Minnov8

Showcasing Minnesota Technology Innovation

My Experience with the Minnesota R&D Tax Credit

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In 2011, as part of our tax filings for fiscal year 2010, we evaluated the federal and Minnesota R&D Tax Credit. In 2010 the State of Minnesota significantly enhanced the state R&D tax credit, effectively doubling the size of the credit while also providing coverage for more types of businesses, including S corps and LLC’s. We didn’t know what we were in for, but figured we’d give it a try.

Kathy Laney, who serves as the operations director at Arthur Ventures, recommended me to Scott Schmidt at Black Line Group. Black Line specializes in helping companies understand the qualification and procedural process to file for the R&D tax credit program, and calculates and documents the R&D tax credits being claimed. After a few phone calls and emails, we hired Black Line Group as our vendor for the filing.

The Pre-Filing Process
The first thing we accomplished was an internal audit of our research and development processes and resources. We took inventory of our R&D team, the work they had performed in research and development, and the amount of time spent working in areas that qualified under the definitions of R&D. This was in preparation for the 4-part tax credit test. We loaded all of this in a format for evaluation by Black Line Group.

Next, Black Line Group helped us by coordinating our documentation, the necessary filing paperwork, and the filing plan. This came back to us in the form of a well-organized filing book which could be used as a resource for audits. There were man-hours invested in getting prepared, but the offset was that it did help us with internal organization which benefited the company above and beyond the filing.

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Oracle Drinks Up Sun: MySQL Questions Remain…

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…Like is LAMP now LAMOP?

mysqlI’m personally aware of over 40 projects here in flyover country that are not only leveraging — but are wholly reliant on — MySQL. To make matters worse (and admittedly selfish on my part) our company uses MySQL across all our web properties. To see that megalith Oracle purchased Sun Microsystems today for $7.4 billion sent chills down my spine and left me with a nasty taste of cottonmouth.

Sure, there are a few of those Oracle fanboys out there that will say this deal means Java will get more technical attention than it’s been paid for years. Still, I liken this acquisition to a story I saw in a documentary called Flow: For the Love of Water. A segment in this movie shows corporate giant Nestle setting up a bottling plant in Michigan and stealing away millions of gallons of water from a stream running through that community, putting it in bottles, and then selling it back to local residents.

It no secret that I’m a capitalist, and that I believe that money is the root of all that is productive. My problem with what Nestle did is that they took what was already free and a universal right – clean and fresh water – and sold that under the auspices of having actually produced something. I too fear this will be the case with Oracle and MySQL.

MySQL has over 10 million installations around the world and it is the productive man’s database management system. MySQL occurs naturally and freely in nature. People take it and turn it into something meaningful. It was provided under GPL and its current form represents the untold contributions and real-world use cases of thousands and thousands of people. Now are we to expect Oracle to come, bottle it up, and sell it back to us?

This transaction only happened today, so I don’t want to be too quick to jump to conclusions. That said, you would sure think that a guy as smart as Larry Ellison would have made a community statement to appease me. I mean gosh, this guy has all the water he could ever dream of and now I find him standing over MY WATER holding a big-ass straw in his hand.

What do you think?

Just Eat It!

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justeatit-articleMinnesota innovation aficionados need look no further than the University of Minnesota campus.  A small group of students, lead by Parag Shah, are balancing curriculum with the hunger pangs to invent, create, and deploy.  The sum of their team is Mxapp LLC, a mobile marketing company that offers targeted, proximity-based advertising to restaurants, gastronomes, and the epicurious.

Their first application, known as LUNCHBOX, is in the process of being rolled off their platform.  LUNCHBOX offers the ability to view, rate and share menu items… all with the tap of a finger (among other features and benefits that are still confidential).  The application is designed to bridge the gap between restaurants and mobile consumers.  LUNCHBOX will inherit mobile ordering capabilities, thus eliminating the need for smartphone users to stand in line at a restaurant.

The Mxapp team visited my offices back several weeks ago and previously I’d worked with Geoff Dutton, one of the Mxapp partners. It comes as no surprise that these guys are poised to take a bite out of consumer migration to smartphones.  Rather than just slap some nifty app together, they have thoughtfully designed their launch for concurrent release on iPhone®, BlackBerry®, and Android®.  In addition, they have been out pounding the pavement — talking with both consumers and restaurateurs– to more intimately understand the needs of users.

Like so many innovators full of conviction but starving for resources, the Mxapp team is seeking to overcome constraints with a daily diet of courage.  Their marketing budget is relegated to word-of-mouth. So, if you want to know what’s good to eat in the neighborhood, open up your LUNCHBOX and find out.  Mxapp is hoping you’ll join their beta program today.

Technologists Fear Not, for Everything is GR8!

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gr8-surge-imageLook no further than the headlines to discover reasons to just give up.  The Today Show on NBC this morning hyped the question of whether or not we’re on the edge of another great depression.  Yesterday, the market tanked and brushed against its lowest levels since 1997.  By now, almost all of us know someone that has been laid off or otherwise negatively impacted in this economy.  But another Great Depression, really!?!

There’s nothing “great” about a depression and in fact there is no definition of a depression.  Economists are only able to assess whether a depression (might have) occurred after the fact, and it’s typically identified by negative 10% GDP over several quarters.  Instead of carrying needless worry about falling into a depression, let’s just assume we’re in one right now.  Let’s call it the GR8 Depression – my nod to us thumb-pecking mobile text’ers and web 2.0 aficionados.

O.K.  So now that we’re in the GR8 Depression, what does that mean?  The answer is resoundingly nothing!  We still have to get up early every morning, work hard, be productive, use our ingenuity, make miracles happen, go to bed, and repeat.  Let me be clear that cutting costs and scaling back is never a strategy…it’s a means to extend the way.  This is the GR8est time to be working on new technology because resource constraints drive resourcefulness and inventiveness.  Now is the time to take risks, because what is there really left to lose?  …  [Read More…]