Starting your own company doesn’t have to mean working alone. A St. Paul co-working center recently kicked off a new Startup Saturdays theme. The 3rd Place, 2190 Como Ave., is one of two co-working centers that opened in the city earlier this year. The other is CoCo in Lowertown St. Paul. Co-working centers are meant [...]
Minnesota economic officials expect applications to be available for the state’s angel investor tax credit before the Aug. 1 deadline set by the Legislature. Dan McElroy, commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development, told an audience Monday that his department hopes to have documents related to the tax credit posted on its [...]
An energy management software company is expanding in the western suburbs. Open Systems International broke ground Friday on a new $20 million corporate headquarters in Medina. The 100,000-square-foot building will be LEED-Gold certified and incorporate some of the company’s own energy management technologies. “We are growing rapidly, leaps and bounds, and the space we’re in [...]
Could mobile phones help the homeless find permanent shelter? A St. Paul nonprofit started distributing cell phones last month to homeless residents. It’s part of a small pilot program to show how cell phones can help people in transition find jobs and permanent housing, as well as stay better connected with family, friends and agencies. [...]
Thanks to a sort of American Idol for ideas, a Twin Cities woman gets $15,000 to implement her concept, and a Minnesota foundation gets an experience that could help change the way local institutions make decisions in the future. Christine Tubbs of Stillwater was named winner Tuesday of the inaugural Minnesota Idea Open challenge. Her [...]
Think of it as Minnesota’s Next Top Entrepreneur. The deadline for entries in this year’s Minnesota Cup contest was Friday, May 21. The sixth annual entrepreneurship invited Minnesota inventors to submit ideas in four areas: bioscience, high tech, clean tech, social entrepreneurship, as well as a general entrepreneurship and student category. Minnesota Cup director Matt [...]
I’m attending the launch event this afternoon for a group called MOJO Minnesota, an “innovation advocacy force” that wants to “reignite Minnesota’s culture of innovation.” I met with co-founder Ernest Grumbles a few weeks ago, and he explained they’re not going to be about putting out more studies and white papers. They’re going to be [...]
I spent the morning at Medtronic’s Moundsview campus for an event called “Nanotechnology – A Showcase of Current Applications in the Region,” put on by Life Science Alley and MN Nano. I’m back at my desk now, and here’s my quick summary. We heard presentations from ten Minnesota companies (and one from Canada) about how [...]
