Minnov8

Showcasing Minnesota Technology Innovation

Archives for April 2012

Minnov8 Gang 166 – Print Me Some Coffee

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The Gang discusses events this past week, including the Twin Cities debut of a new, consumer-grade 3D printing device called the Cube from Cubify. Having been fans of Star Trek in its various incarnations, many 3D printing enthusiasts have a vision for these sorts of printers that is more Star Trek replicator than what they presently deliver: prototypes and trinkets.

Hosts: Steve Borsch, Tim Elliott, Graeme Thickins and Phil Wilson

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The Podcast

Podcast: Download (Duration: 59:17 — 34.4MB)

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Discussed during the show:

Upcoming Events:

Minnesota: A Great Place to Be for SaaS Companies

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I had the pleasure of attending a workshop event held this past Saturday at the awesome CoCo coworking space at the Minneapolis Grain Exchange. It was called SaaSCamp 2012. Note the year is part of that title, because it fully intends to be a recurring event. If you’re part of an early-stage software-as-a-service business, or planning one, and you missed this workshop — well, you missed a great one, and I would make sure you get to the next one when it happens!

The event was conceived and conducted completely by Lief Larson, CEO and founder of Workface Inc., with assistance from a couple of his team members. Workface is a growing startup in Minneapolis that itself developed a SaaS offering it now markets widely, which it calls a “customer engagement platform.” I was extremely impressed with the breadth and depth of the content Lief pulled together for this event. It included a extensive look at market data for SaaS in the U.S. and globally, monetization strategies and practices, selling to the enterprise, negotiating contracts, increasing adoption and retention of your app, marketing your app, creating a channel to sell your app, financing and funding a SaaS business, training your SaaS customer, and ongoing monitoring of your SaaS business. On top of all this, Lief related some really excellent stories throughout the workshop about his journey in funding and building Workface.

I had a chance to follow up with Lief afterwards to get some further perspective on the story behind SaaSCamp… 

Q: Lief, why did you decide to do the event? 

Lief:  I’ve had a great group of mentors who have helped me during my entrepreneurial journey and I try to pay it forward by helping other young businesses and entrepreneurs to find success.  A few of my “mentees” are building applications that are software-as-a-service (SaaS) offerings and asked that I consider putting on an event.  That’s why I created SaaSCamp 2012 — to bring together like-minded people working on SaaS.  I think the event is already bigger than me, and I’m hoping the community will take it and run with it. …  [Read More…]

The War for Talent: Are Minnesota Tech Companies and Startups Ready?

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Question: What do Google, Facebook, Groupon and Amazon have in common?

Answer: All have formally or through their employees been recruiting in Minnesota in the past year. There are at least another half dozen well funded Silicon Valley startups doing the same.

(hold on… I am waiting for that to sink in for a moment)

With IT unemployment less than 2%, companies of all sizes from the Fortune 500 to the smallest of startups are recognizing that recruiting in Minnesota has been challenging.

For some the challenge has been a nuisance but not an impossible task.

For others… not having appropriate staff levels is costing business.

To set the stage a little bit, it is important to know that for many in IT, the “Great Recession” was a non-event. …  [Read More…]

Minnov8 Gang 165 – So, Lumia 900, why is your software half-baked?

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The Gang was at the Twin Cities Windows Phone event at Best Buy and Ovative Group‘s open house this week. That, and a number of other big stories, is at the heart of this show.

Hosts: Steve Borsch, Tim Elliott, Graeme Thickins and Phil Wilson
Music: “Sugar Rush” by Beau Hall from the podsafe Music Alley

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The Podcast

Podcast: Download (Duration: 1:04:28 — 37.5MB)

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Discussed during the show:

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Minnov8 Gang 164 – One BILLION dollars!?!

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Lots of surprising news this week with the resignation of Best Buy CEO and allegations of improprieties along with the jaw-dropping valuation of Instagram as acquired by Facebook.

Hosts: Steve Borsch, Tim Elliott, Graeme Thickins and Phil Wilson
Music: “Johnnys Deathray Boogie” by Johnny Nicholas from the podsafe Music Alley

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The Podcast

Podcast: Download (Duration: 1:04:00 — 37.3MB)

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Guest Segment: We were pleased to have on the always delightful and incredibly mobile knowledgeable Lisa Foote, CEO and Co-Founder of MixMobi (Twitter)

Discussed during the show:

Upcoming Events:

“Your Inner Neandertal” DNA Day Talk

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Do you know why some people are 1 to 4% Neandertal? During her talk Lynn Fellman will explain how your Uncle Ned and maybe you have an “Inner Neander” during her art and science talk on April 28th. Lynn’s presentation is one of many talks at Twin City libraries to celebrate National DNA Days.

The discovery of modern day humans with some neandertal DNA came as a surprise to many in the scientific community (especially when you consider that most depictions of neandertals show them as very ugly and that “mixing DNA” meant modern-looking humans back then were having sex with these knuckle-draggers!).

It came as a surprise to me too, not because some other people have this DNA within them, but because I have had my DNA profile created by 23andMe and recently discovered that my genetics contain an estimated 2.5% neandertal DNA. Maybe that’s why I have a thick protruding forehead and think about living in a cave!  😉

“Your Inner Neandertal” is a 30 minute presentation showing how art can uniquely express science concepts and why some of us may find a little “Neander” in our genes. With examples from “At the Crossroads” video and her very cool DNA Portrait traveling show, Lynn will explain how some genes may be a surprising and generous gift from our ancient and now extinct cousins (and this I gotta hear).

Saturday, April 28th at 11 am
Minneapolis Downtown Hennepin Library
This keynote talk for Minneapolis DNA Days
is free and open to the public. Please register (go here).
For more information, parking and directions (go here).

More DNA Days events at area libraries (info here) will cover topics like genetic testing and screening, capturing family health history and tools for collecting the information.

To learn more about multimedia artist Lynn Fellman, someone focused on “illuminating the human genome through art, design and narrative,” check our her site at: FellmanStudio.com

Minnebar 2012: Tech Geek-Out!

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Minnesota’s annual barcamp un-conference, aka Minnebar, returned for a seventh consecutive year on Saturday, April 7, and it was a blockbuster! Held again at Best Buy’s corporate headquarters in Richfield, the event attracted some 1300, the most in its history.

It just keeps getting bigger and bigger — and better!  A pre-party the night before was a new, fun twist this year, held at Vic’s, across the river from Downtown Minneapolis.  On Saturday, some 60 breakout sessions provided a wide array of learning and sharing experiences, along with awesome hallway discussions that were in full swing all day long — from 8:00 am all the way through the closing reception well after 6:00 pm.

Kudos to organizers Ben Edwards, Luke Francl, and Adrienne Peirce of Minnestar.org, and their many volunteers who work so hard to make this event successful. And thanks to all the great sponsors: Code42 Software, Fredrikson & Byron, 8th Bridge, W3i, ipHouse, August Ash, Bloom Health, Barcamp Tour, Split Rock Partners, ChowGirls, and Ech03.

It seems I say this every year, but it’s true (I’ve attended the last six annual events in their entirety):  the level of energy and enthusiasm about Minnesota Tech was more than I’ve ever experienced!  You can just sense the growth and excitement in our tech community. And, if you’re like me, you keep meeting so many more new and amazing people — technology and business professionals who are contributing to great new startups here in Minnesota, as well as to the broader technology industry in our state.  It was a pleasure to behold.  I had so many excellent conversations, trust me — there isn’t enough room in this blog post to tell you about them all <haha>.

But I can show you pics I shot Friday night and all day Saturday, which I posted on Instagram. Here’s a selection of those pics that I put into a Minnebar 2012 Flickr set.

Magnet 360 Acquires Reside, Rebrands as ‘Social Enterprise Agency’

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Magnet 360, a Minneapolis-based marketing and technology consultancy, today announced it has acquired Reside, a Minneapolis-based cloud solutions firm, to establish a single entity that will provide a comprehensive set of social business services.  The new business will operate under the name Magnet 360, with a Minneapolis headquarters and an office in New York City.

“We’re coming into this space early, and already we are seeing amazing traction,” said Scott
Litman, Magnet 360 founder and managing partner (photo), in the company’s news release.  “Our clients – executive leaders – are recognizing that social is the next big thing that will transform the way we do business and engage with customers and other audiences.  They are looking to us to help build and manage programs that will deliver meaningful and measurable outcomes.”

The news release said the new entity’s offerings will include CRM, social, mobile, user experience, agile application development, insights and analytics, marketing automation, and channel marketing – “all key components of an enterprise social strategy.”

The company said its social focus, paired with its deep technical capabilities, is “what will make Magnet 360 unique among agencies.” It quoted Jim Schroer, Magnet 360 investor and former EVP Global Sales, Marketing, and Service for Chrysler:  “The demand for this kind of integrated offering is huge. Companies need to embrace social to stay competitive.  That doesn’t mean that existing marketing programs go away – but it does mean that they need to integrate to an overall social strategy.  Today’s big agencies were built for a TV-centric marketing world; Magnet 360 is shaping itself around the new integrated, social world.”

The company said the combined forces of Magnet 360 and Reside are already working with several leading brands to plan and implement social business programs.  Active clients include General Mills, Ecolab, Medtronic, 3M, Honeywell, Toro, AMC Theaters, and Carnival Cruise Lines.  It said the new Magnet 360 organization is planning for market expansion and rapid growth.

“We’ve worked with hundreds of clients to help them implement cloud solutions with social elements,” said Matt Meents (photo), Reside founder and now Magnet 360 Managing Partner, in the news announcement.  “But that was just the tip of the iceberg.  This combination allows us to enable the social business holistically, with total integration between marketing and IT and with exponentially greater bandwidth.  It’s a very opportunistic time for our clients – both B2B and B2C – and we’re excited to help them gain huge competitive advantage in this space.”

Update 4/5/12:  The “new” Magnet 360 has more than 60 employees in total, the majority in Minneapolis. It also has a New York office.  The company said “all Reside and Magnet 360 employees have been retained in this transaction.” It also stated it is currently on a $15M annual run rate, with plans to grow revenue to $20M total in 2012.