Innovation + Job News

Local custom manufacturing company Stratasys stands alongside some pretty big names on Fast Company's Transportation Top 10 list this year: names like Boeing, GE, and IBM.

Eden Prairie-based Stratasys was included on the strength of its work with Canadian company Kor Ecologic on the Urbee hybrid (pictured), a futuristic automobile that can run on free electricity from a garage-mounted solar panel and achieve 200 miles per hour using ethanol or gasoline.

The car's exterior body components were created using Stratsys' Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) technology, which creates thermoplastic prototypes, manufacturing tools, and parts directly from computer-aided designs (CAD). The patented technology was invented by Statasys CEO Scott Crump.

While the technology has generally been used to make models, companies also use it to "build real parts that go into their end products," says Joe Hiemenz, public relations manager for Stratasys.

Stratasys' technology eliminates the need to build tools needed in traditional methods like injection molding, says Hiemenz The technology is cost-effective for limited-amount or high-end custom production; should the now-prototype Urbee go into mass production, however, traditional manufacturing techniques would likely be used, says Hiemenz.

Stratasys employs 400 people. Its products are used in the aerospace, defense, automotive, medical, business and industrial equipment, education, architecture, and consumer-product industries, according to a press release, in which Crump gave credit to KorEcologic for the recognition by Fast Company. Crump called the "groundbreaking car �a foreshadowing of the future" and "what transportation will look like 100 years from now."

Source: Joe Hiemenz, Stratasys
Writer: Jeremy Stratton

St. Paul-based Synovis Life Technologies received the Manufacturers Alliance Association's 2011 Manufacturer of the Year Award not so much for what it creates, but how it produces it.

The diversified medical device company makes implantable biomaterials, devices for microsurgery, and tools used in surgical repair and reconstruction of soft tissue damaged or destroyed by disease or injury.

The annual award, now in its 15th year, recognizes companies that use lean tools and techniques in their manufacturing. Synovis won in the mid-sized manufacturers' category.

""We started looking at lean five or six years ago," says Brett Reynolds, Synovis' chief financial officer. Synovis switched to the Kanban (or "just-in-time") product scheduling system, reducing its on-hand stores of inventory from 17 weeks to just eight weeks.

Furthermore, work cells organized by product line increased efficiency, says Reynolds. As a result, Synovis has been able to stay in its 65,000-square-foot facility despite an average annual growth of 25 percent over the past five years, and its on-time shipping rate has gone up to virtually 100 percent, says Reynolds.

The MAA award recognizes not only innovation in manufacturing, but a company's willingness and efforts to share those ideas and practices within the industry, something Reynolds says Synovis has been active in doing.

Its operations team shares ideas at conferences, and companies and educational groups tour the facility to see the manufacturing process, he says.

Synovis was founded in 1985 with $300,000 in revenue, a number that grew to almost $69 million last year, says Reynolds, who expects $80�85 million in 2011. Of its 300 employees, 200 work in St. Paul at University Avenue and Highway 280 on the border of Minneapolis.

Source: Brett Reynolds, Synovis Life Technologies
Writer: Jeremy Stratton

"I have long felt the future of journalism is about relationships with people," says Michael Skoler, vice president of interactive for Public Radio International (PRI)--between journalists and "the people we are meant to serve," he says.

Technology and the advance of new and social media are making that relationship more and more possible, and a new Twin Cities chapter of Hacks/Hackers aims to connect two sometimes disparate groups--journalists ("hacks") and technology professionals ("hackers")--whose realms are increasingly converging.

This Friday, PRI and the tech/entrepreneur organization Minne* spearhead the kickoff of the new chapter with a free event at PRI headquarters in Downtown Minneapolis. (Note: the event was full as of Monday, April 18.)

Hacks/Hackers is an international, multi-chapter grassroots movement "that is for hackers exploring technologies to filter and visualize information, and for journalists who use technology to find and tell stories," according to the Hacks/Hackers website.

Skoler and Minne*'s Ben Edwards and Luke Francl are the key organizers. At least 125 hacks and hackers will convene with food and drink to hear NPR's Matt Thompson speak about "data overload, the twilight of news brands" and more, according to the event notice.

The chapter's early work is to form a network and trade ideas--"get together and get inspired," says Skoler. Regular events, speakers and collaborations could follow; other established chapters have held project-based events like New York City's "Great Urban Hack,"  during which nerds and newshounds teamed up to turn public information into visual displays and community resources.

Skoler, now at PRI, launched Public Insight Media at Minnesota Public Radio in 2003 to engage the audience in the news process.

"I felt like the Twin Cities is a natural place for Hacks and Hackers," says Skoler, who approached Edwards and Francl earlier this year about the tech side of the partnership. PRI has been central in organizing, hosting and supporting the new endeavor, says Skoler.

The direction of the new chapter will largely be up to the network that grows out of it.

"To play in the new media world, you need to have deep contacts," says Skoler.

Source: Michael Skoler, PRI
Writer: Jeremy Stratton

The mayors of Minneapolis and St. Paul hope green will be gold when it comes to local businesses, manufacturing, jobs, products, and services.

Announced last summer and approved last fall, the first meeting of the Thinc.GreenMSP steering committee was convened by the mayors on April 13.

Thinc.GreenMSP is an economic-development partnership between the two cities, business, organized labor, nonprofits, and government to retain, grow and attract green-manufacturing businesses and jobs in the Minneapolis�Saint Paul region, which St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman envisions as "the center of a burgeoning green economy" in a press release about the endeavor.

The effort involves "buying and using locally made products from green manufacturers," as Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak stated in the release. The partners believe that demand will drive the need for workers to manufacture those products--and new and thriving businesses to employ those workers.

Thinc.GreenMSP involves five "strategic initiatives," according to the press release:

� a "Local Government Green Purchasing Partnership" to help grow the market for green products;
� support for local and state actions to utilize aggressive green building standards and create demand for manufacturers, vendors, and suppliers of green products and services;
� a green-business recruitment strategy to attract new businesses;
� private start-up funding to seed new, growing, or relocating businesses, with financing options to leverage public investment with private capital; and
 � a program to recognize corporate leadership in green manufacturing.

The Thinc.GreenMSP initiative falls under the larger joint effort between the cities to create a metropolitan business plan--part of a pilot project by the Brookings Institute. Earlier this month, mayors Coleman and Rybak traveled to Washington, D.C. to present the plan, which aims to improve the business environment, attract companies and "human capital," and foster innovation and entrepreneurship, among other goals.

The joint press release from the two cities includes the list of individuals from business, organized labor, government and nonprofits on the Thinc.GreenMSP steering committee.

Source: City of Minneapolis, City of St. Paul
Writer: Jeremy Stratton

A small Minneapolis design firm has been named winner of a big industry award.

Sevnthsin was selected last week as an honoree of the 15th annual Webby awards in the Mobile category of "Shopping--Tablets & All Other Devices" for the digital creative agency's iPhone, iPad, Android, and mobile internet applications for JCPenney.

Now 12 people strong, Sevnthsin began as a moonlighting freelance effort for owner and creative director Jamey  Erickson, who in June of 2006 quit his day job to form the firm as "literally just me and an intern," he says.

In 2007, Sevnthsin moved to its current Northeast Minneapolis location with six people and has experienced slow growth in the years since.

Among the firm's larger and national clients like JCPenney, Target, and Pabst BlueRibbon, some local favorites can be found, including hip-hop outfits Rhymesayers and Doomtree and local fashion designers.

"We still love to work with all of our small, hometown things that we care about," says Erickson.

Sevnthsin worked with The Nerdery Interactive Labs to develop JCPenney's Weekly Deals mobile applications.

Source: Jamey  Erickson, Sevnthsin
Writer: Jeremy Stratton

The local-government focus on fostering innovation and entrepreneurs echoes a larger effort underway at the federal level, such as the Obama administration's Startup America program, which made its stop in the Twin Cities earlier this month.

Federal officials from the Commerce Department,Patent and Trademark Office, Small Business Administration, and Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs led a number of "Reducing Barriers" roundtable discussions with local small businesses and large corporations to gauge what changes might be made to improve the environment for entrepreneurship and innovation.

Medronic hosted the event at its Fridley headquarters.

Officials intend to take the ideas that come out of the roundtable tour of eight U.S. cities back to Washington "to streamline and simplify unnecessary barriers," according to a description of the April 6 event. President Obama has given an executive order for federal agencies to "identify and take steps to eliminate or reduce regulations that are outdated or overly burdensome to entrepreneurs."

Ideas are also being collected online, where a list of strategies is growing daily.

Specifics from the Twin Cities roundtables were not yet available, but Nancy Libersky, district director of the Minnesota office of the SBA, says the ideas similarly ran the gamut-- "anything from small-government to big-government to non-government questions," says Libersky.

Likewise, changes implemented could range from the congressional level to local fixes, she said.

In similar news, the SBA held the first class this week for its e200 Emerging Leaders Program, through which selected small businesses receive training, mentoring, and other resources. As with Startup America, the Twin Cities is one of a select group to take part in the program.

"I think that Minnesota is really on the forefront of being highlighted, and I'm really hoping that this continues," says Libersky of the momentum of the programs.

Libersky sees both as part of a larger, necessary collaboration to improve the economic atmosphere for entrepreneurs.

"I think that everybody needs to work together," she says. "I think we have a huge gap that the entrepreneurs really need to fill, and the only way that they're going to be stronger is to help them. It's these types of programs that are really helping these entrepreneurs grow."

Source: Nancy Libersky, Minnesota Office of the Small Business Administration
Writer: Jeremy Stratton

"The only way that someone can come and license [technology or intellectual property] is if they know that it's there," says Darren Cox, founder and chief evangelist of Commerce and Search for Technology Transfer (CaSTT).

CaSTT is an online licensing tool that Cox developed to solve that problem for the University of Minnesota's Office for Technology Commercialization. It's working; In the past 12 months, Cox reports, the university executed more licenses online for a single item than all the other Big Ten schools did for all of their technologies combined during the year 2008.

"We built it just for our own office; we never intended any one else to use it," says Cox.

Seeing an opportunity, he spun CaSTT out of the university and hired a development team to write a new version of the software, which will debut later this month.

Cox and the U of M finalized a licensing agreement last week for the CaSTT trademark, says Cox. The U of M will receive a free license and will continue to use the upgraded software service, he said.

The commercial version facilitates licensing similarly to the original version--fully online, in some cases--but goes further into marketing, primarily through search engine optimization of technology descriptions.

Research-level communication, for example, is often very technical, "and they don't actually ever say what the thing does, and what you get when you license it," says Cox. "Part of our process is training people on how to figure out what it is people are actually searching for, and then our software takes that information and mechanically optimizes it in such a way that it is very, very easy for search engines to index that information and drive it to the top of search results."

Cox hopes the tool will expand tech transfer beyond its traditional arena to "the other seven-and-a-half billion people in the world.

"There are literally millions of pieces of intellectual property sitting on shelves at universities, national labs, research hospitals, and corporations all over the world that no one knows are available," says Cox.

A subscription to the software-as-a-service platform is $500 per month.

Cox was not able to divulge his list of potential clients, but CaSTT was close to signing a major local corporation in early April, and he said other companies and 150 universities are waiting for the debut of the new software.

Cox expects to close an equity round in June, at which time CaSTT will have been backed by $700,000 in post-university investment, for which Cox credits his connections and colleagues at tech accelerator Project Skyway.

Virteva CEO and Project Skyway mentor Tom Keiffer was CaSTT's first investor and now chairs its board. Virteva has provided development, hosting, and other infrastructure to the project, says Cox. Joy Lindsay, president and co-founder of StarTec Investments, is also an investor.

Source: Darren Cox, CaSTT
Writer: Jeremy Stratton

While web developers were burning the midnight oil, Overnight Challenge hosts The Nerdery were putting the finishing touches on an expansion that will more than double its Bloomington headquarters.

The 8-year-old web development firm is growing like crazy; the employee count stood at 205 last week, but don't blink.

"We're pretty much adding staff all the time," says Nerdery Communications Manager Mark Malmberg. "Almost every Monday new people are starting."

The buildout will bring the headquarters to 44,625 square feet, about half of which was being occupied in daily phases this week. The rest will be ready around the turn of the year, says Malmberg, likely just in time for the approximately 100 employees they expect to add by then.

New hires have mostly been developers, but The Nerdery has also seeing smaller departments expand--both its user experience and quality assurance departments have grown from a just one or two to 10 people. The company has also been adding account executives; two-thirds of its business is for more than 200 agencies in 30 states.

The expansion includes the addition of a 220-seat theater, in which the "big hive mind" will congregate on Friday late-afternoons for its weekly Bottlecap Talk, a "peer-to-peer with beer," as Malmberg puts it--a company tradition of sharing work from the week before.

The Nerdery will also let other organizations from the web development community, such as iPhone developers and PHP and Wordpress user groups, use the space, Malmberg says. "We like to be the hub for that sort of thing," he says.

The physical and staffing expansions reflect revenue growth, of course; The Nerdery "is tracking to $30 million" this year, says Malmberg.

Source: Mark Malmberg, The Nerdery
Writer: Jeremy Stratton

Minnesota's first tech accelerator, Project Skyway, is accepting applications through May 1 for its first three-month program, beginning in August.

For the inaugural round, Project Skyway will select ten software-as-a-service (SaaS) or mobile startups to receive mentorship, co-working space, $6,000 (per founder), two developers, and a connection to key players in Minnesota's emerging startup scene. In June, 25 semi-finalists will participate in a tech accelerator "boot camp," after which the ten finalists will be chosen.

Project Skyway is seeking founders of companies that are beyond the idea stage, preferably with some sort of online presence, according to FAQs posted online.

"We want you to have done some market validation," says Project Skyway mentor Darren Cox. "Go out and talk to your potential customers � do some research, at the very least."

It wouldn't hurt to be in the revenue stage, either.

"We're no different than any other investor, in that folks with revenue actually have something to point to that folks without revenue can't," says Cox.

That said, Project Skyway has "some pretty strong differentiators" from other accelerators, says Cox. "We don't believe that you must be a coder to be a successful technology entrepreneur." Thus the access to two full-time developers per funded company.

The $6,000 per founder amounts to living expenses, explains Cox. "The money is there to allow you to focus 100 percent of your time on building your company."

The greatest value of the accelerator program to the chosen "Skywalkers" will be the mentorship, resources and connections, says Cox.

"That's how you build a company--you build a groundswell of support for the idea and for the people who are shepherding that idea," he says.

The first round is focused on SaaS and mobile "because we really want to dial into the type of startups that we know we can provide the most help to right away," according to the FAQ page. Future accelerator rounds might venture into hardware, cleantech, social ventures, and other types of startups.

In exchange for the program, Project Skyway receives 6�9 percent "founders shares" of common stock from participating (and successful, assuming) startups.

Source: Darren Cox, Project Skyway
Writer: Jeremy Stratton

Nature Works doesn't make the plastic products you might use on any given day, it makes the plastic that makes them.

The Minnetonka-based company makes it greener, as well, and it now has the USDA's BioPreferred Program stamp of approval to back that up.

NatureWorks, a 100-employee company owned by Cargill, is the first plastics manufacturer to earn the "certified bio-based" label, and one of only 11 of any kind in the country to receive the new certification. (The BioPreferred program itself was created in 2002.)

NatureWorks received similar certification in Europe last year, says Steve Sterling, president Sterling PR and PR rep for NatureWorks.

The company's Ingeo line of biopolymer is made from industrial-grade corn instead of oil. Its production uses 48 percent less energy than traditional plastics, says Sterling, and produces 60 percent less CO2.

The polymer is used in packaging, electronics, clothing, housewares, health and personal care items, semi-durable products, and the food service industry, according to a press release.

Founded in 2003, the company is growing in double rates in terms of sales, says Sterling. NatureWorks manufactures 70 million pounds of its biopolymer a year--far and away the most of any company doing so, he says.

Sterling notes that the certification puts products made with 100 percent Ingeo on the government's preferred purchasing list of bio-based products. The Secretary of Agriculture has designated 5,100 bio-based products; the USDA estimates there are as many as 20,000 currently being manufactured in the United States, according to the press release.

Source: Steve Sterling for NatureWorks
Writer: Jeremy Stratton

This isn't the first recession Bill Moran's Blinc Publishing has survived.

Founded in 1996, the Lowertown print shop and design studio rode out the "dot bomb" collapse (largely on the back of letterpress printing, fittingly), and Blinc has emerged from the recent economic woes well positioned, if not unscathed.

After a "precipitous drop-off in work from clients, we sort of stumbled through 2009 and 2010," says Blinc proprietor Moran, "and then round about August, September, it just kicked back in again."

Now, the four-person shop is booked through midyear with work for clients like new customer Blue Plate Restaurant Company. Blinc recently helped them launch Scusi at St. Clair and Fairview in St. Paul and is now branding their next endeavor, The Lowry, which Blue Plate plans to open this summer near 22nd and Hennepin in Uptown.

Blue Plate is just one of the large, regular customers Moran is focused on. Blinc also helped long-time customer Minnetronix with the identity branding of a new product in January. Moran also mentions a few not-yet-for-publication projects on the horizon.

That may be a good sign for more than just Blinc, which Moran agrees serves as a bellwether for larger corporate activity. "My business is, in some ways, a reflection of [our clients'] business," he says.

Customers dialed down and halted projects in 2009 and 2010. Now, stalled projects have started moving forward, and Moran finds himself in less of a reactive position in terms of marketing to clients--focusing on fewer, larger customers and bigger projects, and even passing on work he would not (or could not) have two years ago.

The turnaround has allowed him to rehire two longtime employees, and another is sustained as a freelancer.

Meanwhile, buzz is generating around the Hamilton Woodtype Museum in Wisconsin, of which Moran is artistic director and his brother Jim is museum director. A documentary about it is making the rounds at film festivals, and PBS will soon begin airing the film.

Work from the Hamilton Museum and Moran's studio will also be featured in a retail poster shop, part of an exciting multi-firm and multi-tenant-space entertainment and retail development planned for Downtown St. Paul. (Stay tuned for more on this soon.)

Source: Bill Moran, Blinc Publishing
Writer: Jeremy Stratton

A new startup hopes to offer a safer and more effective treatment for atherosclerosis through its licensing of University of Minnesota medical technology.

Emad Ebbini, an electrical and computer engineering professor in the College of Science and Engineering at the University of Minnesota, led a team that developed the high-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) technology, according to a U of M press release. The university says it has finalized a license agreement with startup International Cardio Corporation, who declined to comment for this article.

Atherosclerosis is a condition in which arteries become blocked by a buildup of plaque, usually treated with drugs or angioplasty.

By contrast, HIFU is a noninvasive, real-time ultrasonic imaging and localized treatment of tissue abnormalities which developers hope may have even broader applications, including the treatment of cancer.

The form of non-ionizing radiation localizes treatment to small areas (the size of a grain of rice or a sesame seed, states the release) at a much faster rate than other current systems such as MRI.

The technology links imaging and therapy by returning dynamic images that allow doctors to almost instantaneously refocus the energy at the target--an outcome that can be faster, more precise, and safer than invasive surgery or radiation therapy.

The equipment necessary for HIFU is less expensive than other imaging techniques, such as MRI, making it more accessible to doctors and less expensive for patients, says the release.

International Cardio Corporation may submit the technology to the FDA for testing later this year.

Source: University of Minnesota
Writer: Jeremy Stratton

Everyone was a winner, and nothing was lost but sleep, quips The Nerdery of its fourth annual Nerdery Overnight Website Challenge, March 26�27, at which 175 web development professionals donated approximately a half million dollars worth of web design to help nonprofits further their missions.

Eighteen web design teams worked from 9 a.m. Saturday to 9 a.m. Sunday, after which the winner was announced: team TST Media, for their redesign of Bloomington United for Youth's (BUY) website.

(The new site was not yet live as of April 6, but you can see before and after snapshots on BUY's challenge page.)

Speaking with The Line, Nerdery Communications Manager Mark Malmberg reiterated that "it's a win" for each of the web teams to be chosen from the 46 that applied to donate their time. The number of teams has steadily increased each year, from 11 to this year's 18.

"What drives that number up is we keep getting qualified teams that want to do this, and it's hard to turn them away," says Mamlberg.

Through the event's four-year history, $1.5 million of pro bono services have been delivered to 57 Minnesota nonprofits, not including the hundreds of hours of follow-up support that web teams pledge before entering.

Like its signature event, The Nerdery has grown since its 2003 founding; the Bloomington-based web development company employs just shy of 200 people and consumes enough caffeine in a week to kill five adults, according to its website.

The Nerdery has a smaller, 12-employee office in Chicago, as well, where it plans to host a similar challenge in the early summer, says Malmberg.

Source: Mark Malmberg, The Nerdery
Writer: Jeremy Stratton

Hey entrepreneurs: how does $50,000 sound? Good?

Well how about $30 million?

The first amount is the take-away for the winner of the 2011 Minnesota Cup competition, through which entrepreneurs pit their best ideas and business endeavors against one another in six categories.

The higher number is the amount of capital raised by companies that were Minnesota Cup finalists in 2009 and 2010.

Through May 20, the seventh annual Minnesota Cup is open for entries in six award divisions--High Tech, BioSciences, Clean Tech and Renewable Energy, Social Entrepreneurship, General, and Student--through a short online form.
 
Later, judges will select 8�10 semi-finalists from each division who will prepare full business plans and be paired with an industry-specific entrepreneurial mentor.

Division winners are awarded as much as $25,000 and the chance at the grand prize--another $25,000--in September.

While 50 grand and the exposure of winning is nothing to sneeze at, Minnesota Cup Co-founder Dan Mallin notes that the goal is really to "help 30 businesses get started in each category," whether a given business is just a good idea or an existing startup.

"Another good outcome is they might find out it really isn't a good idea," says Mallin.

Participants also benefit from mentorship and resources--far more of which exist in general for the state's entrepreneurs since the advent of the Cup six years ago, notes Mallin.

Two of those resources are the new 2011 partners Minnesota Angel Network and tech accelerator Project Skyway, which will offer the winner of the High Tech division a spot in its startup "boot camp."

Mallin says he sees momentum in the startup scene.

"The Cup is an attempt to be a conduit amongst the players and resources behind that momentum," he says.

That said, Mallin also sees a lot of room for improvement in state's entrepreneurial efforts. "We're being outspent by 30 other states in innovation," he says.

Source: Dan Mallin, Minnesota Cup
Writer: Jeremy Stratton

"Like Twitter for machines" is the shorthand explanation Erik Rorvick gives for the company Exosite.

The Minneapolis-based machine-to-machine (M2M) company's cloud-based data platform connects users to real-world data from sensors and devices.

The conduit is Exosite's One Platform, and many more customers will be using it following the company's deal this month to partner with Fortune 200 company Arrow Electronics. Arrow serves as a supply channel partner for more than 1,200 suppliers and boasts 115,000 customers across a network of 340 locations in 52 countries.

Since its founding in 2009, Exosite has had its "head down" focusing on the development of the cloud-based platform, says Rorvick, Exosite's business development manager. A release in the past month of Exosite's One Platform means it can "push and pull data on any internet-connected device," says Rorvick. The platform is built to handle millions of users and devices concurrently, he says.

Exosite's core focus has been on industrial process, heavy embedded electronics, and the like. Customers might monitor poultry temperature, a patient's medical device, or a complex computer system, Rorvick says.

Applications for Arrow could range from a water-pump monitor for a hobbyist's fish pond to an enterprise software platform to launch a product or corporation.

He calls the partnership a "paradigm shift" for Arrow's business model, while Exosite gains access to Arrow's coast-to-coast sales team. The deal will significantly increase the number of users and puts Exosite in a very good position to grow and reach new markets, says Rorvick.

The big picture is the emerging economic trend of big corporations like IBM, Cisco, Microsoft and Hewlett Packard embracing the connected device and embedded internet, says Rorvick,??

"It's really exciting to see the really big players address and embrace and take some of the mystery out of it," he says.

Source: Erick Rorvick, Exosite
Writer: Jeremy Stratton