Meet the Minnesotans leading tech innovation at 20 companies, emerging and established.
Seraph 7 Studios founder Jules Porter, Nerdery managing director Taqee Khaled, and BlueCube Bio founder Allison Hubel
Portraits by John Haynes
Try to imagine the past year without WiFi. Without Zoom and Slack. Without the ability to visit a doctor virtually or transfer documents through the cloud. While the Covid-19 pandemic continues to affect lives and businesses and disrupt the economy in ways no one imagined a year ago, it has also highlighted technology’s essential role in our lives.
“Technology is enabling the remote workforce that is keeping the economy afloat, the distance learning keeping students on track, the telemedicine helping to maintain community health, and the communication tools keeping us all connected,” says Jeff Tollefson, president and CEO of the Minnesota Technology Association.
Twin Cities technologist sees expanding future for young minorities in IT February 6, 2021 8:00am Text size Copy shortlink:
Steve Buchanan caught a break as a teenager 20-plus years ago when a relative referred him to someone who worked for a small computer-consulting firm.
The connection worked, although Buchanan remembers feeling a little off as the only Black worker in a group of white people. I got my second job because I was in a barbershop and the barber knew an African-American guy who owned an IT firm, Buchanan said. And I got my second job in tech.
A couple of years later, Buchanan became an information technology contractor at Target.
Venture Capitalists Invested A Record $1.9B In Minnesota In 2020
Star Tribune (Minneapolis, MN)
Minnesota companies attracted a record $1.86 billion in venture capital in 2020, up from $1.27 billion in 2019, in a year that also set a national record for investments in young growth companies, according to PitchBook and the National Venture Capital Association. The startup ecosystem played a critical role in the technology, services and health care support the country has relied on since the coronavirus rolled through the country, the head of the venture association, Bobby Franklin, said in a statement.
He added there s plenty more money available for entrepreneurs with ideas. VC investors are starting the year … with ample dry powder to put to work, Franklin said.
Copy shortlink:
Minnesota companies attracted a record $1.86 billion in venture capital in 2020, up from $1.27 billion in 2019, in a year that also set a national record for investments in young growth companies, according to PitchBook and the National Venture Capital Association. The startup ecosystem played a critical role in the technology, services and health care support the country has relied on since the coronavirus rolled through the country, the head of the venture association, Bobby Franklin, said in a statement.
He added there s plenty more money available for entrepreneurs with ideas. VC investors are starting the year … with ample dry powder to put to work, Franklin said.