TECHdotMN: News about Minnesota Startups

Richfield-based Kidblog is raising a $400k first round of capital, according to a disclosure document recently filed with the SEC.

“Kidblog.org is designed for elementary and middle school teachers who want to provide each student with an individual blog.  Kidblog’s simple, yet powerful tools allow students to publish posts and participate in discussions within a secure classroom blogging community. Teachers maintain complete control over student blogs.”

Launched in January 2010 by Matt Hardy and partner Dan Flies, the company has yet to generate revenue, but has experienced exponential adoption over the years, growing the userbase to 1.5m. They must be eager to turn this passion into a real business right about now.

By Nick Nelson

Election season is upon us. Campaigns will be ramping-up in the coming months with several important seats up for grabs in November. That means a great deal of information (and misinformation) will be flying around.

The sheer volume of rhetoric coming from all angles can make it difficult for a person – particularly a young person who is new to the political climate – to cut through the bureaucracy and align himself or herself with a candidate that holds matching viewpoints and ideologies.

That’s why Political Harmony, a startup being developed under the current cycle at Project Skyway, was created. Co founders Kyle Welliver and Tyler Kent consider their website the “Match.com for politicians.”

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By Rip Empson, TechCrunch

“With the passage of the JOBS Act, crowdfunding is going to get a whole lot more interesting — and a whole lot more crowded. Now that everyone and their mother can invest in startups, hundreds of crowdfunding portals are starting their engines.

Wahooly happened to jump on the trend early, soft-launching back in September, before the buzz. Well, when we say “early,” Wahooly is by no means a prime mover compared to the likes of Kickstarter, but it still has the advantage of a headstart — if it can capitalize.”

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By Nick Nelson

It’s not about where you go; it’s about what you order.

This is the philosophy of tech entrepreneur Jolina Li of YumZing, a new Minneapolis startup hatching under the Project Skyway incubator this summer. The service will put a twist on the traditional online restaurant review model by highlighting specific dishes, desserts and drinks rather than establishments as a whole.

Li grew up surrounded by the dining industry, as her parents – as well as many of her other relatives – owned a restaurant. She’s familiar with the frustrations they faced when new customers would come in, try one of the lesser menu items, and leave underwhelmed.

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Northeast Minneapolis startup TST Media completed their first big mobile initiative when SPORT NGIN hit iOS this week.

SPORT NGIN, is an organizational suite of tools for amateur sports team and league management. With over 2,300 unique members and 80,000 different teams, SPORT NGIN powers millions of photos, videos, comments, stats and live scores from around the nation.

“Personal interaction between coaches, players, parents and fans are at the core of every sports organization, league or tournament,” Co founder Carson Kipfer says, “With this initial release, we’ve gone to great lengths to leverage the mobile experience to encourage and enhance team communication and sharing.”

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By Nick Nelson

They call themselves “The Three H’s.” That would be Pete Kostka (The Hustler), Matt Lea (The Hacker) and Andre Gagnon (The Hipster).

Together, they are the backbone of HypeSpark, a new Minnesota startup by way of Wisconsin that seeks to take social media promotion to the next level, rewarding both brands and customers for their participation.

The concept itself isn’t necessarily revolutionary. Content sharing and digital word-of-mouth are already buzzing keywords for business in the social space. The difference for HypeSpark is creating targeted, non-intrusive ads that accompany shared links on platforms such as Facebook and Twitter.

“What we provide is meaningful online marketing that gets people through your doors,” says Kostka, whose enthusiasm befits his aforementioned nickname.

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Wayzata startup Vizsy has closed on a first round of $600k in funding from local investors, according to CEO Bill Farrell.

“Vizsy is turning chaos to calm with a web and mobile platform for organization and communication that covers all your family, work and play needs,” says the former Medtronic executive turned entrepreneur.

Farrell discussed general functionality such as dynamic to-do lists, group communications and private social networks being amongst the initial (B2C & B2B) release, expected for July, after having been in the works for about a year.

“It was difficult, but we did it,” he notes, speaking to the funding initiative, which began last year — although declining to name specific investors involved in the private placement.  Proceeds are going towards continued product development; as such, Vizsy is hiring for a web application developer.

Via News Release

“Keeping an eye on what’s important is easier with the new AyrScout™ WiFi camera system from Ayrstone Productivity. The company’s new technology line includes two AyrMesh™ Routers and two AyrScout WiFi cameras, all which integrate with the AyrMesh Hub to create a home WiFi and camera network.

The new Ayrstone Productivity WiFi technology products continue to make the benefits of WiFi networking accessible to anyone by making setup easy and providing long range Internet access.”

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By Nick Nelson

Mark Brown has spent the past four years doing research in the clean energy space, where he became acutely aware of the challenges involved with accessing information from regulatory papers, plan documents and annual reports housed within the state commission systems.

So now he’s launching a start-up that, like any good business initiative, solves a problem.

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