Tech{dot}MN

Matthew Dangerfield is a local freelance software developer for hire.

 
What initially sparked your interest in technology?

My Dad is a software developer, so he initially got me interested. He started teaching me to program when I was only about 8. I liked having the ability to create anything I wanted.

What was the first programming language you learned?

Scratch, a block-based drag and drop introductory programming language from MIT. I had a lot of fun making games with it.

What do you do now?

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By Chris Luger

Within the technical community we will often hear a phrase ‘train the trainer’, which is the primary goal of recently formed Minnesota non-profit Code Kitty.

This 2017 Twin Cities Startup Weekend for Education winner was formed to train teachers and educators with the skills to comfortably bring robotics and coding into their classroom.

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Three division finalists gathered last night for their moment of truth in this year’s Minnesota Cup business competition.

Judges chose daily fantasy soccer app Starting 11 as the High Tech division winner, topping Extempore (2nd) and Team Genius (3rd).

Formed in and led by cofounder/ CEO Teague Orgeman, the sportstech venture was formed by six core partners in 2015 to bring fantasy sports into the game of soccer, making it more “active and exciting.”

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Did you know Minnesota is home to a niche company working with the likes of Uber, General Motors, Toyota, and Hyundai on self-driving cars?

Founder & Principal Phil Magney talks about the genesis, role, and the future of a global movement:

What is the high level overview of Vision Systems Intelligence, also known as VSI Labs?

We examine the building blocks for autonomous vehicle (AV) technologies. We’re essentially a research and advisory company focused on automated/self driving technologies, artificial intelligence and similarly enabling technologies.

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Neal St. Anthony, Star Tribune

“Digi-Key Electronics, the electronic-components distributor, broke ground late last week on a $200 million expansion project at its Thief River Falls, Minn., headquarters campus that it says will add “at least” 1,000 new jobs within a decade.”

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Thanks to Irish Titan for underwriting our Minnesota Ecommerce Captains series focused on local leadership in the e-commerce industry.

Jimmy Vosika started his TV parts resale business 10+ years ago in the basement by taking apart the discarded broken electronics and reselling all the individual parts on ebay.

ShopJimmy has since scaled to tens of millions in online revenue with operations based in Burnsville, Minnesota.

He’ll be speaking to his experiences next Wednesday at Apruve HQ for the Twin Cities Ecommerce Meetup.

What do you sell online?

Replacement TV parts

When, why and how did you get started?

Whoa, this would be a lot to type out, I’ll save the longer version for meetup.

 
In 2006, while working for a recycler, I started researching if broken plasma TVs had any value. I bought one TV and resold it on ebay, making some nice extra cash. I continued buying and reselling the broken units, then eventually formed a company where we began harvesting circuit boards from the TVs to sell on ebay, and the dot com I was building.

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By Kevin Roose, New York Times

“While running errands the other day, I ducked into a local Best Buy to pick up a pair of new headphones. What I saw inside was shocking.

Happy-looking people were huddled around tables filled with the latest gadgets from Microsoft and Apple. The video game aisle was bustling. Blue-shirted employees were helping a customer pick from a glowing wall of flat-screen TVs. There was a line — a line! — at the checkout counter.”

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Via News Release

“MINNEAPOLIS (September 18, 2017) – Twin Cities-based recruiting and staffing firm George Konik Associates has acquired PrimeStaff, a technical recruiting and staffing agency based in Shoreview, Minn. founded in 1997.

Through the acquisition, the company will double in size and expand its ability to serve the engineering, architecture and IT recruiting needs of companies in Minnesota and western Wisconsin. The combined firm will operate under the name Konik PrimeStaff.”

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By Shawn M. Carter, CNBC

“More than 44 million Americans have taken out loans to pay for college and their debt totals $1.4 trillion. For those in their 20s, the average loan debt is $22,135. For those in their 30s, it’s $34,033. And 60 percent of borrowers don’t expect to pay off their loans until their 40s.

Gregory Dehn, founder and chief executive officer of Kaleidoscope, which connects high school and college students with grant and scholarship providers, offers a fix.”

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By Eillie Anzilotti

“Passed 27 years ago, the Americans with Disabilities Act mandates equal rights and opportunities for people with disabilities. Title III of the ADA specifically mandates that all public and private institutions and spaces render themselves accessible to those with sensory, cognitive, and physical limitations–think of Braille on store signs, sound-enabled walk signals, on-ramps carved into sidewalks.

But over the past year and a half, a string of lawsuits filed on behalf of people with disabilities against companies indicates that one crucial space has been bypassed in effectively interpreting the purpose of the ADA: the internet.”

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