This is the first post in a three-part series by the leaders of Lunar Startups, a new startup accelerator in St. Paul. Lunar's Managing Director is Melissa Kjolsing Lynch, former director of the Minnesota Cup. Danielle Steer is the accelerator's senior program manager, and was part of the founding team at Impact Hub MSP.
The strength and longevity of any community is dependent on its people; how it attracts new members and keeps existing members engaged. At Lunar Startups, we want to see the local startup community grow and embrace more founders that are reflective of our region. To do this, we’re partnering with Minne Inno on a three-part series focused on breaking into the MSP startup community. For some, breaking into the local startup scene is easy, but for many it can be a daunting task that leads to a nagging question of “Where do I begin?”
For this series, we started with the end goals in mind and looked at three objectives for why people would want to break into the MSP startup community:
- Launching a startup
- Finding employment at a startup
- Interested in innovation and new products
There are many other reasons why someone might be interested in the MSP startup community, but we felt it was important to focus on startups, future employees and potential champions or even customers of local startups.
The number of resources in the MSP startup community has grown exponentially over the last 5 years and includes industry-specific programs, organizations that align with a founder’s personal identity to a range of coworking spaces. We polled a few members of Lunar Startups Cohort 1 about their entry point in MSP’s startup community:
Entrepreneurship Club at the University of Minnesota – Clutch SOS
MN Cup – ASIYA
Minnestar, Geekettes, Hack the Gap – 26 Letters
It’s important to emphasize that these founders did not simply attend a single event and feel connected to a community. They showed up consistently, engaged with other founders, mentors and organizers, and committed to learning something that they could apply to their startup. Building an intentional network takes time. You’ll be embraced by a network faster if you lead by not thinking of what I can gain, but what can I give. It can be as simple as making an introduction for someone and sharing your network with others.
There is no single access point for startups to plug into the MSP startup community. Instead, there is an annual event that showcases and highlights the range of opportunities that exist across the entire MSP startup ecosystem. Twin Cities Startup Week, happening October 8th – 14th this fall, highlights dozens of events and local startups while engaging the entire community. There are ample networking events and it allows you to see how other startups are leveraging programs and services.
It is helpful to have an idea of the range of resources that exist in the MSP startup community that you can benefit from over time. Not one program is going to serve all your needs as a founder. Ask other startups what they’ve found to be helpful and at what time in their startup’s life did they utilized those programs or resources.
Members of Cohort 1 have leveraged:
This is not an exhaustive list but a sample of what the MSP startup community has to offer. At the end of the day, there’s no right way to break into the MSP startup community as a startup. Find a program, community or event that will benefit you as a founder and dive in. If something doesn’t feel like the right fit, move on and try something else. Your time as a founder is critical and should be used only on programs that bring your startup value.
