Showcasing Minnesota Technology Innovation
Minnesota’s Philip Hotchkiss joined the social influencer measurement startup Klout last fall as Chief Product Officer and they’ve been on a tear ever since.
This news just came in and, if you’ve been following the anticipation around the U.S. launch of Spotify, then you’ll want to know that Spotify has chosen Klout as their exclusive U.S. social launch partner. If you’ve got Klout…you can potentially get Spotify early if you act FAST!
You might have noticed the advertisement for CoCoMSP in the right sidebar. We’re collaborating on a new 2011 initiative that will see the Minnov8 Gang down at the new CoCoMSP downtown Minneapolis facility in the Grain Exchange.
We’ll be doing a few live podcast shows, helping them with some storytelling initatives, and my cohorts and I will be hanging out there periodically.
Normally this wouldn’t be “news” and worthy of a separate post, but CoCoMSP isn’t an ordinary coworking startup and the Grain Exchange facility isn’t a run-of-the-mill coworking space. I predict there are going to be a lot of breakthroughs in learning occurring with and around this facility and people will come to the Twin Cities to see what CoCo is up to like they do now to the Mall of America.
I stopped into a reception held last evening at the U of M’s Carlson School for this year’s group of semifinalists in the annual Minnesota Cup. It’s the seventh year of this business plan competition, which has gained broad support from our business community. I had a chance to interview cofounder Scott Litman, who talked about this year’s applicants and the process the semifinalists would now be going through as the competition continues.
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!
Rob Weber from W3i just gave me a heads-up on what looks like a fabulous mobile event occurring this Wednesday evening. Here are the details:
What: TiE Minnesota in conjunction with the St. Thomas Graduate Programs in Software and the sponsorship of MentorMate is bringing together premier leaders in the Minnesota mobile community to address “Mining the Mega Mobile Opportunity.”
Who: TiE Minnesota is the local chapter of The Indus Entrepreneurs (“About” page) and St. Thomas Graduate Programs in Software (see speaker/presenters here)
When: Wednesday, June 22, 2011 from 6:30 – 9pm
Where: 3M auditorium is in Owens Science Hall (OWS) room no. 150 (Map)
Cost: Charter Member $15.00; Member $15.00; Student Member $10.00; Non Member $35.00
More details: and to register, go here.
Two of the Gang were at UnSummit 5 Saturday and did the podcast with Meg Knodl, Mykl Roventine and Julio Ojeda-Zapata while Meg and Mykl’s UnSummit co-organizer, Don Ball, was taking a nap presenting a session. We talk about a range of topics on this lively ‘cast.
Hosts: Steve Borsch and Phil Wilson (Tim Elliott and Graeme Thickins are off)
Podcast: Download (Duration: 45:22 — 26.0MB)
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS | More
The Minnesota Cup announced their nearly 50 semi-finalists today!
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
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The full press release is after the jump…
CoCoMSP, the premiere coworking space in the Twin Cities, announced yesterday that they will open a Minneapolis coworking space on July 5, 2011, on the historic Trading Floor of the Minneapolis Grain Exchange (see more photos here). This adventure is being done along with Project Skyway, Minnesota’s first tech accelerator program for motivated entrepreneurs.
Don Ball
I talked this morning with CoCoMSP’s Don Ball about this fabulous new facility which, I mentioned at the outset of our discussion, made my jaw drop when I first heard about this 16,000 square foot space.
“You won’t believe it until you see it,” Don said. “We’re actively doing construction now in order to be ready for our July opening.” He described in some detail the new space and what they’re doing with it. It sounds fantastic and I can’t wait to get a tour.
One thing that struck my eye as I read through the press release was this paragraph, “CoCo will also host educational and social events for the region’s creative, technical and business communities. Later in the year, CoCo will begin to offer hosted and facilitated meetings geared toward innovation breakthroughs.” With previous events held at the St. Paul facility (e.g., UnSummit and these events) that have been resoundingly successful, I’m really looking forward to the ones that will be possible in this new space.
Joining CoCoMSP and Project Skyway on this adventure are two innovative companies: CoCo Minneapolis is being designed by Target Commercial Interiors and will feature collaborative work and meeting settings from Steelcase.
The reason these two matter is what’s come out of previous conversations I’ve had with Don. Both Steelcase and Target Commercial Interiors are clearly pushing-the-envelope with coworking as they see the huge trend and obviously it will materially impact their respective businesses. For the City of Minneapolis it promises to bring a lot of new people to the downtown area, and arguably when a Project Skyway startup reaches critical mass, they might be so inclined to stay in the downtown area looking for bigger digs.
The bottom line? None of this matters if there wasn’t a groundswell of people working for themselves, in small startups or businesses, or working for a large company ,who are all eager to pay to have an office at a coworking facility. Working out of a coffee shop is fine for an hour or two but unless you buy that next muffin they’re unlikely to want you to camp out there all day. Working from home means you don’t network or collaborate with other humans and it gets pretty lonely. These are just a few of the drivers making coworking such a great alternative.
So this new facility not only finally makes the “M” in “CoCoMSP” meaningful, there sure seems to be a lot of obvious wins for everyone involved.
The Twin Cities premier mobile event, Mobile March, will be here in just a few weeks. It’s a day long event dedicated to exploring the latest in mobile technology and trends. The name Mobile March not only denotes the month in which it takes place, it also emphasizes the ongoing advancement and growth of mobile technology and the related lifestyle. If the attendance is as big as last year’s event—and is already shaping up to be more well-attended than 2010’s with even the preliminary agenda looking stronger—it will sell out very quickly. Registering now is the smart choice and you can do so here.
Founded by Justin Grammens, Phil Wilson and Linda Cummings in 2010, they point out the essence of the event on their website, “…Mobile March offers two tracks of learning; Mobile Development and Mobile Business. By offering content that appeals to mobile developers, business people, and users we also hope to facilitate a greater understanding between the constituencies that make mobile happen. Whether you make money with mobile or just use it to stay connected, we invite you to join us for Mobile March.“
If you’re keeping track of the explosion in mobile devices (and networks like Verizon beefing up their networks with 4G) then you’ll instantly understand why this is such a timely and important event for you to attend.
| When: Saturday, March 19, 2011, 8am – 4:30pm (cocktail party begins at 4:30pm) Where: Best Buy Headquarters Campus |
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Senator Amy Klobuchar was in Minneapolis for what was billed as an Innovation Summit at the University of Minnesota on Tuesday. According to the Senator’s office, the summit was an opportunity to share information about how the public and private sectors can team up to strengthen the economy by revitalizing American innovation and promoting products abroad.
Senator Klobuchar also used the occasion to outline what was termed as a comprehensive package of legislation she will introduce to strengthen America’s ability to innovate and compete for long-term economic growth and job creation. (As of this writing, no specifics of that package have been provided by the Senator’s office.)
In the short term, Klobuchar said, “We need to deliver a series of targeted tax breaks and regulatory reforms designed to galvanize the private sector and unleash a fresh wave of invention, entrepreneurship, and exports.”
In the long term, she added, “We need to help secure our standing in the global economy, lay the groundwork for future innovation by improving science, technology, engineering, and math education; cut red tape; and increase the ability of our businesses to attract and retain the world’s brightest scientists, engineers, and researchers.”
We look forward to hearing more specifics from the Senator and applaud her efforts to re-energize innovation nationally and can think of no better place than Minnesota from which to start.
The folks at Minne* put on another solid showcase of Minnesota innovation at the latest Minnedemo on Thursday night. Ben Edwards, Luke Francl and the latest addition to the team, Adrienne Peirce, kicked off the event with the promise of “a Minnedemo in the spring and another couple Minnedemos” this year. There was even talk of moving beyond the friendly confines of the Twin Cities and staging an event in St. Cloud. For my part, I would have loved to hear more about the goals of both Minnedemo and Minne*. While I and many familiar faces in the room know what they are, I hate to see anyone miss an opportunity to really showcase the noble efforts of the organization.
As for the presenters and demos at the event, the evening highlighted applications, services, and hardware that catered to a wide range of interests. From gamers to writers, security to slap shots the evening moved along at a brisk pace leaving plenty of time for socializing and networking out side the presentation space at the St. Thomas’ Schultz Hall.
Some of the standouts included…
Inveni-I’ve followed the development of Aaron Weber’s discovery and recommendation engine for quite some time and it didn’t fail to impress. Entertainment (Movies, TV) is the sweet spot for Inveni right now and offers the ability to share your highly personalized Inveni picks with your network. Now if Aaron could only get Netflix to secure a better class of streaming selections…
Zipnosis-With the promise of a diagnosis in minutes for just $25, Zipnosis was perhaps the most polished demo of the evening. We’ve showcased Zipnosis and are big fans. I also found the theme of the demo, providing low-cost healthcare, interesting. Zipnosis clearly wants to move past the tech and on to the benefits…. [Read More…]