Every month, Tom will take you inside a Twin Cities startup or tech event via a quick video recap.
A crowd of more than 80 founders and local thought leaders gathered at the North Minneapolis headquarters of the Metropolitan Economic Development Association last week to discuss the relationship between startups, small businesses and venture capital.
Now you may be thinking, “Big deal, a bunch of people got together to talk about money. Snoozers!” But this conversation was critically important for a few key reasons:
- Many founders see the traditional venture capital path and blitz-scaling as the only option, however, that approach has some fundamental problems, including:
- 98% of VC dollars flow to 1 gender
- 80% of VC dollars flow to 3 states
- 1% of VC dollars flow to Black/Latino Founders
- .6% of businesses raise any VC dollars at all
The good news is there are new models emerging that enable entrepreneurs to fund their businesses with outside capital while maintaining autonomy and control over their business.
This conversation was packed with insights from founders and investors who are charting a different path. Take a peek at the 121-second video below to learn more. Rewards and control can flow to those who build & support, not just to those who inherit & siphon off profits.
The panel:
- Aneela Idnani - Co-Founder, HabitAware
- Bryce Roberts - Managing Partner, Indie.vc
- Kristen Womack - Founder, Mina
- Thompson Aderinkomi - Co-Founder, Nice Healthcare
- Zack Steven - Co-Founder, Cloudburst SBC (moderator)
About the Series: What did I just read/see? Well, dear reader, once a month I (Tom) will be dropping video knowledge bombs on the Minne Inno network to highlight key events in the MSP tech ecosystem. Why? (1) So my introverted friends stay current, (2) so event organizers/attendees have sexy digital assets to share (aka twitter fodder) & (3) to show all internet travelers what we do in the North.
BIO: By day, technologist. By night, creative content producer. #optimizedForSpeed ?LinkedIn ? @blueRavenDigital ? @blueRavenDigtl ? blueRaven.digital
