Andrew Starks and JJ Parker, co-founders of Digital Signage & Broadcast Systems firm Tightrope Media Systems, have already benefited from mentorship since engaging with MESA in the fall of 2011.  Tim Butler and John Lewis, MESA Mentors formally started assisting Andy and JJ earlier this year, and are excited about [...]

Josh Smith, Chief Executive Officer of  Toovio has developed such a compelling conversational, real-time, yet easy-to-use marketing solution that the team at MESA couldn't resist an opportunity to come along side Josh and his team to provide just the right guidance at a critical juncture in their development.  Todd Krautkremer [...]

Minneapolis / St. Paul Business Journal by Katharine Grayson, Staff reporter Date: Monday, February 27, 2012, 1:15pm CST Katharine GraysonStaff reporter - Minneapolis / St. Paul Business Journal Why bother with Brazil when you can expand into Minneapolis instead? That’s the question SalesForce.com   Inc. CEO Marc Benioff offered up in response to a [...]

MESA is excited to welcome Workface as the latest emerging software company to mentor.  Serial entrepreneur Lief Larson, who has previous successes starting, building, and selling technology companies, has shown a great attitude and approach to working with MESA mentors Barb Stinnett and Jay Coughlan.  Workface has developed an innovative [...]

In Part 1 of “The People Factor” last summer, we discussed the unique requirements of software companies when it comes to building highly effective leadership teams capable of guiding an organization through the tumultuous and toilsome times faced by a founder entering the emerging category.  Part 1 addressed “what” is [...]

Strategic planning, while critical for larger companies, is “life critical” for start-up and emerging companies. You might get lucky just following your instinct and hitting on a successful strategy, but this is as smart as driving on the left hand side of the road as the best way to get [...]

MESA rings in 2012 by welcoming riteSOFT, based in St. Cloud, Minnesota as our newest member.  Bruce Hagberg, Chief Executive Officer of riteSOFT will be partnering with Rick Engels and Jerry Grabowski to identify specific initiatives where the collective "Intellectual Capital" of MESA can help achieve successful outcomes.  Check out [...]

By Christina DesMarais |  @salubriousdish   | Dec 5, 2011 Launching a tech start-up outside the VC-obsessed Silicon Valley and New York City comes with a catch-22. On the one hand, in quieter places it’s easier to focus on building an actual business and frankly, not everyone wants to move to the coasts. Yet [...]

Agile Frameworks has agreed to enter into a mentoring partnership with the Minnesota Emerging Software Advisory.  Mike Anders, President of Agile Frameworks will be working with Jim Moar (primary mentor) and Kevin Spanbauer (secondary mentor) to identify "wildly important goals", leading and lagging indicators, and graduation metrics.  Check out the [...]

Start-ups and fundraising are synonymous and I find myself once again in the middle of a fundraising process. No matter how many times you do it, raising venture capital always feels like a daunting, if not mysterious, process. As I reflect on my own efforts, I'm reminded that -- in good [...]

Minneapolis / St. Paul Business Journal by Katharine Grayson, Staff reporter BioAmber Inc. on Monday became the third Minnesota company to file an initial public offering this year. What became of the other two? Bluestem Brands Inc. appears to be well on its way to becoming public. The company will [...]

LOOT by Kirsten Grind on Portfolio.com You might recall all the hand-wringing that took place last month over whether startups were facing a serious cash crunch, a debate sparked by a Wall Street Journal article and then continued over numerous other online venues. TechCrunch naturally followed the debate as well, [...]

By MARC ANDREESSEN This week, Hewlett-Packard (where I am on the board) announced that it is exploring jettisoning its struggling PC business in favor of investing more heavily in software, where it sees better potential for growth. Meanwhile, Google plans to buy up the cellphone handset maker Motorola Mobility. Both [...]

Replicating the power and connectivity of today's modern cloud applications is a full-time job—literally—that can cost a company hundreds of thousands of dollars a year regardless of the company's size. Read Full Story

“MESA has been a tremendous asset to EmergingSoft.  As a growing business, access to the broad base of executive talent and experience offered at MESA has helped us with strategic planning and goal setting.  They hold us accountable to our plans and challenge us to focus on long term success.”

June 16, 2011 | by Jeff Pesek A humble group of Minnesota Software / IT CEOs have come together to reconstitute the local software industry and ‘spark a movement to make Minnesota’s software economy rank among the most vibrant and respected in the nation.’ Click here to read article... http://bit.ly/muhjSF

Trying to mentor an early stage growth company is no easy task. By our very nature we’re a squirrely lot; our cash flow is erratic, our sales process a work in progress, and our business controls a blip on the distant horizon. Even though it’s difficult to help this stage [...]

The need to protect consumer privacy online has been in the spotlight lately, more than ever. In February the U.S. Senate created a new Judiciary Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology and the Law, which will be chaired by Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn. AdWeek quoted Franken saying, “The boom of new technologies [...]

U.S. venture capital firms raised more money last quarter than in any period since 2001. The total raised for new funds was $7.7 billion, according to Dow Jones LP Source. The capital going into VC funds was up 97 percent from a year ago, when they raised $3.9 billion. (Venture [...]

Part 1. The innovation environment in Minnesota has been gaining steam in recent years due to a number of initiatives by both the private and the public sector.  There are interesting new software ideas, opportunities, and technologies being developed, and market opportunities are plentiful. We’ve all seen plenty of situations [...]