Martin Leestma is the Chairman of the Board of Directors and CEO at Forthright Solutions. Marty brings nearly 30 years of top-level strategic business experience to Forthright. His career has focused on large-scale transformation initiatives with various companies and he has deep experience and expertise across the value creation life [...]

No Man’s Land by Doug Tatum.  Contains a great outline and description of the inflection points small companies struggle through in their growth trajectory (or not). Traction by Gino Wickman.  Defines the "Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS)" - a practical method for entrepreneurs to simplify their business down to 6 key [...]

The Minnesota Emerging Software Advisory (MESA) honored Matt Quinn recently at a reception as the first graduate from our program. From Matt Quinn, EmergingSoft CEO: EmergingSoft has benefited greatly from the mentorship, practical business guidance and accountability provided to our organization over the past two years with MESA. We are [...]

MESA is pleased to announce the addition of John Tedesco to an already stellar team of Mentors. John is an entrepreneur, chief executive and company director with 15 years’ experience building and running venture-backed technology businesses.  He is the founder of three SaaS companies providing information services, financial services and [...]

We are pleased to be partnering with Robert Befidi as the newest member of our mentorship team. Robert has more than 15 years of domestic and international experience in a diverse set of industries.  He has been involved with companies that range from early stage startups to some of the [...]

Clinical Healthcare has made steady progress in their quest to transform how physicians practice the "Art of Medicine".  Lead by a strong management team of Arnel Rillo and Tom Tack, they have advanced to a stage where they are ready to embrace the guidance and advice of the MESA team [...]

The MESA program sounded like a great addition to the circle of advice that we had already been listening to, both paid and unpaid. What we experienced was a unique kind of counselling that demanded from us more than a friend or a paid adviser might be able to. The format that [...]

Please join us in welcoming Jeff Fritz as the newest distinguished MESA Mentor! As the innovation-centric Chief Executive Officer of Storyworks OnDemand, Jeff Fritz is focused on the successful commercialization of disruptive ideas – typically fueled by technology.  Jeff believes that improving the way the community accesses, shares and uses [...]

With a servant heart, Paul Prins recently brought a new technology to market to revolutionize how churches and other non-profit organizations interact with their communities.  With a little mentoring Fresh Vine is well positioned to capture substantial market share and become a well-known Minnesota-based software company.  MESA looks forward to [...]

Livefront has renewed its annual membership as a strategic Resource Network Partner with MESA.  Livefront is a premier developer of mobile and web-based applications, and is a trusted partner MESA refers our clients to when they are in need of high-quality, responsive, professional services.   See the "Resource Network Partner" [...]

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 [...]