Several Twin Cities startup founders came together last week to share their company's milestones, where they find focus and what's ahead at Minne Inno's 2022 Startups to Watch panel.
The panelists were: BettorEdge co-founder Greg Kajewski, Telo’s head of strategy and operations Morgan Kerfeld, and Gwoop CEO and co-founder Gavin Lee.
Milestones
Kajewski said BettorEdge’s proudest achievement over the past year was giving back to the community through a $10,000 donation to Chad Greenway’s Lead the Way Foundation. BettorEdge, which offers a sports-betting platform legal in 45 states, accomplished this by prompting users to donate a fraction of their winnings to the charity, which supports the Masonic Children’s Hospital.
When asked about raising capital, Kerfeld said Telo isn’t seeking any dilutive funding. Instead, the company, which is developing a safer rollator walker, has been funded through grants and competitions.
“It’s almost forced us to try and figure out creative ways of building functional prototypes,” Kerfeld said.
Staying on track
Lee said Gwoop’s remote team bonds by playing video games together. That sounds about right for an esports training platform such as Gwoop.
Kajewski echoed Lee’s sentiments on the value of getting the team together outside the office.
“It adds a lot to team camaraderie,” he said. “Then when you get back in the office, it comes down to just focus and prioritizing the things that matter the most and move the business forward.”
Here are more excerpted quotes from each founder:
Kerfeld on how Telo got its name: “It's a little nerdy, but the day we actually named Telo, I was studying for my biology final, and the ends of chromosomes are called telomeres. When they start to shorten, that's what kickstarts your aging process. So the shorter they get, the more aged you are. Since our devices are trying to slow the aging process and keep individuals living active longer, we tried to do some fun things with telomere and then ended with Telo."
Lee on how Gwoop got its name: “When I was a freshman in college, Google was really taking off. I started buying up five letter domain names. Gwoop was one of them."
Kajewski on his favorite brewery to work from: “We did a lot of our original work at Inbound, just because they opened earlier. So we’d be there hammering the keyboard at around noon."
