April 2015
Current Issue: April 2015
Many companies plan to host community solar gardens — and customers and neighbors are subscribing to the idea
We ask the experts how the still-new light rail service linking St. Paul and Minneapolis is affecting real estate and development
The Worthington Event Center hosts the 11th annual Worthington Bio Conference April 9-10.
The Hometown BioEnergy plant. Photo courtesy of Hometown BioEnergy
In our February 2015 issue, we highlighted the Hometown BioEnergy plant in Le Sueur, Minnesota. The award-winning facility converts agricultural and food-processing waste into electricity for the local distribution system.
Photo courtesy of Blu Dot
In our January 2015 issue, we showed how the fast-growing furniture maker Blu Dot dealt with its continual need for ever-more warehouse space. On April 15, the company’s co-founder and CEO Jon Christakos gives an early-morning interview to Minnesota Public Radio in St. Paul, with journalist Chris Farrell asking the questions.
Jennifer Ford Reedy. Photo by Marissa Martinson
In our previous issue, we interviewed Jennifer Ford Reedy, president of the Bush Foundation and emcee of our 2015 Community Impact Awards. We asked her about the annual Bush Connect event.
JenTra Tool's Cheetah door leveling tool. Photo courtesy of JenTra
Elsewhere in this issue, we highlight a small-town entrepreneur’s clever invention for more easily installing doors, and the patented product and startup that resulted from it. Where can you meet such inventors?
In our August 2013 issue we told the story of Delano-based Landscape Structures, a manufacturer of playgrounds that’s grown from a startup with a vision — and a concern for child development — to a giant in its niche.
From April 13-16, the University of Minnesota (Twin Cities) hosts the 14th annual Design of Medical Devices Conference, one of the largest of its kind in the world.
Jashan Eison talks shop with employees. Photo by Joel Schnell
In 2012, Jashan Eison and CFO Fred Poferl at H&B Elevators were informed the company would be put up for sale. A fixture in south Minneapolis since 1921, the company designs and constructs elevator cabs, interiors, and entrances.
The Green Line light rail service connecting the downtowns of St. Paul and Minneapolis opened last summer. With ridership numbers surpassing expectations, Minnesota Business asked experts about the line’s impact on real estate and development.
Ryan Schildkraut. Photo by Joel Schnell
On a crowdfunding site like Kickstarter, it isn’t all that difficult to raise money for, say, developing a new product. Many ventures have used such sites to bring great ideas to life. But what if entrepreneurs could also go online to attract equity investments directly into their small companies, from investors of all stripes?
Dennis Sellke, CEO of International Cardio Corporation
[title]
Licensing technologies developed at universities is sometimes an overly complicated process.
Scott Cramer, owner of Northern Sun Merchandise. Photo by Emily J. Davis
Scott Cramer, owner of Northern Sun Merchandise, situated on Lake Street in the Longfellow neighborhood of south Minneapolis, has been using solar energy in his business for the past decade.
Travis Kelley with wife and JenTra co-founder, Jennifer
Travis Kelley grew up in the rural Pine River area of northern Minnesota, near Brainerd. After graduating from high school in 2004, he worked stacking wood with his uncle at a lumber yard in the Twin Cities. That led to a sales job, and for a couple of years he sold lumber.
Features
Phil Ankeny, CFO, Minnetronix. Photo by Derek Thomson
Regardless of industry, and whether they are small or large, a number of Minnesota’s fastest-growing companies have employed a common strategy: augmenting their “organic” growth by growing through strategic acquisition.
Steve Bloom
In the post-recession shakeout, services like information technology have witnessed increasing commoditization. Corporate leaders accepted box solutions and the global help desks to control costs, reasoning that they paid an internal IT staff to make recommendations and manage it.
Photo by Derek Thomson
Many parents have worried about their toddlers discovering the potentially dangerous cleaning products hidden beneath the kitchen sink. And spraying a strong cleaner near a child’s face just doesn’t feel right.
Photo courtesy of Stamp-n-Storage
Everyone should have a hobby, but some hobbies require more space, and create more clutter, than others. With his wife an avid paper crafter — think scrapbooking, rubber stamping, and the like — mechanical engineer Brett Haugen developed a hobby of his own: building specialized storage cabinets to keep her creative space tidy.