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Is Perception the Reality with MN Venture Funding?

16. July 2010

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All the effort underway to kickstart innovation and entrepreneurial activity ((e.g., MHTA; MNCup; MOJO MN; Minnedemo/Minnebar; Minnov8; tech.mn) is clearly a reaction to the nearly terminal decline of risk taking and venture funding in Minnesota. Wherever there is a vacuum, something will fill it! How true is the perception that Minnesota lacks funding and risk-taking venture capitalists? If you read [...]

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The Joy of Infiltration Champions Open Game Development

15. July 2010

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The mind of Zach Johnson is an interesting place. While much of it remains unexplored it’s filled with plenty of ideas, projects and fun. We last talked with Zach about Scribbls, a great site where doodles can give birth to hilarious results that he and his Watermelon Sauce partner Paul Armstrong developed. His most recent [...]

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Method Patents: Good or Bad?

15. July 2010

1 Comment

Let’s say you’ve founded a startup and think you have a completely original idea no one has thought of before with new approaches to the way an old process works. You might then think all you have to do is patent that process and you can achieve the protection patenting is all about: excluding others [...]

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MentorMate: Turning Vision in to Software

7. July 2010

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One of the most challenging things to do as a startup, entrepreneur, or any leader looking to manifest a vision or outcome in software, is finding a trusted partner with whom to turn that vision in to reality. MentorMate, a mobile, application & web software development company in Minneapolis, does this sort of work all [...]

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Powerful Document Collaboration with Redliner

7. July 2010

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If you collaborate with others on contracts, agreements, leases, press releases, copy for your website, or any other activity where multiple people have to touch an electronic document, you know all too well the incredible frustration that results from trying to track changes to any of it! Redliner is a new offering, still in beta, [...]

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Minnesota Cup Semifinal Kickoff

23. June 2010

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Last night’s turnout at the James J. Hill Library for the Minnesota Cup Semifinalist kickoff was impressive and quite large for an event of its kind. In attendance were 125-140 entrepreneurs, investors, sponsors, MN Cup judges and those of us covering the event (Minnov8 and tech.mn) as well as the people who were the entire [...]

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OnCorps Reports: A MN Success Story

10. June 2010

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While running strategic alliances at Lawson Software back in 2005, I met a woman named Catherine Settanni who was actively involved in digital literacy and a true advocate for ensuring that as many people as possible had access to the internet. Her leadership in the AmeriCorps Community Techology Empowerment Project (C-CAN) and its focused community [...]

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Lost in Minneapolis Skyways? FrypanDigital Has Your Lifeline

9. June 2010

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FryPanDigital, a startup that intends to create “tasty apps” was founded by, “…two dudes who know nothing about application development, but wanted to try super hard to kick out an iPhone app.” These two have succeeded in “kicking out an app” and have released their new, free Minneapolis Skyway app for iPhone (their blog; iTunes link). [...]

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ReliaCloud Releases Partner Program

27. May 2010

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ReliaCloud, our own local (but national) cloud computing infrastructure company, has launched a full fledged channel program centered on their enterprise-class infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) cloud computing offering. According to Reliacloud, the five year growth outlook for IT cloud services revenue from 2009 to 2013 remains strong, with an annual growth rate of 26% – over six [...]

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Startups–Lean or Not–Beware Online Legal Forms

3. May 2010

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You can find anything online, including legal documents. But that doesn’t mean you should use them. Two local lawyers recently put LegalZoom and LawDepot, two popular online legal forms providers, to the test. LawDepot calls itself a “trusted, do-it-yourself legal” website. LegalZoom says “we put the law on your side,” and features favorable quotations from [...]

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