Innovation + Job News

The job market for web and app developers in the Twin Cities appears to be picking up, according to a major IT staffing firm.

An official with Robert Half Technology in the Twin Cities says the agency has seen a significant spike in demand for IT skills, especially in temporary contract positions.

"If you compare this quarter over the same quarter last year, our business is up substantially," says Kathy Northamer, senior regional vice president in the Twin Cities. "Specifically we're seeing a big increase in the application development or the web development space. We're just seeing such a huge increase in need."

Northamer wasn't able to provide specific numbers about the increase. She attributes the activity to a couple of factors. Some companies are feeling more confident about the economy, but others have simply put off website redesigns and other projects as long as they are able to. Also, companies are putting more of their marketing dollars into online campaigns, which require developers.

The company has also noticed growing demand for network administration and help-desk professionals, Northamer says.

Northamer's observation fits with new employment figures released last week by the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development. Temporary hiring was 14.5 percent higher in May than it was the previous year, marking the largest rate of gain since mid 2006.

Source: Kathy Northamer, Robert Half Technology
Writer: Dan Haugen

A gadget to help doctors diagnose patients across language barriers is one of a dozen outstate Minnesota proposals to make the Minnesota Cup semifinals.

The annual entrepreneur contest has typically been dominated by metro-area inventors, but 12 of the 48 semifinalists announced last week come from Greater Minnesota.

"We had more entries than we've ever had from outstate Minnesota, which is something we've really been trying to develop," says Matt Hilker, director of the Minnesota Cup.

Duluth-based Geacom, for example, makes a medical communication device called Phrazer, which lets patients point to diagrams in more than 100 languages.

Hilker credits the contest's new partnership with the Arrowhead Growth Alliance in northeastern Minnesota for helping to boost participation in Greater Minnesota.

Minnesota Cup organizers received around 400 proposals for this year's contest. The 48 semifinalists will spend the next month refining their business plans before the field is reduced to 16.

By the end of summer, there will be one finalist in each of six divisions: cleantech, biosciences, high-tech, general, student, and social entrepreneur.

The social entrepreneur division, which is on a different schedule than the others, announced its finalist last week: Saint Paul's Springboard for the Arts.

Source: Matt Hilker, Minnesota Cup
Writer: Dan Haugen

A fast-growing technology services firm in the western suburbs is branching out into energy management.

Comm-Works, headquartered in Plymouth, manages technology and infrastructure for companies such as retail or restaurant chains that have dozens or hundreds of different locations. Its services include everything from setting up cable and phones to integrating software for cash registers.

And now, add to that list help turning off lights and lowering thermostats.

The company said in January that it was adding energy management to its mix of services. Last week it announced a partnership with Advanced Telemetry, a San Diego company that makes an energy management software package.

Amy Baker, director of communications for Comm-Works, said the service will help larger enterprises unify their sustainability goals across all locations. She said they had heard from clients who were making progress with energy conservation goals at corporate headquarters but were struggling to make the goals stick at satellite offices and other remote locations.

The Advanced Telemetry software lets corporate managers monitor energy consumption at individual locations, as well as remotely set high and low limits on thermostat settings.

"We feel good about this energy market," said Amy Baker, Comm-Works' director of communications. "We're very excited about where the growth potential is, or we wouldn't have made such an investment in a significant change in the types of technology we have traditionally been providing."

Comm-Works was founded in 1995 and has about 250 employees. Its 2008 revenue of $130 million helped land it on The Business Journal's 2009 "Fast 50" list of the 50 fastest-growing private companies in the Twin Cities.

Source: Amy Baker, Comm-Works
Writer: Dan Haugen

The U.S. EPA announced in the fall that it will re-evaluate its regulation of the pesticide atrazine after studies linked low exposure to the chemical with reproductive problems.

It was fortunate timing for a pair of recent University of Minnesota graduates, who a few months earlier started developing a filter to remove atrazine from drinking water.

Their company, NewWater, got another boost last week when it was named a semifinalist in both the Minnesota Cup and Cleantech Open entrepreneur contests.

The technology is based on research by two U of M professors, microbiologist Mike Sadowsky and biochemist Larry Wackett. NewWater co-founders Alex Johansson and Joe Mullenbach met the researchers last spring through an entrepreneurship class at the Carlson School of Management.

Since then, Johansson and Mullenbach have been trying to turn the professors' basic research into a product for municipal water treatment plants to remove more atrazine than is possible with current filters. They're currently developing a prototype and working on a licensing arrangement with the university.

Atrazine is one of the most widely used pesticides on the planet. Current limits on atrazine in drinking water are based on the cancer risk, but recent studies suggest lower levels of the chemical, levels that are currently allowed in drinking water, may cause birth defects, low birth weights and menstrual problems.

If the EPA lowers the threshold for how much atrazine it allows in drinking water, Mullenbach believes NewWater will have a potential $3 million market for their filter product, which uses bacteria enzymes as the active ingredient instead of carbon.

"We provide a lower-cost solution that is capable of treating to much more stringent drinking water standards," Mullenbach said.

NewWater won a seed grant in January from the Holmes Center for Entrepreneurship at the University of Minnesota. It's also applied for federal Small Business Innovation Research grants.

Source: Joe Mullenbach
Writer: Dan Haugen

A group of ProUroCare Medical investors have upped their anti, loaning the Eden Prairie medical device startup an additional $885,000.

The company is seeking approval from federal regulators to begin selling an imaging product it believes will help doctors detect and document abnormalities that could be related to prostate cancer.

ProUroCare's device is inserted into a patient's rectum and applied against the prostate gland. It can then map how the tissue responds to pressure. Abnormal tissue tends to be denser and less elastic and shows up differently on the electronic image generated by the device.

The new financing, which comes from "a small group of existing investors closely aligned with the company," will be used to pay off debt, as well as boost manufacturing and marketing activities, expand the company's intellectual property portfolio and create a scientific advisory board, the company said. It brings the total amount the company has raised since 2007 to more than $9.3 million.

"We are very pleased by the support that we continue to receive from investors for the ProUroScan prostate imaging system and the market opportunities that exist for this technology," CEO Rick Carlson said in a statement.

The device is not yet for sale in the United States. The company applied for approval to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in November. The Star Tribune reported then that the company's next challenge would be convincing Medicare and private insurers that the scans result in improved medical care.

Source: ProUroCare Medical
Writer: Dan Haugen

A Waconia-based website that aims to be a matchmaker between patients and healthcare providers announced last week that it's received a $1 million angel investment to help expand its services.

WellClicks.com lets consumers search for physicians and other health and wellness providers by criteria such as location, specialty, gender, and years of experience. Providers, meanwhile, pay to be included in the search results.

Mark Prondzinski and Lisa Suchy launched a limited pilot version of the service in July 2009 with backing from Ridgeview Medical Center in Waconia. Up to now the site has only covered providers in the southwest metro.

The site's usage has been "low to moderate," but with a limited marketing budget and small geographic area, they didn't expect an overnight blockbuster. The goal was only to prove the concept for investors.

"Our objective now, with the investment funds, is to expand the concept, both from the product side and from a geographic point of view, and then really try to turn the business model into something that is profitable and see and realize some of our longer-term business objectives," Prondzinski said. "It's not a tremendously huge amount, but it's enough to help us take the next steps down that path."

WellClicks.com is the first product from CreateHealth, a for-profit healthcare innovation center created and spun off by Ridgeview Medical Center in 2007. Prondzinski, who previously interned in the hospital's operations department, was tapped with Suchy to co-found the center.

Source: Mark Prondzinski, WellClicks.com
Writer: Dan Haugen

A Bloomington television recycling company expects good reception when it opens a new location in England next month.

ShopJimmy.com buys damaged televisions cheap from retailers and distributors, then strips out the parts that still work to sell to consumers, repair shops, and warranty companies.

Owner Jimmy Vosika started the company in January 2007 as a hobby while he was still working for his father-in-law's appliance recycling company.

"I basically bought a broken plasma TV off ebay for $200 and then sold it for $700 later that week for parts," says Vosika.

Since then, his company has grown into a 55-employee operation with facilities in Bloomington and Lino Lakes that process between 1,200 and 1,500 televisions a week.

The company's employee count will grow by 10 next month when it opens a location near Oxford, England.

"We're getting so much demand every day from overseas companies," says Vosika. But shipping to Europe and elsewhere from the Twin Cities often costs much more than the actual part.

The Oxford facility will mirror the company's Twin Cities operation. Workers will take apart televisions from ShopJimmy's suppliers, test the parts, then sort and catalog everything so it's ready to sell online.

Vosika believes the company's European operations will eventually eclipse its U.S. business because of greater demand and the ability to ship around the world more affordably.

Source: Jimmy Vosika, ShopJimmy.com
Writer: Dan Haugen

A south Minneapolis solar installer marks another milestone this week with the celebration of a new 140-panel, 32-kilowatt photovoltaic system on the rooftop of the Seward Co-op.

Solarflow Energy, which is based in the Lomgfellow neighborhood, is trying to prove a solar leasing concept. It received a $1.5 million grant from Xcel Energy two years ago to fund a 280-kilowatt pilot program.

The Seward Co-op is the latest of what will be about 30 installations for the company by the end of the year. The co-op plans to celebrate at a commissioning party from 4-6 p.m., Thursday, June 17.

The company is also kicking off a program with Minneapolis' Bryn Mawr neighborhood this week that will involve using neighborhood revitalization funds to convert 20 homes to solar electricity.

The arrangement eliminates the large up-front cost associated with solar electricity. Solarflow installs and maintains the systems for free, and customers pay a monthly bill for the electricity that's generated.

In order to qualify, customers need to go through a property assessment to make sure the site is suitable for solar, provide a $1,000 refundable deposit, and sign a long-term lease (15 years for residential and 18 years for commercial).

Solarflow Energy has half a dozen full-time employees and another eight to twelve workers who help as needed with installations.

The biggest challenge so far, says founder/CEO Gerardo Ruiz, has been finding financing. The market is interested, the equipment is increasingly affordable, and installation is straightforward. But capital is scarce.

As the Xcel Energy funding winds down, Ruiz says the company will seek out solar rebates and other state and federal incentives for solar installations.

"So far we consider everything to have been successful," Ruiz says. "We'll charge forward and keep moving."

Source: Gerardo Ruiz, Solarflow Energy
Writer: Dan Haugen

A team of young entrepreneurs thinks they've come up with a better way to let restaurant diners know when their table is ready.

WaitMaster is a web application that lets restaurant hosts digitize their wait lists and send text messages to parties when it's time to have a seat.

The program eliminates the hassle and expense of making customers carry around clunky buzzers, which have limited range and are often lost or stolen.

Prodality, the new name for an aspiring startup agency founded by three recent University of Minnesota graduates, plans to charge restaurants $50 a month for the service, which runs off a netbook at the host stand.

Buffalo Wild Wings started a test of the system in its Apple Valley restaurant a few weeks ago, and set it up two weeks ago at its Roseville location. If the restaurants are full, customers can give their name, phone number, and e-mail address and then roam Bear Valley Road or Har Mar Mall until they get a text alert telling them to come on back.

"You get a text message on your phone saying your table is ready, which makes sense for consumers because they want to walk around. They want to have the flexibility, and the pagers don't really travel that far. Usually it's 100 feet, if that," says Parag Shah, one of Prodality's co-founders.

Restaurants can use the system to keep track of customer visits, and the team plans to add features in the future that will turn WaitMaster into a more robust loyalty tool. Customers who frequently add their names to wait lists, for example, could be awarded discounts, as with Foursquare check-ins.

Prodality teamed up with the local creator of TeeMaster, an online golf reservation system, to create the original wait list application, which it then adapted for restaurants. It's working on another restaurant-related app, too. LunchBox lets users place take-out orders with participating eateries using their computer or smart phone.

Source: Parag Shah, Prodality
Writer: Dan Haugen

A Minneapolis bicyclist has started a new business delivering fresh produce.

VeloVeggies aims to serve busy locavores who don't always have time to shop the farmers market or pick up their weekly CSA shares.

For a $6 to $12 fee based on distance, Randall Dietel will pick up your produce and deliver it by bicycle to your doorstep.

"VeloVeggies is a sustainable, convenient option for people to add a little extra time to their lives," says Dietel. "It's a guilt-free convenience that does some good."

Dietel came up with the idea last summer after a friend at a co-op invited him to take home a box of CSA produce that was never picked up by the member who bought it.

He starting thinking about a CSA delivery service, and since he lives car-free and pedals 200 to 300 miles a week it was only natural that it would be a bicycle delivery service.

The green-canopied trailer attached to the back of his bicycle can carry 300 pounds. So far his cargo has been lots of leafy greens and radishes, but it'll grow heavier as farmers start selling more substantial produce.

Dietel is getting the word out by dropping fliers in CSA boxes around the city. He's also supplementing his income with other bicycle deliveries, including trips for a bakery and for catering businesses.

For now, VeloVeggies can only guarantee service to Minneapolis residents, but others are welcome to inquire. Dietel hopes to add a second rider and expand his delivery territory as business picks up.

Source: Randall Dietel, VeloVeggies
Writer: Dan Haugen

Minnesota's medical technology industry employs more people per capita than any other state, according to a new economic study by a national medical technology trade group.

The report (PDF), authored by The Lewin Group and released last week by AdvaMed, says med-tech accounts for 1.06 percent of Minnesota's employment (the next highest per capita figures come from Utah and Delaware). It estimates the total number of med-tech jobs in Minnesota at 26,862, placing it second behind California and ahead of Massachusetts.

"Minnesota has long had a strong network of academic, industry, and government assets working together to support our life-science ecosystem," LifeScience Alley President/CEO Don Gerhardt said in an e-mail statement. LifeScience Alley is the local trade association for life science companies.

Gerhardt said the numbers in AdvaMed's report aren't surprising, and if anything they under-count the number of med-tech jobs in Minnesota. The Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development estimates Minnesota has around 35,000 med-tech jobs.

One explanation for the accounting gap: The data used in the AdvaMed report misses jobs at med-tech suppliers, such as Phillips Plastics, that don't operate exclusively in med-tech.

Sources: AdvaMed, LifeScience Alley
Writer: Dan Haugen

A Minneapolis web startup is beginning work on a new platform to help farmers and foresters to sell leftover materials as a renewable fuel.

Since November, the Minneapolis Biomass Exchange has served as a sort of craigslist for buyers and sellers of biomass, a term for plant-based materials like wood chips or corn stover that can be burned to offset coal or other fossil fuels.

By fall, founder and CEO Kevin Triemstra expects the site will function more like a Priceline.com for energy crops. The company received a fresh infusion of investor funding last week that will allow it to begin building out new online bidding features immediately.

As utilities and other companies seek to cut their carbon footprints and comply with new regulations, there is a growing demand for biomass fuels. Finding a steady supply, however, has been a challenge for buyers.

Triemstra, a former software engineer, started the Minneapolis Biomass Exchange in July 2009 with the goal of providing a more organized marketplace for buyers and sellers to find each other.

So far, users have been able to post free ads and exchange messages, but all of the dealmaking has had to take place offline. The new features will allow buyers to make electronic bids on certain materials. If the seller chooses to accept a bid, the sale would be processed directly through the site, with the Exchange taking a fee.

The Minneapolis Biomass Exchange will also offer to arrange transportation for sales and assist sellers filing for federal renewable energy incentives.

"We'll explore any way that we can help facilitate the movement of biomass," Triemstra said.

Triemstra said he planned to hire local contract programmers to start work on the new features, possibly as soon as this week. He also expects further investment later this summer after the state's new angel investor tax credit takes effect.

Source: Kevin Triemstra, Minneapolis Biomass Exchange
Writer: Dan Haugen

A renewable energy technology company in central Minnesota will ramp up hiring and production thanks to a $560,000 federal stimulus grant.

Silent Power, in Baxter, Minn., produces boxes that convert energy generated from solar panels into usable electricity. The patented systems include a built-in battery that stores unused power for when it's needed.

"We're working with utilities all over the country to sell this product to homeowners and small businesses to help align the generation of renewable resources with when the utilities have their peak demand," CEO Todd Headlee said.
 
One challenge with solar panels is that they typically generate the most energy during the hours when it's least needed. Silent Power's systems store electricity generated during the middle of the day and release it later when people are getting home from work and turning on televisions, microwaves, and air conditioners.

Silent Power has been manually assembling about two units per week. New equipment and employees will allow it to up production to about 50 units per week, enough to keep up with anticipated demand for the next couple of years.

The company currently has about 20 employees. Headlee said he expects the federal grant will spur the creation of about 75 new jobs in the next 18 months. About 40 of those will come at Silent Power and another 35 at its suppliers, many of which are also located in Minnesota.

Source: Todd Headlee, Silent Power
Writer: Dan Haugen

Minneapolis branding agency OLSON announced this week that it's acquired Denali Marketing, the fast-growing loyalty marketing firm we wrote about last week.

Denali Marketing helps companies manage customer loyalty programs, including Best Buy's Reward Zone and Sun Country's Ufly Rewards.

OLSON has been interested in developing or acquiring loyalty expertise for a few years, and about six months ago started a nationwide search for a partner.

"Sometimes you don't know what's in your own backyard until you scour the country," said OLSON President Kevin DiLorenzo, who has been named the new agency's CEO.

The combination of OLSON and Denali creates a 300-person agency, the largest full-service ad agency in Minnesota with clients that include some of the state's biggest brands (Target, Best Buy, Sun Country, General Mills, Land O'Lakes).

And instead of reducing employees, as is common following many mergers and acquisitions, DiLorenzo said they plan to add about 50 new hires as they combine.

DiLorenzo said Denali's culture and client roster are both complimentary to OLSON's business. There's also connections and familiarity among management teams, he said.

Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

"Joining forces with Denali is a very good fit for us, and the fact that they happened to be here in our own backyard makes integration issues much more seamless and easy to manage for us," DiLorenzo said.

Source: Kevin DiLorenzo, OLSON
Writer: Dan Haugen

Minnetonka-based medical device maker Anulex disclosed last week that it's raised about $18.3 million in new venture capital.

The company makes a product that lets doctors repair spinal tissue that's punctured during herniated-disc surgeries. Xclose has been on the market since 2007, but there's still little clinical data about its effectiveness, which makes collecting reimbursements from insurers more difficult.

David Noel, vice president of finance and chief financial officer for Anulex, said the funding will allow the company to continue a two-year clinical study it started in 2009, as well as further commercialization and product development efforts.

About 10 percent of herniated disks require a surgery called a diskectomy that involves removing the part of the disc that's coming in contact with nerves. The soft, outer layer of the disc typically isn't sewn up after the procedure because it's difficult to reach.

"It's been very, very difficult to get down there and suture that defect. Our product allows the surgeon to go in there and in approximate and bring that tissue together," Noel said. "We believe that if you're able to do that you're going to have a better result, and that's what our clinical study is intended to prove."

The 750 patients enrolled in the study will have a one-year follow-up in August and a more intensive two-year check-in next year. The company hopes the results will assist in with both marketing and establishing an insurance reimbursement code.

Source: David Noel, Anulex
Writer: Dan Haugen