Who can turn the world on with a smile? – September 11, 2019

Dig if you will the picture

 

Today's itinerary: Wheels Down in Minneapolis; More tech news from the Silicon Prairie; six startups in Michigan to study mobility and transportation; AgTech in Memphis; and more!

 

 

September 11, 2019

WHEELS DOWN: MINNEAPOLIS

Minneapolis: Leading city for new businesses

Photo courtesy Julia via Flickr

 

Yes, it's the city from which the late, great Prince hailed. And at the corner of 7th street and Nicollet Mall is where Mary Tyler Moore threw her beret in the air in one of the most iconic sitcom openings ever.

But Minneapolis is also cool for other reasons. It has one of the largest economies in the Midwest, but that isn’t the only thing it has going for it as a startup hub. Ranked one of the 10 best US metro areas for innovation, Minneapolis boasts great opportunities for venture capital, mentorship, and other essential startup tools. The city also plays host to the largest statewide startup competition in the country: The Minnesota Cup.

 

Then there’s the Minneapolis Foundation, which administers grants to nonprofits and other organizations looking to improve the city and foster civic engagement. If your startup dreams are tied to social justice and making an impact, you may be able to find funding here.

Who is innovating in Minneapolis?

Minneapolis and St. Paul (known as the Twin Cities) are the home of 18 Fortune 500 companies, including Target, Best Buy, Xcel Energy, Land O’ Lakes, and General Mills. The Minneapolis suburb of Wayzata, which is the home of Cargill, is the top ranked company on the Fortune Private 500.

There’s no shortage of major corporations making their home in Minneapolis and the surrounding areas, but startups are one of its specialties. There are accelerators like gener8tor, incubators such as those launched by the University of Minnesota, and mentoring opportunities.

Tech may be at the core of many an innovative startup in Minneapolis, but there are a few sectors performing better than the rest. According to Brett Brohl, managing director or Techstars Farm-To-Fork accelerator, innovation in and around food is a big part of Minneapolis’ startup scene.

“Minnesota has historically been known for food and agriculture. There is now an amazing amount of food innovation in the city. Anchor organizations include Techstars Farm to Fork, which is working in partnership with Cargill and Ecolab; Grow North, an amazing land grant university; and five of the world’s 30 largest food and ag companies,” Brohl said in an article for VentureBeat.

Brohl also mentioned healthcare as a major innovation sector in Minneapolis, as well as the B2B arena. Several of the area's incubators are partnered with locally based companies like Target to build business tools. Those with B2B dreams are sure to find plenty of work in Minneapolis.

Minneapolis culture

 

Life shouldn’t be all work, and if you’re considering a move to Minneapolis you’ll find there’s no shortage of culture in the Twin Cities.

Film buffs can get tickets for the Minneapolis St. Paul International Film Festival, an annual event for the past 37 years. There are also some big music festivals in the summer, like Rock the Garden and the Basilica Block Party, along with the experimental art show Northern Spark and a variety of art fairs.

Theaters, museums, and events: Minneapolis has them all in quantity. Check out the Minneapolis Arts & Culture page to see the whole lot of them.

Minneapolis has been recognized as having a great local food scene. Its restaurants have been featured in Food and Wine magazine, as have multiple cocktail bars located in the city.

Sports fans won’t be lacking teams to root for, either. Four professional sports teams, the Minnesota Vikings (NFL), the Minnesota Twins (MLB), the Minnesota Timberwolves (NBA), and the Minnesota Lynx (WNBA), all make their homes in Minneapolis. And if hockey is your fancy, don’t worry: The Minnesota Wild call neighboring St. Paul their home.

Minneapolis is regarded as having one of the best parks systems in the country. You’re never more than six blocks from a park in Minneapolis, so don’t hesitate to schedule some relaxing outdoors time on the weekend.

 

Minneapolis by the numbers

 

City population: 425,403
County population: 1,259,428
Median household income: $60,789
Gender dispersion: 49% M, 50% F
Average age: 32.4
Average home cost: $235,200
Average apartment cost (2 bed, 1-2 bath): $1,475

If only the beret had been raspberry ...

IN-FLIGHT ENTERTAINMENT

A few more fun facts about the Twin Cities

Photo by Beverly & Pack via Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0)

 

We couldn't get enough of Minneapolis-St. Paul this morning and decided to keep the party going with a few more fun facts about this unique and wonderful Fast Future city!

  

• If it hadn’t been for Charles Strite, you could be suffering the fate of overdone toast. Strite, who was born in Minneapolis, invented the first pop-up toaster and marketed the invention in the same city.
• In the northeast region of Minneapolis, several streets are named after US presidents in the order that they served. This was done intentionally to help prepare immigrants for citizenship tests.
• Open Book in Minneapolis is the largest literary and book arts center in the country.
• Minneapolis is one of the "techiest" cities in the country—it was among the first in the US to use wireless internet, and Geek Squad was founded there.
• Prince was the official pioneer of “Minneapolis sound,” a hybrid mix of funk, rock, pop, synthpop, and new wave.

BUSINESS TRIPS

Omaha tech ventures shine as the Silicon Prairie grows

 

Omaha has definitely earned its stripes as a flourishing part of the Silicon Prairie. Right now, it has three accelerators and nine “co-labs”—and it gains more companies and startups every year.

 

But what is drawing so many companies and workers to the area?

For one thing, there are the perks.

 

Dan Houghton, co-founder of construction management system Buildertrend, said, “We follow all of the cliched tech startups. I tell people we have ping pong, we have pool, we have beer on tap.”

 

All great, right? But there’s more to an appealing work culture than those enticements.

 

Sammi Kaiser, director of the Academic and Career Development Center at the University of Nebraska Omaha, thinks the pace is a factor.

 

“Things move fast and that's attractive to students," she said. “They want to be a part of something that started as nothing.”

 

And then there’s the opportunity to have an impact, to collaborate and be creative.

 

“There's no ten-year playbook” said Michael Struthers, director of people operations at WordPress startup Flywheel. “There's a lot of being able to build and figuring it out along the way.”

Six Michigan startups get grants to study transportation challenges

And now some news from the future of driving. And where better to push the envelope on mobility tech than the state of Michigan, which brought us the Model T, the Mustang and Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, who sang, “I’m just a love machine and I won’t work for nobody but you"?

 

The Michigan Economic Development Corporation’s mobility program, PlanetM, has awarded $450,000 in grant funding to six mobility and transportation startups. The startups are trying to tackle the biggest challenges in transportation, including traffic congestion and car and pedestrian safety.

 

The six startups, most of which sound like they named their companies by running over a stack of childrens’ blocks, are:

 

1. Propelmee, a self-driving tech company working on a capability that allows self-driving cars to “arrive and drive,” without the need for a database of the 3D environment,
2. Aveopt, a software developer focusing on unmanned aerial systems used in commercial transport,
3. GoKid, a carpooling app for schools and families that wants to improve school attendance and lower tardiness,
4. Intvo, a company that develops software that detects and predicts pedestrian behavior and provides warnings to self-driving cars,
5. Aerotronic, a company that makes remote-sensing technology for the utility industry, and
6. AKTV8, a company that makes control systems that automatically inflate and deflate tractor-trailer tires based on the load of the trailer.

Agtech innovator Indigo has major plans for Memphis

Photo courtesy Pete Linforth

 

Iowa State University Research Park president Rick Sanders is only three months into his position but he is looking at the next phase of development for the 400+ acre research park.

 

Sanders succeeded long-time resident Steve Carter, who grew employment at the park from 930 jobs to nearly 3,000.

 

“If you compare us to any other research park, we’ve got some strengths that others don’t have. And for many research parks, we’re kind of the model they’d like to follow, and that’s all a credit and attributable to Steve Carter,” said Sanders. “He left this place with a great foundation and our opportunities based on that foundation I think are almost limitless.”

 

Sanders expects to focus on two key areas in the next stage of development: agtech and biorenewsables.

 

“I think when we get a decade down the road, we’re going to be able to look back and some place is going to have solidified their position in those two spaces. And as lofty as it sounds, I want us to be that spot,” Sanders said.

In three months, Sanders has opened up multiple facilities, including the John Deere Technology Center and the Tedesco Environmental Learning Corridor.

PUDDLE HOPS

• KC company plans 80-job manufacturing plant (Kansas City Business Journal)
• From Vince Lombardi To The Ice Bowl, 'The Big 50' Looks At Green Bay Packers History (WUWM.com)
• 'This is a tech hub': Omaha, Lincoln to launch ad campaign aimed at luring workers from four cities (Omaha World Herald)

 

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