This week on the podcast we talk about our spring sustaining membership drive, which will move Rochester Rising one step closer to becoming a stable part of the city’s entrepreneurial community. Listen in to learn about the drive and how you can become a champion of Rochester’s homegrown innovators. We also share some of our favorite quotes from Rochester’s entrepreneurs that we’ve collected over the past ten months of Rochester Rising.

This week on the podcast we listen in to some audio from the latest 1 Million Cups Rochester. 1 Million Cups is a national educational program for entrepreneurs developed by the Kauffman Foundation. 1 Million Cups Rochester takes place the first Wednesday of every month at 9AM in downtown Rochester. This month we heard from Rochester Rising, an online news site that amplifies the stories of Rochester entrepreneurs. Xavier Frigola from Rochester Area Economic Development Inc. also spoke about the Rochester Economic Development Fund.

This week on the podcast, we sit back and talk about the future of entrepreneurship in Rochester. Developments in the city are expected to come to life this year under Destination Medical Center (DMC), a twenty-year economic initiative to make Rochester a destination medical city. But where do entrepreneurs fit into this picture? A recent ranking by Livability.com and Entrepreneur magazine listed Rochester as one of the top ten small to mid-sized cities for entrepreneurs in the United States. But when you speak to entrepreneurs in Rochester, you hear a different story. This week in the podcast, we talk about what metrics were used in this study and think about indicators that should be measured to examine cities favorable to entrepreneurs and startups.

This week on the podcast we speak with Zach Robins, a securities attorney and board member of the 501(c)(4) nonprofit, MNvest.org. This nonprofit was launched in 2014 to advocate on behalf of intrastate investment crowdfunding and worked to pass and draft MNvest legislation to democratize investment opportunities for any Minnesotan. MNvest provides privately owned Minnesota businesses the opportunity to raise capital through investment crowdfunding. Currently three funding portals are operational for investment crowdfunding in Minnesota: Venture Near, Silicon Prairie ,and MNstarter. Five investment campaigns are currently being run through these portals

This week, we wrap up “The Rochester Startup Series,” taking an in-depth look at coworking spaces in Rochester and the people working within them. In today’s podcast, we hear from the owners and managers of the four coworking spaces in Rochester including: Carrie Moscho of Rochester Area Foundation, Xavier Frigola of the Mayo Clinic Business Accelerator, Tessa Leung of The Vault, and Jamie Sundsbak of Collider Coworking. All four leaders in the business and entrepreneurial community agreed that there are strong expectations of growth in the for-profit and not-for-profit community, especially with the Destination Medical Center initiative. Rochester’s entrepreneurial community right now is just starting to gain the critical mass that it needs to push forward, but it still has a long way to go. The emerging Southeast Minnesota Angel Fund could significantly help the growth of the startup and entrepreneurial community.

This week on the podcast, we continue with “The Rochester Startup” series and speak with a tenant of the Mayo Clinic Business Accelerator, Ambient Clinical Analytics. Ambient Clinical Analytics is a healthtech startup that is developing a clinical decisions support suite of tools based on Mayo Clinic analytics. Their flagship products, AWARE and the Mayo Clinic YES Board, are tools that could be the centerpiece of total quality improvement within a healthcare facility. Today we speak with Ambient Clinical Analytics CEO Al Berning and CTO Drew Flaada, two entrepreneurs who spent several years working at IBM before striking out on their own.

This week on the podcast, we continue with part nine of “The Rochester Startup” series. This week we speak with Tinua, a tenant of Collider Coworking. Tinua is an emerging nonprofit converting gift cards into the currency of charitable giving, starting a movement of doing good one gift card at a time. Today we chat with Founder Tori Utley, a licensed chemical dependency councilor and founder of several nonprofits, about Tinua’s growth and her journey as a new, fulltime entrepreneur.

This week on the podcast, we continue with “The Rochester Startup” series by speaking with Kristopher Loving, Founder of the emerging nonprofit Official Love. This nonprofit operates out of the Rochester Area Foundation incubator space. Official Love utilizes the platform of sports officiating to help young people develop strong work ethics, professionalism, and connect with the community. The nonprofit decreases barriers for youth to become trained sports officials for basketball, football, and girls’ lacrosse. But Loving says the importance of Official Love is so much more; the program helps youth believe in and become invested in the community.

Today we continue to explore coworking facilities in Rochester and the people working within them. This week on the podcast, we speak with the sportstech startup GoRout. GoRout is a tenant of The Vault, one of the original coworking facilities in Rochester. GoRout has created a series of software and hardware football products that allow for instant communication between coaches and players on the field. The team recently won their division in the NFL’s “1st and Future” competition that took place during Super Bowl LI.

This week, we listen in on some audio from the very first 1 Million Cups Rochester. We had two Rochester entrepreneurs speak at this event: Tori Utley of Tinua and Derrick Chapman of Twisted Barrel Wood Fired Pizza. • Tinua is developing a digital platform and mobile application to transform unused funds on gift cards into tools they believe can save lives. • Twisted Barrel Wood Fired Pizza is Rochester’s hottest food truck, cooking pizzas between 900-1000 degrees. Featured article: Rochester Teen Empowers Youth Music Community with ROCKchester Festival.