The Twin Cities tech community converged on the Pantages Theatre in downtown Minneapolis Thursday night for Minnedemo, the popular quarterly "geek show and tell" from Minnestar where techies give live demonstrations of current projects.
The seven presenting teams were each given seven minutes to make a case for their product, which last night ranged from farming robots to smart water meters. For an upscale venue like Pantages Theatre, which was packed to the gills with more than 1,000 community members, the event was surprisingly laid back and incredibly supportive.
Few presentations were without tiny tech flubs like audio issues or buffering. But each was met with jokes or cheers rather than jeers or awkward silence. When the sound for one group's product testimonial failed to load and the video started to play in silence, the presenters looked around nervously, until people in the audience started yelling compliments at them. They pushed on. Talk about a prime example of "Minnesota nice."
Here's a quick breakdown of each of the seven presenters and their pitches:
The Presenter: FarmMotion
The Pitch: FarmMotion is a robot built by all-female high school robotics team, the Green Girls. The startup is housed by CoCreateX, a St. Paul-based company. The team's robot is designed to make vertical farming faster and more efficient.
Vertical farming, the team said, is an increasingly popular trend in urban agriculture that allows plants to grow stacked on top of one another in everyday areas like warehouses. The practice takes up 10 percent less land and five percent less water than traditional farming. FarmMotion's robot serves as a farmer for these plots, tending to and harvesting the vertical plants.
.@Farm_Motion's Green Girls built a robot to make vertical, urban farming more efficient. #Minnedemo pic.twitter.com/wjUAyCucAb
— Minne Inno (@MinneInnovation) July 14, 2017
The Presenter: Jeeyo
The Pitch: Jeeyo is a social media app that encourages users to make stories together. It's a bit like a hybrid between Instagram, a hashtag and Snapchat. Stories can be private or public, last anywhere from one day to one month, and are always curated by the person that started them. The app's founders said they aimed to reinvent the hashtag by making it visual and interactive. Jeeyo is currently available on the Apple Store. The team is currently working to develop a version for Android.
The Presenter: Race Radar
The Pitch: Race Radar is a new app from development company Th3rdshift that helps track runners in big races. Anyone who's watched a big-city marathon or popular 5K knows its nearly impossible to track down the runner you're looking for in the crowd. Race Radar uses bluetooth beacons to locate the runner and tell you when they'll be passing by. Oh, and the app also makes a cowbell sound when you shake your phone. The team said it plans to host a public data demo later this summer.
The Presenter: CheckNGN
The Pitch: CheckNGN aims to make car repairs quicker, easier, cheaper and more transparent. Users can post or take pictures of a perceived problem, then watch local shops bid for their business in real time. It also tracks "car health" to determine when a vehicle may need a oil change or new battery.
First live demo of @FluidWaterMeter, a device that tells users exactly how they use their water. #Minnedemo pic.twitter.com/ajLE737Frm
— Minne Inno (@MinneInnovation) July 14, 2017
The Presenter: Fluid Water Meter
The Pitch: Fluid is a smart-home device that tells users exactly how, when and where they use water in their home. The fluid team has raised $116,000 on Kickstarter, and said they have received another $40,000 in preorders. The company aims to have 50 units deployed by the end of the month. There's been quite a bit of buzz around Fluid since its launch, but Minnedemo was the first time the product was demonstrated live.
The Presenter: Pivot Interactives
The Pitch: Pivot is an interactive video platformed aimed at making student science experiments easier and more accessible. Students can use Pivot's video library to create their own experiments, change outcomes or complete assignments. Pivot is currently offering free trial accounts, but plans to switch to a paid subscription model in the coming months.
The Presenter: Dispatch, LLC
The Pitch: Dispatch is a platform that enables companies to provide same-day, on-demand delivery. Similar to Uber or Lyft, people can sign up to be Dispatch drivers in their downtime. The company said that 75 percent of the fare goes to the driver, approximately 30 percent more than most ride-sharing companies. The startup launched earlier this year, and has made deliveries to more than 3,500 homes and businesses in the Twin Cities metro, according to its founders.
