Minnov8

Showcasing Minnesota Technology Innovation

Minnov8 Gang 282- Miss Fit

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Tim’s “Cool Thing of the Week” inspired this week’s show name and image, but we had a lot more interesting stories to cover and did. Some serious, some not so much.

Hosts: Steve Borsch, Tim Elliott, Graeme Thickins and Phil Wilson.
Music: Banjo Tango by Cynthia Sayer. Brought to us by the podsafe Music Alley.

The Podcast

Podcast: Download (Duration: 1:12:28 — 42.4MB)

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Discussed During the Show
Minnesota’s Top Stories
spacer-m8Other Top Stories
spacer-m8Other Links to Topics Discussed During the Show
spacer-m8Steve’s Security Tip of the Week
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spacer-m8Upcoming Events

Minnov8 Gang 198 – The Future Accelerates

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Ray Kurzweil, author, inventor, futurist, and now a director of engineering at Google, has his eyes and mind on the future and one thing has been clear in everything he’s written, spoken about and focused on: We are living in a time of accelerating change and that change is exponential. The Gang continues to be amazed by even the incremental shifts occurring in so many technology areas and this week’s podcast touches on so many of them there isn’t one central theme to the show!

Hosts: Steve Borsch, Tim Elliott, Graeme Thickins and Phil Wilson.
Music: Hey Miss Bessie by Charles Musselwhite. Brought to us by the podsafe Music Alley.

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The Podcast

Podcast: Download (Duration: 1:00:40 — 35.7MB)

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Discussed during the show…

Upcoming Events…


Minnov8 Gang 128 – Cloud Money

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The 2011 summer acceleration in all-things-tech continues unabated. The Gang discusses the continued explosion in cloud services and how many are driving toward “cloud money” by monetizing their offerings, or offering cloud strategies with the intent of being in-the-game and making money on cloud uses (e.g., Twitter, Best Buy’s Music Cloud, respectively).

Hosts: Steve Borsch, Tim Elliott, Graeme Thickins and Phil Wilson.
Music: “Draggin’ Down” by Angie & the Car Wrecks via the podsafe Music Alley.

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The Podcast

Podcast: Download (Duration: 55:57 — 32.6MB)

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Discussed during the show:

Apply for the Minnesota Angel Tax Credit for 2011

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If you are raising capital for your tech startup, get certified for the Minnesota Angel Tax Credit as early as possible this year. The Angel Tax Credit is a huge incentive for investors. It helps them manage the risk associated with new ventures, and it may also indicate that your company is a safer bet than an uncertified company.

The Minnesota Angel Tax Credit is an income tax refund equal to 25% of all eligible investments. There is over $12 million per year available to investors for 2011 through 2014, but less than $2.5 million was allocated to 19 companies in 2010, so there is plenty of room for more companies and investors to participate in the Angel Tax Credit program this year.

…  [Read More…]

Minnov8 Gang 85: Are Angels Crying?

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After yesterday’s post, “Is Perception the Reality with MN Venture Funding?” we received a lot of email and some comments about the state of angel and venture investing in Minnesota. There is a lot of buzz amongst startups (and wannabees) who feel like this State is risk averse and a place where angels and VCs focus on the ‘easy’ spaces: medtech and healthcare.

Pete Birkeland

Is that true? We talk with Pete Birkeland, CFO at RAIN Source Capital, the largest network of Angel Investment Funds in US. Pete is part of a team that manages 23 funds in 6 six states with $40 million under management and is a guy who has worked in this area for 10 years on both the entrepreneurial and investor side.

Hosts: Steve Borsch, Tim Elliott & Graeme Thickins (Phil Wilson is off this week).
Music by The Varatones and their song, “Surf Blaster” from Music Alley.

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The Podcast

Podcast: Download (Duration: 59:59 — 34.7MB)

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Discussed During the Show:

Dan Mallin Presents MN Science & Tech Committee Findings

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Pretty sobering assessment of our state and the future of innovation here….we might not have one if we don’t get moving in a positive direction!

Minnesota faces a crisis of competitiveness in attracting high-tech industries, and needs a comprehensive science and technology initiative to remedy the problem. A 16 member committee of experts from the public, academic and private sectors have been assembled to assess the challenge and make recommendations to the legislature, and on February 16th, Co-Chairman Dan Mallin (@danmallin, partner in Magnet360 and co-founder of the Minnesota Cup) presented the findings of the committee to the state legislature.

The full report is available on the DEED (Department of Employment and Economic Development) website here. Watch these videos in two parts and listen to the end for the recommendations the committee makes around incentives for investors to accelerate funding for startups and growth of companies in Minnesota:

httpvhd://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxQ_-dLcKFg

httpvhd://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0DDzQJXW6Kw

Minnov8 Gang Podcast – Episode 37

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martinyman1Our guest this week is Marti Nyman, a senior business development executive with more than 20 years of success in areas within the Energy, Telecommunications, and Consumer Retail sectors, and, most recently, was responsible for the formation and launch of Best Buy’s Venture Capital practice.

Nyman, along with serial entrepreneur John Montague, are off on a new adventure — certain to make a big impact on the startup climate here in Minnesota — called “40 Ventures” and he tells us all about their innovative model of a fund for startups.

Hosts: Steve Borsch, Tim Elliott, Graeme Thickins and Phil Wilson.

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The Podcast

Podcast: Download (Duration: 41:32 — 24.0MB)

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Discussed During the Show Notes:


JPMorgan Internet Investment Guide

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Nothing But NetFor Minnesotans interested in starting up or expanding within the internet space in these challenging economic times, solid financial sector analysis is often difficult to obtain. For anyone who has pitched their idea, concept or business plan, it’s clear how important it is to put oneself in the shoes of investors, venture capitalists and banks providing the capital you require, and a great way to do that is to gain a more solid understanding of the data they’re using to make strategic investment decisions.

In addition, if you’re an investor with any money left in your 200.5k (i.e., half of a 401k) and could stomach some internet investing, then viewing opinions and recommendations on where to invest is key.

In both cases, an analysis of the potential of various sectors of an internet economy — by one of the world’s leading financial institutions, JPMorgan — is reason enough to spend the time necessary go through their “Nothing But Net” report.

Highlights of areas covered within it include:

  • US Sector Outlook
  • Ad Networks on the Rise
  • eCommerce Outlook
  • The Mobile Market
  • Social Networks Primer
  • Cloud Computing Outlook
  • Internet for Social Good

…and much more.

The paper is embedded after the jump along with a download link….  [Read More…]

2008 Investor Fraud Traps

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Whether you’re an angel investor listening to startup pitches or an innovator considering funding sources, now is a time to be extra careful with anything related to money, credit, lending or capital of any kind — especially if you’re a participant in a social or affinity network or if you’re transparent with your blog and other online participation (which give scammers lots of ammo to use to pitch you).

The Minnesota Department of Commerce just released this 2008 Investor Fraud Traps listing (in alphabetical order) and offer it as a warning:

Deficient Disclosure: The recent investigations by state securities regulators related to auction-rate securities (ARS) have reinforced that investors should remain cautious when pitched complex investment products accompanied by deficient disclosures or when advised to concentrate their investments too heavily in one investment product. It is best to avoid investment pitches that would lead you to put all of your eggs in one basket, especially if it’s a basket you don’t fully understand.

Energy Scams: The substantial increase in energy costs has made scams related to energy more prevalent. State and provincial securities regulators are seeing not only shady oil and gas investments, but also scams that promise the development of new technologies to increase the efficiency of energy consumption or to extract energy from sources previously thought too expensive to develop.

Online Affinity Fraud: In a new twist on affinity and online investment fraud, Tyler said NASAA members are concerned that unscrupulous individuals are trying to use social networking websites to lure people to meetings that may promote fraudulent or unsuitable investment products. “Social networking websites create an environment ripe for affinity fraud,” Tyler said. “Fraudsters can take advantage of the fact people freely share information with both their real and ‘virtual’ friends by posting it to their profile,” Tyler said. “Communication tools provided by some social networking websites make it easy to advertise and promote investment scams to a wide audience for free.” Investors need to do their own research before making an investment and should not simply rely on ‘expert’ advice given at a seminar or meeting.

…  [Read More…]

Minnov8 Gang Podcast – Episode 7

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We were absolutely delighted this week to have three very special guests who joined the Gang for a discussion about ‘net and web innovation in Minnesota:

– Katharine Grayson: Staff Writer for the Twin Cities Business Journal. Katharine covers the internet and web technology beat for the paper, but she’s also expanded into other technologies (e.g., MSP solar array funding, biotech) giving her unique perspectives.

– Julio Ojeda-Zapata: Reporter for the St. Paul Pioneer Press, blogger, and author (his new book, “Twitter Means Business: How Microblogging Can Help or Hurt Your Company” will be on bookshelves soon). Julio can be reached at jojeda@pioneerpress.com. Get more of his perspective on personal tech at twincities.com/techtestdrive and yourtechweblog.com. You can also follow him at twitter.com/jojeda.

– Jon Gordon: Future Tense, a show which you’ve undoubtedly heard broadcast during Minnesota Public Radio’s Morning Edition program. The show is both produced and hosted by Jon Gordon, a Minnesota Public Radio reporter based in Silicon Valley. Follow Jon at twitter.com/jongordon.

Hosts: Steve Borsch, Tim Elliott, Graeme Thickins, Phil Wilson

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The Podcast

Podcast: Download (Duration: 1:04:41 — 37.6MB)

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Show Notes:

+ Julio’s post on Minnesota Public Radio’s new, free iPhone app (get it here) done by Codemorphic

+ Discussion on broadband where Minnesota’s Ultra High Speed Broadband task force came up (latest minutes are here in this PDF) and Jon mentioned a show he’d done (here) and his interview with a cybersecurity firm called Packet Clearing House.

+ As you listen, you may notice at times the audio is a bit “hot” and I apologize for that — there’s a bit more distortion than normal and I couldn’t minimize it enough in post-production. We tried a new, high quality ‘bridge’ recording platform (HiDefConferencing) — instead of using a single Gang-member hosted Skype conference call — and while it allowed our guests to easily call in with a combination of Skype, landlines or mobile phones, it was more challenging to control levels. I’ll have it figured out by next time.

Podcast: Download (Duration: 1:04:41 — 37.6MB)

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