(left to right): From Taylor Corporation: Glen Taylor, Chairman, CEO; Debra Taylor; Becky Taylor, spouse
of Glen Taylor; Björn Stansvik, Founder & CEO, MentorMate (photo courtesy MentorMate)

MentorMate, a Minneapolis-based technology consulting and development organization, has just been acquired by Mankato-based Taylor Corporation, a diversified company with 80 subsidiaries covering a wide variety of services.

Taylor Corporation Acquires MentorMate, LLC

Mobile strategy, design and technology now core to Taylor’s vast service offerings

MINNEAPOLIS, MN. AUGUST 5, 2014—MentorMate (www.MentorMate.com) announced today that it has been acquired by Mankato, MN-based Taylor Corporation as part of a long-term plan to accelerate Taylor’s mobile technology strategy. As a leading mobile and web strategy, design and delivery organization with offices in five locations in the U.S. and Europe, MentorMate was the logical choice for infusing mobile strategy expertise into Taylor’s portfolio of more than 80 companies and its clients consisting of 275 Fortune 500 companies and thousands of small to medium-sized businesses globally.

“As we evaluated numerous options to create exceptional value for our customers, employees and owners, and to expand nationally and internationally, Taylor emerged as the premier choice for its ability to create tremendous market access and its industry-specific expertise on a global scale.” says Björn Stansvik, CEO of MentorMate.

Taylor Corporation stated, “As an award-winning mobile and web strategy, design and development firm, MentorMate will bring transformational technology to our companies and we are excited about the acquisition. Their proven success in delivering simple, beautiful and meaningful mobile and web solutions to small and large businesses will play a key role in helping our customers communicate their messages while maintaining and enhancing their brand.”

MentorMate’s operations and management will remain in place, and Stansvik will continue to lead the company. The two companies will begin execution on short- and long-term plans to maintain common core values, capture synergies and focus on continuous innovation to catapult growth.

About MentorMate: MentorMate is an international mobile solutions ¬firm with more than 200 employees working in five cities globally. We deliver innovative custom mobile and web software, user experience (UX) design, backend integration, data analytics/BI, and management and consulting services focused on the mobile enterprise. Learn more at www.MentorMate.com.

HyperIQ leadership (l-r): Graham Wood; Phil Wilson; Josh Walker

Mobile development continues to expand in Minnesota and a new merger will accelerate that trend.

Hyper IQ, a firm led by Phil Wilson (one of Minnov8’s co-founders and long time contributors) has entered into an agreement to merge with Wood Apps, LLC, a firm run by Josh Walker and Graham Wood. The combined firm will enjoy a larger customer base, broader array of skills, and a deeper knowledge about mobile platforms overall.

Congratuations to this new firm and best of luck to Phil, Josh, Graham and their team.

Mobile Development Firm Hyper IQ Grows on Heels of Merger

Minneapolis based mobile firm merges with Wood Apps to more than double size.

Minneapolis, MN – Mobile development firm Hyper IQ has entered into an agreement that results in a merger with Wood Apps, LLC. The joining of the two companies, specializing in Mobile Application and related web design and development, establishes a partnership between Hyper IQ’s Phil Wilson and Josh Walker along with Wood Apps’ Graham Wood. The combining of the two firms more than doubles the size of the staff and it’s payroll. The expanded Hyper IQ and its team will come together in its headquarters at CoCo in the historic Grain Exchange building in Minneapolis.

Hyper IQ President, Phil Wilson, noted, “I’m so excited to be coming together with Graham Wood and his team. We’ve worked together on many projects and it’s such a natural evolution. Josh, Graham and I share a common vision to provide high quality mobile development and customer service.” Wilson goes on to say, “When I consider the level of the talent now under our roof, it’s almost an embarrassment of riches.”

Wood Apps Founder, Graham Wood said, “We’ve worked along side Hyper IQ on many projects and I’m looking forward to taking advantage of the business sense and operations management skills that Phil Wilson and his team will provide.” He also said,  “It’s also exciting to be combining our team with Josh Walker and the Hyper IQ engineers, allowing us to deliver the amazing mobile applications that can only be built by a team of highly talented developers.”

Josh Walker added, “This is a very exciting time, not only because I will assume a partnership position, but also because we’ll be emphasizing Hyper IQ as a great place to work, learn and grow. Phil, Graham and I share so many of the same values and vision. I look forward to continued growth as a company, and as individuals.”

About Hyper IQ
Founded in 2009, the Hyper IQ name was adopted in June 2013. Phil Wilson, the Director of Operations since late 2012, purchased the assets of the company from its owners in May of this year. Hyper IQ, Incorporated boasts a list of clients and collaborations that include BuzzFeed, Best Buy, CaringBridge and other Fortune 500 companies. Hyper IQ concentrates on building mobile and related web applications.

Wood Apps History
Wood Apps was founded in late 2010 by Graham Wood and his wife as a side gig developing iOS apps on nights and weekends while working a day job as a software engineer in the aerospace industry. Less than one year later Graham was able to leave his day job and do iOS consulting full time. By mid 2012 Wood Apps was up to 3 developers, and in 2013 they added a 4th member to the team. In 2014 discussions began internally on how to grow beyond a small family branded business comprised solely of developers to an established company that could take on some large scale projects, and partnership discussions could not have come up at a better time.

Phil Wilson assumes the title of President and Co-Founder, Graham Wood becomes Vice President of Technology and Co-Founder, while Josh Walker is named Vice President of Mobile Technology and Co-Founder. The merger is effective immediately.

CONTACT:
Phil Wilson
612-743-7860
phil@hyper-IQ.com

Workface is a Minneapolis-based company that delivers real-time and, as they call it, “uniquely humanized” sales enablement and customer support technologies for the Web, mobile and more.

Their product is a website add-on that creates an opportunity to connect prospects and customers to a company internal (and available at the moment) inside sales or customer support folks. If your favorite person isn’t available, you can leave messages too.

As someone who is very familiar with Workface’ value proposition (disclaimer: I’ve also done work for Workface in the past) I must admit that one barrier I saw back in 2010 to wider adoption was to move away from Adobe Flash entirely. Especially now that “mobile first” seems to be the mission-critical strategy for most online deployment—and Adobe announced ceasing mobile support back in late 2011—this HTML5 direction removes one potential, and key, objection.

Founder and CTO Lief Larson kept me informed about their direction and that HTML5 was close. Smart move Workface!

New HTML5 Chat Application from Workface Enhances User Experience

Fully-Responsive Interface Supports All Web Platforms and Mobile Browsers

(Minneapolis, Minn. – July 8, 2014) – Workface, the leading solution for real-time and uniquely humanized Web-based sales enablement and customer support today announces the launch of Workface v2.0 its HTML5-based technology. Built on the company’s popular chat functionality, the new application makes Workface available to users on all modern Web platforms and mobile browsers, while offering a fully-responsive interface to facilitate real-time customer interaction.

“The ability to chat on all modern desktop and mobile browsers in real-time is a benefit that will allow our agents, customers and potential customers greater access to each other, in a way that resembles face-to-face interaction,” said Dawn Mortimer, American Family Insurance innovation director.

Workface founder Lief Larson said the user interface shift enhances both the customer and client experiences. The IP geolocation can identify a customer’s whereabouts to a level of granularity never seen before in live chat. In addition, real-time browser preview allows businesses to track the movements of website visitors in real-time.

Workface 2.0 is responsively designed to work seamlessly with mobile devices.

“This is a game changer for Workface users on many levels,” Larson said. “Using HTML5, prospects can chat with agents from virtually any Web-connected device, including tablets, smart phones, and even some Web-enabled televisions. Customers can choose when and where they’d like to chat, even when they’re on the go. The customers get flexibility and convenience, while the business gets more insight and visibility into their needs.”

“Workface has always been about providing a communications platform that can restore the human element to real-time online sales and customer service,” said Kevin Erdman, Workface CEO. “Our mission is to empower businesses by giving them tools for personalized, high-quality interactions. Whether their customers prefer text, audio or video chat, or want to connect with a specific agent, we provide the interactive relationship-building and support tools that today’s online prospective and current customers now demand.”

Workface’s overriding goal has been to make doing business on the Web more human. Its sales enablement Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solution provides real-time, one-on-one communications with prospective and current clients. Clients range from Travel Leaders, to American Family Insurance to the Cleveland Browns NFL football team.

About Workface
Workface is a Web-based sales enablement platform based in Minneapolis, Minn. that humanizes the Internet by providing real-time communication between sales professionals and today’s online prospects and customers. The SaaS model solution provides a platform to connect via authentic, multi-channel, real-time text, audio and video chat. The Workface solution includes website and social media integration to create a better online experience for customers and businesses. Workface tools bring human contact to the Internet-based buying process, delivering “Real People, Real Answers, Real Time.” For more information, please visit www.workface.com.

About American Family Insurance
Based in Madison, Wis., American Family Insurance offers auto insurance, homeowners insurance, life insurance, health insurance, business and farm/ranch insurance in 19 states. American Family insurance is the nation’s third-largest mutual property/casualty insurance company and ranks 393rd on the Fortune 500 list. Web: www.amfam.com; Facebook: www.facebook.com/amfam; Twitter: www.twitter.com/amfam; YouTube: www.youtube.com/amfam.

Helpful Links:
Twitter: @workface
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/workface

Media Contact:
Jennifer Jewett
Ubiquity Public Relations
jennifer@ubiquitypr.com
+1 (617) 913-2404