TECHdotMN: News about Minnesota Startups

Credit where Credit is Due. GTK#26: Minne* – Ben Edwards & Luke Francl

January 5, 2011 | by Jeff Pesek Comments

Behind all the talk about innovation, startups and entrepreneurship in Minnesota are two men who have (modestly) been building the local tech community for years through a series of initiatives culminating under the brand umbrella Minne*.

It started back in 2006 with Minnesota’s first barcamp unconference aka MinneBar, followed by “show and tell” MinneDemo (next up: Jan 13), and more recently the introduction of MinneSpark.

“When we created barcamp, I had no idea what Minne* was going to be…I just thought Minnesota needed a barcamp…and we had one and it was a good time…then Luke Francl and Dan [Grigsby] picked up the Demo events, and it became a number of events and we needed something to support all these things,” says Minne* Catalyst Ben Edwards.

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MinneSpark ignites three winners with cash & services

May 22, 2010 | by Jeff Pesek Comments

MinneSpark, the newest addition to the Minne* family, announced today the three beneficiaries of their first crowdsourced micro fundraising initiative.

Less than two months ago, MinneSpark kicked-off its innovative approach to funding early stage ideas, concepts, plans and prototypes. From the MinneSpark website:

“MinneSpark will award 1 to n grants of at least $1,000 to Minnesota-based teams who demonstrate to our trustees the ability to take that money and turn it into something real. This is about doing more with less, and building a profitable business from day one. Winners will get some help along the way in the form of mentoring from the trustees and services from sponsors.”

Fast forward: with over 30 entrants and roughly 6k raised in $100 increments via “trustees”, three winners have been selected to each receive $2,000 cash + $4,000 worth of in-kind services including:

• Hosting / internet access services from ipHouse
• 1 month of full-time coworking space at CoCo
• Months of Startup Saturdays at The 3rd Place
• Legal services from New Counsel
• Tax Startup Package Tax services from Kaiser Tax
• Backup Services from Crash Plan
• 1 year subscription to Milemarker Idea

The three winners are:

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MinneSpark gives you $1,000 for your idea, no strings attached

March 24, 2010 | by Mike Bollinger Comments

Have a killer idea but need a little push to get you going?  What if that little push was a grand?

In the coming year, MinneSpark—the latest initiative from Minne*—will award grants of $1,000 to Minnesota-based teams who demonstrate to a set of “trustees” their ability to use the small amount of cash to leap from an idea to a working startup.

MinneSpark hopes to raise the $1,000 needed for each grant by collecting $100 from 10 people (the trustees). Trustees will pay a minimum of $100, which earns them 1 vote in the selection process. Trustees can purchase additional votes (and therefore more strongly influence the decision of who is awarded money) for $100 per vote. People interested in becoming a trustee can apply online.

The money awarded is truly a grant—no strings attached. There is no exchange of equity, no entitlement to future revenue or profits, no obligation to run errands or pickup dry cleaning for those who gave you the cash. Further, winners will receive help in the form of mentoring from the trustees and services from sponsors.

This is not a new model. ScaleWell, an organization based in Chicago, has already used this model to award one grant to Unatronics, and as of this month is taking applications for the second grant.

“This is about doing more with less,” says Luke Francl, one of Minne* partners. “It’s an experiment, really—what kind of cool things can be done with $1,000?”

Individuals/teams/companies can apply for the MinneSpark grant starting today. The application deadline is April 30th at which point voting will follow, and winners will be announced at MinneBar on May 22nd. The grant awarded at MinneBar will be at least $1,000 (reportedly, it may be higher if fund raising goes well). Do your part to make sure it does goes well: become a trustee.