She’s Geeky – the unConference designed to “inspire women technologists for the future and advance systemic change in tech culture” – is coming to Minnesota on August 6 & 7th, marking the first time the event will take place outside either coast.
Why Minnesota? Mostly thanks to the persistent efforts of Elizabeth Tupper, who attended last November’s She’s Geeky unConference in Washington D.C. with the goal of bringing it to her home state.
Last Saturday, Mike Bollinger and I moderated a panel discussion at Minnebar focused on the concept of improving Minnesota’s startup community. This session, titled “How Can Minnesota Be Better“, can be viewed in its entirety above with credit to our panelists who generously shared their insights and perspectives. Special thanks to Brett Thoreson for the steady hand and Andrew Frenz for collecting audience questions.
Joel Dahlin, Geoff Dutton and Derrick Shields have collectively summarized the experience. Leave a comment if you have an opinion to share…
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:
MinneBar is an (un)conference aimed at getting those in Minnesota’s tech and design communities together to discuss topics that interest them. This Saturday (5/22) from 9-6, a crowd 500 plus will gather at Best Buy headquarters for one of Minnesota’s premier tech events – now on its fifth evolution.
Mike Bollinger and I will be facilitating/moderating a session focused on the Minnesota startup culture, aptly titled: “How can Minnesota be better?“
“Check your Minnesota nice at the door and break out the alter ego for a candid yet pragmatic conversation about the circumstances surrounding Minnesota’s startup community and (by extension) the future of Minnesota tech. A working framework will explore the concepts of:
risk-heritage-entrepreneurialism-capital-media-legacy orgs-competition-leadership-strength-weakness-opportunity
Facilitated by two Minnesota entrepreneurs passionately committed to seeing early-stage Minnesota tech be all that it can be, this session poses one simple question with no easy answer.”
Below are the five hand-picked panelists who will be sharing their unique perspectives on the notion of “improvement”. Are there other local thought leaders, experts, executives, stakeholders and numerous people or parties equally interested in and actively working towards improving Minnesota’s startup culture? Absolutely! This was the best we could do to pull together a diverse and complimentary group of qualified/concerned individuals on such short notice. This session will be held during the second part of the day, likely between 2-5; please indicate your interest here so the organizers can anticipate the demand for this and any other sessions you’re attending. If you have a question for the panel just leave it in the comments or grab us day of 
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.
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