Innovation + Job News

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

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

Minnesota is sprouting a green chemistry industry, and a forum at the University of Minnesota this week aims to fertilize it.

The Minnesota Green Chemistry Forum will host a conference on Friday, Jan. 7, called Adding Value Through Green Chemistry.

The event will feature speakers from 3M, Aveda, Ecolab, Segetis, Mrs. Meyers Clean Day--all companies that are using or developing products made with materials that reduce or eliminate the use of hazardous chemical substances.

"We're looking at this as a chance to profile what's going on in the state of Minnesota," says Tim Welle, renewable energy program manager for the BioBusiness Alliance of Minnesota, a member of the Green Chemistry Forum.

Minnesota is at the forefront of the young green chemistry industry. It has academic and private sector expertise, with several companies already producing products made from green chemistry, many of which utilize plant materials as an alternative to petroleum-based chemicals.

The state has the potential to become an leader in the field because it has the expertise as well as the natural resources to support an industry, such as forestry and agriculture products.

The goal of the forum, says Welle, is to showcase what's happening today, as well as to get people thinking about the potential applications and long-term opportunities in Minnesota.

Source: Tim Welle, BioBusiness Alliance of Minnesota
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

A new, first-in-the-nation indoor solar simulator at the University of Minnesota is already pulling in millions in research funding for the school.

The equipment is set up in a roughly ten-by-ten-foot space in a windowless room at the College of Science and Engineering. It uses seven high-watt bulbs, the kind you'd find behind a movie theater projector, and focuses them with a set of special reflectors.

The light that comes off the reflectors can match the intensity of 3,000 suns.

"It's really a 'wow' kind of thing, to see that you can put a plate of steel in front of it and burn a hole that's about an inch in diameter pretty quick," says Jane Davidson, a mechanical engineering professor and one of the lead solar researchers.

Davidson and others will use the simulator to try to develop new methods and technology for capturing and storing the sun's energy with chemical reactions. The extreme heat can be used to convert water and carbon dioxide into synthetic hydrocarbon fuels. The challenge is finding ways to do so that are both practical and economical.

"The power of the facility and the ability to control it are really amazing, and it's going to be a wonderful way for us to proceed, in a very controlled laboratory setting, to develop these solar reactors," says Davidson.

The simulator cost about $450,000, but it's already brought in a couple of big grants. University researchers have won nearly $1 million from the National Science Foundation and $1.4 million  in grants from the Initiative for Renewable Energy and the Environment.

Source: Jane Davidson, University of Minnesota
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 St. Cloud software marketer is trying on a new avatar: mobile video game publisher.

W3i was founded ten years ago in a dorm room at St. Cloud State by three brothers, Rob, Ryan and Aaron Weber. Their mission: to be a leader in the distribution of consumer applications.

At the time, that meant Windows desktop software -- a lot of clip art, wallpaper and screensavers. Windows is still a good business, but they now see mobile gaming as the best bet for future growth.

Last summer, the company made headlines for a new service called Apperang, which pays mobile users 25 cents every time they install an app by one of W3i's clients.

Last week, the company announced the launch of a new subsidiary, Recharge Studios, which is seeking to invest at least $1 million in mobile gaming in the next three to six months.

The market for mobile video games is anticipated to grow somewhere between $4.5 billion and $10 billion over the next few years.

"We think there are going to be a lot of developers who are going to try to go after that market, and we believe we can help them," says Rob Weber, W3i's vice president of business development.

In most cases, Recharge will look to help finance, develop and market new mobile gaming apps in exchange for a share of revenue. In some cases it may seek to acquire full ownership.

The studio already has a handful of games under production and plans to release its first title by the end of the month, followed by a few more in the first quarter of 2011.

Source: Rob Weber, W3i
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

A Maple Grove med-tech company has won approval to begin a large clinical trial for its implantable neuro-stimulator, which is designed to help people with obstructive sleep apnea.

Inspire Medical, founded in 2007 with technology spun out of Medtronic, announced last week that the U.S. Food & Drug Administration signed off on a 100-plus-patient clinical trial for the therapy.

"It's the key trial that collects the data necessary for U.S. approval," CEO Tim Herbert said.

The study will test an alternative treatment for obstructive sleep apnea, a condition in which the tongue and throat muscles relax during sleep and cause the airway to collapse. People with the condition briefly wake up and gasp for breath as many as 30 to 50 times an hour.

The most common treatment today is called continuous positive airway pressure, or CPAP. It's a mask that needs to be worn while sleeping and that blows air down the airway with enough pressure to keep it from closing.

"It's a very effective therapy. It's a very efficient therapy. The problem is you have to wear that mask and it's not really comfortable for a lot of people," says Herbert.

Herbert says research has shown that about 50 percent of people who are prescribed a CPAP are no longer using it a year later. Untreated, the condition can increase the odds of a stroke, hypertension, not to mention fatigue.

Inspire's treatment is an implantable system, similar to a pacemaker. Only instead of sending electrical pulses to the heart, the device sends tiny jolts to a nerve under the chin that controls the tongue and throat muscles.

The system is approved for sale in Europe. The company's clinical trial will begin enrolling patients early next year and likely take about two years to be completed. The company has 12 employees and outsources its manufacturing work to other companies, including Medtronic.

Herbert said the company is working toward having the therapy approved for sale in the United States by 2013.

Source: Tim Herbert, Inspire Medical Systems
Writer: Dan Haugen

A Minnesota startup company has licensed a University of Minnesota sensor technology for a product that could help copper and other metal mines reduce their chemical use.

United Science, based in Center City, Minn., is developing a device that looks like a pH meter and aims to help miners more accurately mix the chemical slurries used to separate materials.

The chemicals are used during a process known as flotation. The raw ore is placed in the solution, which binds to the metal, causing it to float to the top, while the ore and clay sink.

As United Science founder Jon Thompson researched the process last year, he saw a large, unmet opportunity in helping mines mix these chemicals more precisely.

"You had ten different people measuring it in ten different ways, and none of them had a real analytical measurement," says Thompson. "I saw one guy actually put his finger in the mining solution and taste it and said, yup, there's enough in there."

The only consistency in how mines mix these slurries: they all use more chemicals than they actually need, because they don't want to risk using too little and losing copper.

Thompson thinks his product can save money for the mines by conserving chemicals. He's partnered with a Pennsylvania company called FLSmidth that makes flotation equipment.

The sensor technology was developed by Philippe Buhlmann, an associate chemistry professor at the University of Minnesota. United Science's first product is for use in copper mines, but Thompson says it could be tailored to function for coal, lead, gold, nickel, uranium, and iron ore.

Thompson has grown the company from a one-person operation last year to six employees today.

Source: Jon Thompson, United Science
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

"We usually just say we're an interactive entertainment company," says Shad Petosky.

He and his team of creative minds at Puny Entertainment in Northeast Minneapolis have had their heads down of late, cranking out everything from cartoon and Flash game animations to restaurant and TV-show concepts.

The company's official capabilities list reads like this: Interactive Programming, Design, Animation, Illustration, Concept/Scripting. And Petosky says Puny is expanding those capabilities, too, branching out into social media work and digital media purchasing.

Petosky co-founded the company in 2007. It's biggest success has been winning animation and web design work for the Nick Jr. show Yo Gabba Gabba! Other clients include the Cartoon Network, Disney Channel, General Mills, and The New Yorker.

The Yo Gabba Gabba! work typifies Puny's aesthetic. The show is aimed at preschool kids, but it appeals to hip adults, too, with cameos by indie musicians and actors. "We like to do stuff that works on two levels, where it works for kids and adults," says Petosky, citing The Rocky & Bullwinkle Show as inspiration.

Another common thread that ties the company's varied, multi-media work together: Petosky says "clients tend to want something that's more playful, fun, humorous. I guess it's mostly light-hearted, but with a classic, strong design sense."

That fun, playful vibe often translates well into social media, he says, which is why Puny is preparing to add new services related to social media.

After a quick growth spurt out of the gate in 2007, Petosky says the company is being more deliberate these days. With 20 employees, they're being more selective about clients and jobs and looking to avoid growing faster than they can integrate new employees.

And a new development: One of Puny's partners has acquired a 25 percent stake in the company. Petosky wasn't yet ready to announce details, but said the investment and the expertise it comes with should help Puny Entertainment manage growth.

Source: Shad Petosky, Puny Entertainment
Writer: Dan Haugen

Vast Enterprises is best known for turning scrap tires and other recycled materials into composite masonry products. Now, a company best known to most people for its brand of tires is going to be turning Vast's products into a line of commercial roofing pavers.

Firestone Building Products, one of the world's largest suppliers of commercial roofing materials, announced last month that it's selected Vast as the exclusive manufacturer of its new Firestone SkyPaver composite roof pavers.

The private-label partnership is a big sign of acceptance for Vast's technology, and it also gives the company broad entry in the growing green-roof market. Vast CEO Andy Vander Woude says they'd like to see the Firestone work be a $10-million piece of business by 2015.

Vast was founded in 2006 and introduced its first line of products a year later. It makes deck and landscaping pavers from 95-percent post-consumer recycled material, largely plastic and tires. About a year ago it started seeking out customers to use its pavers on rooftops.

"We've had two very diametric market forces out there," says Vander Woude. "The first is explosive growth of green building. The other diametric force is the complete bottoming of the construction industry."

Vast has managed to grow throughout the construction downturn, through not as fast as it may have under better conditions, says Vander Woude. One bright spot has been green roofs; the market for them grew by more than 15 percent in 2009, and it's not just for environmental reasons. Building owners are also trying to maximize usable space by making roofs habitable.

These projects require a walkable surface be installed on the roof. Clay brick and concrete pavers are heavy and can be difficult to work with on rooftops. Vast's pavers weigh about one-third as much as conventional masonry products, making them a compelling option for green roofs.

The company, which was founded in 2006, employs nine people at its headquarters in Northeast Minneapolis and another six at its manufacturing facility in Crystal. The company is nearing completion on a round of financing and will likely hire more employees next year.

Source: Andy Vander Woude, Vast Enterprises
Writer: Dan Haugen