I had a chance to attend this year’s Venture & Finance conference in Minneapolis, where I heard detailed presentations from the CEOs of sixteen early-stage firms, as well as “minute” pitches from many more. MHTA and MVCA jointly co-hosted this very well-formatted event, which I would highly recommend for investors and investment-minded entrepreneurs.
This was a great event that allowed me to get an up-to-date calibration on innovation in the Twin Cities. On a deeper level – and for this blog’s frequent readers – this event also gave me a chance to calibrate the arc of trends: both in significance and pace.
Three Trend Arcs of Significance
Mobile Improving Our Work & Life Experience
Several firms noted that we are moving from “Candy Crush” games on our mobile devices to apps that help us significantly improve our lives:
- The recent award-winning firm, 75F, is a great example of what the intersection of SaaS, big data, Internet of Things and mobile will soon be bringing us. The core of their offering is to improve the personal comfort for occupants of mid-tier commercial office buildings by allowing each individual to indicate their comfort preferences on their mobile device, which is then used – along with a thermal map of the building – to adjust the temperature of their individual zone. The building owner is happy because of reduced operating costs, and increased comfort levels make occupants more inclined to stay at lease renewal time.
- Anser Innovation was highlighting a different dimension of connectivity and interaction. They have an Internet of Things play that speaks into the very large market for extended pet care. When away from home, the PetChatz device allows owners to greet their pets, say “hi” via a remote video application, and then dispense a treat. The device also allows for olfaction (smells), as well as recorded videos – perhaps for when the owner is on vacation.
- The firm FamDoo has a really interesting application that enables families to come together around allowances and family tasks. When a family enrolls in the app and creates a virtual family, Mom or Dad are then able to set up a series of tasks and reward levels using either real currency or other tangible points (USBank is a partner). When the tasks are completed, the credits are moved to the correct family member’s account, along with a note of approval. In creating this program, Mark Lacek highlighted his background in what became the American Advantage program.
Food moving from mass to niche
Ever since the Greek Yogurt Craze, many entrepreneurs have been working on the theme that we are all pretty tired of mass market branded foods. These three firms, in particular, have really built some unique flavors and niches:
- Johnny Pops, formed by a team of college students who recently graduated, is making frozen pops from great natural ingredients and fruit. They have developed a quality product that has a mission, and already has national distribution.
- Joia is bringing fruits, herbs and spices to the soda market. They are in a later stage mode, having developed products and national distribution with firms like Whole Foods.
- Last year’s Clean Tech Open award-winning firm, Garden Fresh Farms, presented as well. The core of their offering is to come into a locally depressed area and create a hydroponic garden in a patented form that uses warehouse space efficiently. This allows them to deliver fresh foods to the local community – and afford to hire the local talent to do it.
Connected & Personal Medical Service Delivery
Two firms showed significant connection platforms for medical service delivery, displaying the opportunity and diversity in this space:
- Empathic showed a platform for the behavioral health community, with front and back office capabilities that builds nicely on the need for more customer-facing service provider time and less back office interactions. We are only at the early stages of these tools, and with voice and location technology coming down the road, we’ll likely see more advances in this space.
- Uniphy solutions showed a very holistic, end-to-end software platform (research to metrics), that fully embraces people’s familiarity with social tablet applications. A quick trip through their site shows that if you can use Facebook, you can learn this application.
In addition to the comments on Empathic, a key theme in the new medical environment is removing silos and holding the full horizontal chain of providers accountable for the health outcome of the patient. This means a geometric increase in communication, documentation and measurement. Building these robust communication platforms is key to successfully “bending the curve” on healthcare costs.
Lastly, one hardware play of interest – RespirTech showed their vest device (developed in the Twin Cities) that assists those with breathing difficulties by giving them a high-frequency squeeze via a vest with airpower. The therapy has been fully validated to help improve the quality of life for those with COPD and Cystic fibrosis. In time, we are going to see more of these individually-architected therapies as quality of life and recidivism costs become stronger measurements of the new healthcare system.
I hope you found this overview of trends and memes helpful. If you have thoughts, please drop me an email, or tweet me.
Related posts you can benefit from…
