Tonight I went to an event put on by Minne Inno, an interview with Mary Grove of Rise of the Rest. RoTR is a seed-stage fund aimed at startups outside the coasts. Their conversation talked about the startup ecosystem in Minnesota (but mainly Minneapolis/St. Paul.)
Grove is on the left, the interviewer is Maddy Kennedy. The location was WeWork's brand new facility (as on Monday!) in Uptown in Minneapolis.
My notes from the interivew:
Learning from Silicon Valley
- Density: serendipity and networking benefit from physical closeness
- Pay it Forward: SV people are usually willing to help each other, or at least find someone who can help
- Techlash: don't do that?
Minnesota in 2018:
- Leaning into areas where TCs are good: retail, ad tech
- Companies adding second sites here
- Investors paying attention
Big opportunities in 2019
- Developing urgency on tech as a development opportunity.
- Set an agenda to make startups easier, unlock capital
- Look at pipeline, foster/facilitate diverse founders
She talked about the Angel Investment Tax Credit specifically in a follow up Q&A. Hadn't heard of MNVest, which allows crowdfunding in Minnesota. I'm not sure the evidence is there that the AITC actually encourages new investment so much as distorts investment that would already occur (in some cases by pushing it back into the next calendar year when the tax credits refresh.)
How can startup investment scene grow?
- Hard at series A and seed; friends & family rounds work; series B is fine for companies with traction, they can attract from elsewhere.
- Challenge to peers: investors have to be more aggressive
- Do more at angel stage
What does Rise of the Rest hope to accomplish?
- Prove thesis of investing outside SV, get economic returns
- Democratize access to capital (vs 75 percent to SV, less than 10 percent to female founders.)
- Seeing more competitors/partners proactively flying out to Detroit etc.
Minne Inno's writeup on the event, and video of the interview: https://www.americaninno.com/minne/from-the-community-minne/why-rise-of-the-rests-mary-grove-is-bullish-on-twin-cities-tech-video/
