Ask YC: Minneapolis startups? Or, non-"startup hub" startups? | Hacker News Reader

Ask YC: Minneapolis startups? Or, non-"startup hub" startups?

11 pointsphilcrissman21 comments

Does anyone know of (or is involved in) startups in Minneapolis/St. Paul? I'm interested to hear how that's working.

Or, any startup that is not in a more well-known "startup hub", for that matter.

I am located in Minneapolis and co-founded a startup in 2001 that was acquired in 2004. We had a less traditional funding route -- a single private investor / angel who helped get everything going. We pulled most of our engineering talent from a local college and I used connections with a past professor to cherry pick the best of a couple of soon to be graduating classes.

I'm still living in Minneapolis, but having since worked with a number of people in the Bay area and having traveled there frequently, I can say that the environment does seem quite a bit different.

There are a lot of advantages to being in a "startup hub"... More talent that's easier to find, more people to bounce ideas off of, more access to traditional and non-traditional funding sources, etc.

One advantage to starting out in Minneapolis that we found was that salaries for our first employees were significantly cheaper than what we've heard from friends in the Bay area. In addition, the work ethic here is quite high -- it seems easy to find committed, dedicated employees.

Here's a recent article about Minneapolis being rated the top metro center for business (in general, not startups or technology specific).

http://news.morningstar.com/news/ViewNews.asp?article=/DJ/20...

Here's a startup that I recently found out is in the Minneapolis area -- http://www.yugma.com/ -- I'm at times surprised to learn of all the startups that are more or less under the radar here.

If you have the engineering talent and the funding sources, I think you can absolutely get started in a non-"startup hub". Having said that, there are definite advantages to being in a startup hub.

Well I think that one of the problems is that there just isn't enough information and coverage out there.

I just launched it but I'm gonna start using http://GeekHeartland.com to cover technology and entrepreneurial activity thats happening away from the hubs on the coasts.

It rose out of the geek.windylabs.com and www.chicagobeta.com

Soon it will have news coverage along with geek guides to a lot of the non-hub startup areas.

I encourage everyone to subscribe to the feed and keep checking back. Its about time startups in "flyover country" got more press.

There is growing startup interest in Minneapolis. There is a group of folks (10 or 15 I believe) that are meeting bi-weekly to talk shop. Some have started, others starting. Take a look at the following links.

I hope the trend continues, I think Minneapolis has a lot to offer alpha geeks and entrepreneurs.

http://barcamp.org/MinneDemo http://groups.google.com/group/startupcamp

I don't know if Washington DC is a startup hub (it generally doesn't feel like it). Even though we're close to northern VA, we just don't get the same vibe of internet culture. It took the community quite a long time to host a Barcamp here. My complaints have been: It's tough because it's sometimes lonely because we can't share that experience with many others because there just aren't as many web startups. 1) East Coast is oddly dominated by families with control over media empires. So talking about equity is just weird with them because they don't want to give any up (no matter how much their website looks like Geocities). 2) I hate having to explain the "long tail" over and over when I'm trying to explain a wholly different concept. The buzz takes time to reach the East. 3) Although accessibility to capital is generally based on good referrals, it's more difficult in the East because those circles are much tighter. 4) We heard from a good advisor that just being in the Silicon Valley will always improve your chances of success, but we moved out to DC because we're working in the "political sphere." I don't have any reference for comparison, so I don't exactly know what to say about that. 5) That said, since we spend a lot of time inside programming, it probably isn't as different if we were somewhere else. I think as a result of the internet, you can still make quite an impact, but closing a business deal is so much easier when it's in person.

Also, if you have an inland startup (the midwest, the great lakes, texas, colorado, elsewhere...) that you'd like me to cover, send me a note through the contact form on http://GeekHeartland.com.

I have some free advertising slots for early stage companies as well if anyone is interested.

I worked for a startup in Minneapolis. They are quite different than at the hubs. There's not as much support as you'd get out on the West Coast.

Also the talent pool isn't as easy to tap into here. There are quality developers but its hard to find em.

need a ruby hacker? :)

where are you located?

Minneapolis. feel free to contact me

damon at damonallison dot com

I am located in Milwaukee, WI

you can meet all of our alpha geeks at http://barcampMilwaukee.com which is happening on october 12th-14th

We are a sponsor of it with http://socialhelix.com

and I know a few people in the st.paul area that i meet at the last minnebar, and minnedemo that i attended.

out of the ones i remember, a few were web2, one was into music social publishing, another was a startup within the local newspaper "vitamin," and then there were a lot of ruby shops up there.

I'm in mid-stage development for a startup in Atlanta.

It is not going well. There aren't many people here that are available, willing, and smart. I'm finding that the biggest advantage to the "startup hubs" is that there are more people nearby with a similar mentality. Be it employees, cofounders or investors. In Atlanta, there's hardly anybody whose brain is wired the same way mine is.

The solution for me is to move out to the west coast as soon as possible. Unfortunately, I don't think I'll be able to make it out there for at least another year.

Why can't you pull kids out of GaTech? They're normally pretty bright...

Yes, they're pretty bright. But the kids from Tech that I know, are doing one of 3 things:

1) Working at a job that pays and is stable (and this is what they want) 2) Working on their own startup 3) Working on a graduate degree, and not interested in things that make money.

Carpal, I'm new to the YC News circle, but the CTO of the Sunlight Foundation, a guy we're working with, is from Atlanta. He's worked on four startups there, so he has a wealth of experience and may be able to help out. His name is John Brothers, just tell him Andrew Lee sent you. He's about to move to DC (where we've been doing our stuff), but he can probably tell you about things that helped out in his region.

I'm in Atlanta and I'm pretty smart ;) The problem is, that anybody bright and motivated enough to do a startup is already doing their own thing, and doesn't want to work for somebody else.

carpal, do I know you?

No, we don't know each other. But we have a lot in common.

I even had an idea a couple of years ago similar to your Wamily thing. I called it "Grupevine". Pretty much a "website in a box" for a group. Groups would associate with each other and a user could easily find and be a member of many groups.

There's a weekly meeting of other "smart people in Atlanta" called AtlHack that I go to. It's at Octane every Tuesday at around 8:30. You should come some time.

I'd like to hear more about your Wamily idea. You can hit me up at erik /at/ subwindow[dot]com

Are you participating in any of the local groups? I know the Ruby and Python groups are well attended, and the web entrepreneurs group gets good marks. There's also Barcamp and Startup Weekend coming up soon.

I didn't find out about either Barcamp or Startup Weekend before they were sold out.

I go to the Atlanta Ruby User's Group meetings and AtlHack (http://www.atlhack.org/).

I will be at both Atlanta Barcamp and Startup weekend in the next few weeks! I'm really looking forward to them.

I also usually make it to the ATL Ruby Users group. It's a pretty good bunch.

I live in St. Paul (just to the east of Minneapolis, for you non-Minnesotans). I love the area, but it really is a harder environment for a startup. My buddy and I had a fun startup back in 1996. We had an OK run for about a year, but we just felt like we were living on a deserted island.

I'm married now with three kids, and if I were to start something again, I would still seriously consider relocating to Boston or San Francisco.

chicago's kicking. but we're b2b.

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