Entrepreneurship : Innovation + Job News

Quality Bicycle Products (QBP) Founder Steve Flagg is emphasizing the "and" in the new "Purpose AND Profit" program, which will provide seed grants of up to $5,000 for student green-business ventures at the University of Minnesota.
 
QBP has made a two-year commitment to the Carlson School of Management's Gary S. Holmes Center for Entrepreneurship, which has engaged in similar partnerships in the past.
 
Small seed grants matched with other investment capital might be used for development work or the design of a website or product, explains Holmes Center Director John Stavig. The center also provides legal and accounting advice, and mentoring by alumni, businesses and other volunteers.
 
"It's amazing what the students can do with a small amount of money," says Stavig.
 
Some past Holmes Center startups have gone on to become successful businesses, including NewWater and Bright New Ideas.
 
This round of QBP-backed ventures must combine environmental stewardship, community service or biking advocacy with sustainable business practices--corporate goals that are by no means at odds, Flagg explains.
 
"To have a vision and a purpose and values, you have to be around tomorrow to realize the benefits," says Flagg, whose LEED-certified headquarters in Bloomington sport one of the largest solar installations in Minnesota.
 
Sources: John Stavig, Gary S. Holmes Center for Entrepreneurship; Steve Flagg, Quality Bicycle Products
Writer: Jeremy Stratton

The international organization Ashoka has been effecting social change for more than 30 years in over 70 countries. So why did Ashoka's national organization look to the Twin Cities to pilot a new kind of local chapter?

"The Twin Cities is great at sort of homegrown solutions," says Jennifer Aspengren, director of the Ashoka Twin Cities. The chapter was launched in January 2010 with a $99,000 startup grant from The John S. & James L. Knight Foundation, a national partner that is "particularly interested in St. Paul," says Aspengren.

Other factors were Ashoka's Minnesota Changemakers and YouthVenture programs, and that its four active Twin Cities fellows comprise the largest concentration of Ashoka fellows outside of the coasts.

Ashoka fellows are "very, very rare individuals who are making very high-impact systems changes," says Aspengren. They receive $30,000�$50,000 annual stipends, as well as the support of Ashoka's global network of fellow social entrepreneurs and businesses.

Ashoka Fellows Conchy Bretos & Felipe Vergara, both from Miami, will speak at a free Ashoka Solutions Forum on Feb. 8 at the Walker Art Center. The 7 p.m. forum, sponsored by InCommons, Maslon Edelman Borman & Brand, and the Knight Foundation, will focus on three major challenges to growing and expanding a social change initiative: capital, talent, and marketing.

An afternoon session (invite-only) will convene representatives from local businesses including General Mills, Wells Fargo, 3M, and Best Buy.

Private-sector entrepreneurs are an important part of the Ashoka network, says Aspengren, in terms of funding, expertise, and strategic support. "It's the same thing they've been doing in the private sector," she says, "but just trying to push a different question in the public sector."

While Ashoka has local presences in other cities, the Twin Cities chapter is the first to "plant a staff person on the ground," says Aspengren. Its goal is "mapping out how to start building new chapters and integrate Ashoka programs in a new city," she says.

Source: Jennifer Aspengren, Ashoka Twin Cities
Writer: Jeremy Strattton

You don't always want to bore your Facebook friends with work-related updates, just like you don't always want to share personal details with your LinkedIn colleagues. Some video gamers have another layer of identity to manage: their online gaming personality.

A Minneapolis startup is developing a social network called Evolve that's built specifically for PC gamers. Echobit has raised $270,000 in angel funding and it hopes to find another $750,000 in funding by summer. The site is currently in a closed beta testing mode. (Sign-up here if you want to try it out.)

"To a slightly younger set we would describe it as Fight Club for gamers, sort of a discreet social network that helps gamers find each other," says co-founder Adam Sellke. And to an older set? "We just say, essentially, it's a knitting circle, but a lot cooler."

Most multiplayer, online games for PCs have social aspects built in already. You can chat with other players or receive updates on their play. The problem is that all of these networks are siloed by game or publisher. Unless you happen to be playing the same game as a friend, you have no idea what they're doing.

Evolve is different in that it's game-agnostic--it doesn't matter what game you or your friends are playing. A pop-up dashboard that can be toggled on and off the screen lets you chat with, and see updates from, all of your gaming friends, regardless whether they're playing the same game at the moment.

Why might that be useful? Maybe you're playing Counter-Strike but you notice a friend is playing World of Warcraft. Maybe you decide to hop over to that game instead, or perhaps you ping him a chat message telling them to join you in your game.

The founders demonstrated the software at this month's MinneDemo event. See the video below via TECHdotMN:



Source: Adam Sellke, Echobit
Writer: Dan Haugen

A public-private partnership plans to launch a new web portal this summer aimed at better connecting Minnesota startup companies and angel investors.

The Minnesota Angel Network is the result of two years of planning by the BioBusiness Alliance of Minnesota and several partner organizations, all stemming from a recent report that identified a need for better "full-spectrum" funding opportunities for growing companies in Minnesota.

The network won't be funding companies, nor will it be making recommendations about what companies deserve investment. Instead, it'll be a clearinghouse of standardized information about startups seeking money.

"Although there are investors throughout the state that are looking for deals, there's no single resource or single access point where they can find quality deals. They can only find the ones that are in their own network," says Todd Leonard, director of the Minnesota Angel Network.

The goal is to standardize a process to help entrepreneurs prepare and organize all of the information that investors are going to expect from them. They'll enter summaries and business plans into a standardized format, and then have them reviewed by mentors to make sure all the pieces are in place.

Once a startup's information is ready, it will be added to the network. Certified investors will then be able to anonymously view summaries of any company in the system. Confidential or proprietary information about a company can be stored in the system and only revealed to specific investors with permission.

While the project is being initiated and hosted by the BioBusiness Alliance, it's meant to serve startups and investors in all industries, not just bioscience. The site is currently being beta tested and is scheduled to be up and running by the middle of this year, likely in July.

Source: Todd Leonard, Minnesota Angel Network
Writer: Dan Haugen

Sen. Amy Klobuchar outlined a national innovation agenda last week at an Innovation Summit at the University of Minnesota.

Klobuchar shared the stage at the Mayo Auditorium with Carlson Companies' chairman Marilyn Carlson Nelson, Medtronic CEO William Hawkins, and University research vice president Tim Mulcahy, among others.

"Innovation has always been a catalyzing force in the American economy," Klobuchar said.  "In recent years, however, the country has fallen behind in its efforts to research, develop, and compete in the global economy. We are resting on our laurels at a time when other countries, including China and India, are moving full-steam ahead."

Her strategy to help America regain its innovation edge consists of a series of targeted tax breaks and regulatory reforms, as well as a longer-term focus on improving science, technology, engineering, and math education.

Klobuchar has been collaborating on the legislation with U.S. Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, who also spoke at the event. Warner said too much brain power was wasted building a "financial house of cards," and that the country needs fewer financial engineers and more "real engineers."

Other speakers noted Minnesota's struggle converting basic research into commercial products, as well as efforts for the University of Minnesota to work more closely with private companies in the state.

Klobuchar is on the Senate Commerce Committee and chairs the Subcommittee on Innovation, Competitiveness, and Export Promotion.

Source: Sen. Amy Klobuchar Innovation Summit
Writer: Dan Haugen

What would cause a person to pour their life savings into converting their suburban home into a jungle-themed tropical birdhouse?

That would be the entrepreneurial drive.

Rainforest Cafe founder Steven Schussler gave a pep talk to the Twin Cities entrepreneurial community last week, speaking at a MOJO/Minnesota event in downtown Minneapolis. His talk centered around stories and anecdotes that appear in his recent book, It's a Jungle in There: Inspiring Lessons, Hard-Won Insights, and Other Acts of Entrepreneurial Daring.

"Life has been very interesting to me," said the New York native, who's been in Minnesota for 27 years and now considers it home.

The three and a half years Schussler spent trying to sell investors on the Rainforest Cafe were both financially and emotionally draining. Unable to convey his vision in words, Schussler began building the concept in his St. Louis Park home.

First he painted the walls black. Then he covered them with greenery. His tropical bird collection grew from a few to a few dozen. He added a couple tortoises. Then a full-scale waterfall, which required punching a hole in the roof. Then lights and mechanical displays. Then generators in the back yard to keep his house from blacking out the entire neighborhood. All while neighbors, then eventually he himself, began to question his sanity.

Luck and persistence paid off, and Schussler eventually found his angel investor. The Rainforest Cafe opened in the Mall of America on Oct. 4, 1994, and expanded to 45 locations on three continents over the next seven years. Schussler sold the business in 2000 for $75 million.

Today, Schussler spends his time working as a creative consultant for the retail, restaurant, and entertainment industries. He employs eight full-time people at his creative laboratory in Golden Valley, where they've developed new restaurants and attractions for Disney World, among other partners.

Source: Steven Schussler, Schussler Creative
Writer: Dan Haugen

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

Peapods, like a lot of its customers, is experiencing a growth spurt.

The natural toy and baby care store moved into a new, bigger space last week in the St. Anthony Park neighborhood of St. Paul.

Co-owner Dan Marshall says when the store's Snelling Avenue lease ran up, they wanted to buy a building instead of rent, in part so that they could make their retail space as environmentally sound as possible.

They settled on a former hardware store at 2290 Como Ave. The 3,000-square-foot store is about 50 percent larger than its previous Snelling Avenue location. It also moves them from a busy commercial corridor to a cozier feeling neighborhood, which they hope will appeal to customers.

"We were really drawn to the idea of being part of a community of small businesses and giving people more than one reason to come to the neighborhood and shop with us," says Marshall.

Peapods, which has eight employees, is known for carrying products like wood toys, cloth diapers and organic clothing. Marshall says they avoid selling things like mass-market plastic toys and instead focus on more environmentally friendly items.

Marshall is also known for his active role in the Handmade Toy Alliance, which is seeking to reform the testing and regulations for small, independent toy retailers and manufacturers.

The new store opened on January 6. Marshall says official grand opening events will be planned after they finish setting up and settling in.

Source: Dan Marshall, Peapods Natural Toys & Baby Care
Writer: Dan Haugen

At The Beauty Room in south Minneapolis, the iPad has become as indispensable to its stylists as a pair of scissors.

The six-year-old salon, which recently moved to a new location at 4300 Chicago Ave. S. in the Longfellow neighborhood, was having an increasingly difficult time coordinating the schedules of its 19 specialists. If a customer needed a perm, a wax, and a manicure, for example, a clerk would have to consult three separate paper calendars to find a window of time when all three specialists would be available.

"It was just a nightmare," says owner Mi Shaun Schmidt-Schwab.

In November, the salon switched to an all-electronic scheduling system that syncs to everybody's personal iPad, iPhone or iPod touch. Now, instead of someone at the front desk spending up to five minutes searching for an open time, any of The Beauty Room's specialists can quickly schedule clients from anywhere using their Apple device.

The same system also allows staff to check-in clients when they arrive, which automatically pings an alert to the stylists' iPad or iPhone. It's eliminated the need for front-desk staff to track down people in the often busy salon to tell them their next customer has arrived.

Schmidt-Schwab says switching to the iPad solution has freed up front-desk staff to focus more on customer service, things like greeting and making customers feel welcome, instead of being tied up on the phone. If a customer wants to book another appointment, the stylist can do that from their station while they're still in their chair.

Several stylists already owned Apple devices. Others have since purchased them. The app that runs the scheduling system costs $4.99. Schmidt-Schwab expects the investment will pay for itself by freeing up time from administrative tasks to focus on its services.

Source: Mi Shaun Schmidt-Schwab, The Beauty Room
Writer: Dan Haugen

One of the taglines for Refactr's project-tracking software is "more useful, not more features."

At the company's Northeast Minneapolis headquarters this year, it's also meant more employees.

The four-year-old software development agency more than doubled in size in 2010, as its three co-founders hired four new employees to refine and relaunch their project tracking app, Lean-to. The cloud-based service came out of "beta" last week and it now accepting paying customers. Accounts range from free for individuals to $99 a month for unlimited users and projects.

Lean-to has been on the company's to-do list since Refactr was incorporated in 2006. Initially, it was developed as a tool for the co-founders to collaborate on software projects. Co-founder Ben Edwards says they found too many project management tools are overly complicated and emphasize reporting for managers over convenience for developers using it.

"We're going to use this every day. We wanted it to be easy and out of the way," says Edwards.

Edwards, Jesse O'Neill-Oine, and Scott Vlaminck, however, quickly found themselves tied up with consulting and outside development work, so progress on Lean-to went slowly. This year, they decided to hire three developers and a marketing person to give full-time attention to its own products, including Lean-to and an idea management app called MileMarker.

"We just said we're going to make the commitment to get these products where they need to be in 2010," says Edwards.

Refactr is looking to grow more soon, too. Edwards says the company is seeking to hire a designer and another one or two more developers as soon as they can find the right candidates.

Source: Ben Edwards, Refactr
Writer: Dan Haugen

A trio of experienced Twin Cities software developers want to take their startup sensibilities and apply them to projects and products for more established companies.

Dan Grigsby, Tom Brice, and Pete Schwamb this week announced the launch of Drivetrain, an app development agency for mobile, web, and social networks.

Grigsby, who has successfully launched companies in the Twin Cities and Silicon Valley, says startups fundamentally need to be nimble and efficient with software projects. "Startups have to launch quickly, have things in the marketplace, and can't afford to get lost in the minutia and constantly push out launch dates," he says.

Drivetrain will aim to apply that same pace beyond the startup world. The Twin Cities is rich with large companies, many of which have a growing need for new software. Grigsby sees strong demand for marketing and branding apps, as well as business automation apps for managing in-house functions such as production and inventory.

Grigsby previously founded Mobile Orchard, a one-man mobile app development shop. His challenges with that company included scaling, as well as switching gears between selling and coding. He hopes a three-person company will alleviate those issues.

Grigsby, Brice and Schwamb will host a Drivetrain launch party 5:30pm Thursday, Dec. 2, at Pizza Luce in downtown Minneapolis. The new company was also preparing to announce the beta launch of one of its first projects, for local custom stationery shop RedStamp.com.

Source: Dan Grigsby, Drivetrain
Writer: Dan Haugen

Kindred Kitchen wants to help food entrepreneurs avoid getting stuck with a half-baked business plan.

The North Side food business incubator celebrates its grand opening this week on West Broadway. The nonprofit will provide affordable, licensed commercial kitchen rental, as well as a series of classes and workshops covering everything from ordering ingredients to refining a menu.

Kitchen Operations Manager Terese Hill says the area is full of "hidden food entrepreneurs"--bakers, caterers and others who either work out of their homes or rent odd hours in church basements or restaurant kitchens. Those arrangements can be illegal or inconvenient and often don't allow businesses to get to the next level.

"You see a lot of churches that rent out their kitchen space, but they may not be licensed and they may not have state-of-the-art commercial equipment," says Hill.

The Twin Cities is home to only a small handful of licensed commercial kitchens for rent, says Hill, and Kindred Kitchen will make this type of space more accessible in the neighborhood. The facility will also offer a three-to-four-month curriculum on operating a food business.

The classes and workshops are open to anyone, with scholarships available for low-income North Side residents. The topics range from food industry essentials such as ordering ingredients, managing inventory, and proper handling and preparation to business basics like planning, marketing, and financials.

The kitchen already has five caterers who are using the facility. Hill says they have space for between 30 and 40 users per month. Rental rates are $25 per hour with a 10-hour-per-month commitment, or $35 per hour with no monthly commitment.

Kindred Kitchen celebrates its grand opening 4 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 11, at 1210 West Broadway Ave. N.

Source: Terese Hill, Kindred Kitchen
Writer: Dan Haugen

 

As the nation recovers from a recession, it's still a depression for teenage job-seekers. The unemployment rate for teenagers was a staggering 27.1 percent last month, nearly three times the overall rate.

The recession appears to have been particularly damaging to teenagers' employment prospects, as laid-off adults trade down to jobs traditionally held by students. A new Minneapolis web startup is aiming to help put some cash in kids' pockets by connecting them with odd jobs around their neighborhood.

Rock Your Block is the brainchild of Sarah Young, who took the idea to last month's Startup Weekend event in Minneapolis, which we covered in a video. The web app will be a place where kids can search for work and advertise their services for things like raking, shoveling or babysitting.

"I wanted to provide a quick, easy, simple way for teens to find odd jobs within their neighborhoods" and avoid the hassle of putting up fliers or knocking on strangers' doors, says Young, whose income as a kid included pay for things like babysitting and dog walking. There is no Monster.com for these kind of chores, and that's what Rock Your Block wants to be.

Young and her team are in the process of working out safety and security issues. Before a child can set up an account, they need to get an adult to vouch for them and pay a sponsorship fee and for an optional background check. When they complete a job, customers can post feedback about their work, which will appear on the teenager's job history.

The company is self-funded for now. They hope to roll out a test version of the site this year with a wider beta launch in 2011.

Source: Sarah Young, Rock Your Block
Writer: Dan Haugen

Stacy Becker knows there's already a million online dating sites.

But she also knows too many people--herself included--who are disappointed, disillusioned, and uninterested in them all.

So she banded together with a few like-minded singles to create Plume Blue, a local dating site that attempts to offer something different.

"We're really trying to rethink how online dating is done," says Becker, the site's founder and CEO.

The result: a site that's centered around events and things to do instead of personality profiles. Users post their ideas or plans for a night out (Say, Walker Art Center on Thursday night), and other users can respond and make plans to join if the plans fit their idea of a good time too.

Becker says too many online dating services lead to meetups that begin with an awkward coffee shop "interview" instead of having fun.

The site, which launched Oct. 26, is a side project for Becker, who also works as a public policy consultant. She developed some web experience while working on a social networking project for the Citizens League.

Her first goal is getting usership up to a critical mass. The first 250 people to sign-up receive a free lifetime membership. After that, Becker plans to charge $12 for the first two months and $7 per month after that.

Source: Stacy Becker, Plume Blue.
Writer: Dan Haugen

A pair of social-media-savvy sweet tooths are nearing the opening of their artisan donut shop thanks to contributions they raised using a social fundraising site.

Dawn Lee & Laura Kennedy used Kickstarter.com to solicit startup capital for their new business, The Donut Cooperative, which is due to open later this fall at 3507 23rd Ave. S. in Minneapolis.

"We love food. We love local food, and we love sweets," says Dawn Lee. "Nobody had really been doing artisan donuts, or local, sustainable donuts. There's really good options for cupcakes in that way, but not donuts. Other cities have it, and we think Minneapolis is awesome and really deserved good donuts."

The idea of opening their own donut shop started out as a joke, but then one day they asked themselves: why not?

They set up a fundraising page on Kickstarter.com, and then promoted it via Facebook and Twitter. Their goal was to collect $10,000 in 45 days. Instead, they took in over $12,000.

That money is helping them pay for all the small things that really add up when setting up a business: filing city permits, registering their business and trademarks, and finding the right location.

Lee and Kennedy were working to open the shop within two months. Meanwhile, they've been taking their creations out for special events and sharing them with donors to get feedback and build buzz.

Source: Dawn Lee, The Donut Cooperative
Writer: Dan Haugen