TECHdotMN: News about Minnesota Startups

Having previously featured 9/10 of last night’s Minnedemo presenters, today is less on what our audience already knows about these unique Minnesota startups (videos below) and more on cultural impact of last nights big event on Minnesota’s tech community.

Relatively few were paying attention in the beginning when a small group of enthusiasts would gather somewhere like the (then Franklin Ave) Acadia Cafe or Chiang Mai Thai Restaurant to share their budding projects with peers; based on a historical context of the past three alone, one thing is clear: Minnedemo is now on a whole new level.

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Accelerant (n.): a A substance that is used as a catalyst to increase the speed of or to cause sooner than expected.

In an effort to better support Minnesota innovators and entrepreneurs, Minneapolis Law Firm Robins, Kaplan, Miller and Ciresi (RKMC) has developed and launched a suite of targeted legal resources specifically for the “sophisticated pre-money start-up”. The Accelerant program, which is generally limited to highly-skilled entrepreneurs with high-growth business models, aims to provide entrepreneurs with a systematic and cost-effective approach to the necessary legal componentry of their venture.  As RKMC Partner and Accelerant initiator Kevin Spreng describes:

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Last month, Silicon Valley attorney Ted Wang and a group of collaborators published the “Series Seed Financing Documents.”  This set of free legal documents is intended for early stage companies raising up to $1.5MM in seed capital.  The goal of this effort is to decrease the time and dollars spent in creating transaction documents, as well as to level the playing field between companies and investors.

By many accounts this is the fourth set of free, open-source seed stage documents (entire list).  Supporting Wang is prominent venture capital firm Andreeson Horowitz (started by the founder of Netscape), and a slew of venerable investors such as Ron Conway and First Round Capital.

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6+ years ago Bootstrapper’s Breakfast was founded by Sean Murphy in San Francisco, CA.  It has since grown to multiple Bay Area locations & San Diego, CA.  Later this month, Bootstrapper’s Breakfast will hold it’s first Minnesota event.

According to the site:

Bootstrappers Breakfast is for the founders of early stage technology startups. It is a chance to compare notes on operational, development, and business issues with peers. These breakfasts were designed for entrepreneurs to share ideas and leverage thoughts with other folks who are serious about growing their business.

Bootstrappers Breakfast fosters early morning discussions among entrepreneurs at local restaurants. The focus is on technology businesses whose next stage of growth is based on internal cash flow and organic profits. Entrepreneurs who like to “eat problems for breakfast” bring business issues and challenges to discuss with peers.

The local Bootstrapper’s Breakfast Meetup group has formed, organized by Justin Bacon & Kevin Spreng.  The first Minneapolis Bootstrappers Breakfast will be Thursday January 28th (4th Thursday) at Maria’s Cafe located at 1113 East Franklin Avenue, in Minneapolis.   7:30-9:00