Paul Knapp is President and CEO of Space Center Ventures (SCV) where he manages an evergreen venture fund backed by the McNeely family business office.

The 95 year old firm was built in the St.Paul trucking and warehouse business, but today primarily manages 18 million feet of commercial real estate around the country.  As a means of “attaining higher yields through diversification,” the investment arm “has been focused predominantly on emerging Minnesota high tech and med-tech ventures for the past 11 years,” under Knapp’s watch.

“We typically invest $250 – $500k in  ‘post-revenue’ businesses that are raising larger rounds, likely to achieve profitability near term and liquidity medium-term,” he says.

Interestingly, Knapp recently made a seed stage (<$100k) investment into local startup SyncMyAd after receiving a ‘cold’ email from from entrepreneur Nathan Reimnitz.  Is this the new norm for one VC or the exception to the rule?

“We see the trend on the coasts is definitely going towards smaller investments earlier…and I virtually never respond to people I don’t know looking for funding. I’m not even sure why I did, but it’s a company that was founded on a shoestring and is the poster child for how you can create a tech business relatively inexpensively and get some good traction.”

Tune into the podcast to hear more about why he made the investment into SyncMyAd, his big picture investment philosophy, and other perspectives.

A new social commerce application for Facebook fan pages called OneWay Commerce is breaking into the SMB market this summer in collaboration with Intuit.

Born from the mind of Minnesota tech entrepreneur Joe Dwyer, this bootstrapped startup initially came onto the radar a few weeks ago when interviewing semi-finalists at a Minnesota Cup event.

At the time, it was easy draw some correlations between OneWay Commerce’s model and the rise of ’09’s winner, now called 8thBridge; both operate in the arena of social commerce, specifically designed to enable e-commerce F-commerce transactions via Facebook.  In contrast, what Dwyer has created is a clear emphasis on empowering individuals, small and medium businesses with a quick, easy and affordable means of launching their own commerce app via their Facebook fan page.

“Our software is fully functional and we’ve got dozens of customers generating revenue,” says Dwyer, noting “the application  is ideal for venders who offer a relatively small product line, even as little as one item.”

This  product is a natural extension for Dwyer, as his decade old software company, Propelware, specializes in accounting and CRM data integration projects.  Perhaps most interesting about OneWay Commerce is the go to market launch with Intuit who has blessed the app and will be helping to promote it’s availability.

This is relationship that will prove necessary in the face of competition like VC-backed Payvment. “Our main strength is our ability to seamlessly integrate with QuickBooks, since that’s what we know from experience…it’s also nice to have them as a distribution partner with the launch,” he responds when asked about going to market and scaling.

Although consumer behavior patterns are always evolving and buying and selling via Facebook remains a relatively fresh concept, Dwyer is confident that “It’s a big market that’s ready to explode.”

And no doubt that when you get three quarters of a billion people in any one place, the natural laws of human nature —  such as buying, selling and trading goods or services are bound to manifest…Dwyer’s plan is to essentially provide the shovels for this goldrush.

Tune in for our 33rd Local Startup Spotlight podcast to hear the finer details of OneWay Commerce.

An unfolding narrative shows how two local women are taking the charge to rally local females within Minnesota’s technology industry.

Jacque Urick is the new Managing Director of Girls in Tech Minneapolis-St.Paul chapter.  Girls in Tech was founded in San Francisco (2007) with the goal of empowering, educating and elevating status of women in technology fields, and aims especially to inspire young women to pursue entrepreneurial technology careers.  The  networking group has a strong emphasis on supporting the next generation of females and features quarterly meetups — the next one scheduled for June 29th at Moscow on the Hill.

Liz Tupper is Managing Director of She’s Geeky, an annual 2 day unConference exclusively focused around bringing together women in STEM fields. The inaugural Minnesota She’s Geeky took place last August and drew around 100 local women together around technology, lifestyle and business; the second local event is scheduled for September 23 & 24th at the Science Museum of Minnesota (details to follow).

Liz and Jacque originally met at TR’s FindLaw and soon realized their shared passions were the foundation for something bigger, hence their motivation to raise the profiles for their gender as it pertains to technology careers. In addition to their community initiatives, the duo is also pursuing a startup of their own called SieEnt to develop episodic RPG-style video games.

“My ultimate goal is to make Girls in Tech irrelevant, hopefully we can get to a point where we don’t need it anymore,” says Urick.

Check out our 31st Get to Know podcast to hear more about these two local leaders.

A new Minnesota startup has launched an online community for vertically segmented, or Nitch, Business-to-business interactions.

The premise is that small business owners can create bids to find new vendors, band together to receive volume discounts on goods / services, and connect with similar businesses.   The platform is built on five pillars — search, commerce, advertising, collaboration, applications — and is free for customers to use.

Created in response to a proprietors daily pains of “wearing too many hats”, the technology has been in development for nearly a year and quietly gone to market over the past few months.  Co founder and CEO Michael Noble reports having both users and facilitating transactions while preparing to release third party developer API this summer.

“As a platform play, our goal is to carve out the B2B area of the web to solve immediate problems. Facebook is more of a place for individuals consumers, but where does mom and pop go to solve their immediate needs in one stop?” he posits.

In our 32nd Local Startup Spotlight podcast, Noble reflects about his east coast technology background, elaborates on the specifics of the new endeavor and shares what it’s been like to start something from scratch in Minnesota.

“With the way that technology works today, you need to find a way to build something on your own.  Trying to go out and raise capital too early can be the death knell of your company. Ideas evolve over time, and in my experience, every company we’ve built has turned out vastly different than how we originally pictured it.” — Michael Noble, Nitch co founder and CEO.

When Steve Wasnick’s wholesale picture framing company went belly-up after 15 years of business, he returned to the entrepreneurial drawing board and crafted a new product, passion and purpose.

Originally known as Mill City Auctions, the game plan was a transition into niche online auctions.   In collaboration with lifelong business partner Andrew Mattila, Wasnick envisioned cultivating a user base through iterative development and brand building by offering the nascent service free-of-charge to nonprofits.  While the sights were ultimately set on the larger and more diverse market for online auctions, a unique ‘second chance’ contest forced a refined focus exclusively on the nonprofit market.

Now re-branded/launched as WinningCause, the service replaces the traditional silent auction approach (pen and paper) with a real time web-based auction experience.  Nonprofits are able to use WinningCause to raise more money at their fundraising auctions through preliminary social media exposure, seamless transition into the actual event, smart-phone compatibility, and most importantly – by retaining 100% of the price paid for a given item.

WinningCause generates its revenue through a 10% buyers premium — essentially a tax paid by the winning bidder, to which Wasnick reports zero friction on behalf of the buyer.

“Nonprofit fundraisers alone bring in $16b in annual revenue and Minnesota is the Silicon Valley of the nonprofit world.  We’re launching in precisely the right market,” he says speaking to his nonprofit orientation.

“I was born to be an entrepreneur, having been an entrepreneur since I was a kid — it has never stopped. It defines me and is what enables me to take risk…without risk there is no reward.  My advice to aspiring tech entrepreneurs?  You don’t need to be a technician, since specialized knowledge is around every corner. If you’ve got a great idea, there are no barriers which cannot be overcome.  My nonprofit clients will benefit to the tune of $1.6b in annual savings while I disrupt and dominate this market.”  — Steve Wasnick, WinningCause Co founder & CEO.

Tune in to our 31st Local Startup Spotlight podcast to hear a true story of reinvention.

Two new investors are putting up $20m combined of their own money to fund Minnesota startups for no other reason than they see a real opportunity here and now.

“I’m looking at my desk and there are over 100 deals from every letter of the alphabet,” says Mark Marlow, President at Omphalos Venture Partners.   “It’s a shame that we have to decline some great entrepreneurs only because we can’t single-handedly fund them all,” adds Omphalos Chairman Sean Casey.

The partners have parlayed winnings from Virtual Radiologic, “a typical startup success story,” Casey says modestly, having founded the venture out of his home in 2001 to provide technology outsourced radiology services.  Marlow joined in 2003 as CFO and saw the company through a $70m IPO in 2007; at one point, the VRAD’s market cap peaked around $500m.  The firm was eventually sold to Rhode Island-based private equity firm Providence Equity Partners for $294m in May last y

Rochester-based mobile developer DoApp has come a long way since the founding trio left the security of their corporate jobs three years ago this month.

“We had a very schizophrenic anti-MBA go to market,” says co founder and CEO Wade Beavers, speaking to inception. “When we got started, we did a variety of things thinking that one thing would take off — and in some dysfunctional way, they all did.  It has created as much opportunity as challenge.”

The firm was one of  the first 2500 companies approved to develop for Apple’s iPhone, having created three of the first 500 apps (there are over 350,000 today).  “People will pay for flatulence,” Beavers says reflecting on the dubious honor of having the first app ever to be banned by Apple — Whoopie Cushion.

Collectively, DoApp’s mobile apps have experienced over 12 million downloads; today, the company has four flagship products and 11 full time employees:

Mobile Local News – content delivery platform for TV, newspaper and radio stations.

iKenex – robust white label application for real estate agents & brokers.

adagogo – hyper local advertising platform (beta).

mRemedy – medical library and custom health tracker app created in collaboration with the Mayo Clinic.

“If you think your marriage has ups and downs, try a startup…it’s going to get tense…the key is to know that you’re in it to the end. Check your ego at the door — it’s about the end product.” — Wade Beavers, CEO, DoApp.

Tune in to our podcast interview for a candid first-hand perspective on starting and surviving the first few years…

Local technology entrepreneurs now have a second major resource of late, when Minnesota’s first tech-oriented accelerator program begins accepting first round applications tomorrow.

Six months in the making, Project Skyway will choose up to 10 early-stage tech companies in SaaS & mobile to participate in a three-month long, mentor-driven startup acceleration based out of Minneapolis.

“Our emphasis is on building tech companies with long-term, sustainable value, ethical practices, mentorship, and strong networks,” Project Skyway founder Cem Erdem reiterates.

The program offers $6k in seed funding per founder (1-5), mentorship, co-working space (TBA), dedicated outsourced software development and connections-a-plenty.   In exchange for participating in the program, companies give 6 – 9% of founders stock.

“Almost any other accelerator program will bounce you if you don’t have a tech co-founder as part of your team,” says co founder Casey Allen, touching on a unique aspect. “Not Project Skyway. We are looking for applicants with the ability to execute over the ability to code the viable and fund-able prototype themselves.”  The accelerator will also accept sole founders.

The deadline to apply is midnight, May 1, 2011 — after which the top 25 applicants will then be invited to participate in the 2nd round weekend boot-camp being held June 10-12, 2011.  In late June, invitations will be sent out to finalists ready to start building August 1 through ‘demo day’ in October.

For more background and details, tune in to our Get to Know podcast with Cem Erdem and Casey Allen.

“My business philosophy is simple — human pain equals market demand,” says tech veteran and lifelong entrepreneur Chris Dykstra.

Chris has been using technology to solve real world problems for the past 15 years and is currently engaged in three distinct impact businesses:

Zanby is a white-label enterprise ‘group of groups’ social collaboration startup he co founded in 2005. With strong domestic and international reach, Zanby was used to facilitate discussions between private business, NGO’s, government and cotton collectives to curb Walmart’s child labor practices in Uzbekistan.

Warecorp is an onshore/offshore software consulting and development company he co founded in 2004 as a spinoff from a previous venture.  One recent WareCorp project facilitated crowdsourcing funds to build an orphanage in Haiti.

The Uptake is a citizen-fueled, online video news gathering organization focused on government transparency (think CSPAN for the web). Started in 2007, he chairs the board of this nonprofit journalism upstart.   “Better storytelling at the local level about business and more transparency about political processes can lead to prosperity,”  he says.

The Uptake received Center for Public Integrity’s “top ten websites of the year” award in 2008, in addition to five society for professional journalism awards since inception.  “We filmed every minute of the Norm Coleman Al Franken recount trial, including 40 different recount stations live…the result of that effort was that Minnesota has preserved its reputation as a good government state, ” he confidently concludes.

And as if three businesses wasn’t enough already, he recently added diary-based blogging network SoapBlox to the mix.

To streamline operations (and maintain sanity), Dykstra recently rolled his holdings into a B Corporation called Global Contribution. The B Corporation represents a fresh approach to modern business, in that it wraps a for-profit model around a named benefit which serves as the primary operating objective.   With Global Contribution, it’s all about spreading entrepreneurship (more on that to follow).

Chris can be hard to pin down — if only because he’s consumed with action wherever he goes. The collective mission in all that he does is to “create more connected, better informed, healthy and sustainable communities.”

A month ago,  he was in Kansas visiting with the Kauffman Foundation, then his media company went to Wisconsin to cover the chaos next door, and now he’s in Austin, Texas for the CoWorking Unconference.  His work regularly takes him around the world to places like Mexico, Europe and Russia where he’s expanding business relationships, consulting, and speaking about social entrepreneurship.

“I look at all these as business problems…they’re the ones I want to focus on…for me, they’re the richest opportunities. I would encourage people to consider becoming an entrepreneur and reaching for the empowerment that it provides in personal life…think about what market opportunities exist around our shared social problems.”

Tune in for an outstanding story of how one Minnesota entrepreneur applies technology towards the betterment of societies — an innovation of the mind.

Somewhere between their basements and the lake, entrepreneurs Matt Johnson and Mike Lauenstein have been camped out for the past two years — researching, designing and developing a hardware/software platform brought to market under the name Contour Innovations.

They’ve been deliberately hiding this whole time…until we scooped them out of natural habitat to bring you the story.

The duo invented the ‘CI Device’ — a portable tool that uses raw depth finder data correlated with sonar, GPS, weather conditions and other relevant information — to form an online centralized lake database repository. Recreational fishermen, fishing guides, research groups, and geo-spacial experts can generate precision maps of contoured water bodies, which in turn, form media that can be published to an online store. Ultimately, ‘CI Guides’ enables customers to purchase custom trips, track any species or find and follow a guides activity in real time.  The product has been in private beta for the past year and official launch is expected within the next two months.

For Matt and Mike, the prospect of entrepreneurship was simply too big and exciting for them to ignore. They boldly stepped away from what would otherwise be an ideal situation for many: safe and secure employment in a high paying line of work.

CEO Matt Johnson is a UW – Eau Claire undergrad with a law degree from Hamline who had previously been a litigator with a mid-sized firm in downtown Minneapolis. “It was a great job that I really liked, but I always had that entrepreneurial spirit and I knew I wanted to do something for myself.  For me, the idea of working in a dingy basement for two years to try and get a company off the ground became absolutely exciting, and that’s when I took the plunge and went two feet in!”

CIO Mike Lauenstein also studied at UW – Eau Claire, although they did not know each other while enrolled, as it wasn’t until post graduation and well into their respective careers that paths crossed through a social function.  Mike was a a senior consultant with Microsoft and he’s now wrapping up an MBA from the U of M Carlson School of Management while simultaneously launching the company.  “I always wanted to go the entrepreneurial route — I’m surrounded by it and it’s in the blood,” he says while discussing the decision to leave his status with a well-established company. “Microsoft was a great company to work for but I knew that the opportunity to leave was getting smaller and smaller every year that went by.”

“…the door was closing, and regardless of the outcome, we just knew that we would be better for it,” Johnson summarizes.  “Number one, we knew that we just had to start doing…definitely just start doing and things will pan out,” he says when asked what advice he would have for the aspiring entrepreneur.  “Get ready and prepare for the moment to leave [your] job and not have income,”  Lauenstein added.

And that’s for real. Tune in to hear the details of their upcoming product launch and about the shared journey from idea to execution.