This is the first story in our series on “Boomerangs,” Minnesota natives who left to work in tech hubs on the coasts before returning to the Twin Cities startup scene. Think you know a “Boomerang” with a story to tell? Reach out: mkennedy@americaninno.com.
Dug Nichols was a rockstar long before he became a Twin Cities tech star.
The now-CEO of Kidizen said he left his hometown of Rochester in a hurry, heading to Michigan for college before ending up briefly in Arizona, and ultimately setting in California in the mid-1990s.
“I left as soon as I could,” Nichols said. “And I sort of set out on a varied path of following my bliss.”
That path led Nichols to Silicon Valley, where he got into music and began playing in two bands: The Piersons and Vegas DeMilo, the latter of which was signed to a record deal.
“It was ideal in my young 20s,” Nichols said. “I wanted to be the next Bono, and had fun doing it."
Soon, Nichols’ interests began shifting from the stage to the soundboard and the more technical side of music. He became a recording producer and engineer, working with several artists and bands before launching his own startup, Beatnik, in 1999. Through Beatnik, Nichols hoped to bring high-fidelity sound to the then burgeoning industry of mobile phones and mp3 players.
“I think I was born to be in a startup. That’s just how my brain works,” he said. “You wake up not knowing what challenges are ahead, and have to thrive in situations that some consider chaotic.”
In late-90’s Silicon Valley, it wasn’t hard for Nichols to find other entrepreneurs and techies with similar motivations.
He was with Beatnik for less than a year before he was recruited to another startup, Tellme Networks, where he stayed until the company was acquired by Microsoft in 2007. After the acquisition, Nichols stayed at Microsoft, working in branding and marketing.
While all this was happening, Nichols got married, started a family, and began to think about moving back to Minnesota.
“Now is the best time there’s ever been to be a boomerang.”
“I thought, ‘Hey, I’ve had a good run out here, and it would be fun to apply what I learned and be part of building a startup community in the Cities,’” he said.
Nichols returned to the Twin Cities seven years ago, and currently lives in Uptown with his family. Before joining Kidizen in 2013, Nichols worked at a local marketing agency, which he said gave him a front-row seat to observe and manage Twin Cities talent.
“I found that people here were equally as bright, dedicated, motivated and hardworking as all the best people I worked with in the Valley,” Nichols said.
Today, Nichols still plays music in his spare time, though he spends more time as a mentor for Target's accelerator, Techstars than booking gigs as a rockstar.
His company, Kidizen, a kids clothing resale app, raised $3.2M in Series A funding this spring. Additionally, the app now has more than a quarter-million users in the U.S., according to Nichols, and the company is looking to expand internationally.
But no matter how big the business gets, Nichols said, Kidizen's headquarters will always be in Minnesota.
“Now is the best time there’s ever been to be a boomerang,” he said. “There are more and more companies to join. You can get in relatively early and make a big impact.”
