Minnov8

Showcasing Minnesota Technology Innovation

Event: Grow Your Own IT Business

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With I.T. spending beginning to accelerate nicely, now is the time to look seriously at an entrepreneurial adventure in this area. Bill Coleman from Community Technology Advisors reached out to me this morning about an upcoming event that Minnov8 readers would likely have an interest in attending. With support from the Dakota/Scott County Workforce Investment Board, Minnesota Workforce Center, Dakota Future and the Dakota Scott IT Entrepreneur LinkedIn group, it’s shaping up to be a solid session.

A panel of successful IT entrepreneurs will talk about their startup success and will include: Kelly Schaefbauer of Danbury IT, a 14 year old I.T. services firm; Mike McBrady of ImageTrend, a 120 employee software firm; and Michelle Jennings of Netmajic, a web asset development shop; all people with solid companies and a wealth of experiences.

It will be held Thursday, February 18th from 4-6 pm at Old Chicago Pizza (map) in Apple Valley. Cost is $10 (appetizers are provided). If you’re interested, RSVP/register by contacting Cindy Johns (email).

Get in Their Shoes: 1:1 Interviews for You

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Wouldn’t it be great to have a chance for a 1:1 mentoring from former Apple evangelist and current VC Guy Kawasaki? Or time with the former CEO of GE, Jack Welch? Or a chance to ask Wired magazine’s Chris Anderson about all the things he sees that might be germane to your startup? Or talk about your social media startup with Charlene Li, co-author of Groundswell?

Here’s your chance.

Patrick Tedjamulia, one of the founders of a non-profit in Utah called the International Mentoring Network Organization (IMNO.org) reached out to me about a “Mentorship Auction” they’re holding and their Get in Their Shoes Campaign to promote it (thanks to Doug Pollei for the connection). Thinking a post about it might be a bit of a stretch for Minnov8’s mission focused on internet and web innovation in our state, I reached out to Patrick by email and tossed the ball in his court to give me a call so we could kick it around.

Tedjamulia is a brand manager at General Mills and he grabbed a few minutes to launch a call to me this morning. As we talked I quickly realized that yes, this sort of thing would definitely be of interest to the Minnov8 readership!

The first auction is currently running and is a 1-on-1 mentoring opportunity with one of my favorite authors Daniel Pink, the NY Times Best Selling author of “A Whole New Mind”, and “Drive”. Daniel’s auction ends Feb. 11th so there is still time for you to bid. The winning bidder will get a thirty-minute phone conversation (mentorship) with Daniel Pink.

Today, Feb. 8th, the next auction is opening and will be a mentoring opportunity with Caterina Fake, the co-founder of Flickr and now Hunch. Coming up are auctions posted for mentoring opportunities with the following individuals:

  • Fernando Aguirre, CEO and Chairman of Chiquita brands: Feb 15- 24
  • Lawler Kang, author of Passion at Work: Feb 22-Mar.3
  • Dave Logan, author of Tribal Leadership and The Three Laws of Performance: Mar. 1 – 10
  • Chris Anderson, editor of Wired magazine and author of Free!: Mar. 8-17
  • Charlene Li, founder of Altimeter Group and co-author of Groundswell: Mar. 15-24
  • Stephan Roche, CEO of Kapitall: Mar. 22 – 31
  • Dr. Clotaire Rapaille, author of The Culture Code: Mar. 29 – Apr. 7
  • Geoff Colvin, Senior Editor, FORTUNE and author of Talent is Overrated: Apr. 5 – 14
  • Robbie Vitrano, CEO of Trumpet Group: Apr. 12 – 21
  • Jeff Hayzlett, CMO of Kodak: Apr. 19 – 28
  • Jeffrey Veen, web design and development guru and co-founder of Adaptive Path: Apr. 26 – May. 5
  • Aaron Magness, Director of Brand Marketing, Zappos: May 3 – 12
  • Rafe Furst, entrepreneur, investor and business leader: May 10 – 19
  • Guy Kawasaki, managing director of Garage Technology Ventures: May 17 – 26
  • …and more.

Proceeds from the campaign will go directly to the International Mentoring Network Organization (www.imno.org), a 501c3 non-profit organization aimed at making professional mentoring available to everyone and truly founders of what they term the “Open Source Mentoring Movement”. Also, stop by their site to listen to some recorded calls to get a sense of what these sorts of mentorship opportunities are like.

Don’t miss the chance to be mentored by Daniel Pink, Guy Kawasaki, and many others and bid today at Get in Their Shoes.

Minnov8 Gang 66: Flat Is The New Up?

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Is it true that “Flat Is The New Up?” Not if you’re a company just outside St. Cloud, Sartell-based w3i, which is consistently proving that “Up Is The New Up” every quarter through quite impressive and sustained growth. Our guest on this week’s podcast, co-founder Rob Weber (@robertjweber), tells us how they got started and what they’re up to now.

W3i was marketing apps when apps weren’t even cool and their founding is a great story. In 2000, the three Weber brothers (Ryan, Aaron and Rob) discovered the power of free and launched Freeze.com. Along with their team, they developed applications to satisfy users’ pent up demand for free content while pioneering new revenue models to spread the development and marketing costs across millions of installations — over 250 million to date.

This Week’s Show Hosts: Steve Borsch, Tim Elliott, Graeme Thickins and Phil Wilson (and thanks to Phil for tossing out the meme “flat is the new up” on the podcast!)
Music by Josh Woodward and the tune is “Stickybee”. From the podsafe music network Music Alley.

Discussed during the show notes:

 

Podcast: Download (Duration: 53:08 — 30.8MB)

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Minnov8 Gang Podcast 65: Talking the Apple iPad

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Thursday’s Apple iPad launch was the most hotly anticipated technology launch event in years. To say there was enthusiasm for the device amongst many is obvious, but the disappointment felt by technologists and geeks is palpable. We explore the iPad — it’s good points and bad — with Julio Ojeda Zapata, the St. Paul Pioneer Press (TwinCities.com) technology reporter who was at the event and had hands-on use of the device and he was live tweeting and posting photos which you can see on this page (http://minnov8.com/tablet/).

As you probably already know, Julio writes a Tech Test Drive column about gadgets, apps and social media (among other things). He is the author of Twitter Means Business, one of the first books about Twitter. He is also a sometime co-host of the Minnov8 Gang podcast (and will join us this Saturday to discuss this Apple event in more detail) and focuses his commentary on tech trends. See his Posterous geekstream. Contact him by e-mail or follow him on Twitter.

Hosts: Steve Borsch, Tim Elliott, Graeme Thickins and Phil Wilson.
Music: Duane Andrews and the tune is “Mr. Butler”.

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The Podcast

Podcast: Download (Duration: 1:03:17 — 36.7MB)

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Discussed during the show notes:

+ Like to see the iPad Nano?
+ Mary Meeker’s Web 2.0 Summit presentation (PDF) & we referred to slide #38
+ Video of Walt Mossberg at the iPad launch, a portion of which he’s talking with Steve Jobs
+ Bill Heyman of Minnesota-based Codemorphic (mobile app developers) post on the iPad
+ Steve Borsch’s article on MinnPost about the iPad & his Apple A4 chip post and another post on Apple opening up VoIP
+ Leo Laporte head of TWiT and tech journalist Natali Del Conte
+ Stanza was acquired in 2009 by Amazon & The Wall Street Journal’s take on Apple vs. Amazon
+ Hitler’s response to the iPad

Zipnosis: Healthcare On-the-Go

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Zipnosis is a 2008 Minnesota Cup winner (Student category) and a pre-launch healthcare startup in Minneapolis that is zeroing in on the always-on and always-connected generation with a very interesting and potentially disruptive healthcare business model.

I sat down this week with founder Jon Pearce to discuss Zipnosis and what they were trying to accomplish. “When you’re sick and need to go to a doctor or visit a clinic, you have to take time off work, pay a co-pay, sit in the waiting room, and then just get seen by a nurse,” says Pearce. This occurs even for fairly routine and minor issues such as bacterial infections (e.g., strep throat) or viral ones like the flu, and Pearce has data-backed opinions about the percentages of office visits that are routine like these.

Those are the types of visits that require a considerable time investment for the patient and are low value ones for a clinician, and speeding up that process virtually and online (called a “zip”) is what Zipnosis is making more efficient for both the patient and clinician (minutes for a Doctor to turn around a diagnosis vs. 15-20 minutes of time for that same thing in-office, and undoubtedly 2 hours or so of time for the patient). What if instead you could use your computer or cell phone, answer a series of very structured questions about your symptoms, get fast clinician or doctor feedback and, if needed, a prescription sent to the pharmacy of your choice? …  [Read More…]

Emmy Award Winner Brian Stemmler

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Totally out of the blue I came across the video below tonight, a producer reel done by Brian Stemmler (@bstemmler). I had no idea he’d won an Emmy for his video work.

For those of you who don’t know Brian, he’s a videographer and photographer who has shot many interview videos for Minnov8 — and covered events like the UnSummit — for us and other organizations in town (here is a fun one he did with Minnov8’s Phil Wilson). He’s a great and generous guy that you should know if you need professional level video or photography.

Here’s why this is relevant to a Minnesota ‘net and web innovation story: Brian has thrown himself in to the social media sphere, is leveraging YouTube, and has planted himself all over the ‘net wherever it’s relevant. He’s volunteering for video shoots simply to get himself integrated in to this community (he came here from California) and is doing so effectively. Active on Twitter, Brian has connected himself very well. Great lessons in hustle for all of us.

Take a peek at his producer reel to get a sense of what he does:

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYHyrD3aEcQ

Will the Apple Tablet be called the “iJulio”?

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It’s unlikely that Apple will name the rumored tablet being announced tomorrow the “iJulio”, but it’s about the only name that hasn’t been floated up as a possibility! There is so much anticipation about what it will be — even though the McGraw-Hill CEO sticking his foot in his mouth and chewing soundly pretty much confirmed the tablet is a reality this afternoon — it will be fun to observe the announcement.

But alas, none of us will see it in real time. Unless, of course, you write for a news daily that sends you to the Apple event!

Julio Ojeda-Zapata is the Pioneer Press’ consumer-tech reporter and he will be live tweeting and posting photos which you’ll see on this page (http://minnov8.com/tablet/) throughout tomorrow’s event beginning at 12pm CST on Wednesday, January 27th.

As you probably already know, Julio writes a Tech Test Drive column about gadgets, apps and social media (among other things). He is the author of Twitter Means Business, one of the first books about Twitter.

He is also a sometime co-host of the Minnov8 Gang podcast (and will join us this Saturday to discuss this Apple event in more detail) and focuses his commentary on tech trends. See his Posterous geekstream. Contact him by e-mail or on  Twitter.

Swarmcast to Lay Off Half the Company

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Minneapolis-based Swarmcast has been in the business video streaming since 2002, but according to Dan Rayburn at BusinessofVideo.com, they’re laying off half the company:

Last week, rumors started circulating that Swarmcast was going out of business and had laid off all of their employees. While the company is not out of business yet, they did make some major layoffs and have changed their focus. I had a call with Christian Wilhelm over the weekend who is the chairman of the company and now runs their day-to-day operations. Christian said that at the end of December, more than 50% of the employees were let go and that about ten people still remain with the company, mostly engineers who work remotely. In addition, all of the executives are now gone, including the founder Justin Chapweske who left over a year ago, although some of the execs are still consulting to the company on a limited basis.

Sad to see a promising company and technology go by the wayside just as video online is becoming so mission-critical for virtually every company and individual.

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

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…]