In a 10-minute video interview I did with Robert while we were having coffee and rolls before the general session started Thursday morning, we covered a range of topics — including the recent announcement that Best Buy is acquiring managed services provider MindShift for $167 million. I also got a sneak preview of other topics Robert was going to talk about in his opening keynote:

All the videos I shot at Defrag 2011, including three other interviews, are posted on my YouTube channel.  In addition, I have a photo set of the Defrag event on Flickr (213 pix) that documents my view of the proceedings over the three days. In some of the photos, you’ll be able to pick out several Minnesotans who attended this 5th edition of Defrag.  Startups represented included AsystMe, enStratus (a sponsor), FanChatter, KidBlog, Rifr, TST Media, and Zingstring.

Here are those screenshots showing a selection the tweets during Robert Stephens’ keynote:

Robert Stephens Rocks the #DefragCon Crowd is a post from: Minnov8 and published under a Creative Commons license.

enStratus Secures Series A VC Investment is a post from: Minnov8 and published under a Creative Commons license.

Companies of all sizes are increasing choosing to have their IT systems hosted elsewhere on dedicated servers, or in private or hybrid clouds.  So, it’s not surprising to see new data centers popping up in out-state Minnesota. Several well established data center firms in the Twin Cities area have offered a variety of managed IT services and cloud services for years — including Atomic Data, Visi.com, ipHouse, and others — and these firms also serve many out-state customers. But there will always be companies that prefer working with data centers closer to their own locations.

Here’s the press release on the latest announcement from Vaultas:

Vaultas Announces Planned Data Center Expansion into the St. Cloud Market

Minneapolis, Minn.—Oct.31, 2011—Vaultas (www.vaultas.com), a premier provider of collaborative, vendor-neutral data center, collocation and BCDR (Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery) facilities in the Upper Midwest, today announced an expansion plan into the St. Cloud, Minnesota market. Vaultas continues its overall growth strategy, bringing a powerful suite of vendor-neutral collocation, data backup, data storage, cloud services and hosting to Central Minnesota. This follows the completion of the company’s most recent data center facility in Alexandria, Minnesota.

Securing organizations’ mission-critical data assets remains a top priority among CIOs, and recent trends in data center and collocation outsourcing, coupled with overall growth in cloud computing and hosting, demonstrates continued acceptance of data center virtualization technologies. In Forecast: Data Centers, Worldwide, 2010–2015, Gartner is forecasting steadily increasing growth in data storage as more organizations shift from in-house to outsourced facilities. Data loss from either human error or a disaster can be disastrous to any business and is increasingly critical given that 93 percent or firms never recover from such a loss.

Vaultas develops, owns, and operates IT data centers and business continuity and disaster recovery complexes that provide customers with secure, strategically located, private, and semiprivate data center solutions that meet even the most stringent strategic and technical requirements. Vaultas’ vendor-neutral environments reduce TCO (total cost of ownership) for clients through effective use of infrastructure, energy conservation, vendor collaboration, network consolidation and strategic partnering.

“Our expansion into the St. Cloud market is a key milestone for Vaultas, expanding our footprint in Central Minnesota and further empowering our customers with flexible data center and cloud computing solutions that scale to meet their requirements,” said Vaultas President John Unger. “Our mission is to bring the St. Cloud business community collaborative, affordable security solutions to defend their data and ease operating expenses.  At Vaultas, we deliver best-in-class services for primary data center and collocation, website, and business application hosting; ultra-high-speed bandwidth, data backup, and recovery solutions.”

Note: Vaultas was on-site today to meet the local business community at the St. Cloud Chamber Technology and Education Conference, offering free data center and networking consultation to attendees.

Cloud Providers Spread Their Reach Across Minnesota is a post from: Minnov8 and published under a Creative Commons license.

Our pals at Workface have rolled out yet another great innovation: their chat platform now boasts an integration with Facebook that ensures that your Facebook Page is connected directly with those in your company you want customers and prospects to have access to in an instant. (disclosure: Workface was a client of my Innov8Press group).

One of the keys to Facebook engagement with customers is being there for them. Since the social media “community management” discipline is typically focused on watching, listening and waiting for a customer to post, send a tweet or otherwise go out of their way to connect, often prospects and customers don’t take the time to reach out. Since the Workface platform is embedded directly in your Facebook Page and with one click the engagement happens.

Take a look at the press release below and, especially, the companies who have already jumped on this platform to ensure they receive meaningful results from their Facebook efforts. 

SOFTWARE DEVELOPER WORKFACE BESTS CHAT PLATFORMS

FOR ONLINE ENGAGEMENT AGAIN WITH FIRST-EVER FACEBOOK INTEGRATION

Technology places field sales and services personnel across the Facebook ecosystem where customers spend time online; for new business potential through largest social media channel

 Minneapolis—Nov. 1, 2011—Workface^® Inc., (www.workface.com) a pioneer in online customer-interaction technology continues to raise the bar on online customer-engagement experiences with integration of its portable profile-based customer-engagement platform into the Facebook ecosystem. The only online company with the ability to integrate with Facebook,Workface enables companies to live “virtually” where their prospects and customers are, elevating the online engagement and driving new business through the world’s largest social media platform.

“Companies want to be ‘liked’ on Facebook, but the real issue is how does that develop meaningful relationships with prospects and, more importantly, generate leads,” said Lief Larson, president and product strategist, Workface, Inc. “Workface’s portable Profiles uniquely mobilize field sales and service teams across Facebook to engage at the moment of interest with online prospects, providing an experience that most closely replicates a face-to-face meeting—literally bringing a company’s social media presence to life.”

Integrated into a company’s Facebook page, Workface profiles enable prospects and customers to connect and converse with sales and service representatives while remaining within the confines of the social network. The ability to engage with customers in this manner creates opportunities that traditional online chat solutions are unable to cultivate and nurture.

Unlike online chat solutions, Workface literally gives a “face” to a company and its representatives, and empowers customers and prospects to find and select the right sales or customer service person on their terms. Through Workface, customers can quickly and easily interact with companies in a manner and at a time when they are interested and engaged.

Early customers of Workface using the Facebook application include: Atomic Data Centers, The Foundation, NE Minneapolis Homes, Red Ribbon Realtors, Titan Outlet Store and Travel Leaders of Fargo.

“In Facebook, you can chat with individuals who are your friends, but you can’t chat with a company,” explained Larson. “With Workface in Facebook, prospects can select an individual from an organization and engage in a conversation without having to make the commitment of ‘liking’ them. The added bonus is that the prospect can learn about the background and expertise of the company rep they’re interfacing with in a way that’s much more personal and rewarding than traditional, faceless online chat.”

In addition to the virtual interaction with customers, Workface integration enables Facebook users to share and refer sales and service personnel profiles with among their personal networks. Unlike static Facebook posts, a referral using Workface embeds the sales or service representative’s profile onto the individual’s wall without losing the functionality of the online customer-interaction technology.

Ideally suited for companies with field sales and service organizations/agents that rely on personal interaction to sell and support products and/or services, the Workface platform improves how they react and interact with online customers and prospects that prefer online communication but are turned off by the impersonal nature of most online communications experiences like chat.

About Workface (www.workface.com)

Workface Inc., headquartered in Minneapolis, Minn., is a pioneer in developing online customer-interaction technologies that humanize the Web. The company’s first-of-its-kind product, the Customer-Engagement Platform (CEP), enables organizations to mobilize their field sales and service teams throughout the Web, and to replace the impersonal, dehumanizing, and frustrating interactions of legacy chat platforms.

Workface puts customers or prospects in control of the interaction by letting them choose whom they want to interact with, in what manner, and in which web venue. It uses groundbreaking interactive, searchable, and portable content web-containers called “profiles” (the “Workface”) that are personalized by individuals to help online customers and prospects at the moment of need. These profiles can reside anywhere on the Web, so they can be placed anywhere someone might go on the Web to look for help or ask questions, including being available on company websites, search engines, high-traffic websites, and social media.

More than 75,000 professionals in over 2,500 different companies are now using Workface technology.

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Workface Integrates Real-Time Engagement with Facebook is a post from: Minnov8 and published under a Creative Commons license.

And it did prove to be a better bet for me, and for several of the folks I did said schmoozing with.  Wow, there were so many great conversations and introductions brokered, my head was spinning. Or was that the beer? No matter, a good tech time was had by all.  And you can read all about those startups that pitched in the auditorium here. A brief stop at the after-party (on the outdoor patio on the second-floor of nearby Brit’s Pub) put a nice capper for me on a very pleasant — warm! — evening, blabbing with so many of the key players in our awesome Minnesota startup community.  Thank you, Minnedemo organizers and sponsors, for another great get-together!

#Minnedemo Turns Up the Heat in Downtown Minneapolis is a post from: Minnov8 and published under a Creative Commons license.

It turns out, of the 10 startups that were selected to present at the event, none even comes close to the level of adoption these guys have achieved to date, which they announced at the in their presentation at #EduTechMN: 1,000,000 students using the platform, in more than 80,000 classrooms. And all that from a startup that began as just a sideline for Matt to use in his own classroom!

Here’s my interview:

The founders describe their creation this way:  Kidblog is a platform that provides students with an authentic, engaging, and interactive learning experience. It’s designed for elementary and middle school teachers who want to provide each student with his or her own, unique blog. It has simple but powerful tools that allow students to publish posts and participate in discussions within a secure classroom blogging community. Teachers maintain complete control over their students’ blogs. And a teacher can set up a class with no student email addresses. 

Matt likes to say it’s “built by a teacher, for teachers, so students can get the most out of the blogging process.” He also points out that teachers who’ve tried other blogging platforms (perhaps with limited success), such as Blogger, Edublogs, or WordPress.com, “will notice the Kidblog difference immediately.”

Best of luck to this emerging, homegrown Minnesota edutech company!

[This post first appeared yesterday on Tech~Surf~Blog.]

Minnesota EduTech Startup KidBlog Now Reaching One Million Users is a post from: Minnov8 and published under a Creative Commons license.

I’ve been *so* wanting these folks to come to our town, and was delighted to represent Minnov8 at the event, along with my colleague Steve Borsch.  Tech Cocktail’s events have the stated purpose of “helping connect, amplify, and showcase the local technology scene” — and it’s now held such events in more than 20 cities, founder Frank Gruber told me.  The local sponsors who made this one happen were W3i and Ovative Group — kudos to them! (And a special shout-out to our friend Kim Garretson.)

Tech Cocktail Mixes It Up In Minneapolis is a post from: Minnov8 and published under a Creative Commons license.

This interconnectivity creates an instant conduit for information, which allows businesses to rapidly share updated product images, descriptions, customer specific pricing, purchase order details, and more all in a secured environment. Perhaps more interestingly, these small and midsized businesses can easily exchange messages and fully engage in purchase order and invoice transactions between businesses, without EDI.

The three-member team behind Rocware brings a unique combination of personal experience running product-based businesses, the vision and technical expertise to build a novel solution, and the business knowledge necessary to bring this solution to market. Together their talents represent a complimentary skillset at Rocware. 

John Erck founded and ran a toy company called Extreme Bubbles in 2005. He then spent two years in IT Solutions at Cargill. Today, John is fully dedicated to his new venture Rocware. His brother James Erck, who is also a serial entrepreneur, started and ran a screen printing company called MPLS Ink in 2007, before cofounding Rocware. The last founder is their sister, Sarah Erck Welle. Prior to cofounding Rocware, Sarah worked in database strategy at Microsoft for four years, and then worked as the Director of Business Development at a business intelligence consultancy. All three siblings graduated from the University of Minnesota.

By delivering this solution with SaaS, Rocware is inherently providing many of the benefits associated with this technology, such as a lowered cost of ownership, availability, and accessibility. They have not only leveraged this technology, in the case of transforming viral tendencies into B2B relationships, but they have also built a scalable technology infrastructure to support it. The open source solution stack LAMP resides at the foundation, which provides a necessary relational data management structure for the data. This sits on top of a cloud-based hosting solution designed to handle both present and growing volumes of product data.

Through this enhanced B2B service platform, which now accommodates such a large spectrum of small and medium manufacturers, distributors, wholesalers, and sales representatives, Rocware is poised to scale.

Scalable B2B Platform through Rocware is a post from: Minnov8 and published under a Creative Commons license.

One he made certain to focus on is a new Minnesota-based offering that includes a guy who also gave us a heads-up on their DEMO debut: serial entrepreneur, Alex Huff, who is with this new Minneapolis headquartered startup as Chief Technology Officer. Me&MyMoney launched this week at DEMO and it promises to let you live the life you want and have money left over.

As many of us know when it comes to launching a startup, timing is everything. Borne in a time of incredible global economic flux and uncertainty, Me&MyMoney is certain to get attention, especially when the U.S. Census Bureau releases data like this that, “…in 2010, median household income declined, the poverty rate increased and the percentage without health insurance coverage was not statistically different from the previous year.”

Alongside that historical data is an ongoing bleak jobs outlook, fears of a double-dip recession and deep concerns about the future of Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. As such, there is NO question that the masses are ready for a tool they can use to get a handle on where they are financially, where they’re headed, how to get out (and stay out) of debt, and to ensure they have money around in their old age (even more important now that we’re all living longer as well). Me&MyMoney couldn’t ask for more perfect timing, but there’s no question getting the word out and building buzz will be the key to adoption and gaining traction with the millions of potential users for their web application.

In their press release they succinctly lay out their value proposition which is, “Me&MyMoney is not another budgeting tool – it is a transformational approach to forecast where your money and your life are going. It uses diverse data sources, proprietary algorithms, and an easy-to-use web application to give members real, instant insight into their money. Those insights will allow them to create, understand, and execute a projection of their money throughout their lifetime.”

Read the full release after the jump (click “more…”) and then check ‘em out…

Me&MyMoney Debuts at DEMO Fall 2011 Conference

Minnesota-based startup enables people to take control of their money and their future

Santa Clara, California, September 13, 2011 – Six of every 10 Americans are on course to outlive their money – and the rest need to make sure they don’t. Me&MyMoney™ is an innovative web-based program that will enable its members to live the life they want – and have money left over. The Minneapolis-based company unveiled its revolutionary program at the DEMO Fall 2011 Conference today.

“I’ve worked for more than 30 years in financial services and can tell you that, unless you have substantial assets, ‘services’ is a misnomer,” said Mike Kozlak, CEO and founder of Me&MyMoney. “Most of the 40 million households that make up the working backbone of America do not have substantial assets. Unless there is a financial product to be sold, most institutions just don’t care about those consumer’s outcomes.”

Me&MyMoney (www.meandmymoney.com) is not another budgeting tool – it is a transformational approach to forecast where your money and your life are going. It uses diverse data sources, proprietary algorithms, and an easy-to-use web application to give members real, instant insight into their money. Those insights will allow them to create, understand, and execute a projection of their money throughout their lifetime.

As a member of the Me&MyMoney community, members will be able to share advice and assistance with other members. The community is built on its own microsite platform developed by LoudClick, Inc.(www.loudclick.net).

Kozlak is passionate about giving all Americans access to the tools they need to be successful. “The last 10 years have had a devastating effect on Americans’ confidence in their financial future,” he said. “Me&MyMoney differs from other online financial websites in that we help our customers look to the future, as well as their present situation. Unlike other companies, we are not trying to help our customers become better bookkeepers, but to help them make better decisions about their money.”

“We’re excited that Me&MyMoney chose our conference to launch their groundbreaking approach to the way we think about money,” said Matt Marshall, executive producer, DEMO. “The technology and concept behind this type of forecasting for personal finance is really exciting to see. It’s different from anything else out there.”

Members will see a graphical representation of their current reality, explore the future money impact of additional actions called “Sims” (simulations) and create their own plan based on strategies they choose.  All of this will be done on their secure Me&MyMoney microsite. Members can decide to fill out simple worksheets, or allow Me&MyMoney to securely access bank and investment accounts for additional insight.

The beta version of the Me&MyMoney application will be released in Fall 2011. Sign up atwww.meandmymoney.com to be one of the first to be invited to try this groundbreaking program. Welcome to the revolution.

Contact: Erin Anzalone
(952) 829-9091
erin@storytellermn.com

About Me&MyMoney
Me&MyMoney (www.meandmymoney.com) is a Minneapolis-based company founded in 2010. Its goal is to provide the majority of Americans the insight they need to become confident about their financial future. The web-based program uses a unique and secure micro-site platform, diverse data sources and proprietary algorithms to enable members to take control of their financial futures. Me&MyMoney wants members to be the CEOs of their lives – not the head bookkeepers.  Join the revolution on Facebook atwww.facebook.com/meandmymoney and on Twitter at www.twitter.com/meandmymoney.

About DEMO
Produced by the IDG Enterprise events group, the worldwide DEMO conferences focus on emerging technologies and new products innovations, which are hand selected from across the spectrum of the technology marketplace. The DEMO conferences have earned their reputation for consistently identifying cutting-edge technologies and helping entrepreneurs secure venture funding and establish critical business.  For more information about the DEMO conferences, visit www.demo.com.

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DEMO: Me & My Money is a post from: Minnov8 and published under a Creative Commons license.

QONQR is the first in a line of geosocial games from the Minnesota-based company of the same name. The six QONQR team-members have been working together for years. In addition to being friends, and passionate gamers, they are experienced designers, deelopers, and entrepreneurs.

I interview Justin Peck and Andy Pickett from QONQR, the Minnesota Cup competition High Tech Division Runner-Up, at the final awards event on September 8th:

Interview of startup QONQR (MN Cup Runner-Up, High Tech Division) is a post from: Minnov8 and published under a Creative Commons license.

Their startup coincides with a rising trend in game play and specifically an explosion in online games. Further, promotional forces like Dr. Jane McGonigal, an influential author and occasionally controversial visionary from U.C. Berkley believes that games can solve real-world problems through increasing the amount of time spent playing games to 21 billion hours per week by 2020. There is little doubt that gaming will continue to be an extremely important global activity.

The introduction of platforms like the Nintendo Wii, the Apple iPad, and the Sifteo Cubes has opened up a variety of new options for games. The social-gaming company Zynga has been steadily building innovative games delivered over social networking platforms like Facebook. The MIT Technology Review reported last week that Zynga is planning to produce a drastically more complex, strategic, and socially interactive gave than ever before. In a TechCrunch article last year, it was estimated that half of all Facebook users play games and that 40% of the time spent on Facebook is devoted to social games like those developed by Zynga. Clearly, there is an extensive amount of activity and data being generated through these evolving social interactions in massively multiplayer online games (MMO). 

The founders of Ninja Metrics have designed a technology platform, called the Katana Engine, to understand players’ behaviors in these new online communities. This platform provides a dashboard to help users understand patterns and predictive information which is computationally generated behind the scenes of the system. Dr. Williams describes this business as “providing analytics in social spaces, with both monitoring and predictive work.” These analytics, which consist of both proprietary algorithms and standard methods, are initially being applied to game data generated by players and collected by developers.

The Katana Engine enables analysis about what gamers did in-game, providing key insights into game mechanics.

This product is largely based on collaborative interdisciplinary research from the areas of social science and computer science. Specifically, social science theories have been meshed with advanced methods from artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning to assist in accurately predicting human behavior in this system. Dr. Williams goes on to describe a particular competitive advantage from their research which has been baked into the product. He said, “Our primary innovation is an algorithm that can measure social influence within friendship groups. Whereas many companies know how to take advantage of social network research and report who is most connected or central, we can provide who influences whom, and to what extent.” Determining these social influences provides insight into value characteristics of players or actors in the network.

These benefits can extend outside the context of social gaming to industries like telecommunications, retail, and healthcare. While this team’s initial focus is MMO or casual game analysis, which applies to thousands of titles in an exploding online space, their platform is suitable for anyone with large-scale data where people interact. Walmart beefed up its online presence through sophisticated social identity analysis with the purchase of Kosmix to form the entity @WalmartLabs. There is a compelling case for Minnesota-based Target, which recently brought its online stores control back in-house from Amazon, to pursue similar strategies.

Ninja Metrics is utilizing social analytics to help make sense of human behavior, whether it is through game interactions or mountains of data from established industries. Their research-oriented methods, partnerships with universities and overall passion in this space are all a function of innovation for this Minnesota company. 21 billion hours per week of game-play by 2020? We’ll have to see.

Predicting Human Behavior through Games is a post from: Minnov8 and published under a Creative Commons license.

TST Media CEO and co-founder, Justin Kaufenberg noted the fundraising as “transformational”. He notes that “To a degree, prior growth has been consciously checked in favor of reinvesting in our technology core…that patience and focus has set the stage for us to efficiently deploy these proceeds and exponentially enhance a proven platform and business strategy” In plain speak…TST has got plenty of fuel to power growth to the next level.

That point is further driven home as Kaufenberg commented on El Dorado Ventures. “As a venture partner, El Dorado brings an impressive track record of successfully aiding and nurturing the rapid growth of innovative technology companies.” With TST boasting 100% growth over the past three years and some 200 clients in 50 states and six different countries, Jeff Hinck of El Dorado was happy to note, ”In TST Media, we found a company with a best-in-class technology platform. Unlike other players in the space, their NGIN platform has been architected for extendibility and growth.”

Also providing fuel for the local job market, TST Media will be adding more than 20 new positions this year including Software Engineers, UI/UX Designers, Development Operations, Project Managers, Technical Support and Sales.

Local start-up growth, more jobs, a growing platform. Light this candle!

More Fuel for NGIN is a post from: Minnov8 and published under a Creative Commons license.

Neandertal man image created from a discovered skull

If you’ve paid any attention to the acceleration in human and animal genomics research, the revelations and scientific discoveries are amazing. As someone who has had his DNA analyzed at 23andMe (whose co-founder Anne Wojcicki is married to Google co-founder Sergey Brin), I can tell you first-hand about the absolutely delightful discoveries I’ve made about my own DNA, its implications, how I’m connected geographically to other humans, and that it’s unlikely I’ll ever run a 4 minute mile (that last one is just my conjecture!).

Lynn Fellman

The most recent profound discovery was the identification of Neandertal DNA in modern humans! From reading the articles which have come out this month, it appears that modern humans heading out of Africa “co-mingled” with Neandertals in Eurasia and now humans with “1-4%” Neandertal DNA have been identified.

Fortunately we have an independent artist bridging science and the humanities through art and narrative right here in our midst in Minneapolis, Lynn Fellman, who does a beautiful job communicating what has taken place and its implications.

Give it a view and then head on over to her website. Sometimes the science of DNA can get pretty esoteric and boring. Having someone like Lynn—a woman who is steeped in the science but can see and interpret the beauty within it—deliver some of THE most beautiful interpretations of any science-related discipline I’ve ever been interested in is incredibly pleasing and useful. What I didn’t realize, until I saw this video, is how effectively (and beautifully with her own visuals) she can communicate an incredibly complex topic.

(As an aside, NPR’s Science Friday host, Ira Flatow, is a big fan of Lynn’s work and she’s been on the show. You can check one out in her “Stories/Podcasts” section of her website here).

The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) commissioned Lynn to develop this presentation for their AAAS Member Central web site:

At the Crossroads Neandertals Hooked Up With Us is a post from: Minnov8 and published under a Creative Commons license.

The Gang has used Workface’ profiles since the beginning and have watched this startup closely as they’ve continued to execute on their vision.

From their press release:

More than 75,000 professionals and over 2,500 different companies are now using Workface technology to enable their sales and customer service staffs to engage with prospects and customers online and in real time.

“Our ‘profile’ technology helps companies shorten sales cycles, connect with prospects at the moment of interest, and increase the level of engagement and intimacy with customers,” said Lief Larson, Workface founder and CEO. “This new round of capital will help us grow revenue from existing customers, add new customers and focus on several key platform enhancements.”

Congrats Lief and crew! See the full press release below…

WORKFACE LANDS ROUND OF VENTURE CAPITAL,
EXPANDS ON EFFORTS TO HUMANIZE INTERNET COMMERCE
Series A-1 financing brings total funds raised to more than $2.5 million to date

Minneapolis, July 26, 2011—Workface®, a pioneer in innovative online customer-interaction technology that helps companies market, sell and support their products and services, today announced it has raised more than $900,000 in new financing. Participating investors in the Series A-1 financing include Arthur Ventures and Omphalos Ventures.

Since its incorporation in 2007, Workface has raised over $2.5 million from its founders, private equity funds, angel investors and venture capital.

More than 75,000 professionals and over 2,500 different companies are now using Workface technology to enable their sales and customer service staffs to engage with prospects and customers online and in real time.

“Our ‘profile’ technology helps companies shorten sales cycles, connect with prospects at the moment of interest, and increase the level of engagement and intimacy with customers,” said Lief Larson, Workface founder and CEO. “This new round of capital will help us grow revenue from existing customers, add new customers and focus on several key platform enhancements.”

In 2007, Workface first launched its customer-engagement technology, one of the first examples how the Web can be used to interface with customers in real time. Sales staff and other customer-facing professionals create a Workface web profile that is readily visible and accessible by potential customers.

Through search engines, social media networks, rich social ads and corporate websites, prospects find these interactive profiles. Here, they can engage in a live text, audio and video chat with sales and service staff. Companies that want to promote their products and services outfit their sales staff with Workface profiles because a meaningful online interaction is more likely to lead to a face-to-face sales meeting.

About Workface
Workface Inc., headquartered in Minneapolis, Minn., is a technology company that helps other companies market their products and services by promoting their employees’ expertise and helping their staff engage with prospects online and in real time. Its customer-engagement platform enables sales and service professionals to create interactive profiles wherein they can chat with sales prospects and move them to the next stage in the buying process. More than 75,000 professionals in over 2,500 different companies are now using Workface technology.

About Arthur Ventures
Arthur Ventures is a venture capital fund that seeks investment opportunities in seed and early stage technology companies in the upper midwest region. The firm was co-founded by Doug Burgum, former senior VP of Microsoft Business Solutions and CEO of Great Plains Software. For more information, go to www.arthurventures.com.

About Omphalos Venture Partners
Omphalos Venture Partners works with founders and entrepreneurial management teams who aspire to achieve excellence. The firm is actively seeking investment opportunities in privately held, U.S.-based, early stage consumer, health care and information technology companies. For more information, visit www.omphalosventures.com.

Workface Lands $900k in Venture Capital is a post from: Minnov8 and published under a Creative Commons license.

After an opening reception in the atrium, a series of speakers and presentations followed in an adjoining auditorium. The main focus of these talks was to inform and instruct the 47 semifinalist teams (across six categories, called “divisions”) about how they can best prepare for the ongoing judging.  That includes the opportunity for each these startups to work with their choice of “Mentors” chosen by the Minnesota Cup and the Carlson School (a major sponsor).  A list of 47 such mentors, with their bios, was handed out, and John Stavig of the Carlson School is coordinating the choice of mentors by the semifinalists.  Most all the mentors are graduates of the U of M, the majority with degrees from the Carlson School, and they represent a wealth of business-building experience.

What’s next for the Minnesota Cup semifinalists?  Here’s what we learned last evening about the upcoming schedule:

• Each semifinalist submits a 20-page business plan by midnight July 22nd.

• The division finalists are announced on August 19th

• The division finalists present and winners are selected on Augusts 30th

• The division winners present to the Grand Prize Review Board the afternoon of September 8th

• The Minnesota Cup awards event is held the evening of September 8th at the U’s McNamara Alumni Center

Congratulations and good luck to all the semifinalists! And thanks to the many sponsors and partners of the Minnesota Cup, as well as to Scott and his cofounder, Dan Mallin, for helping another great crop of our state’s startups go through their excellent program.  I really believe all the entrants (1000+ this year) are winners, because they get an opportunity to learn so much from the process. Go, Minnesota startups!

Minnesota Cup Honors ‘High Quality’ Crop of Semifinalists is a post from: Minnov8 and published under a Creative Commons license.

If you don’t know Project Skyway, it is, “…Minnesota’s first tech accelerator program for motivated entrepreneurs. The program will build connections among entrepreneurs, mentors, investors, and other innovation hubs, and bring them together both online and in physical space. The vision places emphasis on building companies with long-term, sustainable value, ethical practices, mentorship, and strong networks.”

The Project Skyway founder, Cem Erdem, set up this weekend adventure to enable startups to be involved in multiple sessions and venues for learning, honing their value propositions, and learning from one another. Clearly it also would provide investors with those value propositions ready to grow and would separate the “separate the wheat from the chaff“.

I met all the finalists invited in for the weekend and many of them blew me away with the maturity of their vision and beginnings of executing on their value proposition. As a “judge”, I was asked to rank the top ten and it was probably the toughest force ranking I’ve done yet. Too many good ones!

If you have any doubt or concern that innovation is dead in this time of economic uncertainty, a few hours with this group of folks would wipe that right out of your mind.

Project Skyway Boot-Camp Weekend…Wow! is a post from: Minnov8 and published under a Creative Commons license.

These semi-finalists were selected and announced this morning out of more than 1,000 aspiring entrepreneurs who participated in the 2011 competition. Judging the first round entries was challenging as the overall quality of entries was excellent. 47 of the best and most innovative business ideas will now compete in the second round of the contest. Congratulations to all semi-finalists and good luck in the next round of the competition!

More than 1,000 aspiring entrepreneurs participated and 47 (plus 4 finalists from the Social Entrepreneur division) of the best and most innovative business ideas will now compete in the second round of the contest. Congratulations to all semifinalists and good luck in the next round of the competition!

High Tech Division

The full press release is after the jump…

2011 Minnesota Cup Semi-finalist News Release

NEARLY 50 SEMI-FINALISTS CHOSEN IN SEVENTH ANNUAL MINNESOTA CUP COMPETITION

Local enterprises continue to get behind statewide search for breakthrough business ideas
Competition eclipses 1,000 participants vying for more than $185,000 in seed capital and valuable professional services

MINNEAPOLIS – June 13, 2011 – A high-tech interactive geo-social game that allows players to virtually conquer real world locations. A health-conscious honey product made without the help of bees. A virtual exchange that connects buyers and sellers of biologic products such as blood. These are among the 47 semi-finalists who were today named in the seventh annual Minnesota Cup, a statewide contest supported by a growing number of local corporations to seek out Minnesota’s newest and most innovative business ideas. Visit www.minnesotacup.org for the complete list of semi-finalists.

The contest began accepting breakthrough business ideas in late March 2011. When the entry period closed, more than 1,000 aspiring entrepreneurs, inventors, small businesses and other individuals with potentially breakthrough ideas had participated; 47 of these business ideas will now compete in the second round of the contest.

“In our seventh year, it’s exciting to see the Minnesota Cup continuing to gain momentum in our community,” said Scott Litman, co-founder of the Minnesota Cup. “As a testament to this momentum, leading Minnesota companies continue to get behind the competition and this year we are extremely pleased to welcome Carlson, General Mills and Digital River as the newest lead partners.”

One significant benefit semi-finalists receive in the Minnesota Cup is exposure to a review board comprised of nearly 50 prominent investors, successful entrepreneurs and other leaders in the Minnesota business community. Semi-finalists are also paired with mentors who assist the semi-finalists as they write their business plans. “Connections like these are invaluable to aspiring entrepreneurs,” adds Litman.

The 2011 semi-finalists will be honored with a reception at the University of Minnesota’s Carlson School of Management on Tuesday, June 21 from 5:00 – 7:30 p.m. Joining the 47 semi-finalist teams will be contest organizers, including co-chairpersons Scott Litman and Dan Mallin, review board members, sponsors and supporters as well as past Minnesota Cup finalists and winners.

During the next phase of the competition – June 21 through July 22 – the semi-finalists will be asked to refine their business plans. During this time period and into August, semi-finalists will have opportunities to attend a number of workshops and events organized by Minnesota Cup supporters in an effort to help them further develop their business plans.

Sponsored events include:

• June 12: Fredrikson & Byron, BioBusiness Alliance of MN and The Consulate General of Canada’s Minneapolis office host an event for Clean Tech and BioScience semi-finalists, providing an opportunity to pitch their ideas to an experienced group of professionals.
• July 29: Gray Plant Mooty and Lurie Besikof host a panel discussing competition strategy and give veteran advice to all semi-finalists.
• August 10: Messerli & Kramer hosts an event for all semi-finalists featuring notable local investors and business advisors, who will give valuable advice on how to approach finances during the early stages of business.

After July 22, the review boards will narrow the field to three finalists in each of the five divisions – High Tech, BioSciences, Clean Technology & Renewable Energy, Student and General. One finalist from each division will be awarded the top prize of $25,000 ($10,000 for the Student division winner). New in 2011, capital from new sponsors allows the Minnesota Cup to add a $5,000 cash award for the second place finalist in each division.

The competition’s sixth division, Social Entrepreneur, is managed by Social Venture Partners Minnesota(SVPMN). Given a new partnership between SVPMN and The Mosaic Company, the Minnesota Cup’s Social Division competition is now known as the Mosaic Social Entrepreneurs Cup. The Mosaic Social Entrepreneurs Cup selected four finalists in mid-May: Mind Body Solutions, GiveMN, HourCar andDesignWise Medical. These finalists will present at EPCON: The Engaged Philanthropy Conference on June 16 where the audience will choose the winner. The winner goes on to compete against the other five Minnesota Cup division winners for the grand prize of $25,000 and the Minnesota Cup, presented by Dave and Carolyn Cleveland. The grand prize winner will be named at the 2011 Minnesota Cup awards event on September 8 at the McNamara Alumni Center.

By the numbers

• $185,000 in prize money
• $30 million+ capital raised by ’09 and ’10 finalists alone
• 6,000+ participants in the first seven years

About the Minnesota Cup
The 7th annual Minnesota Cup is a statewide competition that seeks out inspiring entrepreneurs with the next breakthrough idea. High-tech or no-tech, this competition brings together innovative business ideas from a wide range of industries including automotive, health care services, telecommunications, technology, leisure, outdoor recreation, energy conservation, education and many others. Contest judges select the top entrants – 8-10 from each division – to participate in the semi-final round of competition, from which judges will determine the top three finalists in each division. Each finalist will then present their ideas to a prestigious panel of executives, investors and notable entrepreneurs who will choose this year’s division winners and award them $25,000 – with the exception of the student division ($10,000) and the Mosaic Social Entrepreneur Cup winner ($20,000). The winner from each division, including the social division, will then compete for the grand prize of an additional $25,000 on Sept. 8, 2011, at the 7th Annual Minnesota Cup awards event at the University of Minnesota McNamara Alumni Center.

Key Minnesota Cup Web Links
• Minnesota Cup General Information
• Minnesota Cup Judging Process
• Minnesota Cup Review Board
• Minnesota Cup Sponsors and Supporters

Stay Connected with the Minnesota Cup
• Minnesota Cup Email Notification List
• Minnesota Cup Twitter Feed
• Minnesota Cup on Facebook

CONTACT
Jessica Snell
Haberman
612.372.6452
jessica@habermainc.com

Tags
Minnesota Cup, business competitions, business plans, business plan assistance, small business tools, entrepreneur resources, job growth, innovative business ideas, University of Minnesota, Wells Fargo, State of Minnesota, Carlson, General Mills, Scott Litman, Digital River

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Minnesota Cup Semi-Finalists Announced is a post from: Minnov8 and published under a Creative Commons license.

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.

The key value proposition of Hyier is that it provides:

• A secure environment for both companies and respondent data to be held in confidence
• An ability for organizations to have a consistency in evaluations. Since each candidate is asked the same set of questions and has the same amount of time to respond, a hiring manager or HR evaluator can quickly size up a candidate and compare them with consistency
• Since organizations typically have multiple people involved in cutting down a volume of applicants to a manageable few, Hyier enables evaluators to rate, tag and forward candidate videos to approved others within their company.

When asked how the idea behind Hyier became an actual company, Derek responded by telling me the story. He’d graduated from University of St. Thomas’ entrepreneurship program and, like so many college graduates today, couldn’t get any interviews AND those he did get wouldn’t get back to him. Since he’d created the idea behind Hyier for his senior project (and won the class competition) he decided to take it out in to the marketplace and make the idea a reality.

There is no question that in today’s environment—high unemployment; few companies yet to begin hiring in earnest; an accelerating virtual workforce; coupled with a technological infrastructure where a Hyier could succeed—the timing is very good and as we all know in the tech game…timing is everything!

Whether Hyier will be able to convince enough companies to leverage their application remains to be seen. But it’s the right idea at the right time and Derek has the vision to make it succeed.

Hiring with Hyier is a post from: Minnov8 and published under a Creative Commons license.

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.

Minnesota Cup Deadline Fast Approaching is a post from: Minnov8 and published under a Creative Commons license.

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.

CoCo Expanding to Minneapolis is a post from: Minnov8 and published under a Creative Commons license.