Minnov8

Showcasing Minnesota Technology Innovation

Lief Larson, Former MN Serial Entrepreneur, Has Yet Another New Venture

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Many of us here in Minnesota remember Lief Larson. He was known and respected widely in our startup community. He had a successful exit with an interactive kiosk company before going whole hog into a software startup. A few years ago, he moved to Seattle after handing over the CEO reins at that VC-backed software company, Workface Inc. I miss him, and I’m sure others do, too. Not only was he a ball of energy, a smart developer and product guy, but a really fun guy, too. And, as a founder, he was the best damn salesperson I’ve ever worked with in Minnesota. He began life in Seattle living on a boat with his wife in the trendy Fremont section. And he’s definitely loving life out there in the Pacific Northwest.

Once he moved, his entrepreneurial endeavors hardly stopped. Soon, he’d launched Engage.co, and not long after a sideline called Sportzy, a leisure sports and activity site. Always one to spot a new opportunity, Lief recently told me he and a colleague launched a new site called Planning to Retire.

“My buddy and I both have parents entering retirement and they keep asking us all these questions, so we decided to build a site to help them,” said Lief.  “We’re trying to capture 1,000 members in 30 days.”  So, friends, tell all your parents and relatives who are approaching that magical age about this great new site. It’s a really helpful resource for them!

Gettin’ old? Sign up now!

 

My Background With Lief
A little history: I was lucky enough to do some consulting work for Lief back in his Workface days — including traveling with him twice to big events in California. I really enjoyed the experience and found myself writing about him several times on this blog. Those posts go back more than five years, covering his journey with Workface (which he founded in 2006), his ties to Marissa Mayer (they grew up together in Wisconsin), and how he took on an educational effort for entrepreneurs all by himself here in Minneapolis called “SaaS Camp,” which I attended. Here are all those posts.

In one of them, I told the following story, which still makes me laugh today every time I think of it. Not only is Lief an amazing, hard-working entrepreneur, but the man knows how to have some fun!

Lief and I traveled to Palo Alto a couple years ago for a conference where Lief was pitching to the Silicon Valley VC community, along with a bunch of other hot startups, and sharing the stage with speakers like the founders of Salesforce and SuccessFactors. We stayed in a funky old, ’60s-vintage Travelodge motel — about as low-priced as we could find in Palo Alto. After we checked in to our respective rooms, we both went online to work. First thing I see is an email from Lief with a photo attached of this gorgeous, expansive hotel room, saying, “Wow, I hope your room is as nice as mine.” I never laughed so hard, because I could hardly turn around in my dinky little room, and I knew he couldn’t either… 🙂

I haven’t had an opportunity to get out to Seattle since Lief moved there, but you can bet I’ll be meeting up with him the next time I do. Go, Lief!

(NOTE: This post first appeared on GraemeThickinsOnTech yesterday.)

Minnesota is #1 for Internet Usage

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woman-internetOur friend over at Blandin on Broadband, Ann Treacy, had this post about Minnesota ranking #1 in internet usage:

Entrepreneur Magazine just called out Minnesota as the state with the highest rate of Internet usage…

According to data from the U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration, you won’t find the most connected people on the coasts, or deep in the heart of Texas, but largely in the Midwest. Just under three-quarters of U.S. households were online in 2015. But the most connected state isn’t located on one of the coasts — it’s in the heart of the Midwest…

In 2015, 83.1 percent of Minnesotans, or 4,307,850 households, used the internet. In 1998, 1,889,017 (then 41.5 percent) households were online.

It’s great to see Minnesota rank highly! However before we drink too much champagne, there are a couple of caveats – they are talking about Internet usage, not necessarily broadband. And they are talking about use anywhere (library, work, coffee shop, school), not necessarily home. We come in third for home access with 76.2 percent, which is good but still Internet access – not necessarily broadband.

We agree with Ann that it’s good to see Minnesota ranked so highly but our broadband is still lacking state-wide. Read more from Ann and follow Blandin on Broadband.

Google Chrome’s HTTPS Warnings Start In January 2017

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on-laptopThe world awoke after the global surveillance disclosures by Edward Snowden. These disclosures revealed programs that, not only captured and stored all digital traffic, it also showed that the National Security Agency (NSA) was infiltrating links to Yahoo and Google data centers worldwide. As such there has been an explosion in the use of encryption with both individuals and providers like Google, Yahoo, Facebook and others.

no-httpsWe’ve known that Google’s wildly popular Chrome browser was beginning to rank secure HTTPS sites higher for some time—as have marketers and others performing search engine optimization on their, and their client’s, websites—but Google is now accelerating their Chrome browser security seriously and sites not using SSL come January will display a warning.

Wired magazine lays out the issue in their article, “Google’s Chrome Hackers Are About to Upend Your Idea of Web Security“:

Starting in January, Chrome will flip the web’s security model: Instead of warning users only about HTTPS-encrypted sites with faulty or misconfi­gured encryption, as Chrome currently does, it will instead flag as “not secure” any unencrypted sites that accept a username and password or a credit card. That unmistakable alert will appear to the left of Chrome’s address bar.

Google’s new warning scheme for Chrome, indicating an HTTPS-encrypted site (top), a non-HTTPS site (middle), and a site with faulty HTTPS (bottom).

Google’s new warning scheme for Chrome, indicating an HTTPS-encrypted site (top), a non-HTTPS site (middle), and a site with faulty HTTPS (bottom).

Soon after, the team also plans to announce another category of sites that will be flagged for not using HTTPS by a deadline later in 2017. Among the candidates they’re considering: any unencrypted page visited through Chrome’s Incognito mode and any non-HTTPS site that offers downloads. Check your daily tour of web forums, download sites, and registration-enabled media outlets for the telltale lack of a green padlock, and you’ll see many are set for an unpleasant wakeup call when they fail those tests. And over the coming years, Chrome plans to hold more and more types of sites to that HTTPS standard.

For most startups and small-to-midsize businesses, the move to HTTPS shouldn’t prove too difficult. While you can buy and install a certificate from multiple providers or your webhosting company itself, most webhosts are now offering the Let’s Encrypt SSL certificates. Let’s Encrypt is a free, automated, and open certificate authority brought to you by the non-profit Internet Security Research Group (ISRG).

Many webhosts (e.g., Dreamhost; SiteGround; Media Temple; Squarespace) are offering easy, one-click, Let’s Encrypt SSL certificate installation and most also provide automatic renewals. But simply adding a secure certificate is not all you have to do to get your website ready, unfortunately.

Securing a website and its content is usually not trivial, especially since a single external resource may have an embedded, insecure HTTP link to it (e.g., in scripts). 100% of all links need to be dealt with so the site will display to Google Chrome that the site, and everything on that specific page the visitor is viewing, is secure.

HTTPS SET UP TAKES SOME EFFORT
At my Innov8Press firm we have secured all of our own sites, client sites, and I’ve done my personal ones as well. All run on WordPress and, after setting up a Let’s Encrypt SSL certificate, we add Really Simple SSL to force all links to be https or to be slightly modified to work but not show as insecure. If you’re not starting from scratch or have a very simple website, seek professional help.

Then there are sites like this one, Minnov8. With all of our podcast links—and RSS feed connections to both the iTunes and Google Play stores as well as podcatcher apps that already have our non-HTTPS RSS feed links that are often cached—we are proceeding with caution. We know, however, that Minnov8 has to be completely secure by end of this calendar year.

The other issue is that older browsers only recognize SSL certificates as secure if they have a dedicated, unique IP address for the domain. While many shared webhosting companies do offer dedicated IP addresses for some amount per month (usually $14 or more), many do not offer them at all. So if you have an audience that you know still uses any of these you may want to tread carefully as well: Windows XP versions of Internet Explorer; the default browser in Android 2.4 “Gingerbread” and earlier; and various mobile browsers like SymbianOS, Blackberry and old versions of Opera Mobile.

START NOW
stunned-womanStart the process of securing your websites now so you’re ready for the inevitable come January 2017: visitors asking you why your website is insecure; a percentage of them being alarmed and just leaving, abandoning your website for good; or thinking less of your firm or brand since you didn’t strategically anticipate what should have been obvious.

What’s the Future for MedTech Startups? Reasons to Be Worried (and a Ray of Hope)

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advamed-logo-300wLiving and working here in Minnesota, as I do, you constantly hear about how wonderful our state’s medical technology industry is. After all, we’re the No. 1 Global Medtech Cluster, as I was reminded again here at the AdvaMed 2016 conference.  We all think we’re sitting on this huge industry that will just keep growing forever and bring bountiful riches to our state. Well, it turns out things are not all that rosy.

I learned today about a new report, “A Future at Risk: Economic Performance, Entrepreneurship, and Venture Capital in the U.S. Medical Technology Sector.”

futureatrisk-reportcoverHere’s the gist:

“The American medical technology industry has been suffering from a steady decline of entrepreneurship for more than two decades…”

What? Yes, it’s a fact: the numbers associated with this engine of innovation (and jobs) have been declining quite markedly.

We can relate to the medtech startup engine very well here in Minnesota, with our own giant Medtronic having been started by Earl Bakken in a garage in Northeast Minneapolis. (I worked for the company early in my career and got to be taken out for a welcome lunch by the man himself.)

Two charts from the report, shown here, will surprise many:startupdensity-chart-kauffman

 

 

newcoformations-chart
Here’s more from the report’s executive summary:

“The (medtech) industry is increasingly concentrated in a shrinking number of large players. All of those companies are scouring the globe for medtech innovation. With fewer startups in the system, the industry’s dominant companies recognize the long-term threat to innovation represented by fewer companies fueling the industry’s pipeline of innovation. All these factors represent a present and future threat to American leadership in the industry, to medical innovation and, ultimately, to patients.”

The key data points of this troubling picture? Here they are:

• The number of new medtech firms created each year has fallen by almost two-thirds, from 1,500 annually in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s, to around 600 in 2012.

• The industry is “graying.” More than 30% of medtech firms are at least a quarter century old and more than half are more than 16 years old. This age distribution is typical of a mature rather than a dynamic industry and is markedly older than other high-tech industries or even than businesses in the economy as a whole.

• Medtech’s share of total venture capital has fallen from 13% in 1992 to 4% in 2014.

• Medtech’s share of early-stage venture investment has fallen as well, from 10% in 1993 to 3% in 2014.

• During 2015, declining investor interest in medical devices led to a drop in new company formations, and the majority of Series A rounds were less than $5 million.

For reasons of brevity, I won’t get into the reasons for this decline. Read the report. But you can likely guess the major culprit. And you wouldn’t be incorrect to assume that money is also involved.

Funding for the activities and roundtables that led to the “Future at Risk” report was provided by AdvaMed through its Accel division. The authors of the report also thanked the following organizations that helped make the report possible: MassMedic, Medical Alley Association, Twin Cities Angels, Tech Coast Angels, and Edwards Lifesciences. Two Minnesota organizations there!

So What Can Be Done?
I said I’d mention a ray of hope. At Advamed today, I learned about one program that’s doing its share to stem the decline of medtech startups getting off the ground and becoming successful. I met and interviewed Paul Grand, the CEO of MedTech Innovator,medtechinnovator-logo an organization based in LA that’s been making quite an impact over the past few years to get medtech startups off the ground.

Here’s how it describes itself: “MedTech Innovator is the industry’s global competition and virtual accelerator. Our mission is to accelerate the development of transformative innovations that benefit patients and deliver improved value to the health care system.” It runs an annual competition that helps develop startups and gets them in front of the big industry players — at events like Advamed. It conducts its program with sponsorship assistance from Johnson & Johnson, RCT Ventures, Becton Dickinson, Enterprise Ireland, IDA Ireland, the U.S. Small Business Administration, and others. Note in the graphic some of MedTech Innovator’s stats to date:medtechinnovator-stats

I’m looking forward to their event on Wednesday at 7:30 am here at the AdvaMed conference, which is again hosting the “MedTech Innovator Competition Finals.” Twenty semi-finalists were selected from a field of nearly 500 early-stage companies to take part in their four-month virtual accelerator program. Four finalists were selected to compete in this live finals competition on stage at AdvaMed 2016 — yes, it’s at breakfast. You gotta get up early! Each of the attendees at the event — in the conference’s “big room” — get to cast their live vote to choose who will win. A total of $300,000 in prize money will be awarded.

The event is hosted by Paul Grand (CEO, MedTech Innovator). The MedTech Innovator judges this year were:
• Daniel Estes, Vice Chair, Mayo Clinic Ventures
• Jennifer Kozak, Vice President, New Business Development, Johnson & Johnson
• Albert Lauritano, Director, Strategic Technology Partnerships, BD
• Tamara St. Claire, Chief Innovation Officer, Xerox Healthcare

I’m looking forward to the audience vote, as the culmination of this year-long competition. Think of it as at the “American Idol” of startup competitions! I’ll definitely be tweeting the winner.

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UPDATE: Here’s the tweet announcing the winner posted by the AdvaMed folks about 9:00 am October 19th, which I retweeted shortly thereafter. This lucky startup went home to Fort Collins, CO with a boatload of money!

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Today’s press announcement about the “Future at Risk” report is here.

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Here’s some background on the organizations mentioned above:

About the AdvaMed Conference
AdvaMed 2016 is the leading medtech conference in North America, bringing more than 1,000 companies together in a uniquely multifaceted environment for business development, capital formation, innovative technology showcasing, world-class educational opportunities, and networking. This year’s event is the first to be held in Minneapolis.

About AdvaMed Accel
AdvaMed Accel is the division within AdvaMed dedicated to addressing the unique needs and challenges of smaller medical device and diagnostics manufacturers – the lifeblood of the medical technology industry. The only organization of its kind focusing specifically on the needs of the medtech industry’s emerging growth companies, AdvaMed Accel works to create a policy environment more conducive to capital formation and innovation. For more information, visit

About MedTech Innovator
The mission of MedTech Innovator is to accelerate the development of transformative innovations that benefit patients and deliver improved value to the health care system. MedTech Innovator 2016 features 20 semi-finalist companies selected from 430 applications that address one or more of the transformative themes identified in a 2016 survey of leading manufacturers and providers. The 2016 program includes three competitions: the first was April 13, 2016 at the Innovation in Medtech Summit in Dublin, Ireland; the second was June 24, 2016 at the Wilson Sonsini Annual Medical Device Conference in San Francisco; and it concludes with the finals at AdvaMed 2016 in Minneapolis on October 19, 2016.

A View of the Cyber Security Summit

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css2016-logoThe Cyber Security Summit 2016 was this week and Minnov8 covered the event. Cyber security is more important now than ever before, and this event reflected heightened interest in this topic and the information presented didn’t disappoint.

The Summit is a public-private collaboration, whose founding partner was the University of Minnesota’s Technological Leadership Institute, and is an event which enjoys strong support from industry, government, and university leaders who gather from across the U.S. to pool their knowledge. It was started at a time when ”cybersecurity” was not yet a household word. In 2011, Minnesota thought leaders saw that the issue needed to be addressed. That prediction has proven prescient, and as a result the Summit has grown significantly since it was founded.

The Summit started on Tuesday with a Cyber Security Town Hall, a time to have a discussion about strategies, opportunities and obstacles with cyber security. It was followed by a VIP reception for those who had purchased the all-access pass. Wednesday and Thursday were sessions were a number of keynotes with focus on such topics as: privacy vs. security; assuming you’re breached so now what do you do?; how to attract and retain talent; and several sessions and talks on the size, scale and scope of cyber attacks by a myriad of experts on the subject.

Still, the afternoon on Tuesday dedicated to small business and cyber security was a welcome addition. This “Small Biz Forum” saw the U.S. Small Business Administration’s district director speak about the need for diligence about cyber security, a good overview of how to keep your business free of viruses, scams and breaches, a session on cyber insurance, and ending with a panel answering questions from the audience (very informative). It was a lot more practical than the more “big picture” general session keynote talks and there was a lot of positive buzz during and afterwards about this afternoon.

Though all of the talks were interesting and enlightening, I’d actually expected breakout sessions that would enable we attendees to deep-dive in to specific cyber security areas which would have provided more solution-oriented information. There were few best-practice presentations, specific step-by-step action lists or mentions, and most of the talks were fairly general in tone.

Bob Stasio, Worldwide Senior Product Manager for IBM Cyber Threat Intelligence SME

Bob Stasio, Worldwide Senior Product Manager for IBM’s i2 Enterprise Insight Analysis & Cyber Threat Intelligence SME

That said, just one example of an interesting and enlightening presentation was by Bob Stasio, Worldwide Senior Product Manager for IBM’s i2 Enterprise Insight Analysis & Cyber Threat Intelligence SME and a guy from the private sector who used to head up threat intelligence programs at Bloomberg and global financial firms, and someone with deep government experience having held positions at NSA’s Cyber Center, U.S. Cyber Command, U.S. Army’s Signals Intelligence Corps, the FAA, and NASA.

Listening him layout their capabilities and offerings, one begins to appreciate the scope, scale and cost of fending off cyber attacks. There is a lot at stake and it was a bit stunning to learn that most compromised corporate networks have, on average, attackers who have been in the network for nearly one year before being discovered. Based on all that he’s been involved in and privy to with respect to cyber security, I would have loved to buy him a beer and talk for a few hours!

Like most conferences of this type much of the beneficial activity occurs during networking sessions and in the exhibitor space and this Summit was no exception. Some of the most profound and deeply interesting discussions had were talking to presenters or attendees in the hallway or exhibitor representatives in the trade show area. This was worth going to the Summit in-and-of-itself.

It’s really great to see a Summit of this caliber right here in Minnesota and you are encouraged to consider it for 2017!

 

 

IoTFuse Outlines Activities for IoTHackDay

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iotfuse_logo_300Once again IoTFuse is putting on IoTHackDay 2016, a great event that brings together makers and doers to create and show-off Internet of Things devices. Check out the press release below for all the details.

IoTFuse Outlines Activities for IoTHackDay 2016

October 22 Event Brings Together Minnesota’s Best and Brightest to Assist in New IoT Inventions

MINNEAPOLIS, Oct. 4, 2016 /PRNewswire/ — IoTFuse, the nation’s fastest growing Internet of Things (IoT) user group and a registered non-profit, located right here in Minnesota, today announced the menu of activities leading up to and taking place at the group’s annual IoTHackDay. The event takes place Saturday, October 22 at Minnetronix headquarters located at 1635 Energy Park Dr., St. Paul, Minn. The deadline to pre-register as a team is Friday, October 7. Those not interested in registering their own team may come to the event and join pre-existing teams or register to participate in the “Random Stuff” team.

The third annual IoTHackDay is sponsored by IoTFuse Platinum Sponsors Digi International and The Nerdery, as well as a number of other sponsors. IoTHackDay is a fun, free day that brings together teams, novel ideas, and an entrepreneurial spirit to imagine and build cool new devices and software to solve everyday problems. Open to everyone, teams form, submit their ideas ahead of the event, and hack (construct their project) for 12 hours.

“The spirit of IoTHackDay is to focus on solving a problem in a short period of time. Like other technology professionals, my basement is filled with many IoT projects I’ve started and not completed because there wasn’t a deadline. IoTHackDay sets a deadline and motivates participants to focus and build a solution in 12 hours,” said IoTFuse co-founder Justin Grammens.

To submit project ideas or to form a team, visit IoTHackDay. After descriptions of projects have been posted they will appear on the IoTHackDay Gallery of Submissions.

Minnesota’s best and brightest IoT coders, developers and engineers will be on hand to help with designs as part of an “experts table” to help attendees on how to build and scale their projects. Recent examples of successful ideas that have been accelerated through IoTHackDay include HabitAware, a smart bracelet which helps people overcome compulsive behaviors and Termi, an intelligent connected device that helps protect grain stores from being ruined by pest infestations.

Pre-event activities

Leading up to the event organizers will offer opportunities to select teams and become more familiar with the process.

  • Meet and greet mixer: Taking place Thursday, October 6, this offers the opportunity to meet people planning on participating in the hackathon, including team leads. The mixer is located at Lab 651, 550 Vandalia Street, Suite #224, St. Paul, Minn. and will take place from 6:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. CT.

IoTHackDay activities:

The agenda for IoTHackDay is as follows:

  • Team competition: Teams compete from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. CT to build the most innovative solution. To register to attend this event, visit IoTHackDay.MN.
  • Random Stuff Team: Designed more as a traditional hackathon, the Random Stuff Team allows participants to assemble a team on site and to use whatever random hackable hardware people may bring to see if they can come up with something completely new all in one day. Those interested in this approach should still register for the event ahead of time as a participant.
  • Public voting: The event will open to the public at 8:00 p.m. for voting of top team projects. Top teams will receive hardware and prizes. Those interested in voting should sign up at the IoTFuse monthly meetup site.

“IoT is more of a process, a community of people, than anything else,” said IoTFuse co-founder Patrick Delaney. “All sorts of people come to participate in our community events because they have an idea and an interest in building cool stuff, but they go away with a lot more than idea.  They leave with a network of like-minded tech friends, a plan to execute that idea, and more often than not, a new device that they built that actually works. That’s the power of the IoTFuse collaborative environment.”

Follow updates on IoTHackDay on Twitter at @IoTHackDay , join IoTFuse on Meetup and follow IoTFuse on Twitter @iotfuse.

The cutoff for team leader registrations is Friday, October 7, with cutoff for general registration the night prior to the event on October 21 at 5:00 p.m. CT. To participate, sign up at IoTHackDay.MN.

About IoTFuse
Established in 2014, IoTFuse, a non-profit organization, unites accomplished doers, makers and hackers with the brightest executives, investors, entrepreneurs and innovators focused on the Internet of Things (IoT) space. The organization, based inMinneapolis, Minn., holds an annual national conference, local hackathons, meetups and more. It values the spirit of IoT innovation, and how it can be used to improve the physical world and daily life.

Digi Becomes Platinum Sponsor for IoTFuse

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digi-logoDigi International has signed on to be a platinum sponsor of IoTFuse (release is below).This is part of Digi’s increased efforts to call attention to the IoT industry in and around Minneapolis. IoTFuse – based in Minneapolis – is a nonprofit organization that “unites accomplished doers, makers and hackers with the brightest executives, investors, entrepreneurs and innovators focused on the Internet of Things space.”

Digi International Signs on as Platinum Sponsor of IoTFuse

Market Pioneer to Provide Resources to Assist in Elevating Minnesota as an
IoT Innovation and Commercial Hub

MINNETONKA, Minn., Oct. 3, 2016 – Digi International®, (NASDAQ: DGII, www.digi.com), a leading global provider of machine-to-machine (M2M) and Internet of Things (IoT) connectivity products and services, today announced that it has agreed to be a platinum sponsor of IoTFuse.

IoTFuse has been a driving force to bring together Minnesota-based developer and engineering-centric members that also have an eye toward commercial application of emerging technologies. Together, the entire community of entrepreneurs, investors, executives and developers, teachers and students, universities and commercial organizations, emerging startups and established leaders, centers of excellence and hackers, have worked to create, accelerate and map the future of the IoT marketplace.

Since its founding in 1985, Digi International has been at the forefront of the IoT industry and, over the course of more than 30 years, has connected more than 100 million devices. Digi’s support of IoTFuse is targeted specifically toward the organization’s next phase of growth – gaining proper recognition for Minnesota as a research, development and commercial leader in IoT technologies and services, while maintaining the grass roots efforts that have come to be the hallmarks of the organization. As such, Digi will have a major presence and provide financial and technological support of ongoing events, including the annual IoTFuse HackDay, periodic hackathons and makeathons, monthly events and the annual IoTFuse Conference.

“Minnesota has served as an incubator and pioneer of IoT technologies, and, IoTFuse has been a galvanizing force in creating a broad and deep community in this marketplace,” said Joel Young, chief technology officer, Digi International. “As IoT technologies become the centerpiece of innovation in areas such as smart cities, precision agriculture, industrial automation, medical care and others, establishing Minnesota as a central hub of research, development and commercial application is a logical next chapter for IoTFuse.”

“It’s essential that companies that helped form the foundation of Minnesota’s IoT ecosystem continue to be leaders in mapping its future,” said Patrick Delaney, co-founder of IoTFuse. “Digi understands how all the players intersect and create synergies to propel our community forward. We’re thankful of their support and look forward to the energy their experts will contribute to establishing IoTFuse as a force in our industry.”

About Digi International
Digi International (NASDAQ: DGII) is a leading global provider of business and mission-critical machine-to-machine (M2M) and Internet of Things (IoT) connectivity products and services. We help our customers create next-generation connected products and deploy and manage critical communications infrastructures in demanding environments with high levels of security, relentless reliability and bulletproof performance. Founded in 1985, we’ve helped our customers connect over 100 million things, and growing. For more information, visit Digi’s website at www.digi.com, or call 877-912-3444 (U.S.) or 952-912-3444 (International).

StemoniX, MN Cup Winner, Gets TreeHouse Health Investment

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stemonix-logoThe winner of the 2016 Minnesota Cup, the largest business plan competition in the U.S., has been named by healthcare-startup incubator TreeHouse Health in Minneapolis as its latest portfolio company. StemoniX is leading the development and manufacturing of human-induced pluripotent stem cells for pharmaceutical drug-discovery applications, such as biologically accurate, miniaturized organ-like microtissues.

“We are excited to announce the addition of StemoniX to the TreeHouse Health ecosystem,” said J.D. Blank, managing director, in a prepared statement. “Through their innovative work, they are advancing the field of drug discovery and ultimately helping patients get better treatment more quickly.”TreeHouse-FinalLogo

StemoniX’s biotechnology provides scientists with standardized, easy-to-use, cost-effective access to relevant human microtissue for toxicity and efficacy screening. Incorporated in Minnesota, the company is colocated in Minneapolis and San Diego, California.

TreeHouse Health defines itself as an “innovation center” designed to invest in emerging healthcare companies and help accelerate their growth. It says Stemonix is setting a new standard for stem cell technologies to meet the demands of drug discovery and personalized medicine.

mncup-logo-squareStemoniX earned the Grand Prize and title of “Best Breakthrough Business Idea of 2016” at the 12th annual MN Cup awards, held on September 22, 2016 at the University of Minnesota.

StemoniX says its efforts are revolutionizing stem cell-based research and drug screening and will lead to a new era of drug discovery and personalized medicine. “We’re grateful to become part of TreeHouse Health as a portfolio company,” said Ping Yeh, CEO. “We’re confident our relationship with TreeHouse Health will help us establish a strong presence in Minnesota, as well as generate new opportunities for Minnesota-based financing and collaborative partnerships with TreeHouse Health anchor tenants and other connections.”

 

Yeh continued: “We are thankful to the MN Cup organizers, sponsors, and community for their support and the

TreeHouse Health now has 13 portfolio companies.

TreeHouse Health now has 13 portfolio companies.

opportunities created by our participation in the competition this year, which includes our new relationship with TreeHouse Health.”

Along with providing investment, TreeHouse Health offers its portfolio companies access to its ecosystem consisting of leading healthcare organizations (its “anchor tenants”), professional service providers, and other emerging healthcare companies. To date, TreeHouse Health has invested in thirteen early-stage healthcare companies and has anchor tenant relationships with Hennepin County Medical Center (HCMC), Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota (BCBS), and Accenture.

New from Prime Digital Academy

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From news release:

prime-digital-academyPrime Digital Academy moving to downtown Minneapolis for larger campus in 2017, adding user experience design program

Growth fueled by market need and graduate success of software engineer cohorts, bucking negative trend of for-profit schools

Recent failures of national for-profit schools are showing that some educational models aren’t able to meet the changing needs of modern employers, but Prime Digital Academy (Prime) is a Minnesota success story that’s showing there is room for disruptive innovation in education. Today, Prime announced a plan to relocate their campus from Bloomington, MN to a new downtown Minneapolis campus in January of 2017. They’ll use the additional space at the new location to launch a program focused on training User Experience Designers. This new course provides a second program option alongside the Software Engineering course that celebrated its 13th graduation ceremony last month. Prime now has 160 alumni working on the development teams of more than 110 companies in the Twin Cities metro – including Prime’s sister company, The Nerdery.

Read the entire release here…

Minnesota Cup Division Winners

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mn-cup-winnersThe Minnesota Cup is thrilled to announce eight division winners who will compete for the grand prize title on September 22. The winners, one from each division, were pared down from an initial, record-breaking participant pool of 1,500. They are:

Each division winner has been awarded up to $30,000—and is now in consideration for the sought-after MN Cup grand prize, which comes with an additional $50,000 in seed capital. In its 12th year, the MN Cup is giving away a record amount of prize money: $405,000 total.

Go here for more information and to register for the final awards event.