a leader at DKS Systems, Net Perceptions, Inc., The Musicland Group, and as he embarked on his career starting off at Andersen Consulting. He also was named “2009 Entrepreneur of the Year” for his contributions and leadership in the area of Internet technologies. This is a guy who knows what he’s talking about when it comes to cloud computing!
Hosts: Steve Borsch, Tim Elliott and Graeme Thickins (Phil Wilson is off this week hosting a panel discussion at the fabulous Social Media Breakfast, Minneapolis/St. Paul (SMBMSP)).
Music: “Angel of Mercy” by Guitar Jack via the podsafe Music Alley.
The Podcast
Podcast: Download (Duration: 55:46 — 32.6MB)
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Discussed during the show:
- Apple causes ‘religious’ reaction in brains of fans, say neuroscientists
- VISI’s: $10 million dollar expansion in Eden Prairie; ReliaCloud offering; parent TDS
- LinkedIn Closes At $94 Per Share, With $8.9 Billion Market Cap
- LinkedIn’s “Pop” on First Day of Trading (article at LATimes) (For comparison, here’s a local angle: In 1995 Secure Computing (then headquartered in MN & now part of McAfee) had a 274% first-day IPO gain)
- Apple Cloud Service (rumors)
- Earthquakes in the Midwest
- Amazon.com Now Selling More Kindle Books Than Print Books
- The uber-sexy Olympus LS-20 which will do both HD audio and HD video
- That Minnesota company in water Graeme mentioned is Pentair (article at Wikipedia; press release on recent acquisition)
Hiring with Hyier
If you’re looking for a job, you know how tough it is to get the interview and to get some kind of communication back from a company where you’ve applied.
Imagine you were a hiring manager or HR person in a company in need of one or more people for key jobs. Companies that post jobs today are absolutely inundated with resumes. Finding qualified candidates, vs. those just desperate for a job, is harder than ever.
Consider the recent announcement by McDonalds that they would be filling roughly 50,000 positions. They ended up with nearly 1 million people applying for those jobs! While that is an extreme case, it is indicative of the hiring challenges companies face trying to fill positions that require people actually matched to the job requirements.
Enter a new Minnesota startup, still in beta, called Hyier (pronounced “Hire”). This online web application is perfectly suited toward organizations needing to qualify their candidate pool in a fast, easy, and cost-effective way.
The way it works is like this: The companies create questions each candidate will be asked and the applicants will have a set time to answer. The twist is that these candidates respond to job specific questions by recording online videos using a webcam.
Wondering how Hyier differentiated itself from a company just using YouTube or some other video platform for candidate interviews, I talked with founder Derek Buschow (LinkedIn; Twitter) about how and why he started his company, what their competitive differentiators are and where they’re headed.
Minnov8 Gang 123 – The ‘Table Stakes’ are Rising
With all of the hoopla surrounding Microsoft buying Skype, Facebook hiring a PR firm to plant negative stories about Google, and the Google I/O conference releasing a lot of new opportunities with their platform technologies, it’s pretty clear that the ‘table stakes’ to be in the internet/web game are rising…quickly.
Hosts: Steve Borsch, Tim Elliott, Graeme Thickins and Phil Wilson.
Music: “Straight To The Light” by Alex is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0).
The Podcast
Podcast: Download (Duration: 45:22 — 26.6MB)
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Discussed during the show:
- Microsoft buys Skype and a Reuters article on how investor/analyst reactions
- Google I/O developer conference. Visit their announcement archive here. Some interesting articles reacting to these announcements:
- Facebook Plants Fake Stories about Google
- The Minnesota Cup
- The Internet of Things
Upcoming Events:
- May 13: MIMA “iOS Strategy, Design, and Development Workshops” (what, SOLD OUT?)
- Friday May 20th. SMBMSP Social Media and Higher Education. Moderated by Phil Wilson
- Friday, May 20th – Saturday, May 21st: DrupalCamp
- Thursday, May 26th: WordPressMSP Meeting
Minnesota Cup Deadline Fast Approaching
Got a great business idea? Minnesota entrepreneurs, inventors and anyone else with one are encouraged to enter the 2011 Minnesota Cup competition but you’d better hurry…the deadline is approaching fast!
The entry deadline of 11:59pm on May 20th is fast approaching so begin your entry ASAP. At last year’s event, co-founder Scott Litman joked that numerous entries came in just before midnight on the last day several years in a row! Don’t procrastinate and make Scott stay up late…this competition is just too valuable to ignore and you’ve got your value proposition nailed down anyway, right?
The best part is the chance to win big money to fund your idea, right? Well get this: the competition’s total prize money just increased to $185,000. But it’s just not the dough: prizes include a bunch of other valuable awards, access to mentors and other entrepreneurial resources.
The Minnesota Cup is once again looking to support and develop the next generation of breakthrough ideas and yours could be one of them. Entries may be submitted in the following divisions: Clean Tech & Renewable Energy, BioSciences, High Tech, General and Student. More information and entry instructions can be found at www.minnesotacup.org.
CoCo Expanding to Minneapolis
CoCo, the co-working firm with a great space in St. Paul, is a heartbeat away from signing a lease on a new space in Minneapolis. What sets this particular space apart is that CoCo is teaming with Project Skyway to create a new kind of “creative incubation” space for business.
Positioned as an “historic space” (perhaps RiverPlace/St. Anthony Main?) they’re holding back on revealing its exact location because they, “…want to give Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak first shot at announcing the location. His office was instrumental in making the space work out for us, but more importantly, he helped bring CoCo and Project Skyway together.”
The expectation is that the mayor will be hosting a press conference in the next couple weeks, at which point CoCo will stop being all coy about the space’s location and will post video and pictures.
Whether you’re up on the trend in co-working or not, spend some time with Don Ball and you’ll get a knowledge dump on how everyone from Steelcase to Target Commercial Interiors is all over it. With more workers easily able to leverage technology and their “always on, always connected” devices, demand for a place to co-work with others is accelerating worldwide.
In fact, Steelcase and Target Commercial Interiors are working with CoCo and Project Skyway to design the space to include distinct zones for different activities (e.g., socializing, collaboration, heads-down focus, meetings, workgroups, etc.). They are also working with Vôo Creative to develop unique art and experiences within the space.
More info can be found in this CoCo post.
Minnov8 Gang 122 – Crashing is Not an Option
MinneBar was in full swing at Best Buy’s Headquarters and the Gang was delighted to have a chance to talk with Matthew Dornquast, CEO of Code 42 Software (makers of the worldwide acclaimed backup service, CrashPlan) about his firm, its background and growth and, revealed publicly for the first time to Minnov8, their merger with mobile software group Recursive Awesome about to be announced publicly.
Hosts: Steve Borsch, Tim Elliott, Graeme Thickins and Phil Wilson.
Music: LA Big Daddy is the artist & the song is “Him Number 100” via the podsafe Music Alley.
The Podcast
Podcast: Download (Duration: 45:03 — 26.0MB)
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Note: The Minnov8 Gang would like to express our appreciation for the incredible work of Ben Edwards and Luke Francl of minne* for setting up the country’s largest barcamp, MinneBar, and for their tireless efforts on behalf of the startup community. Additional thanks go to the sponsors of this great event without whom it wouldn’t have happened.
One person that deserves significant praise for his nurturing of the startup community in Minnesota—and who has been willing to make available the best possible venue one could hope for with an event like MinneBar or others held at Best Buy’s headquarters—is Best Buy CTO, Robert Stephens.