March 9, 2010 | sourced Comments

By Dana Severson, Twin Cities Business

“Start-up: Lunchbox (an application of Mxapp)

Founded: 2009

Location: Minneapolis

Key players: Parag Shah, founder

Funding: Combination of self-funding and University of Minnesota grant

Web site: mxapp.com (getlunchbox.com, still in development)

Do you know who truly has the best hamburger in town? And not just based off of the opinion of a food critic—who’s most likely over-qualified to judge the likes of a simple burger. I’m talking about real, 100–percent authentic opinions from people like you and I, who have spent their own hard-earned dollars to buy the burger that they’re giving us their opinion on. It’s Matt’s Bar in my opinion, but then again, I’m a sucker for any food that has the potential to cause physical pain (AKA scorched by squirting cheese).”

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Lunchbox in the past:

“Just Eat It!“  Minnov8 3/16/2009

“Indomitable hope guides entrepreneur” mndaily.com 3/11/2009

March 9, 2010 | sourced Comments

By Graeme Thickins

I had the pleasure today to sit down over coffee with the founders of a content site for attorneys called Lawyerist, based in downtown Minneapolis:  Sam Glover and Aaron Street. I met Aaron at a recent monthly lunch meeting of Club Entrepreneur, which is run by my colleague Rick Brimacomb.

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March 6, 2010 | sourced Comments

According to socaltech.com,

“Woodland Hills-based ReachLocal’s acquisition of digital presence and reputation management firm SMB:LIVE was worth $8.8M, in a combination of cash and stock.”

Read the original announcement

Background on Cloud Profile from TC Business

h/t Graeme Thickins

March 5, 2010 | sourced Comments

Businesses absolutely depend on fast broadband at affordable prices. Due to limited competition, the broadband landscape in much of greater Minnesota is not pretty.  The exception is Monticello, where the publicly owned fiber network offers commercial 30Mbps symmetrical connections for $99/month, which has spurred the local telco to improve their offerings.

Any hope of duplicating these amazing connections elsewhere in Minnesota may be permanently setback as a result of recent action in the Minnesota Legislature, where incumbents are flexing their muscles to limit broadband competition from the public sector.  The following article, which discusses the situation in detail, originally appeared at http://muninetworks.org and  is re-posted in entirety with permission from the author.  

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March 5, 2010 | sourced Comments

By Geoff Dunton Via Minov8

“…Founded by Ashish Gadnis in 2009, Koozala is secure place to store your and your family’s medical history online. So far Koozala has nearly 6,000 registered members since going live with the University of Minnesota this past fall. Koozala will continue to roll out with Universities around the country to reduce errors in verifying student immunization records. And what’s a better state than Minnesota to start a company in the health care industry?”

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March 4, 2010 | sourced Comments

By Nissa Hanna, Twin Cities Business

“What’s Happening:

• A new gift card from Best Buy Company, Inc., is making it easy for shoppers to chip in to fund someone’s media-centric wish list.

• Friends and family can make online contributions of $5 or more, and the money will be collected in the recipient’s Best Buy Pitch In Card fund. When enough financial backing is accrued, he’ll be able to purchase products that are too expensive for any one gifter to get.”

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March 3, 2010 | sourced Comments

By Marti Nyman, Think.Act.Grow

“There have always been plenty of new and interesting ways to kill companies – sometimes external forces do it, while other times companies prove very adept at doing it themselves. I was reflecting on this a while ago and being ever watchful of common themes, I came up with my 7 deadly sins that kill companies. “

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March 3, 2010 | sourced Comments

By Thomas Lee, Med City News

“MINNEAPOLIS, Minnesota– Despite its name, Pedal Brain LLC’s ambitions far exceed mere bicycles. In fact, just replace “Pedal” with “Health” and you start to better understand what this angel-backed start-up wants to do.

The company recently struck a deal with HED Cycling Products USA in Shoreview to sell a software system that records real time data like speed, power, and heart rate from bike-mounted sensors and view the information on an iPhone or website. Pedal Brain has already raised $250,000 from angel investors, about half of its Series A round.”

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Listen to the TECHdotMN podcast with Matt Bauer, Founder, Pedal Brain LLC

March 1, 2010 | sourced Comments

via Smart Brief,

“ReachLocal, Inc., a CA online marketing company, announced today that it has acquired SMB:LIVE corporation (aka Cloud Profile), a developer of digital presence and reputation management solutions for small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs).

With the technology acquired through the SMB:LIVE acquisition, ReachLocal is developing a digital presence and reputation management solution designed to enable an SMB to publish multimedia content from a single interface to a business profile page hosted by ReachLocal, as well as to local directory sites, search engines and social media sites, including Twitter and Facebook. In addition, ReachLocal will provide automated monitoring of local review sites, social media sites, and local blogs for references to the SMB or comments related to the SMB’s business that will provide an SMB with feedback, alerts and analytics to assist it in managing its online reputation.”

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February 27, 2010 | sourced Comments

By Graeme Thickins, Minnov8

“Is it possible to design a radio app that delivers the ultimate radio experience, complete with visually stunning graphics and social media capabilities, too?  Minneapolis’ own Handcast Media Labs LLC thought so, set out to prove it, and just launched the result on the iTunes App Store a couple of days ago.  It’s called Spark Radio (press release), and works on the iPhone and iPod Touch. It’s available for $5.99 at this link at the App Store.”

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