Via News Release
“W3i, a leading network for app distribution and monetization for personal computers and mobile devices, announces the following promotions:
- Jeff Bollinger was promoted to Chief Technology Officer and Senior Vice President.
- Lisa Nistler was promoted to Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing.
- Ryan Ranweiler was promoted to Chief Financial Officer and Senior Vice President.
- Ryan Weber was promoted to Senior Vice President of Product Management and Co-Founder.
- Rob Weber was promoted to Senior Vice President and Co-Founder. Rob Weber co-founded W3i in 2000 and leads business development for mobile.”
Many of my closest friends in the Twin Cities metro tech community ask me for my perspective of what it is like to build a tech business in greater Minnesota.
Founding W3i eleven years ago in St. Cloud has certainly had its advantages and disadvantages. Rather than answering this question solely based on my experiences alone, I interviewed several other greater Minnesota tech entrepreneurs for their feedback on this subject.
With so much thoughtful input, I decided to answer this question in a three post series: the first post examined the advantages, this follow-up is on the disadvantages, and the last will focus on how the Twin Cities tech community can support greater Minnesota tech hubs — and vice versa.
Part II: The disadvantages of starting and growing a tech company in greater Minnesota.
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.
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 
Unless your last name begins with “Karim”, “Ronning”, or “Lawson”, et. al. (Minnesota tech masters of the universe for those of you who need to brush up on your local tech lore) then you are going to need to prove yourself and tech start-up to would be early stage tech investors – aka “Angels”.
Part of proving your start-up is demonstrating the potential for a meaningful exit (what all investors deep down are looking for) by having a solid base of facts which can be used to establish the foundation of your early-stage company. The best way to come across as credible is to present key operating metrics, financial measures and milestones to prove you have what it takes to be a Minnesota tech superstar.
A few key recommendations on facts you should be prepare to show a potential investor which will dramatically improve your chances of scoring the early stage investment you are looking for:
By Steve Borsch, Minnov8
“Is it true that “Flat Is The New Up?” Not if you’re a company just outside St. Cloud, Sartell-based w3i, which is consistently proving that “Up Is The New Up” every quarter through quite impressive and sustained growth. Our guest on this week’s podcast, co-founder Rob Weber (@robertjweber), tells us how they got started and what they’re up to now.
W3i was marketing apps when apps weren’t even cool and their founding is a great story. In 2000, the three Weber brothers (Ryan, Aaron and Rob) discovered the power of free and launched Freeze.com. Along with their team, they developed applications to satisfy users’ pent up demand for free content while pioneering new revenue models to spread the development and marketing costs across millions of installations — over 250 million to date.”
“On November 21st over 600 developers and entrepreneurs got together to discuss what’s important to Minnesota tech start-ups. The halls that Best Buy legendary founder, Dick Schulze, built made for a great location for the next wave of Minnesota entrepreneurs to begin spreading their wings.”
Read the complete recap here.
http://twincities.bizjournals.com/twincities/stories/2009/07/27/focus10.html?b=1248667200^1867117
-I haven’t had the time to review them (yet)…leaves me wondering who is in the tech space?
Update I- three local tech entrepreneurs are listed:
Darren Cotter: (Cotterweb Enterprises, Inc) http://twincities.bizjournals.com/twincities/stories/2009/07/27/focus3.html
Rob & Ryan Weber: (w3i/freeze) http://twincities.bizjournals.com/twincities/stories/2009/07/27/focus6.html
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