By All Means

If you spend any amount of time in or around the startup community in the Twin Cities, you will no doubt hear the name Daren Cotter. Today, most people know him as an investor and advisor—his personal portfolio includes more than 100 startups—primarily software as a service and tech. But before Cotter could focus full time on investing, he had to have an exit of his own. That was InBox Dollars, the rewards-based digital advertising platform he built in his college dorm room, scaled to a peak of $25 million in annual revenue, and sold, some 15 years later in May 2019, to a leading market research and insights firm, Prodege. Cotter shares his entrepreneurial journey, from concept to acquisition, as well as his investment philosophy and advice for founders—including not raising funds prematurely. "My personal viewpoint is a founder is often much better served by building the product, finding a few customers, proving that they're solving a real problem that the customer is willing to pay for, and then they think

Laura Roos started Minny & Paul as a way to take the hunt out of discovering high-quality, locally made goods. She launched in 2016 with a selection of themed gift boxes that she thought would be popular with bridal parties or for housewarmings. But very quickly, businesses started requesting large orders of boxes for clients or staff. Today, 80% of Minny & Paul’s business is B2B and the company has gone beyond Minnesota to spotlight makers nationwide and offer curated gift boxes as well as ready-to-order options. The creative side drew her in, but Roos talks about the logistics and leadership that have made Minny & Paul a success. A request for a customized Minny & Paul box filled with CBD products inspired Roos’ next startup, the new Mary & Jane, which sells microdose cannabis products. “I love a challenge,” Roos says. “I think the most important thing to keep in mind as you're building any business is problems are going to come up all the time and it's really just about how you react to them and you

Ashley Hawks was a successful working model, in print and on runways around the world. But when she thought about her goal of making a magazine cover, she realized, “I’ll still be promoting somebody else's brand, somebody else's lipstick, somebody else's clothing line. And it was this light switch of, I want to be on the cover because of something I did, because of something I built. I want my name next to my picture.” For her first startup, Hawks built on what she knew. Style & Grace offered training for models and pageant queens. She made money, but realized the business wasn’t scalable—all of the students wanted to work with her directly. Her next venture took her back to her childhood, working in her mom’s bridal boutique. Hawks launched Forever Bride in 2012 as a tool to support the local wedding industry online. She created a network of small businesses and built a national following for her online platform and boutique market experiences. Halted by the pandemic, she took a shot and reached out to t

“We’re going to be helping hundreds of thousands of patients with our device and that’s probably more than a lifetime of patients I could see as a physician.” By the time Allisa Song started medical school at Mayo Clinic in 2018, she was already the founder of an active medical device startup company called Nanodropper. The idea came to her in 2017, when she happened to read an article titled: "Drug Companies Make Eyedrops Too Big, and You Pay for the Waste.” “It really felt like we were letting people down,” Song says. “We have these great medications that are vision saving, and we’re dangling it in front of people, saying that you have to pay this amount if you want to keep your vision.” The cost, the structure of benefits—it all felt “unfair,” Song says. But rather than go for the big industry-wide fix, she approached the wasted eye medicine problem with a harm reductionist mentality. “I was just trying to think about how can we develop a solution that we could put directly into the hands of patients.”

Sean Higgins knew he was spending too much time on his phone—going down a YouTube rabbit hole when he meant to go for a run, or call his mom. But rather than fighting the ever-present phone, he imagined a new way to utilize the technology that sits in the palm of our hands—a better way, if you will. BetterYou is a digital coach that uses artificial intelligence to map how we spend our time and make suggestions to fulfill the goals we set for ourselves, like more exercise, more sleep, or calling mom every week. Higgins started BetterYou with partners in 2018, using seed money from his first start up, ilos, a video platform that was acquired by Paylocity and became VidGrid. He quickly realized the real opportunity for an app designed to “harmonize technology with wellbeing” was B2B. The first organizations to sign on were schools, which offered BetterYou as a service for students. BetterYou ended 2023 with a $6 million Series A funding raise. It’s still early days, but this app is showing traction with use

What happens after a founder appears on Shark Tank, and walks away from a $250,000 offer? For Beth Fynbo, her Busy Baby activity mat saw six weeks worth of online sales in in three days. “And two weeks later,” she says, “no one had heard of us.” “I thought Shark Tank was going to be life changing, and it was—just not in the way that I thought.” Fynbo, an Army veteran and former health care account manager, was a new mom when inspiration struck. Kids were constantly dropping toys off their high chairs. Her Busy Baby silicone suction placemat keeps toys, teethers, and utensils secured in place. In 2023, two years after her Shark Tank appearance, Busy Baby logged $5 million in sales and introduced new add ons to its core product. Now with two years of growth and perspective since her national television debut, Fynbo talks about what it’s really like to go on Shark Tank and what it’s really like to build a business from the ground up, including raising money, creating an advisory board, navigating the waves o

“Where passion meets frustration creates motivation.” Erin Pash is the co-founder and CEO of Ellie Mental Health—one of the fastest growing franchise chains you’ve probably never heard of—yet. The Mendota Heights-based company opened its first franchise clinic in July 2022. Now there are more than 200 Ellie Mental Health clinics open around the country with another 450 sold and under development. Pash is driven by the desire to destigmatize mental health care by building a national mental health care brand that makes care accessible and fun while also creating a flexible work environment for therapists. Pash is a licensed therapist who saw a bigger opportunity. “We wanted to create a hybrid employment model where we could give therapists safety, security and support while providing them with the culture, creativity and compensation they could get in their own private practice.” Pash talks about barrier to mental health care, the rising demand for services and how that’s driving more therapists not to a

When your arteries are blocked, you see a cardiologist. For cancer, there’s the oncologist. But for the 13.5 million Americans dealing with a serious wound—from surgery, an injury or disease, an ostomy bag, or old age—there’s often no one coordinating care until the problem becomes a crisis. Nima Ahmadi saw the white space, and co-founded The Wound Company in 2022 with the intention of creating a coordinated, cost effective solution that supports health care providers and improves healing for patients. The Wound Company partners with medical practices and benefits companies to provide focused patient care through a combination of telehealth, AI diagnostics and in person care. Already the data shows that Wound Co. patients heal 60% faster for a 15 to 20% reduction in cost. Ahmadi, who studied bioengineering and worked on other software-focused health startups, walks us through the process of recognizing the problem, devising a solution, and actually bringing it to market. He talks about the challenges of s

Kristen Denzer is the founder and CEO of Tierra Encantada, a Spanish immersion daycare that is on its way to becoming a national brand. Currently there are 11 locations in four states—two of them are franchise centers, and an additional 20 franchise units have been sold. It’s already a $22 million business, and Denzer is just getting started. Tierra Encantada is actually her third startup; Denzer started her career in nonprofits, but saw business opportunity everywhere. When she got engaged and realized how expensive it would be to plan a wedding, she started her own event rental business. As an animal lover, she co-founded a doggy daycare. So when she went looking for a daycare center for her own children and coulnd’t find one that met her criteria: Spanish immersion, inclusive, healthy meals, quality programing, she started her own. Tierra Encantada started in Eagan in 2013 and within a year, Denzer was working on expansion. She shares what went right, the mistakes she learned from, and why she made the d

Behind many popular drink brands—Mike’s Hard Lemonade, Celsius Energy Drinks, Pabst Blue Ribbon—is BevSource, a St. Paul based company that provides beverage development, sourcing, and production—everything from supplying the can that holds your beer to helping develop and test an entirely new drink idea. Today BevSource is one of the largest packing and ingredient distributors in North America, with $250 million in annual revenue. Janet Johanson started the company in 2002 when she was just 24 years old, with three years of experience in the industry. “I just said yes,” she says. Johanson talks timing: from knowing when to take on private equity and start a board to knowing when it was time to step away from the day-to-day operations. “As CEO, I got stuck in detail,” she says. “By cutting my hands off, it made me think differently about who we partner with…and how I can make an impact.” Following our conversation with Johanson, we go Back to the Classroom with the University of St. Thomas Opus College of

"We call it the health care system, but really, it's the illness-burden-treatment system. There are so many things we can do to improve in health care." Tony Miller and Dave Dickey are serial health benefits entrepreneurs who've built and sold multiple companies, leading the way toward consumer-driven insurance programs. The most recent is Bind Benefits, an on-demand, zero-deductible program that was acquired by UnitedHealth Group in 2021. Recently renamed Surest, the benefits plan is UHG's fastest growing product with a net promoter score nearly three times higher than its competitors. Miller and Dickey, who no longer work for Surest, talk about how to change health care coverage in America, starting with Miller's first startup, Definity Health, which he sold to UnitedHealth Group in 2004 for $305 million (not $300 million as widely reported, and he tells the story behind that). Miller is managing partner of Lemhi Ventures, a healthcare investment firm, which put the first $12 million into Bind. Between De

Nora and Jay Schaper are serial entrepreneurs with a big idea: rid the world of single use plastic bottles—starting in the bathroom. Experts told them salon-quality shampoo couldn’t be produced in solid form, but that only made them more determined to come up with a winning formula. They did, and HiBar launched in 2018. The line, which has grown to include face wash and deodorant as well as solid shampoo and conditioner, is now sold in more than 10,000 stores. To date, HiBar says it has eliminated nearly 5 million plastic bottles and conserved over 800,000 gallons of water. To turn their product into a successful business, the Schapers partnered with an entrepreneur experienced in consumer brands: Ward Johnson, who built and sold the pet food brand, Sojos. A fourth founder is no longer involved. We talk to the three partners about the challenges of building a mission driven business, from engineering to marketing. “People who are committed to sustainability are willing to make sacrifices…but don’t mess w

Feeling homesick drove Argentinian native Belén Rodríguez into entrepreneurship. But grit and tenacity have helped this first-generation immigrant take her grandmother’s empanadas recipe from backyard parties to farmers markets to the frozen foods case of major grocery stores in just five years. By the end of 2022, St. Paul-based Quebracho Empanadas expects to be in 250 stores throughout the Midwest, with plans to reach 3,000 stores nationwide within five years. The Spanish pastry filled with savory ingredients captures the flavors of Rodríguez’s childhood in the Argentine Pampas, adapted for modern convenience. Healthy frozen foods used to be an oxymoron, but Rodríguez says Quebracho Empanadas is part of a movement to bring better-for-you ingredients to the freezer case. On the precipice of launching this fall with Cub Foods, Rodríguez talks about her unlikely path from medical interpreter to founder and CEO of a fast growing consumer product goods, and how the pandemic completely changed Quebracho’s bu

Adam Turman is one of Minnesota’s most prolific working artists today, known for capturing state icons like Paul Bunyon and the Stone Arch Bridge in vibrant illustrations. He’s also unapologetically commercial, selling his drawings on giftware, apparel, prints, and murals seen around town from Surly Brewing to his latest, and largest, yet: a 220 foot by 40 foot scene on the side of a parking ramp for the new Corsa Apartments in St. Louis Park. He’s managed to do what most artists only dream of: pursue the creative projects that fuel him, and turn it into a successful business that includes licensing deals, custom projects, brand work, and art prints. “I’ve always really liked having a reason to make the art I make,” says Turman, who started his career as a graphic designer for creative agencies. “I’m just trying to make things people really enjoy.” Turman offers a peek behind the canvas and into his company, from licensing deals to corporate collaborations, and how he’s embracing AI. For broader persp

The Surly Brewing story is the stuff of entrepreneurial legend in Minnesota, but in recent years, founder Omar Ansari has had to contend with an industry wide decline of beer sales, diversification of the adult beverage market, pandemic shutdowns, and changing employee expectations. “Things have changed and we’re having to change with it,” Ansari says. Over the summer, Ansari got back to his roots: visiting neighborhood bars that sell Surly, connecting with fans, and telling the story. In this wide ranging conversation, we go back to how it all started, and then talk about how Ansari had had to come around to doing contract brewing and introducing new beverages like hop water and a THC seltzer to stay competitive. “If that’s where we’re at, that’s what will do.” Then we go back to the classroom with the University of St. Thomas Schulze School of Entrepreneurship. Assistant professor Casey Frid has conducted research on the craft beer industry and talks about how the market saturation can chip away at

Zoë Levin saw opportunity in the toilet paper aisle to create a high design brand committed to sustainability. Armed with a $10,000 Kickstarter fund and a whole lot of moxie, she believed she could compete against the likes of Procter & Gamble and Kimberly-Clark. Bim Bam Boo, made of fast-growing bamboo fiber and packaged in colorful paper wraps, launched in 2018 at a direct-to-consumer brand. Levin quickly learned that even the savviest online shoppers rarely order toilet paper online—it’s one of those staples people tend to run to the store to pick up. She was limping forward, trying to elevate an everyday product by promoting the benefits bamboo and cautioning consumers that 27,000 trees are flushed down the toilet every day in the U.S. And then the Covid-19 pandemic drove people into lockdown/stock up mode, setting off the great toilet paper shortage of 2020. “Suddenly I knew: I had the most wanted product in the entire world.” With very little inventory on hand, but a manufacturing process in place u

From farmers market novelty to grocery store mainstay: Minnesota-made Maazah, a line of Afghan-style chutney sauces, is poised to break through through the global foods aisle to become a mainstream condiment, much like Sriracha. Founder Yasameen Sajady takes us from her mom’s kitchen, where she got the idea to bottle up the flavors of her family dinners that weren’t readily available at Western stores, to inflection point: Maazah is now sold in more than 150 stores nationwide and expects to double that by the end of the year. “The industry is ripe for this shakeup—a woman-run, global product on the shelf," Sajady says. "It represents so much that we do: the way customers are shopping, and eating. Sajady talks about the benefits of accelerator programs, raising her first venture round, the challenge of relying on co-packers, spending on a publicist, and scaling up for a national opportunity with Kroger stores. “Every three or four months, everything gets so much bigger,” Sajady says. “And it takes capit

Appearing on a TV remodeling show may be the quickest path to notoriety in the interior design space today, but Bria Hammel is more interested in building an enduring business. She’s leveraged social media to cultivate a following of more than 200,000, which helped to build St. Paul, Minn.-based Bria Hammel Interiors into a national design firm. In 2018, she parlayed her expertise into a retail business, Brooke & Lou, specializing in “life friendly furniture.” And that success has led to licensing deals with other brands. “I am a risk taker, but I’m a cautious risk taker,” Hammel says. She talks about running two distinct but overlapping businesses and how EOS (the Entrepreneurial Operating System) helps in running an efficient team. She talks about the online design service that was born out of Covid, and learnings from her first brick and mortar retail pop-up. Plus, design advice including the trick to successfully styling a bookcase and why she’s glad to see the Midcentury modern trend fade in popularity.

Amin Aaser was an entrepreneur in search of a problem, and then he realized the problem that had been with him his whole life: feeling different. Embracing his faith as a Muslim while also living his best life as an American. Aaser, along with his brother, launched Noor Kids with the goal of “raising Muslims who build a better world.” Initially, that took the shape of a magazine. Then came books, and more recently, video programming, which is drawing a global audience and setting the stage for a new chapter of growth for the Minneapolis-based social enterprise startup. To date, Noor Kids has published 140 titles and reached more than a quarter of million people with its content, which is available under a “freemium” model—some is free; subscriptions can be purchased for full access. The latest product is “Noor Kids Muslim Treehouse”—think of it as Mr. Rogers for a multicultural, international audience that interacts over Zoom. You can watch it now on YouTube, and don’t be surprised if you see it soon on a s

Years before chatbots burst into the mainstream, a trio of Minneapolis-based fishing enthusiasts launched a data-driven e-commerce shopping platform for anglers that gets smarter the more people use it. Omnia Fishing, founded in 2018 is disrupting the $5 billion dollar U.S. and Canadian tackle industry by offering a shop-by-lake e-commerce experience that connects customers to the gear they need based on where they’re fishing, what they’re fishing for, and even the time of year. Co-founders Matt Johnson (CEO), Chris Morgal (COO), and Dan Wick (CTO) each bring a unique skill set and prior startup experience to Omnia. They walk us through how they’re setting up the company, which is not yet profitable, for big success, from raising $1 million right out of the gate to figuring out how to set up a warehouse and deliver merchandise to leaning on user-generated content. All told, Omnia has raised more than $6 million to date to build its tech-intensive, space-based shopping platform. “There’s so much being bandi