Comments on: Greener pastures? A tale of the Minnesota startup that was

By: Rob Weber

Rob Weber — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 09:57:09 +0000

Today I scored a meeting for a local tech start-up with one of the top five VC's in the world. I put my reputation on the line with this high profile Silicon Valley firm because I believe in Minnesota tech, and I believe in this company. In return, I asked for nothing. It can be done… We need to help each other out.

By: Lloyd Armbrust

Lloyd Armbrust — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 05:23:46 +0000

Let me rephrase something here, I was quoted in the article here saying "you can’t just walk up to a guy like Paul Buchheit or Joshua Schachter and have them take you seriously." This is actually wrong.

The great thing about the Valley is that you can approach guys like Buchheit, or Schachter, or Paul Graham, or even Mark Zuckerberg and they will listen if they have the time. Y Combinator gave us a chance to interact with these guys, here their stories, and in turn have them listen to us. I'm pretty sure if you saw Schachter at Trader Joes or something he'd talk to you and listen to your idea (though he'd probably ask you to send him an e-mail).

My point was and is that some places, by virtue of simple geography, will never have this advantage.

By: guyAtHockeyBiasDotCom

guyAtHockeyBiasDotCom — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 01:37:00 +0000

WARNING: Pro-family/balanced life tidbits follow – I have done a lot of startup tech work and a lot of consulting. My wife and I lived in the bay area for 10 years before moving home to Minnesota; I am now at an age (51) where putting food on the table for a family I adore trumps all.

I think a lot of Midwesterners feel the same way; I wouldn't trade it for anything! As a result, my last two entrepreneurial pursuits have been side projects. They have no doubt developed more slowly as a result; but my family has not!

By: Nobody

Nobody — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 01:18:33 +0000

see also zencoder.com (another YC company), pedalbrain.com (actually has investors), mediashelf.com (doesn't need investors) among others.

By: Greg Awtry

Greg Awtry — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 23:51:04 +0000

We are a small newspaper in Nebraska. We use Seeing Interactive online products. We began using them in April 2009 and now, less than 18 months into it, our online revenues are up over 80% and represent 12% of our entire newspaper's advertising revenue. It's innovation like Seeing Interactive has demonstrated, when they saw a a void and were determined to fill it, that will help restore the economy.

By: Scott

Scott — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 23:13:00 +0000

I have a small (<20 employees) and very profitable tech company that I recently relocated. Tax credits, incentives and other ways of government getting in my business were of limited interest to me. What I looked for was freedom and to be left alone. That's no longer possible for small companies to find in the US. The US as a whole is hostile to small business interests, and always sides with the large corporations in schemes to destroy small business competitors.