Minnov8

Showcasing Minnesota Technology Innovation

Archives for January 2010

Minnov8 Gang 64: “Less Talk, More Walk”

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In a post yesterday entitled, “Minnesota Startup Community: The Time Has Come For Less Talk and More Walk“, tech recruiter Paul DeBettignies (MNHeadhunter) wrote a rant about what’s wrong and right about efforts within Minnesota to connect us all. With over 30 tweets and 50 comments since last night — most of which had strong opinions and great ideas — Paul’s rant clearly hit a nerve. In today’s podcast we continue the conversation and try to come up with some ideas and answers as we explore this topic in more depth.

This Week’s Show Hosts: Steve Borsch, Tim Elliott, Graeme Thickins and Phil Wilson.
Music by DJ ERIC ILL and the tune is, “8mm – Stunning remix by DJ Eric Ill and Scott Orlans”.

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The Podcast

Podcast: Download (Duration: 1:10:10 — 40.7MB)

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Discussed during the show:

+ Minnesota angel investment tax credit
+ “Film board-like” commission (e.g., MN Film & TV)
+ MN Cup
+ Mobile March at: mobilemarchtc.com

Minnesota Startup Community: The Time Has Come For Less Talk and More Walk

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“I wonder what the conversations will be like a year from now.” This is a paraphrase of a statement Doug Pollei made at the recent MinneBar hosted by Best Buy, which he said to me at the end of a startup session led by Luke Francl.

I heard some folks say how they look forward to a year from now to look back and see what has been accomplished within our startup community. I did not take the comment that way.

Most days and in most ways I am an optimist — my glass is half full and usually running over. Want proof? I have been attending Gopher football games for 28 years. (Or, hmm…maybe that makes me something other than an optimist?)

During this particular session at MinneBar there were many thoughts on what could be done to support, make better, and grow our startup community.

I hate to be one the one to rain on the parade, but almost all of those things were suggested in May of 2008 at the last MinneBar, and very few if any have been acted upon, nor have any noticeable results been achieved.

Hence the title of this post: we need to stop talking and start walking.

(EDITOR’S NOTE: We welcome guest blogger Paul DeBettignies for this post.  Please tweet your questions to @Minnov8 now so we can answer them on our Minnov8 Gang podcast tomorrow,  on which Paul will be our guest.  Please add the hashtag #MNwalkthetalk.)…  [Read More…]

Stratasys Inks Deal with HP

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As a longtime fan of science fiction I have always had a fascination with future technology speculation and why I (and most fans) enjoyed Star Trek: The Next Generation. It was on that show that the replicator (first used on the original 1960’s series) began to deliver much more than food and drink: it could create any inanimate matter, as long as the desired molecular structure was on file in the computer.

Eden Prairie-based Stratasys, Inc. (Nasdaq: SSYS), the leading manufacturer of 3D printers and 3D production systems, announced this week that it has signed a definitive agreement with HP for Stratasys to manufacture an HP-branded 3D printer. Used by product designers and architects, Stratasys 3D printers create three-dimensional plastic models directly from 3D digital designs. Though 3D printing is by no means even close to a Star Trek-like replicator, the rapid prototyping capability, marked reductions in cycle times in design and innovation, coupled with the capability to manifest 3D computer aided designs (CAD) in to physical objects is poised for a global expansion that is likely to be quite dramatic.

Though this 3D printing category is in its early stages, Stratasys Chairman and CEO Scott Crump stated in the announcement that, “We believe the time is right for 3D printing to become mainstream. We also believe that HP’s unmatched sales and distribution capabilities and Stratasys FDM technology is the right combination to achieve broader 3D printer usage worldwide. HP has made a similar move in this market before, capturing a dominant position in large-format 2D printers. Together we hope to repeat this success with 3D printers.”

Why is this a particularly interesting category and what is the relevance for Minnov8? …  [Read More…]

Alvenda Bags $5 Million in VC

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Just as we headed into the weekend, day before yesterday, the anticipated news broke that formally identified the Minnesota firm that’s funding local ecommerce technology startup Alvenda.  I had been picking up rumblings of hiring in the suite of offices at 12th and Marquette that Alvenda shares with two other tech firms.  I guess we can now stop bitching about how Minnesota’s Internet and software startups never get any love from the VCs, huh? At least from our local VCs — because Eden Prairie-based Split Rock Partners was named as one of the investors, and I would assume led the round. The story first broke Friday afternoon locally in our weekly Business Journal, as a result of the SEC filing.  Split Rock has been quite active as of late.  According to its news page (where the Alvenda announcement does not appear as of this writing), this would be the firm’s third funding announcement so far in January, two of which are for Minnesota companies.
…  [Read More…]

Minnov8 Gang 63: A Conversation on Cloud Computing

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Talk about cloud computing is on the lips of people from startups to enterprise to the government, and Minnesota has a world-class thought leader right here in our midst. The Minnov8 Gang chatted with George Reese about his perspectives, books, upcoming events, and what he thinks about software-as-a-service, platform-as-a-service and how API’s fit in to this whole shebang.

Hosts: This Week’s Show Hosts: Steve Borsch, Tim Elliott, Graeme Thickins and Phil Wilson.
Music by Midnight Music Quartet and the tune is, “Sweet Lorraine”.

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The Podcast

Podcast: Download (Duration: 1:00:22 — 34.8MB)

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About George Reese (@GeorgeReese):  George Reese is the founder of two Minneapolis-based companies, enStratus Networks LLC (maker of high-end cloud infrastructure management tools) and Valtira LLC (maker of the Valtira Online Marketing Platform). Over the past 15 years, George has authored a number of technology books, including MySQL Pocket Reference, Database Programming with JDBC and Java, Java Database Best Practices, and Cloud Application Architectures.

Throughout the Internet era, George has spent his career building enterprise tools for developers and delivering solutions to the marketing domain. He was an influential force in the evolution of online gaming through the creation of a number of Open Source MUD libraries and he created the first JDBC driver in 1996—the Open Source mSQL-JDBC. Most recently, George has been involved in the development of systems to support the deployment of transactional web applications in the cloud.

George holds a BA in Philosophy from Bates College in Lewiston, Maine and an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management in Evanston, Illinois. He currently lives in Minnesota with his wife Monique and his daughters Kyra and Lindsey.

Discussed during the show notes:


Dave Does Digital: A Morning Show and Social Media

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How a Twin Cities morning mainstay, The Dave Ryan Show, is using social media.

M_17bd17ea33cc40d2a51c97ac424f4d5a I admit it, I listen to commercial radio quite a bit…yes, even Top 40. I know this is hard for many to admit. There is this pressure that if you don’t listen to NPR all the time you’re some how less of a person. I have my public radio favorites and still love to dig for new and more independent music, but I like hearing the “hits”. It’s the way I was brought up. Whether they be current or more from my formative years, I listen to rock, alternative, country and pop stations and the “hit” music they play. Besides, with a pre-teen and teen in the house and car it’s pretty much a given that I’ll be hearing my fair share of Jay-Z, Lady Gaga, and Taylor Swift.
It’s for that reason that I noted and was impressed with how one of Minneapolis’ local shows was using interactive and social media tools. What was also impressive was how they were integrating it into their on-air presentation. They often noted that more and sometimes exclusive content could be had online…a practice all too often avoided by stations and personalities.

As I have commented here on RemainComm, commercial radio as a whole has  been slow in adopting and investing in the new forms of media that allow the growth of relationships with their listeners. OK, some just plain suck at it. KDWB’s Dave Ryan Show is an exception. Dave and his cast have done some interesting things and I had a chance to chat with him about his interactive pursuits.

DRyan For better or for worse, Dave still looks at interactive as “free marketing”. For the radio business the price tag of free is the main appeal of social media. Dave noted, “You’re crazy if you’re not taking advantage of everything you can to reach your audience.” But to Dave’s credit he goes on to say, “Yeah, you want more listeners but you really do care…about the listeners and the content. It’s like having a booth at the State Fair.” A practice all Twin Cities stations take part in, whether it makes sense as a marketing tool or not. Dave also notes that what they do online is “an extension but it also keeps us relevant. It helps let the audience know that you have your fingers in all the cool stuff.” (More on his use of social media to listen further down the page.) Here’s a look at what they are doing. Some of it is obvious, some not, and some of it shows great foresight….  [Read More…]

Activ8: Event Management for Small Business

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Activ8 is a new Twin Cities-based event/class registration service targeted to the small business’ that has a limited (or no) no web presence but those who offer services in the areas of dance, karate, gymnastics, or fitness studios are perfect potential users as are individual instructors in fitness, music, yoga, or tutoring.

One of the great things about the internet is how it’s so perfectly geared to make the inefficient more efficient. The creator of Activ8, Marc Kermish, is an athlete who saw a lot of inefficiencies in event management with athletics service providers (and many others) and has delivered a web application that can dramatically simplify the entire event management process.

Activ8 enables the posting of any sort of event, class, or gathering that requires a participant to purchase a ticket. The event organizer can post their event, class or gathering, collect participant information and payments via credit card, and then communicate with their participants throughout their event planning process. Activ8 does not charge the event organizer for the use of its service but instead, takes a small fee from every participant transaction.

After I was initially contacted about Activ8, and knowing that the event management space is fairly crowded, I poked around the site and app to look for potential competitive advantages Marc might have and was pleased to have two which leapt out at me. …  [Read More…]

Your Customers are Watching You

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While many internet and web technology sites and blogs have published their 2010 predictions (including Minnov8), this post serves as a warning and a wake-up call to Minnesota companies that the power you once held — not just in communication, marketing and public relations surrounding your products, services and company — but that power is quickly shifting to your customers in new ways that you need to understand and strategically prepare for or suffer the consequences beginning now.

The acceleration in mobile internet use — and the devices exploding in number to access it — is enabling the masses to understand what you’re doing as an organization, comment to one another on your activities but (and perhaps most disturbingly to those of you with previously publicly unavailable or difficult to obtain data) it is enabling customers to examine your products, your company’s record on the environment, your labor practices (onshore and offshore) and much more.

How can your customers do that? …  [Read More…]

Minnov8 Gang 62: Our 2010 Predictions

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Predicting 2010 technology is always a crapshoot, but there are enough clear trends that we weigh in with our predictions for this upcoming year and cover these key categories: Mobile; the Apple tablet; Curation of content/self publishing; Cloud computing; and some wildass predictions about Minnesota tech in 2010.

This Week’s Show Hosts: Steve Borsch, Tim Elliott, Graeme Thickin, Phil Wilson and Julio Ojeda Zapata.

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The Podcast

Podcast: Download (Duration: 59:44 — 34.7MB)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS | More

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Discussed during the show:

Opening music by DanielReal2K and their song “Twilight” and closing music from 46Bliss and their song “8 O’Clock Train – PKP Express Remix”. Both from Music Alley, purveyor of podsafe tunes.