Tag: Business

Explore your entrepreneurial potential at Startup Weekend Rochester

Startup Weekend Rochester, October 26 – 28, 2018, offers an excellent opportunity for would-be entrepreneurs to learn how to take an idea, evaluate it, talk to potential customers, prototype, and pitch – all in 54 hours.

“If you are thinking about starting a new business or want to learn tips and tricks to apply to your job or schooling, there is no better place to learn,” says Jamie Sundsbak, Startup Weekend Rochester organizer.

Five Questions with Ryan Nolander, Rochester Area Economic Development, Inc. (RAEDI)  

Ryan Nolander, RAEDI President

Ryan Nolander was hired as president of the Rochester Area Economic Development, Inc. (RAEDI) four months ago after long-time president Gary Smith retired. With significant experience in the economic development field, Nolander is committed to helping local and regional businesses and developers tackle issues such as site selection, financial packaging, business planning, and business advocacy.

Destination Medical Center (DMC) chatted with Nolander recently to learn more about his top priorities in the coming year and why Rochester is such an attractive city.

Five Questions with Chris Schad, Destination Medical Center’s Director of Business Development – Discovery Square

Chris Schad

Chris Schad is a driving force behind Destination Medical Center’s Discovery Square. He directs business and economic development for the healthcare technology hub that is the cornerstone of the Destination Medical Center (DMC) initiative. He works to recruit healthcare companies to Rochester and attract investment capital to the region. He is also passionate about growing the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Rochester, a key to our community’s long-term success.

We spent some time with Chris to learn more about his priorities for Discovery Square and why he thinks Rochester is a hidden gem.

MN Cup startup competition offers a chance to receive money, mentorship, and more

Funding has long been considered the fuel that propels a startup from the idea phase to becoming an income-generating enterprise. But for participants in the MN Cup startup competition, the mentorship and business advice can be just as valuable.

As the largest statewide startup competition in the country, MN Cup supports emerging entrepreneurs from across the state through events, educational programming, and it’s widely-recognized annual competition, now in its 14th year. The Cup is a program of the Holmes Center at the University of Minnesota’s Carlson School of Management. Last year, more than 1,300 teams and individuals applied to the competition in hopes of tapping into the tools, resources, and support the organization provides to help launch and accelerate these new ventures.

Rochester Rising: Five Rochester Health and Wellness Startups Honored by Minnesota Business Magazine

This month five Rochester businesses were honored by Minnesota Business Magazine as “Innovators in Health and Wellness” to celebrate local leadership.

Awards were given in sixteen different categories including: Startup, Software Web Application, Health and Wellness Campaign, Excellence in Facility Design, Health Care Executive, Medical Breakthrough, and Wellness Advocate.

Four Rochester businesses or startups were finalists in their respective categories and one local business came away as the overall winner in their division.

Charter House- Mayo Clinic Retirement Living was a finalist in the Health and Wellness Campaign Division.  Charter House is a senior living facility in downtown Rochester, operated by Mayo Clinic, that advocates for healthy aging.

Healthtech startup OneOme was a finalist in the Medical Breakthrough category. OneOme’s solution, called RightMed, is a gene panel that analyzes patient DNA to determine how an individual will respond to medications for a wide range of conditions. The company was co-founded by Troy Kopischke, a managing partner of the Twin Cities incubator Invenshure, and John Black, a consultant in the Division of Clinical Biochemistry and Immunology at Mayo Clinic.

Expanding Twin Cities business finds success in Rochester

For years, Rochester has been ranked as a best place to live, a most affordable city, and a top community for entrepreneurs. And while the words “Mayo Clinic” and “health care” may be the first things that come to mind when people think of Rochester, owners and investors in a variety of industries are seeing Rochester as a viable place to do business.

LKPB Engineers is a Twin Cities-based firm that provides mechanical and electrical engineering services for corporate, municipal, healthcare, educational, and other facilities. The company has been in business for nearly 50 years and, until recently, they were primarily a single location office in the Twin Cities metro.

“We’ve got an app for that”: Q&A with Wade Beavers

As one of the first 2,500 companies allowed in Apple’s App Developer Program, Rochester’s own DoApp was making apps before apps were cool.

In 2008, DoApp was part of a whirlwind app-developing frenzy – and the start-up ultimately landed three of its products in the Apple Store.

Wade Beavers
Wade Beavers

“That put us on the map,” former DoApp CEO Wade Beavers told the Destination Medical Center in an interview. “Companies were calling us to develop apps for them – which we did for a period of time.” But eventually, DoApp had to focus on their own apps in order to build out the solutions they offer today.