Minnov8

Showcasing Minnesota Technology Innovation

“Little Seth Godin” Becomes MIMA Summit Ambassador

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sethgodinactionfigureAs the early-bird registration deadline of September 7th closes in for the annual MIMA Summit, our friends at MIMA are taking the word ‘action’ in action figure literally! Observe “Little Seth” Godin as he pops up on the internet, hides out in the Twin Cities, and most recently, visits the Minnesota State Fair.

MIMA has employed the use of a small Seth Godin action figure, acquired by MIMA Summit diva Jenn Kane, as a central figure in it’s marketing campaign. Though the concept of a marketing guy action figure is a bit disturbing (on so many levels), it’s clearly a fun way to get the word out about the October 5th event.

Check out Little Seth at the Minnesota State Fair video produced by Minneapolis video shop ThreeVolts as he sees “what’s poppin'” and looks for the ever elusive “cheese turds”. Of course, there are plenty of references to the MIMA Summit along the way…hey, it’s marketing!

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tj6aoiQAdvw&feature=player_profilepage

If you’re interested in free registration for the Summit this year, you might try your hand at the “Find Little Seth” game. Follow @mimasummit on Twitter for clues and you could score a ticket worth $550* or more.

The Summit looks to be a great event this year and Minnov8 will be there for the seven programming tracks, 35 sessions and the more than 40 speakers on interactive marketing trends and technology.

*non-member early-bird price

Why is Mike O’Connor cranky?

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mikeEven though he looks like a pleasant enough fellow in the photo, Mike O’Connor can get pretty cranky. As the representative for urban dwellers on the Minnesota Ultra High Speed Task Force, he’s upset that the Task Force he’s on was seemingly blindsided by a gubernatorial signoff of Connected Nation as the firm who is mapping the penetration and speed of Broadband in MN. Due to that sign off, Connected Nation is now the provider who will gather all the broadband data and craft the proposal to obtain Federal stimulus money for broadband buildouts in our State.

As I’ve stayed abreast of Mike’s “Urban Users” blog (which he’s using to keep those of us in the metro area informed of what’s transpiring with the Task Force), I’ve come to realize he’s one of the only people in a position of influence over Minnesota’s broadband future who actually “gets it” when it comes to how vitally important the upcoming Task Force decisions are to the future of our State, our country, and for you and me.

In his post, Mike started off with this:

Click HERE to read the letter from the commissioners of DEED and Commerce to the Governor that recommends Connected Nations as the outfit to develop Minnesota’s application for the Federal “State Broadband Data and Development Grant Program” funds that are out there under the stimulus program.  The Governor signed off and CN is off to the races.

Wait a minute. Connected Nation Inc., is backed by big telecommunications companies like Comcast Corp., Verizon Communications Inc. and AT&T Inc. Either the fox is guarding the chicken coop or it just reeks because the coop is locked up tight.

Why would the Governor signoff on this when it’s the Task Force’ mandate — a Task Force he appointed people to after the Legislature demands — to drive the broadband recommendation to the Legislature? Could it be a way to gather and massage the data so Minnesota can turn down any Federal broadband stimulus money?

…  [Read More…]

Pranah: Data Storage for SMB Wins Sprout Award

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pranahChances are that the computer you’re reading this post on contains a minimum of a 160GB hard drive. Like mine, it might be connected to a multi-TB backup device which, in turn, is connected to the cloud for online backup. Add to that all of the other computers and servers in our office and you can see that even a small firm like ours finds our needs for digital data storage is constantly outpacing whatever size drives or backup scheme we put in place for our network storage.

Pranah Storage Technologies, a company based in suburban Saint Paul, designs and manufactures data storage systems that “…bring simplicity and high efficiency to data-intensive environments in small to midsized businesses (SMBs)” and is a local company that should be on your radar.

Computer Reseller News (CRN), a trade rag I used to read faithfully when I was dealing with the reseller channel, has an offering called the “Everything Channel,” a sort of one-stop-shop online for I.T. value added resellers, system integrators and computer consulting groups. Because their readers look to them as seekers of the new and thought leaders when it comes to what they need strategically for their businesses and clients, the Everything Channel folks are always on the hunt for innovative and disruptive technologies.

Enter the Sprout Awards, a competition enabling them to discover all startups that fit within the innovative and disruptive category.  …  [Read More…]

MinneDemo Joins MIMA Summit For Tech Track

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mima_logo_4cThe folks at MIMA have struck a deal with our friends at MinneBar/MinneDemo to present a Technical Track at the upcoming MIMA Summit (Of which Minnov8 is a media partner.) The track will run in conjunction with an already full slate of speakers and presentations scheduled for Monday, October 5 at the Hilton in downtown Minneapolis. Fundamentals, Strategy, Tactical, Trend and the MinneDemo Technical tracks will allow attendees to tailor their experience at the Summit.

minnedemo-logoAccording to notices from both MIMA and MinneDemo the track will consist of “a curated slate of entrepreneurs who will showcase their internet and web innovations and demo real working software.” The ‘Best of’ slate from past MinneDemo presentations will be featured in groups of three with Q&A time allowed throughout the day.

While one might ask, taken as a whole, what do demos such as these have to do with MIMA’s interactive marketing focus, the ability to showcase our local innovators and startup community is always welcome. MIMA President Matt Wilson, echos that sentiment. “I think a lot of our members are going to be incredibly impressed by the technology talent here in town and hopefully this added exposure will mean more development work stays here.”

Of note is the mention in the MinneDemo communication of a fall MinneDemo event to be held in November. It’s the first mention of the follow-up to May’s MinneDemo at Intermedia Arts. We’re also still awaiting news of a MinneBar. We’ll let you know as soon we hear more…

FCC Launches Blogband

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broadbandgovAt Minnov8, we recognize that the most fundamentally important driver and catalyst of internet and web innovation is broadband. With big pipes and significant carrying capacity, entrepreneurs and innovators like you find ways to capitalize on it and people use the internet more when they enjoy high speed and ubiquitous access. With that innovation comes breakthroughs that we’re eager to cover on this blog.

The National Broadband Plan is one of the most important initiatives that the FCC has ever undertaken. To foster public dialogue about the National Broadband Plan, we’re tapping the power of the Internet to launch a new FCC blog, called Blogband. What better time to start blogging than now? With just 183 days before our deadline to send the National Broadband Plan to Congress, we need as many people involved as possible.
Like our unprecedented two-dozen public workshops and the upcoming fall public hearings, Blogband is part of the FCC’s commitment to an open and participatory process. Blogband will keep people up-to-date about the work the FCC is doing and the progress we’re making. But we want it to be a two-way conversation. The feedback, ideas, and discussions generated on this blog will be critical in developing the best possible National Broadband Plan.
As this blog demonstrates, the Internet is changing and expanding the way Americans communicate, providing them with unparalleled access to information.  Our goal is to create a National Broadband Plan that charts a path toward bringing the benefits of robust broadband to all Americans. So visit Blogband often to keep up with the latest news and – more importantly – get involved.

Though they’re unlikely to win any branding awards for the snappy name “Blogband” (sounds like bunch of high schoolers who launched their garage band to sing about blogging), the FCC has launched that blog in order to foster public dialogue about the National Broadband Plan (PDF), an initiative with just over 180 days before the FCC’s deadline to send that plan to Congress.

“Like our unprecedented two-dozen public workshops and the upcoming fall public hearings, Blogband is part of the FCC’s commitment to an open and participatory process. Blogband will keep people up-to-date about the work the FCC is doing and the progress we’re making. But we want it to be a two-way conversation. The feedback, ideas, and discussions generated on this blog will be critical in developing the best possible National Broadband Plan.”

So if you care about broadband (and issues like net neutrality), then snagging this RSS feed and putting it in your news reader or just following the blog would be a good idea.

ScribbleLive: An Amazing Liveblogging Engine

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scribbleliveLast Thursday at BlogWell held at General Mills headquarters, the Minnov8 Gang used a tool that I had stumbled across a couple of days earlier: ScribbleLive. While not a Minnesota startup, they’ve so nailed the sweet spot of what’s needed in today’s liveblogging–Twitter integration, turning http’s in to links, embed codes in to instant presenting of the video or whatever else is embedded, audio and video uploading–that the entire Gang was basically blown away with the tool.

So many of us either watch live events or, increasingly, participate in them, that the ability for the creator (i.e., admin) of the ScribbleLive liveblog to turn comments on or off; find tweets and choose ones to insert (in to a middle pane that, like a baseball manager queueing up those next at bat, the batter is now “on deck”) and then inserting them at the correct time. Check out all of their features here.

The best part?  …  [Read More…]

Minnov8 Gang Liveblogging: ‘BlogWell by Gaspedal at General Mills’

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BW-topUPDATE: The event is now over and we’ve archived all of our posts, images and videos on our BlogWell page here.

The Minnov8 Gang (Tim, Graeme, Phil and Steve) will be liveblogging the BlogWell event being held at General Mills tomorrow.

We’ve setup a separate page that self-updates with our entries and is located here.  It’s currently password protected (we’re still experimenting with some of the liveblog engine’s features) but won’t be tomorrow morning before the event.

Stop by and watch the event unfold in near real-time as the Gang gives you a high level overview of the event.

FanChatter Goes to the Valley, Tapped by ‘American Idol’ for Startups: Y Combinator

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FanChatter-logoHere’s a story many in Minnesota have been waiting to hear — including several of you out there in the local developer and ad communities who knew something was up. FanChatter-clients Yes, our friends at Minneapolis startup FanChatter have finally gone public with what they’ve been doing for the past four months.  FanChatter is a site that “helps sports franchises and other businesses create a more profitable level of fan involvement through real-time content sharing.”  (More on the company’s About page.)  In April, it was chosen as one of the lucky few to be accepted into the summer program of Y Combinator (YC). Though the actual numbers aren’t announced, I’ve heard only 30 startups were chosen out of almost 1000 that applied. YC is an organization founded in 2005 that does seed funding for startups. Here’s how it explains what that means:

“Seed funding is the earliest stage of venture funding.  It pays your expenses while you’re getting started. Some companies may need no more than seed funding. Others will go through several rounds.  There is no right answer; how much funding you need depends on the kind of company you start.  At Y Combinator, our goal is to get you through the first phase. This usually means: get you to the point where you’ve built something impressive enough to raise money on a larger scale.  Then we introduce you to later stage investors or occasionally even acquirers.” (More on Y Combinator’s About page.)

YC’s application process is well explained on their site, a process FanChatter went through earlier this year, before their selection in mid-April.  After sitting on this story for some time, waiting for the TechCrunch post to break first (which is the normal way YC companies get announced), what follows is the result of a phone and email interview I did over the past few days with FanChatter founders Marty Wetherall and Luke Francl, who remain in Silicon Valley through August. (The third founder, Norm Orstad, was not available.) …  [Read More…]

Minutebids: Get Free Bids on Commercial Property Services

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minutebidsDo you own commercial real-estate or manage commercial property? Probably not – but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be paying attention to local Minnesota web startup Minutebids.com and the brains behind it:  Jon Coudron, Jeremy Raadt, Jerad Parish, and Seth Heiserman.

Minutebids is a free service for property owners/managers that saves them time by streamlining the process of obtaining multiple bids from reputable local service providers for property maintenance needs. Think lawn-care, snow removal, parking lot maintenance, landscaping, etc.

Of course there already are established players in this space, notably ServiceMagic.com (turn your speakers down) & ServiceLive.com – owned by IAC & Sears holding corp, respectively.  Yet Minutebids has some unique competitive advantages that, when added together, make it a compelling alternative:

  • A focus on commercial property: neither service is clearly targeting commercial property owners/managers.
  • Pay for performance model vs. pay per lead model: service providers only pay for bona-fide, actionable, and closed leads – contrary to the pricing model of the other two.
  • Service wizard with Microsoft Virtual Earth integration through the Bing Map API: This allows RFP’s to be uploaded/submitted painlessly and for service providers to bid projects online, in real time, without having to do a site visit/walk through. The competition doesn’t even come close to this feature.
  • Option to combine multiple properties and service types into one request: This saves the owner/manager time and increases the likely- hood for volume discounts. Again, unique to minutebids.

Minutebids has gone from concept, through R&D, to their recent beta launch (mid July) in less than six months and they’ve clearly established themselves as “better than the rest”. Their next step is to work directly with local service providers and property owners/managers to iron out any kinks, listen & lean from said users, and otherwise evolve as they prepare for their nation-wide roll-out campaign.

Time is of the essence as Minutebids must close-in on the incumbents before they discover the Minutebids difference for themselves, and thus potentially implement the very same feature-sets and technologies that minutebids is using to differentiate itself.  This is a common challenge faced by any startup that’s not first to market, and  in this case, I’d place my bets on the startup side with consideration to drive and agility.  Plus: how do you re-engineer your pricing model in the middle of the game if you’re ServiceMagic or ServiceLive? Remember, the primary differentiating factor is the Minutebids pay for performance approach to lead generation–a fundamental difference.

According to co-founder Jon Coudron, the market for commercial RE services is at-least a $40 billion/year industry and he’s not shy about his ambitions:

“We want to dominate this market segment and want to talk if you think you can help us”