Twin Cities Startup Week 2017

Change[Health] Pitch Competition is a live pitch cash prize competition aimed at showcasing products and services that impact local community health. Join Healthcare.mn and Impact Hub MSP, as we showcase notable, up and coming entrepreneurs, and startups ready to pitch their innovative ideas that are challenging and re-imagining the current healthcare system for the better.

The top three pitches, as chosen by you, will walk away with cash in hand to bring their work from idea to action. Deadline to submit an application or nomination to participate is September 7.

Finalists will compete for first, second, and third place prizes of $300, $200, and $100 provided by Healthcare.mn and Allina Health.

Grab a coffee and cheer, as you hear from a selection of the best and brightest ideas reimagining the “care” of health in Minnesota. Be a part of the change and vote to ensure your favorite cause walks away with cash for care.

Light breakfast and coffee will be provided by local MN startup, Eat for Equity, a social enterprise.

• Join us for lunch (our treat) and learn from a panel of corporate innovators
• Participate in a best practice sprint, sharing & learning key approaches, components, and tips to pitching within a corporation
• Contribute & “learn by doing” in a workshop facilitated by the awesome Reve Academy to help their members evolve and prepare a 7 min pitch
• Celebrate and partake in a social hour to continue networking, learning, and sharing with your corporate innovation peers

• When is it time to hire someone to do your PR for you instead of doing it yourself?
• What can you do to prepare yourself to outsource your PR?
• How do you spend your dollars wisely?
• How much time you should plan to spend on PR once you hire a firm?"

Can Minnesota become an industry leader with emerging technology? 

Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Virtual Reality and Autonomous Drones all have tremendous implications for the future of healthcare.Join us at Healthcare.mn for a casual chat with the some of the sharpest Minnesota minds working on these problems. 

We will have drinks and networking before and after this panel discussion. 

 Gene Munster, Managing Partner

Loup Ventures

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 Josh Cutler, Head of Artificial Intelligence

Aftercode

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 Schedule

12:15 to 1: Networking

1 to 2: Moderated Discussion

2 to 2:30: Networking

Presented by the Healthcare.mn, proudly leading this year's Twin Cities Startup Week Healthcare Track

Healthcare.mn is committed to driving healthcare innovation through creating community, building connections, educating, and representing the needs of healthcare startups in Minnesota.

Learn more at: http://healthcare.mn/

This year's Healthcare Track is genorously sponsored by Allina Health. 

Allina Health is dedicated to the prevention and treatment of illness and enhancing the greater health of individuals, families and communities throughout Minnesota and western Wisconsin. 

Hosted by Worrell, Inc.

• Who should you talk to about investing – family, angels, VCs? 
• Should you hire a broker? 
• Should you prepare a private placement memorandum? 
• Should I present investors with a term sheet? 
• What the heck is a SAFE? 
• Should I sell convertible promissory notes?

• Kevin Spreng, Fredrikson & Byron P.A. 
• David Winkler, Fredrikson & Byron P.A. 
• Additional panelists to be announced

• 3:00 p.m. Registration 
• 3:30-5:00 p.m. Program and Q&A

Tapping into Trade Secrets: Ask an Expert Series
Open Office Hours – Free Legal Council from Avisen Legal, P.A.

As an entrepreneur or startup, each week seems to bring on a new set of challenges, questions, and opportunities to learn something new.

Impact Hub will host free open office hours throughout the week with experts from Avisen Legal, P.A. ready to answer your business questions and provide any personal guidance, resources, and trade secrets.

Stop in to visit us throughout Twin Cities Startup Week to schedule your one-on-one conversation on a series of topics. While the topics are on rotation, any questions are open and welcome.

The Impact Hub provides resources, inspiration, and collaboration opportunities to grow the positive impact of your work.

Open Office Hours Themes for the week will include:

Monday, Tuesday
3 pm – 5 pm 

Monday Topic: Intellectual Property, attorney Larry Fox
Tuesday Topic: Raising Money and Crowdfunding, attorney Brian Edstrom

Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday
9 am – 11 am 

Wednesday Topic: General Business Law Questions, including a dive into Social Enterprises Questions
Thursday Topic: Employment Law, attorney Bill Egan
Friday Topic: General Business Law Questions, including a dive into Social Enterprises Questions, attorney John Saunders

Night at the Mall is a kickoff event to get the participants together and introduce startup weekend. It will consist of ice breakers, networking, and an opportunity to meet the mentors for the week.

• 5:15 PM - 5:30 PM | CHECK-IN
• 5:30 PM - 5:45 | WELCOME
• 5:45 PM - 6:45 PM | SPEAKER: PRESTON PALMER
• 6:45 PM - 7:00 PM | DINNER
• 7:00 PM - 7:45 | WHAT'S YOUR PASSION?

If you haven’t seen first-person-view (FPV) drone racing in action, here’s your chance to tip a few back at the Twin Cities’ hottest tap room and behold the sport of the future.

We’ll start with an FPV freestyle demo outside in the Bauhaus courtyard (drones showing off) before moving inside, meeting a few top pilots (listed below), and then showcasing some action-packed micro-FPV drone racing through the Bauhaus tap room (may the fastest pilot win).

And since FPV flying is made possible by small onboard video cameras with real-time transmitters, you’ll be able to ride along for every zoom, swoop, dive, roll and crash as Twin Cities startup Hydra FPV streams those camera feeds live to the giant Bauhaus projection screen.  

Presented by:

AirVūz - The world’s leading platform for discovering, watching, and sharing drone videos is based right here in Minneapolis, and they’ll be live streaming from this event AND giving away three (3) Horizon Hobby Ready-to-Fly Inductrix micro-FPV drone+goggle sets to a few lucky attendees/future pilots.

Minnesota Autonomous Vehicle (MAV) Meetup - Known for attracting the coolest collection of drone pilots in town to monthly meetups, they’ll be setting up their FPV flight simulator for anyone to try.

Hydra FPV - A new drone racing entertainment engine that enables dynamic live streaming of FPV flying action to Twitch, YouTube, Facebook, and more, turning today’s pilots into tomorrow’s sports stars.    

Hosted by:

Bauhaus Brew Labs - A family of musicians, scientists, artists and – above all – beer lovers, aiming to reinvigorate the spirit of the family brewery. Bauhaus takes a unique look at classic German-inspired beer styles, skewed slightly by a sense of play and adventure.

Schedule:

6:00-7:00 PM - FPV Freestyle Demo (courtyard)

7:00-7:30 PM - Pilot Interviews and Presentation (stage)

7:30-8:45 PM - Micro-FPV Drone Racing Exhibition (taproom)

8:45-9:00 PM - Inductrix Micro-FPV Drone Giveaway (taproom)

Come fly with us.  

Female founders and women startup leaders will pitch their companies to Midwest investors and community supporters. There will be 18 women pitching! See Eventbrite link for more information and to sign up to attend!

Pitching Companies

AbiliTech Medical
Anser
Chromatic 3D Materials
ClinicianNexus
HabitAware
Impleo Medical
Kidizen
Kokko
Metametrix
Rally Registry
Rebiotix
RSVTea
Savitude
Seven Sundays
Starting11
Stratafolio
Superior Switchel
UR Turn

If learning how to make more money is a skill you’ve been looking to acquire, please join us at 9 a.m. on the 2nd Tuesday of every month at COCO Downtown Minneapolis. The goal of this gathering is for attendees to authentically receive process design, tools used, and tips on what works to successfully grow revenue. This is a natural interview style format that will give you a peek into some of the top sales minds that took companies like When I Work, Fision, and Infor from good to great.

Our desire is not only to create an inspired networking environment but also provide tangible knowledge that can be applied the second you walk out the door. This series for entrepreneurs, small businesses, intraprenuers, solopreneurs, nerds, creators, inventors & everyone in between!

America loses up to 40% of its food as it travels from farm to fork to landfill and entrepreneurs and innovators are tackling this problem from all angles. Come for lunch, discussion and a startup showcase highlighting three key themes of food waste: reduce, recover and reharvest.

This discussion, facilitated by JoAnne Berkenkamp, Senior Advocate for NRDC will dive into how solving the problem of global food waste starts with local communities and involves integrated solutions throughout the entire supply chain. Startups and organizations participating include Reinvia, Sofi Taste Kineto, the Cleantech Open’s recently launched Food and Ag vertical, as well as the Agriculture Utilization Research Institute (AURI).

Come hungry, as lunch will be made by local chefs, creating something delicious utilizing products normally thought of as food waste inspired by Dan Barber’s WastED. Intrigued? We know this lunch and conversation will spark possibilities, introduce you to new startups as well as change your perspective on 'waste' today.

The Food and Ag track is led by Grow North, a resource and connection hub for food and agriculture entrepreneurs and the ecosystem. Grow North would like to thank the volunteers and organizations who helped make the entire track possible.  

1. Patents
2. Trademarks
3. Copyrights
4. Trade secrets 

1. Advisors are only as smart as their clients; 
2. IP protection is a continual collaborative process 
3. 20% of your IP accounts for 80% of the total value of your IP. 

Question: Will it be fun? Answer: You bet.
Question: Are these companies legit? Answer: Heck yea, all are post seed with significant revenue and dozens of employees. These aren't just great ideas -- these folks are executing and at a high level.
Question: Is there real money on the line? Answer: ...is there any other way of doing it?
Question: Do you have beer Answer: Come on -- of course we do.

Pitch Competition: A showcase competition where entrepreneurs compete for the top title and winner take all prize money of $5,000. All 3 companies have expereinced tremendous growth and success since inception and are actively raising post-seed or Series A rounds. Come cheer them on and be a part of the excitment.

• Alchemy - Bridging the fitness gap with the most effective forms of yoga, strength, and cardiovascular training. Pursue your legend with our community. (From Minneapolis)

• Fronana - Banana Ice Cream Alternative made from Whole Fruits and Natural Foods (From Dayton)

• Kaizen Health - Kaizen Health strives to constantly improve access to healthcare through dependable non-emergency medical transportation (From Chicago)

*If you already registered for the Muster (https://minneapolismuster.eventbrite.com/) you don't need to register for a second time. This is only for people that will just be attending the pitch competition.

Timeline

2:30: Registration
3:00: Pitch Competition (3 Companies / 8-10 min picthes)
3:45: Announcement of Winner ($5,000 cash prize)
4:00: Happy Hour

About Bunker Labs

Bunker Labs is a national network of entrepreneurs founded by military veterans to help other veterans start and grow businesses. The Muster Across America Tour 2017 will travel to 14 cities across the country to showcase veteran entrepreneurs, empower local entrepreneurial ecosystems with large-scale events, and serve as the launching point for Bunker Labs Minneapolis chapter activities.

Info:

Pricing is one of the most powerful levers to transform good product into good business. A key set of metrics such as profitability, average revenue per customer, customer acquisition, customer lifetime value, and customer retention are all driven by your pricing strategy, structure, and model. By the end of this two-hour workshop you will:

1. Get familiarized with the four core structures of a new offering

2. Understand the principles of value-based pricing

3. Learn how to use the Pricing Canvas ™ for pricing new products, services, & technology

4. Draft a Pricing Canvas™ for your offering(s)

People today are looking for innovative food products that are organic, local, sustainable and made with authenticity. Yet bringing this to life can be a real struggle for food entrepreneurs as they build their supply chain as well as identify retail partners that will take a chance on them. 

A first of its kind Food Accelerator program launched in the Twin Cities, Maker to Market was created to address these challenges head on. This innovative program did not just offer personalized food business consult, from container shape to culinary support, but also elevated the commercialization process by pairing selected startups with local, small and disadvantaged farmers, subsidized their shared commercial kitchen production time, and guaranteed six months on shelf at Lakewinds Food Co-op's three Twin Cities area stores.

Meet and hear from the leaders behind the Maker to Market Food Accelerator Program as well as the food startups that participated. This event will include a discussion on how the partnership came together, insights and lessons learned from their first cohort as well as a demo and product showcase from the food startups that participated. Program partners will also release details on the 2018 cohort including application release date and some new program offerings!

Tapping into Trade Secrets: Ask an Expert Series
Open Office Hours – Free Legal Council from Avisen Legal, P.A.

As an entrepreneur or startup, each week seems to bring on a new set of challenges, questions, and opportunities to learn something new.

Impact Hub will host free open office hours throughout the week with experts from Avisen Legal, P.A. ready to answer your business questions and provide any personal guidance, resources, and trade secrets.

Stop in to visit us throughout Twin Cities Startup Week to schedule your one-on-one conversation on a series of topics. While the topics are on rotation, any questions are open and welcome.

The Impact Hub provides resources, inspiration, and collaboration opportunities to grow the positive impact of your work.

Open Office Hours Themes for the week will include:

Monday, Tuesday
3 pm – 5 pm 

Monday Topic: Intellectual Property, attorney Larry Fox
Tuesday Topic: Raising Money and Crowdfunding, attorney Brian Edstrom

Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday
9 am – 11 am 

Wednesday Topic: General Business Law Questions, including a dive into Social Enterprises Questions
Thursday Topic: Employment Law, attorney Bill Egan
Friday Topic: General Business Law Questions, including a dive into Social Enterprises Questions, attorney John Saunders

As attitudes towards food and food production have changed dramatically over the last several years, the world has seen an explosion of innovators and entrepreneurs starting new food and agriculture businesses. Corporations have taken notice and developed internal teams and departments focused on investing in and partnering with startups at ever earlier stages. What does a partnership like this actually look like? How do the two companies work together? What does a large corporation look for in a startup and vice versa?

Hear both sides of the story at this unique panel bringing together leaders from corporate venture groups and the startups they invested in. Speakers include leadership from General Mills’ 301inc and Rhythm Superfoods, Land O’Lakes, Techstars and LocalCrate, and Schwans and trū Shrimp

This panel discussion will kick off the Food and Agriculture Track's 'Crash the Food and Ag Networks' networking Happy Hour. The event program will start promptly at 3:45pm. 


The Food and Ag track is led by Grow North, a resource and connection hub for food and agriculture entrepreneurs and the ecosystem. Grow North would like to thank the volunteers and organizations who helped make the entire track possible.  

Hear directly from a variety of edtech founders (academic researchers, policy experts, and former teachers) about some high points (and low points) of their “entrepreneurial journey”:

• What problem is their startup trying to solve?
• Why did they form a startup? What made them want to do it?
• What advice do they have about recruiting a co-founder and key team members?
• Where did they get funding and what advice do they have?
• How did they develop customers and sustaining revenue?
• What are a few “lessons learned” they would offer aspiring edtech entrepreneurs?

Agenda:

5:30-6 pm--Arrival, food and networking

6-6:15 pm--Sponsor welcome: Peter J. Taylor, Pres. & CEO Zenith Education Group

6:15-7:30 pm--Panel presentations

7:30-8 pm--Q&A and wrap-up

THIS EVENT IS KINDLY AND GENEROUSLY SPONSORED BY ECMC GROUP


TCSW's EdTech & Training Track is powered by Educelerate North

Premiere Night is a celebration of gener8tor's latest class of innovative startups and entrepreneurship.

For the three months leading up to Premiere Night, gener8tor's group of entrepreneurs have been validating their business models, attracting customers and preparing their pitches. Premiere Night offers an amazing opportunity for gener8tor companies, entrepreneurs and investors to commingle.

 Each of gener8tor's Minnesota 2017 companies will give a five-minute pitch in front of a captive audience of investors, entrepreneurs and community members.

• Software architecture and development
• Food manufacturing, distribution and marketing 
• Technical product design, development and marketing 
• Large retail sector sales
• Veteran entrepreneur experience, finance, government contracting 
• Business competition participation 
• Team development
• Corporate partnering and relations development
• Cleantech 
• Medical device development and accompanying regulatory environment and multi-sector resource connections.

Tech: It’s where we hear stories of unprecedented growth, driven by bold strategies, fearless execution, dizzying transformation, and enviable investment momentum. But what’s really behind these stories? And what can we learn from this industry’s mastery of speed and spin?

Join us for a panel discussion on the trials and triumphs of startup branding as we hear from visionary founders and leaders of some of Minnesota’s top tech companies. Learn how they’ve grown their business and brand story at every stage, be inspired by their scrappy and creative growth-hacks, and come away with actionable ideas to infuse your go-to-market programs.

Our panelists include:

• Clay Collins, Co-Founder and Board Chairman, Leadpages

• Carson Kipfer, Co-Founder and Principal Designer, SportsEngine

• Chip Pearson, Managing Partner, Jamf Software

• Phil Soran, Co-Founder and Executive Chairman, Flipgrid

• Peter Zaballos, CMO, SPS Commerce

Moderator: Jennifer Zick, Founder and Owner, Authentic Brand

Presented in partnership with the Minnesota Interactive Marketing Association (MIMA) and their annual MIMA Summit (happening the following day on Thursday, October 12), we’ll be diving deep with these tech leaders on topics including:

• Launching a new brand or product to the market

• The role of culture in shaping your brand story

• Building a raving fan base, and the value of influence

• Raising capital and attracting investors

• Storytelling for mergers, acquisitions, and exits

• Failure as a success metric

• And more.

See you there!

Tapping into Trade Secrets: Ask an Expert Series
Open Office Hours – Free Legal Council from Avisen Legal, P.A.

As an entrepreneur or startup, each week seems to bring on a new set of challenges, questions, and opportunities to learn something new.

Impact Hub will host free open office hours throughout the week with experts from Avisen Legal, P.A. ready to answer your business questions and provide any personal guidance, resources, and trade secrets.

Stop in to visit us throughout Twin Cities Startup Week to schedule your one-on-one conversation on a series of topics. While the topics are on rotation, any questions are open and welcome.

The Impact Hub provides resources, inspiration, and collaboration opportunities to grow the positive impact of your work.

Open Office Hours Themes for the week will include:

Monday, Tuesday
3 pm – 5 pm 

Monday Topic: Intellectual Property, attorney Larry Fox
Tuesday Topic: Raising Money and Crowdfunding, attorney Brian Edstrom

Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday
9 am – 11 am 

Wednesday Topic: General Business Law Questions, including a dive into Social Enterprises Questions
Thursday Topic: Employment Law, attorney Bill Egan
Friday Topic: General Business Law Questions, including a dive into Social Enterprises Questions, attorney John Saunders

Please register directly through Eventbrite. Capacity is limited in Sched. 

As companies create new products and serivces in this ever changing and connected world of "things", investors are a key pat of thie equation. However, what has worked in the past is not the model that will work in the futur when it comet building products that requires hardware, software and physical product design.

 As an investor, there's a different mindset that needs to be applied when working with startups in the this space. Come learn from local investor and entrepreneur, Kevin Nieuwsma who is CEO at GPSip Corporation & Independent Executive Advisor and has been working in this space on how to understand the phases of development, when investing makes (and doesn't make sense) and how gettingto a proof of concept is just a small step in taking a product like this to market!

This event is for anyone in the public, but geared for investors, strartups or anyone at a company looking make their products or services more intelligent and connected. Drinks and light snacks provided courtesy of Lab 651 who connects the pyhsical world to the digital universe by making your products and devices smarter.

This summer, 16 Macalester students took part in Mac Startups, a student-run entrepreneurship incubator. After identifying problems in the Twin Cities community (and beyond) they developed creative products to solve these problems. Their projects range from a Chinese character learning app, to an art incubator. On October 11th at 11:00am, the teams will be showcasing their work at a "Demo Day" event on Macalester's campus. Demo Day will feature short pitches from each of the Mac Startups teams, as well as a light lunch and networking.

Food will be provided! Make sure to register so we can be sure to have enough food for everyone!

Mac Startups is Macalester College's startup incubator. It was founded in May 2014 by Macalester '14 alum Petar Petrovic. The 2017 cohort includes 16 participants working together on 7 different ideas through an immersive 10-week summer program.

CupBap (Bo Kim, Eun Shin and Hans Han) aims to provide an affordable fast-casual dining chain with a Korean street food called “cupbap”, literally translated as “cup of rice”. Cupbap is designed for the grab-and-go convenience and is easily customizable, catering to the customers’ dietary preferences.

FUNL (Clinton Kunhardt, Garrett Goodstein) is a social media hookup app designed to interact with a users night life while offering and implementing safety features.

JustConnect (Ben Lewis, Rachel Stromsta) is a platform that connects criminal record holders to employment opportunities and provide educational referrals and hiring opportunities for local businesses.

Multimedia Art Collective (Juliette Myers, Zeam Porter) is a platform that connects Twin Cities artists to local communities and organizations through initiating collaborative and public art projects, workshops, and events. The goal is to create more opportunities for art and community involvement with an emphasis on social justice, artivism, and healing.

Schedule Management (Hosea Ogeleka, Anzhe Cui) is an app that facilitates event organization and scheduling, capturing necessary information from a source (texts, image) to put into a calendar and support in-app messaging system.

Tales of Characters (Eric Mok, Matthew Nguyen) is a learning app which breaks down Chinese characters into smaller components and re-unifies the components by both the historical meaning and the mnemonic stories. The character list includes the vocabularies from the HSK exam, the only standardized Chinese language exam in China, in order to provide HSK students a meaningful and interactive way in memorizing the Chinese characters.

QuickCare (Daniel Neff, Isaac Siegel, Jake Hill) is a service that delivers all the necessary amenities and love to ensure a speedy recovery when you’re under the weather.

This summer, 16 Macalester students took part in Mac Startups, a student-run entrepreneurship incubator. After identifying problems in the Twin Cities community (and beyond) they developed creative products to solve these problems. Their projects range from a Chinese character learning app, to an art incubator. On October 11th at 11:00am, the teams will be showcasing their work at a "Demo Day" event on Macalester's campus. Demo Day will feature short pitches from each of the Mac Startups teams, as well as a light lunch and networking.

Food will be provided! Make sure to register so we can be sure to have enough food for everyone! 

• Why influencer marketing is increasing in popularity
• How to connect with the right influencers for your brand
• What influencers look for in a brand partnership
• How brand influencers can help boost SEO 

Interested in learning how to leverage different technologies to support and grow your company’s business idea?  We’ll focus on how 3 Minnesota startups, Field Nation, Total Expert, and Agosto, have leveraged bleeding edge technologies to solve a meaningful business need. Join us as we discuss the new technologies these startups chose, how they overcame obstacles or blockers along the way, and how the technology helped them solve their unique business problem.

Agosto - Paul Lundberg, CTO at Agosto, will share how his team developed a proof of concept for a transit safety customer to solve a key scaling issue with their product offering by combining Computer Vision and Machine Learning. Agosto is an authorized Google Apps reseller, a Google Enterprise Solutions Provider, and a Google Premier Partner.

Field Nation - Travis Emslander, CTO at Field Nation, will discuss why geolocation/mapping is a vital capability for Field Nation’s business, how his team leveraged an open source solution to meet that challenge, and the significant savings gained in lieu of leveraging Google Maps. Field Nation’s platform offers a web-based marketplace solution to connect businesses directly with contingent workers.

Please join us on the eve of the MedCity INVEST Twin Cities Conference to learn more about the local healthcare ecosystem and network with corporate and start-up executives, investors, and thought leaders. We will have several industry presenters and breakout networking sessions covering a wide range of digital health topics.

Refreshments and heavy appetizers will be provided.

Speakers:

Parking Options:

1. Valet ($10, cash only)
2. MCTC lot just east on Hennepin ($5, cash/cards)
3. Basilica lot under the I-94 bridge (13 North 17th Street, $5, cash only)
4. Lot behind TreeHouse building (1600 Harmon Place, $6, cash or MPLS Parking app)

Register here for the MedCity INVEST Conference on October 12th, 2017.

5:00 PM - 5:15 PM | CHECK-IN

5:15 PM - 5:30 PM | INTRODUCTION

5:30 PM - 5:45 PM | SPEAKER: ALEX FRENCH

5:45 PM - 6:00 PM | PANEL INTRO

6:00PM - 7:15PM | PANEL DISCUSSION

7:15 - 7:45 | DINNER & NETWORKING

Presenters:

• Edji – Classroom web-based app to connect readers and teachers and improve reading skills. 
• GogyUp – Personalized literacy app for adult emerging readers. 
• InsertLearning – Chrome extension that lets teachers turn websites into interactive lesson plans. 
• Cody Kitty – Training teachers with skills to comfortably bring robotics and coding to their classrooms. 
• CowTipping Press – Writing classes for, and publisher of works by, people with developmental disabilities.

Tapping into Trade Secrets: Ask an Expert Series
Open Office Hours – Free Legal Council from Avisen Legal, P.A.

As an entrepreneur or startup, each week seems to bring on a new set of challenges, questions, and opportunities to learn something new.

Impact Hub will host free open office hours throughout the week with experts from Avisen Legal, P.A. ready to answer your business questions and provide any personal guidance, resources, and trade secrets.

Stop in to visit us throughout Twin Cities Startup Week to schedule your one-on-one conversation on a series of topics. While the topics are on rotation, any questions are open and welcome.

The Impact Hub provides resources, inspiration, and collaboration opportunities to grow the positive impact of your work.

Open Office Hours Themes for the week will include:

Monday, Tuesday
3 pm – 5 pm 

Monday Topic: Intellectual Property, attorney Larry Fox
Tuesday Topic: Raising Money and Crowdfunding, attorney Brian Edstrom

Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday
9 am – 11 am 

Wednesday Topic: General Business Law Questions, including a dive into Social Enterprises Questions
Thursday Topic: Employment Law, attorney Bill Egan
Friday Topic: General Business Law Questions, including a dive into Social Enterprises Questions, attorney John Saunders

(Click the link to get your paid ticket)

This isn’t your average conference!

MNovation gathers some of the most innovative minds from across our state for an all day party designed to help you:

• Open your mind through exposure to smart cookies from a wide variety of industries and companies.
• Bust out of your comfort zone with hands-on exercises.
• Learn and network with panelists and other innovators that are getting it done every day!

Learn from the best – this diverse group of innovators can teach you how to get your mind right, stay the course, and change the world.

Our panelists play in large corporate environments, small companies, social enterprises, academia, government, non-profits, media and arts organizations.

Confirmed innovation wizards are below and we are adding more every day. View a list of past panelists.

8:30 AM – 9 AM Registration and light breakfast

9:00 AM – 10:15 AM Keynote and Warm Up: John Sweeney and Elena Imaretska on the Mindset of Discovery

10:15 AM – 10:30 AM Break

10:30 AM – 11:30 AM Panel 1: Ready…(your surroundings)

Communities need innovation and innovation needs communities – but how do you line the two up to help and idea become a reality? This panel features women who are doing just that by inspiring and igniting their communities to get up and get moving, change attitudes on mental health, get their finances in order by using technology and supporting education in a whole new way.

11:30 AM – 12:30 PM Panel 2: Set…(the tone)

Innovation doesn’t happen in a vacuum – you need a culture to support the mission, and this panel examines how to create a culture of innovation. From smaller school districts to hospitals to massive scientific conglomerates, these panelists have shifted mindsets to create amazing results.

12:30 PM – 1:30 PM Lunch

1:30 PM – 3:00 PM Innovation Fitness Sessions: Big Five Workout Breakouts facilitated by BNW Master Facilitators: Bobby Gardner, Caleb McEwen, Jenni Lilledahl, Lauren Anderson, Margi Simmons

3:00 PM – 3:15 PM Break

3:15 PM – 4:15 PM Panel 3: Go!

You have the idea, you have community, you have the attitude, now get started! This panel will help you get started, from learning how to get funding to branding your idea to building up your project, business, or goals to maintain and sustain. Learn, grow, and then get out there and do!

4:15 PM – 4:45 PM Personal Innovation Activation Plan and Discussion

4:45 PM – 5:00 PM Wrap up

5:00 PM – 6:00 PM Happy Hour Squared (HH2)
Attendees are invited to take part in fun and relaxing happy hour after a full day of learning! This happy hour will be like no other as we’ll be making sandwiches to be distributed to the hungry by Mr. Law’s MRD 363 Days Food Program.

• Karen Francois, Assistant Commissioner for Economic Equity & Opportunity, Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development 
• Keynote Speaker: Dr. Denise E. Williams, Metropolitan State University 

All businesses are unique, but everyone faces similar growth challenges.  The difference between those who succeed and those who fail is how they approach those challenges.

Join us for this lunch and learn to:

• Learn how When I Work’s Growth Team uncovers big wins

• See real-world examples from When I Work

• Discuss how you and your team can get started

Joe Stanton is the Director of Growth @ When I Work. Prior to When I Work he co-founded Elevate and held product leadership roles at Questar and OptumHealth.

Brett Brohl of The Syndicate Fund will lead a discussion with the audience and a panel of investors to discuss the investibility of companies presenting at Twin Cities Startup Week events. Companies discussed with be companies from the Beta.MN showcase, Minnesota Cup, Techstars Retail, and Gener8tor. We welcome audience participation or just come to hear the thoughts of our panelists to learn a bit more about how VC funds think about startups. Panelists include:

Ryan Broshar, Matchstick Ventures

Andrew Murphy, Loup Ventures

Greg Beaufait, Dundee VC

Andy Christensen, Arthur Ventures

Lunch will be catered by Techstars Retail company Local Crate

Full Stack Saint Paul is hosting its first-ever Saint Paul Startup Crawl on Thursday, October 12. Downtown startups will be rolling out the red carpet for locals and visitors who are interested in learning more about the Saint Paul startup scene. You will have the opportunity to visit businesses like Primordial Soup, Creed Interactive and Osborn370 – all in the same day!

To learn more about the saint Paul Startup Crawl and register for the event, please click here.

• Should you go to a co-packer? 
• How do you find a co-packer? 
• What is a co-packer thinking when they are sitting across the table from you? 
• How do you know what kind of care they are going to give your dream? 
• Building and Maintaining a Relationship (counseling). 
• What to include in an Agreement? 

• Upsie Founder Clarence Bethea / Techstars - Target
• VC and Techstars Managing Director, Retail - Ryan Broshar
• Boulder Techstars Managing Director - Natty Zola
• Managing Partner, Moxie Capital - Anton Vincent 

Join us as 4 founders/CEOs of edtech startups will share their experiences with a variety of funding sources, including: angel investors, SBIR grants, corporate partners and bootstrapping.
Be sure to bring your questions!

Agenda:

6-6:30 pm--arrival, food and networking

6:30-7:30 pm--presentations

7:30-8 pm--Q&A and wrap-up

5:45 PM - 6:00 PM | CHECK-IN

6:00 PM - 6:10 PM | INTRODUCTION

6:10 PM - 6:20 PM | PICK AND PITCH

6:20 PM- 6:50 PM | BMC +VPC SESSIONS

6:50 PM - 7:25 PM | DINNER + WORKTME

7:25 PM - 7:55 PM | PITCH

7:55 - 8:00PM | CLOSING

Tapping into Trade Secrets: Ask an Expert Series
Open Office Hours – Free Legal Council from Avisen Legal, P.A.

As an entrepreneur or startup, each week seems to bring on a new set of challenges, questions, and opportunities to learn something new.

Impact Hub will host free open office hours throughout the week with experts from Avisen Legal, P.A. ready to answer your business questions and provide any personal guidance, resources, and trade secrets.

Stop in to visit us throughout Twin Cities Startup Week to schedule your one-on-one conversation on a series of topics. While the topics are on rotation, any questions are open and welcome.

The Impact Hub provides resources, inspiration, and collaboration opportunities to grow the positive impact of your work.

Open Office Hours Themes for the week will include:

Monday, Tuesday
3 pm – 5 pm 

Monday Topic: Intellectual Property, attorney Larry Fox
Tuesday Topic: Raising Money and Crowdfunding, attorney Brian Edstrom

Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday
9 am – 11 am 

Wednesday Topic: General Business Law Questions, including a dive into Social Enterprises Questions
Thursday Topic: Employment Law, attorney Bill Egan
Friday Topic: General Business Law Questions, including a dive into Social Enterprises Questions, attorney John Saunders

Join us at the University of Minnesota's Carlson School to engage with over 40 starts ups of varying size to learn about potential opportunities within each organization.  We will open the event with a panel of start-up leaders to talk about their organizations and what it is like to work inside a fast-growing organization which takes place from 12-1pm.  Networking/career fair will be from 1-3pm

The event will be open to students and job seekers throughout the Twin Cities. 

Attendees can register for free here: https://z.umn.edu/TCSW17JobMarket.  If you are a company interested in attending please reach out to Patrick Smith at pgsmith@umn.edu.

The Startup Weekend Twin Cities Student Event is one of the highlights of Startup Week Youth. Participants will make teams around innovative ideas and build their entrepreneurial acumen through experienced mentors, pitch decks, inspiring speakers, and product development during the weekend.

5:30 PM - REGISTRATION
Arrive at the venue and get checked in

6:00 PM - SNAX & NETWORKING (Possible Qdoba/Noodles)
Eat food (Provided by SW Team), share ideas, practice pitches, get comfortable with fellow participants that you’ve met Monday and have known through the week.
This is done in coordination with the adult SWTC

6:20 PM - Introduce SLACK & Download
Show the participants the communication tool we will be using throughout the weekend: Slack

6:25 PM - WELCOME & SPEAKERS
Review agenda for the weekend and introduce speakers, coaches, and community leaders. This is done in coordination with the adult SWTC

6:45 PM - PITCHES START:
Pitches on Friday night will be in a "pitch-fire" format, which means you will have just 60 seconds to get the audience interested in your idea. You will have no slides or props -just your voice. You won't have time to go over features, so just focus on the core of the idea and make your enthusiasm contagious. Here is the format for
pitches that we recommend: Who are you and what is your background?

- (5-10 Seconds)
What is the problem that your product is solving? Or, begin with a story- (10-20 Seconds)
Explain the product and how it solves the problem
- (10-20 seconds)
Who do you need on your team (a developer, marketing, designer?)
- (5-10 seconds)
Finally, make up (yes you can just make it up) a name for your startup

8:00 PM - DISCUSSION AND VOTING
After pitches, you will have more time to mingle. If you pitched an idea, this is your time to start recruiting others that may be interested in your idea. If you did not pitch, or if you are having trouble finding others to join your team, use this time to seek out those that pitched other ideas that you found interesting.
Next, the crowd votes on their favorite pitches. This is simply a way to encourage quick team forming.
From there we will form teams and these are the startup ideas that will be worked on over the weekend.

8:15 PM - FORM TEAMS
Teams form and start discussing a plan of action.

9:00 PM - BEGIN WORK
Start to finalize teams and take an inventory of the available skill sets. Be honest, and direct about what resources and skills are needed for the weekend and make a plan.
Teams should begin discussing everyone’s roles within the unit, and how everyone

10:00 PM - WRAP-UP
Finished for the day. Go home and get some rest!

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9:00 AM - BUILDING OPENS AM - CHECK-IN AND BREAKFAST

Arrive, bagels, fruit & coffee This is done in coordination with the adult SWTC

9:30 MORNING CHECK-IN  (SPEAKER)

A time to make announcements and an opportunity to share your team's progress and to call for help if you need it! Listen to a presentation about customer development and using the business model canvas. This is done in coordination with the adult SWTC

10:15 AM - WORK TIME

Develop your MVP!!!

This is a good time to be focusing on customer research and business model development.

1:00 PM - LUNCH

Provide by Chipotle Mexican Grill This is done in coordination with the adult SWTC

2:00 PM - AFTERNOON CHECK-IN

After-lunch check-in, status reports, call for help This is done in coordination with the adult SWTC

2:10 PM - MENTORS ARRIVE

Mentors help teams one-on-one. They are here to help!

2:20 pm - WORK TIME

This is a good time to be focusing on market research and hitting the streets.

6:30 PM - DINNER

Provide by Papa John's Pizza  This is done in coordination with the adult SWTC

7:30 PM - EVENING CHECK-IN

After-dinner check-in, status reports and calls for help. This is done in coordination with the adult SWTC

10:00 PM - WRAP-UP

Finished for the day. Go home and get some rest! This is done in coordination with the adult SWTC

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SUNDAY SCHEDULE: 9:30am - 10:00pm

9:30 AM - CHECK IN AND BREAKFAST
Arrive, Check-in and eat breakfast (bagels, coffee and fruit) before getting to work.
            This is done in coordination with the adult SWTC

10:00 AM - MORNING GROUP CHECK-IN
Review plan of action for the day and any announcements from the group.
This is done in coordination with the adult SWTC

10:30 AM - WORK TIME
Start finalizing your ideas and integrating them into your pitch.

12:00 PM - LUNCH
Provide by Jimmy John's
This is done in coordination with the adult SWTC

1:00 PM - WORK TIME
Start finalizing your ideas and integrating them into your pitch.

1:30 PM - MENTORS ARRIVE
Mentors Arrive

3:00 PM - PRESENTATION PREP & TECH CHECK
Final hours of work time should be focused on perfecting your presentation, tech-check for final presentations also takes place

4:00 PM - DINNER
Provide by Pizza Luce
This is done in coordination with the adult SWTC

5:00 PM - FINAL PRESENTATIONS
Time to Pitch!

7:30 PM - JUDGING & AWARDS
This is done in coordination with the adult SWTC