TECHdotMN: News about Minnesota Startups

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 will focus on advantages, followed by a second post on disadvantages and the third and final will focus on how the Twin Cities tech community can support greater Minnesota tech hubs — and vice versa.

Part I: The advantages of starting and growing a tech company in greater Minnesota.

Read More…

By Sarah Perez, Read Write Web

“App recommendation service W3i has just launched a new platform which targets mobile, to complement its existing PC and Web application recommendation services. The obtusely named W3i “Ad-Funded Payment Platform,” aims to help developers achieve both their discovery and monetization goals, the company says.

To do so, it will reward users with virtual currency within free mobile applications for installing apps from W3i’s advertisers (i.e., other developers). At present, the platform focuses on iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad apps only.”

Read More…

Entrepreneurial Law Firm  Gray Plant Mooty (Returning)

Local Hosting Provider ipHouse (R)

Software Designers & Developers The Nerdery (R)

Student Employer & Staff Augmenter Maverick Software Consulting (New)

Application Investor & Distributor W3i (R)

Public Relations Agency Bellmont Partners (N)

Web & Mobile Developers Bust Out Solutions (R)

Accounting & Financial Services Firm WellAdvised (R)

Talent Acquisition Specialist Andcor (N) (Calendar)

IT Workforce Development Nonprofit Advance IT Minnesota (N) (Directory)

**Contact us for information about how to become a TECHdotMN sponsor**

W3i has officially launched a new mobile game publishing venture called Recharge Studios, in addition to a $1m (minimum) fund targeted at iOS mobile gaming startups.

“The tech industry is clearly growing in the area of free-to-play mobile/social gaming and Minnesota needs to have to have it’s own dedicated resource in this space,” declares Robert Weber, VP and Co founder of parent company W3i.

As a wholly-owned subsidiary, Recharge Studios is specifically seeking to fund iOS developers/teams with an original game concept or prototype, past development experience, business and marketing plan, commitment to the freemium revenue model and plans for social game mechanics. Compulsion loop, time management or simulation games are types of the gaming sub genres of interest to Recharge, who anticipates the funding of at least 10 new gaming startups — beginning next month.

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Greetings – a quick update on things happening at TECHdotMN which our readers should know about:

Sponsors

StartupShoppe joins Gray Plant Mooty, The Nerdery, ipHouse, Marcato Partners, W3i and WellAdvised as site sponsors;  Bust Out Solutions is our new calendar sponsor. 

THANK YOU SPONSORS!

Calendar

We implemented a new calendar today to allow for deeper integration with the rest of the site. From design to data, the purpose is to make for a better experience all-around.  There are new ical & xml subscriptions for this calendar feed as the old ones will be phased out soon (see comment below). Drop us a note if you find a bug and send your Minnesota tech events here for posting.

Weekly Digest

Based on feedback, we’ve changed the frequency of our email digest from monthly to weekly.  If you’re not already subscribed you can drop your email address in the box on the right to receive a recap of the previous weeks headlines and upcoming weeks events.

Giving Back

100% of the gross revenue from our first round of sponsors is being re-invested into the community 50% going towards under-served youth in technology and 50% into a new Minnesota startup.  Moving ahead, 51% of TECHdotMN’s gross revenues are going into a youth technology initiative.  We’ll be announcing the details soon, but in the meantime contact us if you or someone you know has an interest in helping Minnesota youth become more technologically literate.

Stay tuned & have a nice weekend,

The TECHdotMN team

By Wendy Lee, Star Tribune

“On Monday, W3i will launch an online service featuring dozens of iPhone applications, offering consumers real cash for every download while letting developers pay to gain the traffic they need.”

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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:

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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.”

Read More & Listen to the podcast here…

“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