Downtown : Innovation + Job News

Entrepreneurial incubation program Project Skyway was much heralded for its first round of tech acceleration. Although the initial cycle saw a couple of speed bumps--which the founders expected, given that it's the state's first seed-stage startup program--it resulted in the growth of several early-stage companies.
 
Now comes round two, with a quartet of businesses that are looking to be the next big thing in tech. Here's the lineup, which will be worth watching over the next couple of months:
 
YumZing: This service is similar to Yelp, but instead of collecting information on restaurants, it'll list menu items. So, if you want to find the best taco in town, or a list of creative cocktails, the site will guide you there.
 
HypeSpark: Users of this site can earn rewards and freebies by endorsing brands through social media.
 
Energy Resource Insights: An aggregator of data from thousands of reports, this service relies on a central database that can provide current information on regional energy programs.
 
Political Harmony: The name might sound like an oxymoron, but the site's creators intend for the service to help voters choose political candidates more effectively.
 
Focused on building companies that promise long-term and sustainable growth, Project Skyway provides mentorship and support. For this latest round, the competition was ferocious.
 
"These companies beat out ambitious entrepreneurs from five states and four different countries," says Project Skyway co-founder Casey Allen. "In a nutshell, they're all solid entrepreneurs that we believe are working on solid ideas."
 
Source: Casey Allen, Project Skyway
Writer: Elizabeth Millard

As Internet-based marketing continues to boom, a newer field is growing along with it: online reputation management.
 
That's good news for companies like Minneapolis-based Internet Exposure, a web design and development firm that specializes in helping companies keep track of what's being said online, and advises them on ways to increase positive buzz.
 
The firm added two new people within the last month, and is likely to bring on more in the year ahead if demand continues as expected.
 
"In the last five years, the issue of a company's online reputation has come up more and more," says Internet Exposure CEO Jeff Hahn. "Almost every new business meeting I have covers social media, and although it's more important to certain clients, all of them need to address it in some way."
 
Companies of any size, particularly those run by multi-hat-wearing entrepreneurs, can find it daunting to build a good reputation online through sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Google Plus. They might have an executive blog or a business website, but often they struggle with how to create true influence through social media.
 
Internet Exposure assists them by using search tools to see what's being said about the business, and then helping executives to use social media more effectively to create a positive image. If a company has negative reviews or feedback online, the firm has tactics that can help to push the comments lower in search results, and also works to address the feedback directly.
 
Hahn expects to see more interest in the tactics in the future, and as a result, Internet Exposure should see more growth as well. He says, "The Internet is still a bit in the 'Wild West' phase. So, we're excited to help people make these online tools work for them, instead of against them."
 
Source: Jeff Hahn, Internet Exposure
Writer: Elizabeth Millard

In classrooms around the world, Sophia is proving to be a very popular and very smart girl.
 
The online education site went live last March and experienced an overwhelming response, with people logging on from nearly 70 countries in just the first two days.
 
Now, just seven months later, Sophia has grown from start-up to robust enterprise, expanding from six to 13 full-time employees, plus approximately 25 contractors and consultants. Founder and CEO Don Smithmier, whom we profiled in February, anticipates more hiring in the coming year, as Sophia ramps up even more.
 
"We're now executing a plan that we'd put forth at the beginning, the goal of bringing Sophia to the world," he says. "We're getting traction, and seeing growth as a result."
 
Sophia is a free social learning community, focused solely on education. The service brings together teachers and students from around the world. Utilizing "learning packets" that combine text, video, and graphics, teachers can create educational units that can be viewed by everyone, or just a select group of students.
 
Smithmier notes that the approach falls into a growing new category of academics called "social education," in which access to learning is increased. He says, "We're talking about flipping the student-to-teacher ratio. So, instead of 30 students for every teacher, what you'll have are 30 teachers for every student."
 
The strategy can be particularly effective, he adds, because people tend to "click" with some teachers but not others. Exposing students to so many teachers and different teaching styles keeps those relationships clicking.
 
As Sophia keeps expanding, in both employees and reach, Smithmier anticipates that the company will be doing more work on its learning programs and refining its offerings. "We want to make Sophia nationally known, and eventually globally known," he says, then laughs. "I guess we just want to be world famous."
 
Source: Don Smithmier, Sophia
Writer: Elizabeth Millard

Local, fresh produce will now be easier to obtain for people who use food stamps, thanks to an initiative that allows more farmers markets to accept EBT (electronic benefits transfer) cards.

The program is a coordinated effort among Hennepin County, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota, the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP), and the City of Minneapolis. Launched last year with two markets, the program has been expanded this year as an incentive for people to shop at the markets and eat healthier foods.

Those participating in the program will receive "Market Bucks" coupons, which match the first $5 in EBT card purchases with an additional $5 in coupons. Participating farmers markets are Midtown, Minneapolis, Northeast, West Bank at Augsburg, West Bank at Brian Coyle Community Center, and West Broadway.

"Technically, it was actually complicated to put into place, because EBT is designed to work in retail settings, at places that have Internet access," says JoAnne Berkenkamp, Program Director for Local Foods at IATP. "We're pleased that so many people worked together to solve those issues and make this happen. Our hope is that we can craft a food system that works for everyone."

The program also benefits farmers, she adds, because it brings in more shoppers and encourages more purchasing. Last year, at Midtown Farmers Market--the first market in the Twin Cities to accept EBT cards--the number of people using EBT more than doubled over the previous year.

Berkenkamp notes that there are other markets and municipalities around the state trying to put a similar program in place, and she anticipates that the initiative will expand in the near future.

Source: JoAnne Berkenkamp, IATP
Writer: Elizabeth Millard

Social networking resources like LinkedIn and Facebook help to expand professional networks, but sometimes you just need the equivalent of a good phonebook.

Toward that end, a particularly valuable resource that lists women entrepreneurs is now being compiled by CoCo, a coworking and collaborative space that recently expanded into Minneapolis.

The project got its start when the founders of CoCo were talking about creating an advisory group of successful business people and entrepreneurs who could offer wisdom and advice, according to co-founder Don Ball.

"We created a short list of candidates that we might approach and it was apparent that we didn't have any women in the list," he says. "Kind of pathetic."

So, Ball tapped into his Twitter network to find a list of successful women entrepreneurs in Minnesota, and discovered that one didn't exist. He put a web form on CoCo's site to collect that information and immediately got questions asking for definition, such as "What do you mean by entrepreneur?" and "In what fields?"

"I made the list really open-ended," Ball says. "We're looking for information about any women entrepreneurs, however one interprets that. So, if you look at the list, you'll see that we have some diversity in peoples' pursuits, which seems healthy and appropriate. I don't need to set the criteria on the collection end. People who want to access the list can determine what kind of entrepreneurs they're interested in knowing about and connecting with."

Currently, the list has about 75 entries, and Ball is hoping to get many more and turn the information into a searchable, sortable database so that the data is more usable.

If the initiative is successful, Ball envisions similar efforts for other directories, like compiling the area's innovators, social entrepreneurs, Hispanic entrepreneurs, or green-energy business owners.

Source: Don Ball, CoCo
Writer: Elizabeth Millard

Pub Standards MN
Thursday, July 14, 6�8 p.m.
Psycho Suzie's
1900 Marshall Street NE, Minneapolis

Join in the monthly meet-up of Pub Standards MN to "drink, talk shit, complain, and commiserate" with other web professionals, as their website states.


Annual UEL Summer BBQ
Wednesday, July 20, 3�6:30 p.m.
University Enterprises Laboratories
1000 Westgate Drive, St. Paul
Free

Call 651-641-2804 or email [email protected] to rsvp for this annual gathering at the biosciences research center and early-stage company incubator.

Creativity in the Digital World � MIMA event
Wednesday, July 20, 5:15 p.m.
McNamara Alumni Center, U of M Campus
200 Oak Street SE, Minneapolis
Free to $45

Heath Rudduck, chief creative officer at Campbell Mithun, will present at this event from the Minnesota Interactive Marketing Association (MIMA). Registration and cash bar at 5:15 p.m.; presentation at 6 p.m.; networking, food & cash bar at 7 p.m. Pre-register for $40 (free for MIMA members and students) or walk in for $40�$45.


Hacks/Hackers Twin Cities
Hacked! - Why You Should Care about Privacy in Social Media
Thursday, July 21, 6 p.m.
Public Radio International
401 Second Ave. N., Suite 500, Minneapolis

Join the newly established Hacks/Hackers Twin Cities for a conversation about privacy and security in social media.


Bootstrappers Breakfast
Thursday, July 28, 7:30�9 a.m.
Wilde Roast
65 SE Main St., Minneapolis
$10
Early stage technology startups compare notes on operational, development, and business issues with peers who "eat problems for breakfast." Moderated by start-up lawyer Kevin Spreng.


CoCo/Project Skyway Grain Exchange opening party
Saturday, July 30
400 South Fourth Street
details TBA

The early news is that CoCo and Project Skyway will celebrate the opening of their Minneapolis space at the Grain Exchange on July 30. Watch for details on their websites.


Visit Tech.MN for a full listing of tech-related events.

After picking up speed over the last month, Minnesota's first tech accelerator is set to cruise with its first class of companies.

Following a weekend-long "bootcamp" June 10�12, Project Skyway chose eight "Skywalkers" from the field of 25 semi-finalist companies. Over the course of the weekend, the companies pitched their own and each other's ideas to fellow entrepreneurs, Project Skyway organizers, and the public. They attended roundtables with lawyers, investors, accomplished tech and software entrepreneurs, and others, and they met potential investors and customers.

"They certainly got a lot out of it," whether they moved on or not, said Project Skyway founder Cem Erdem of the 25 bootcampers. Project Skyway asked many of those not selected to apply for the next round after fine-tuning their ideas, adding a business partner, raising capital, or otherwise advancing their businesses.

After the bootcamp, the companies were rated by all involved, including each other and members of the public. In the end, eight were chosen:

COR² Technology--The company offers a cloud-based business-process and work-flow automation service to help organizations with 5 to 500 co-workers eliminate piles of paper by integrating simple applications with unlimited user licenses that power the whole organization.

Naiku--Naiku creates an affordable Software-as-a-Service that K-12 teachers use to easily individualize learning with a dashboard created by its proprietary analytics model.

Nitch--Nitch is an online platform for B2B collaboration and commerce.

Paypongo--Paypongo's service is a secure mobile payment solution that allows consumer-to-merchant transactions; consumer-to-consumer transactions; and merchant-to-merchant transactions, all through mobile devices. Transactions can originate from banking accounts or credit cards.

Qualtrx--Qualtrx is a new healthcare sales channel--an online solutions marketplace where healthcare providers publish patient-care needs, goals, and priorities, and where pharma and device vendors purchase these needs as "keywords" to make targeted needs-based proposals via the Qualtrx platform.

Telementry Web--TelemetryWeb helps makers of Internet-connected sensors and industrial devices build a new class of innovative, data-centric solutions by leveraging a ready-to-use, scalable Software-as-a-Service platform to secure, store, process, and integrate sensor data in novel ways.

Vanquish AP--VanquishAP is developing a real estate management platform that connects property managers, building owners, and tenants by creating local social communities while automating redundant tasks and centralizing logistics.

UHungry--UHungry is developing a social networking site to help college students save money and time by making it easy for them to place orders online at quick-serve restaurants with a group of friends while earning points to spend on future orders by completing tasks. This company, hailing from Long Island, was the only one not from Minnesota.

Erdem notes that the Skywalker companies are all early-stage companies, beyond the more basic start-up level.

Erdem and Casey Allen's video run-down of the eight Skywalkers gives an inside look not only at each of the companies, but at the Project Skyway decision process and model.

Cem and Casey Play-by-Play Skywalker Commentary from Casey Allen on Vimeo.

Although the accelerator class was intended to begin Aug. 1, Erdem sent an email this week informing the finalists that they would move forward now with the momentum of the bootcamp.
 
The class, and Project Skyway in general, will be based out of the tech accelerator's new shared space (with the co-working organization CoCo) in the Grain Exchange building in Downtown Minneapolis. Project Skyway plans a 'big party' at the end of July after the move in mid-July.

Erdem's personal email to each of the eight finalists reflects the tenor of his passion, and it sets the bar high for the participants:

"I bought into your vision," he writes, "but more importantly I bought into your purpose, your character, who you are. Our entire community will be watching you every step of the way. They are thirsty to see you succeed and bring the long lost entrepreneurial fame back to our region."

Source: Cem Erdem
Writer: Jeremy Stratton
 

St. Paul co-working group Co-Co and tech accelerator Project Skyway have joined forces to establish Co-Co's second location, this one on the old trading floor of the Minneapolis Grain Exchange building in Downtown Minneapolis.

The16,000-square-foot trading floor of the 1903 building will offer alternative office space for Co-Co's clients: freelance professionals, small businesses, and corporate workgroups; and it will provide working and meeting space for Project Skyway's twice-yearly classes of tech entrepreneurs, according to a press release. The space will also hold educational and social events hosted by CoCo.

The space is set to open July 5.

Project Skyway, billed as "Minnesota's first tech accelerator program for motivated entrepreneurs," is currently in its first round of assisting early-stage tech companies. Project Skyway will hold a weekend�long bootcamp, June 10�12, for 25 select companies at CoCo's flagship St. Paul location, which opened in 2010. Ten of those companies will be the finalists to go through the inaugural three-month program in the new Minneapolis space, starting in August.

Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak, whose office encouraged the move, said in the release that "entrepreneurs built our region in the 19th century, and their partnership will help a new generation of startups do the same in the 21st century."

Cem Erdem, founder of Project Skyway,and founder and CEO of the educational software company Augusoft, dubbed it "the Brain Exchange."

The organizations promise to post detailed space designs, images and videos in the coming weeks. In the meantime, they invite folks to visit the evolving space, every Wednesday through June 29, between 1 p.m and 5 p.m. (Email first.)

Source: CoCo, Project Skyway
Writer: Jeremy Stratton

The financial meltdown grounded his last venture, but serial entrepreneur David-Elias Rachie is back on the runway with a new startup, Adestinn, which will launch its services in June.

Adestinn is an employee vacation savings match program. It works similar to some retirement benefits programs, in which employers match a portion of their employee's contributions. Only in this case, employees are saving money for hotels, resorts, or vacation rentals for their next getaway.

Two years ago, Rachie was working on a modular, green building system that would allow hotel chains to quickly and efficiently construct medium-sized, limited-service hotels. Ten contracts were in place when the financial markets crashed, and suddenly no one was building or financing new hotels.

"It would have been a slam dunk at any other point in history up until that point," says Rachie.

Rachie knew the hospitality space well by this point, but he also knew his hotel construction startup would have to wait. So he started brainstorming and pitching ideas to an investor.

The question became: "How do you fill rooms?" says Rachie. "If you can do that without being a Priceline or Hotwire [discount websites known for squeezing lower and lower rates out of hotels], then hotels will love you."

The Adestinn idea piqued the interest of local investor Rob Furst, who has since funded the company. His $1 million investment in Adestinn is among those to qualify under Minnesota's new angel investor tax credit program.

Employees who participate can spend the funds at approved destinations in 30 different markets. In addition to major chains, Adestinn was seeking to add popular independent hotels with an online contest through its Facebook page.

Employers have to match at least 50 cents on the dollar in order to offer the benefit. Rachie says the cost is relatively small compared to what employers already spend on paid vacation time.

So far: 71 companies with 1.7 million employees are on board with the program. Rachie expects the number of employees offered the benefit in 2012 will be at least 5 million. Adestinn has 10 full-time employees in downtown Minneapolis and is preparing to open a call center, likely in the Fargo area.

"I almost didn't start this, because I had everybody saying you'll never get employers to do that in this environment, with 10 percent unemployment," says Rachie. "But I'm an entrepreneur, and you have to ignore a lot. What I've learned is that the biggest objections are the ones you should probably ignore the most."

Source: David-Elias Rachie, Adestinn
Writer: Dan Haugen

The growth of a Minneapolis nonprofit in 2010 suggests that despite the rough economy there was still a market for helping people save money.

The Center for Energy and Environment added 19 new jobs last year. The organization specializes in managing energy-efficiency programs, a service they've seen increasing demand for, says program and policy manager Carl Nelson.

"In the last three to four years it's really been ramping up, and we've been doing it for 30 years," says Nelson. "We have a lot of the institutional knowledge, capacity, and ability to do these programs. We've been ready and able to meet this demand."

As a result, the Center has been a frequent partner for state, federal, and community energy-efficiency programs.

The 19 positions added in-house tell only part of the story. The full impact of its programs extends to several contractors that help implement efficiency upgrades. Using federal government guidelines for job creation estimates, the Center supported roughly 130 jobs through its largest program, a small-business lighting program it runs with Xcel Energy.

Nelson says the Center plans to calculate a more detailed job estimate later in 2011.

Source: Carl Nelson, Center for Energy and Environment
Writer: Dan Haugen

A copywriter at a growing Minneapolis creative shop this week is laboring away like one of Santa's elves.

Only instead of toys, Tristan Jimerson's gifts to the world are ideas. One every 15 minutes. All day long. Every day this week.

It's called an Ideathon, and it's the holiday gimmick/brainchild of Modern Climate (previously Wolfmotell), a creative agency with about 30 full-time employees in downtown Minneapolis.

Jimerson is sitting in a room with a pencil, a Sharpie, a ruler, three markers, three books, a stack of paper, a fax machine and a web cam. Anyone can go online and request an idea, and the fax machine will spit it out for Jimerson to skim.

The rules: Jimerson has two minutes to choose an assignment. Then he has 15 minutes to come up with an idea to address the assignment, and then another two minutes to present the idea to the web cam. Then it starts again.

Keith Wolf, co-founder and chief creative officer, says the concept was about creating a fun holiday promotion, as well as a discussion about the creative process.

"It was really about looking at the creative process," says Wolf, "and pushing it in a direction so the...creative process is what gets discussed."

As of late last week, it appeared to be working already. The experiment earned a mention on Agency Spy and other blogs, and the Twitter feed had picked up a couple hundred followers. The reaction has been a mix of enthusiasm and skepticism.

"Some people," says Wolf, "are kind of scratching their heads and saying those guys in Minneapolis are banging pots and pans."

The Ideathon will continue through 4 p.m. Friday, Dec. 17 at http://www.modernclimate.com/ideathon/

Source: Keith Wolf, Modern Climate
Writer: Dan Haugen

'Tis the season for "prize philanthropy."

StoneArch Creative, a Minneapolis company that specializes in health and medical marketing, is giving away $1,000 a day this week to the causes that generate the most tweets for its campaign.

Anyone can vote for a non-profit by posting a public message to Twitter that includes the tag #MyTweetWish. At the end of each day StoneArch will tally a winner.

"My hope would be that we get a nice response from across the country or globally versus just locally," says Jessica Boden, StoneArch's executive creative director.

Boden says StoneArch is celebrating "a great year." Its focus on health and medical marketing has made the 26-year-old agency less vulnerable to economic ups and downs.

Health and medical companies make up 95 percent of StoneArch's clients. The agency bolsters that specialty by hiring employees who come from both the medical and creative worlds, Boden says. That's key to understanding  the technical aspects of products they support.

"It's just a much different dialogue than talking to someone who's buying shoes," says Boden.

Until a few years ago, the company's clients were almost entirely based in the Twin Cities, but in 2010 StoneArch continued to gain traction nationally, says Boden. Highlights included winning work as the agency for Abbott Vascular's drug-eluding stent business.

Source: Jessica Boden, StoneArch Creative
Writer: Dan Haugen

A Minneapolis product development shop is partnering with a British telecommunications research firm to come up with new wireless products that use both companies' technologies.

Logic PD announced the strategic partnership with Roke Manor Research last week. The arrangement also gives both companies new contacts for selling across the pond.

Scott Nelson, Logic PD's executive vice president and chief technology officer, says the two companies got to know each other while working on a project for a client they had in common.

"We both fairly quickly identified the ability to be more together," says Nelson.

Roke Manor Research is an engineering and technology company with strong expertise in miniaturized radio frequency antennas. Logic PD brings design and creative strengths, says Nelson. The two companies will collaborate on work for clients, and they also think they'll be able to develop new products faster and with more features by sharing expertise and technology.

Logic PD was founded by two industrial designers in the 1960s and in the decades since then it's expanded its expertise to include mechanical engineering, electrical, and software.

"An entrepreneur or any company can show up at our doorstep with their idea and we can help them get that product to market," says Scott Nelson, Logic PD's chief technology officer.

The company employs about 100 people at its product development center in downtown Minneapolis, and another 300 at a manufacturing site in Eden Prairie.

Source: Scott Nelson, Logic PD
Writer: Dan Haugen

Give, and you shall receive. That's a lesson learned for Minneapolis branding and design consultancy Imagehaus.

Creative Director Jay Miller started a giving program when he founded the company in 2000. Last month, the firm calculated that it's provided more than $2 million worth of services to nonprofits.

When Imagehaus saw its big-box retailer work shrink in recent years, it was able to fall back on some of those same nonprofits when they returned as paying customers, says Miller.

Twin Cities nonprofits are invited to apply for a grant on Imagehaus' website. The company chooses about one per quarter. Alumni can later get additional services at cost.

The four-person firm recently purchased an 1,800-square-foot commercial condo in the SOHO Lofts building and will be moving there from the other side of downtown early next spring.

As a branding firm, Imagehaus helps retailers come up with names, logos, and store concepts. Besides its nonprofit work, Miller says they benefit from having a mix of large and small clients.

"Our business model has always been very diversified," says Miller.

That's helped them in terms of stability, but also in a creative sense. They're able to take what they learn from working with big-box retailers and apply it to mom-and-pop stores, and vice versa.

"We learn from both--different things," says Miller. "When you have your smaller companies and smaller budgets, it challenges you to be creative in different ways."

Miller says he expects owning instead of renting will reduce the company's overhead and hopefully help it add employees in 2011.

Source: Jay Miller, Imagehaus
Writer: Dan Haugen

When it comes to boosting participation in health and wellness programs, employees respond to goals and rewards � especially when the message isn't coming from their employer or health insurer.

That's the conclusion of a national health engagement survey commissioned by Minneapolis-based RedBrick Health.

RedBrick Health is a health technology company that partners with employers on health and wellness programs. Chief Marketing Officer Eric Zimmerman says they commissioned the survey to get a better sense of what employers are doing and what's working when it comes to employee health engagement.

Employers spend significant money on health and wellness programs, which can lower health insurance costs and increase productivity. But many of these initiatives suffer from anemic participation levels, often preaching to the health-conscious choir and reaching only around 10 percent of employees, says Zimmerman.

The survey results show, however, that engagement is not universally low, and patterns emerge among the programs that are seeing higher participation rates. Programs that involved setting goals saw 63 percent higher engagement levels, while programs that rewarded meeting those goals with incentives saw 107 percent greater engagement.

Another characteristic associated with success: having a program administered by a third-party other than the company's health insurance provider. Zimmerman speculated that it could be a trust issue, or it could be a matter of specialization, and that having a company like RedBrick that focuses on engagement can deliver better results because it's all they do.

Another finding in the survey was that many employers plan to increase their spending on health and wellness programs, despite the mixed results. Says Zimmerman:

"There's a terrific sense of urgency to address the cost issue and a terrific appetite for a different approach."

Source: Eric Zimmerman, RedBrick Health
Writer: Dan Haugen