From Dorm Room to Boardroom: MESA Mentor Daren Cotter’s Passion and Focus is Startups.
With an unwavering entrepreneurial spirit, Daren Cotter’s journey began in a college dorm room and culminated in the sale of his company, InboxDollars. But the journey didn’t end there. Today, Cotter is a seasoned angel investor and mentor, using his experience to support and grow the next generation of tech businesses. Tell us a bit about your background, Daren. I’m a Founder and entrepreneur – and this goes all the way back to grade school. But I started my first scalable Tech company while in college at Minnesota State University, Mankato in 2000. You could call it a dorm room [...]
Wise IT Consulting – Delivering Customized IT Solutions, Partnering with MESA to Grow a Vibrant Minnesota Tech Community.
Founded in 2016, Wise IT Consulting specializes in providing tailored IT solutions and recruiting top-tier talent. The company focuses on delivering key resources for critical projects and roles, ensuring that clients receive the exact support they need. Whether it's sourcing developers, network engineers, or fractional CIOs, Wise IT Consulting has the expertise to address a wide range of IT requirements. A premier MESA partner, Wise IT Consulting believes deeply in MESA’s mission to foster innovation and growth in the Minnesota technology community with pro bono mentoring of software startups. We sat down with Dan Wisniewski, CEO and owner of Wise [...]
Rob Juncker: Lifelong Tech Enthusiast and Dedicated MESA Mentor
Rob Juncker’s journey in the tech world is as impressive as it is inspiring. Starting as a young hacker he developed a passion for software development and has climbed the ranks to become a seasoned industry leader with a mission to build the next generation of leaders. Tell us a bit about your background, Rob. My love for software goes back to when I was a kid, and to be honest, I was a hacker growing up. In third grade, we should have called prison and made a reservation! But I fell in love with technology at a very [...]
Minnesota Software Startup DOCSI Tackles a Costly Challenge in Healthcare.
Imagine a world where hospitals can shave significant costs off their budgets while ensuring surgeons have the tools they need for optimal patient care. That's the driving force behind DOCSI, a Minnesota-based software company leveraging data analytics to streamline surgical supply chains. The $25 Billion Problem "The amount of waste and opportunity for improvement in the U.S. healthcare system is staggering," explained Andrew DeLeeuw, CEO of DOCSI. "Estimates place it over $25 billion annually with a large portion of that coming from supply waste and operational inefficiencies in the operating room." That’s where DOCSI comes in. While the opportunity to manage waste [...]
Why Startup Founders and CEOs Need Mentors: Key Takeaways from the MESA Minnebar 18 Panel Discussion
Entrepreneurs face a unique set of challenges. During Minnebar 18, a panel of startup CEOs discussed the importance of mentors in helping them navigate the complexities of running a business. On April 20, MESA mentor Mark Capaldini led a panel discussion with MESA mentees to share their experiences as an entrepreneur. Panelists: Andrew deLeeuw of Docsci Health Mary Kay Ziniewicz of Bus Stop Mamas Nick Wassenburg of Cludo Panelist shared their insights on the issues facing founders and CEOs as they look to grow, and best practices on how to get the most from a mentorship experience. Highlights here are [...]
Simplifying Health and Wellness Business Management: The OfferingTree Story
In the health and wellness landscape, managing the balance between passion for the practice and business acumen can be as challenging as mastering a complex yoga pose. That’s the genesis of OfferingTree’s solution – making the business of health and wellness simpler and easier to manage. With a focus on serving health, wellness, and fitness businesses, OfferingTree aims to streamline operations, from customer attraction to retention, with an all-in-one software platform. Eddie Arpin, co-founder and president of OfferingTree, shared insights into the origins of Offering Tree, shedding light on the challenges faced by individual and small practitioners striving to navigate [...]
Steve VanTassel, MESA Mentor Since 2022
MESA mentors come with deep, real-world experience in the always-changing world of software and technology startups. Steve VanTassel, one of MESA’s newer mentors, is just one example of the willingness to give back and the depth of the expertise on the MESA bench. Tell us a bit about your background, Steve. I started my career in sales at IBM and was with them for 15 years. I was fortunate to manage a team of people focused on direct marketing and what was at the time, the very brand new internet retailing space. It was a tremendous experience working outside the [...]
RSM US LLP, MESA’s Longest-Running Sponsor, has a History of Supporting its Communities.
Since February 2011, RSM has been Minnesota Emerging Software Advisory’s (MESA) first and longest-running sponsor. Central to RSM’s values is its powerful commitment to understanding its clients and serving the communities in which it operates. RSM US LLP is dedicated to serving the middle market, the engine of global commerce and economic growth. RSM’s commitment to understanding its clients means a focus on being a first-choice advisor, delivering world-class assurance, tax, and consulting services, and developing the leading professionals and services to meet their clients’ evolving needs. In January, we spoke with RSM’s MESA contact, Joe Wessbecker, State and Local [...]
Nested Knowledge Expands Market Reach with Open Health Partnership and Enhanced AI Capabilities.
The Nested Knowledge AI-assisted SaaS evidence synthesis platform makes clinical research processes faster, updatable, and more powerful – transforming a critical and time-consuming process that ultimately informs and supports health systems around the world. Founded by four University of Minnesota alumni, Nested Knowledge is a powerful platform out to revolutionize clinical research. With Nested Knowledge, review, synthesis, and meta-analysis of clinical evidence happens in a single spot with its systematic review software. This turns the current static, time-consuming, and fragmented process into a living, learning, and updatable repository of foundational clinical data essential for Health Economics Outcome Research (HEOR), regulatory [...]
MESA Announces New Elite Partner – Brown & Brown
Minneapolis, MN – December 20, 2023 Minnesota Emerging Software Advisory (MESA), a non-profit, pro bono mentoring organization inspired to make Minnesota’s software economy rank among the most vibrant and respected in the nation, is announcing its eighth foundation partner – Brown & Brown. Brown & Brown is one of the largest and most respected insurance brokerages in the world, providing risk management solutions to preserve and protect what’s most important to their customers. In the Twin Cities, Brown & Brown’s presence is significant. Formerly the Hays Companies, the Minneapolis office has close to 400 employees with deep expertise in Property [...]
Shrpa Sets its Sights on New Horizons, Connecting More Travel Destinations to More Content Creators.
Shrpa is a SaaS platform that connects destinations with content creators, making it easier to share authentic, user-generated content that will help travelers discover what to do, see and experience in a community or travel destination. Shrpa CEO Chris Lukenbill and co-founder Andy Vig came together from different software backgrounds to work on building their own business. With an early idea in 2019 around travel itineraries, they found value in hearing from others as they participated in pre-revenue incubators. As they looked to bootstrap their concept, they spoke with visitor bureaus and discovered the problems these organizations have finding and [...]
MESA Announces New Elite Partner – O8
Minneapolis, MN – October 10, 2023 Minnesota Emerging Software Advisory (MESA), a non-profit, pro bono mentoring organization inspired to make Minnesota’s software economy rank among the most vibrant and respected in the nation, is announcing its seventh foundation partner – O8. This is the third new foundation partner to date in 2023, signaling the vitality of the organization and the resonance of its mission. O8 is a full-service, Minnesota-based agency offering digital marketing, strategy, and web services. Its mission is to create the best agency environment for skilled people from all over the world, believing that the best, long retained [...]
Visana Health Fuels its Mission to Transform Health Outcomes at Scale with a $10.1 Seed Investment.
Visana Health is pursuing a whole-person approach to radically improve the health system and women’s health outcomes. Joe Connolly, CEO and co-founder of Visana Health has a personal NorthStar: to improve health outcomes at scale. His mission and passion were born from his mother’s experience with chronic and complex gynecologic conditions, and the abject lack of support and treatment for her ongoing suffering. This led to the original thesis for Visana – to improve outcomes through an integrated whole-person care model, with virtual medical care utilizing their network of nurse practitioners, MDs and OBGYNs and providing care coordination for in-person [...]
MESA Announces New Premier Partner – Wise IT Consulting
Minneapolis, MN – September 27, 2023 Minnesota Emerging Software Advisory (MESA), a non-profit, pro bono mentoring organization inspired to make Minnesota’s software economy rank among the most vibrant and respected in the nation, is announcing its sixth foundation partner – Wise IT Consulting. Wise IT Consulting is a Minnesota based company focused on delivering IT talent the way their clients want it. Whether a client is looking for contract, contract to hire or direct hire; Wise IT has proven to deliver highly qualified consultants that often exceed clients’ expectations. Unique in the industry – Wise IT provides complete rate transparency, and matches not only [...]
MESA Mentees Raise $740 Million in Capital
MESA’s mission is to make Minnesota’s software economy rank among the largest and most vibrant in the nation. Our 47 C-level mentors freely give their time with no compensation to help speed learning and reduce risk for the software companies in our MESA program. Over 12 years, MESA has served 76 startup and emerging-growth software companies. MESA is pleased to announce that to date those companies have raised $740 million in capital to fuel their growth and continued success. We're proud that our efforts have helped them achieve that growth. MESA’s reward is simple – it’s the success of [...]
Fulcrum’s Purpose-Driven Vision to Support the Craft of Manufacturing
Yu Sunny Han is on a mission. He and his company, Fulcrum, celebrate the craft of manufacturing and its ability to unleash innovation, power progress and grow the economy. In the face of consolidation overseas, Sunny wants to preserve the artisan craft of manufacturing, so high-quality products and new ideas continue to flourish here in the United States. Fulcrum is a cloud-based software system that includes everything from demand planning and scheduling to quality control and inventory for small to mid-size manufacturing creators. With elegant, easy-to-use software, Fulcrum takes complex business problems and decision-making in today’s manufacturing environment and applies [...]
Jim Moar Shares Key Learnings Critical to Entrepreneurial Success at Minnebar 17
At Minnebar 17, Jim Moar, a MESA co-founder and current president, spoke in a well-attended session on MESA learnings from over 12 years of mentoring 76 startups. MESA’s five critical startup business needs have shown to repeat themselves, and Jim shared these to help emerging businesses understand what it takes to be successful. Highlights from Jim’s session are edited and condensed. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TAFGShx3b3c We know that founders and CEOs of startups have fantastic domain knowledge, but leading a business is typically not a founder’s experience. We know they’re smart people and they can learn on their own, and they will, [...]
John Moroney, MESA Mentor since 2017
Tell us a bit about your background, John. I often say that I’ve had two careers. I have an electrical engineering degree and worked as a process engineer for Texas Instruments when I first got out of college. I did spend quite a bit of time in manufacturing and was ultimately a plant manager for Lifeline Systems. While working there I went to graduate school in Boston to get my MBA and realized there was this new opportunity with PCs and networks, and ultimately found myself in software. I started a VAR selling and implementing an ERP for manufacturing from [...]
Angel Fest 2023: MESA Mentor John Tedesco’s Breakout Session on the Importance of Mentoring
On May 4, John Tedesco led breakout sessions at Groove Capital’s Angel Fest 2023 in Minneapolis on Why Founders Need Mentors. John has been a MESA Mentor since 2010 and serves as a member of the MESA Executive Committee. In these well-attended sessions, John covered: Why have a mentor? Mentors provide context, advice and accountability for founders and CEOs of startups. Entrepreneurs are deep in the trenches of their business, so much so that they lose sight of the forest through the trees. Mentors bring an important external perspective to the table, both to put challenges in their proper context and help entrepreneurs see [...]
Mentoring Helped Billiyo Health Build a Foundation of Business Knowledge to Grow
Billiyo Health empowers today’s post-acute care providers with the management and operational support they need to help people thrive. As an all-in-one home health software solution, Billiyo ties together medical billing, business operations, clinical documentation, real-time communication, and automation in a secure, compliant, and affordable cloud-based system. Feeding an entrepreneurial spirit Hassan Abdullahi, CEO and founder of Billiyo Health, is an entrepreneur at heart. With a degree in electrical engineering, he worked for both 3M and General Motors in that capacity. In 2012 he moved to the Twin Cities to work for a smaller company and gain more direct customer [...]
