Eight years ago, I made my first angel investment in a company called Tradesy via Tim Ferris’s AngelList syndicate. Within a matter of months, I made several more investments in startup companies via AngelList. I also made a couple of angel investments directly in local companies. I didn’t know what I was doing at the …
South Dakota has some unique challenges when building community and capital resources for startup founders. We have a small and spread-out population compared to the rest of the country. There are also just fewer people working on developing high-growth technology startups at any given time, which makes it difficult to build a non-profit organization around …
Developing a healthy startup ecosystem is important for any community because it provides entrepreneurs, startup founders, and small business owners critical business resources in the earliest stages of their businesses. It’s not always clear which startup will become the next major employer in town, but by offering resources to all of them, we can be …
The startup ecosystem in Sioux Falls is in the strongest place it has been in the last decade. There are two successful accelerator programs that have multiple cohorts each year (Falls Fintech and Co-Starters). Zeal’s new startup mentor network has 28 volunteer entrepreneurial mentors. Falls Angel Fund has made more than $3 million in startup …
Beginning this year, Sioux Falls will celebrate Entrepreneurship Day on the first Wednesday of March. For the 2021 celebration taking place on March 3, the general public is invited to join the festivities by participating in a host of events organized by the teams at the Zeal Center for Entrepreneurship (Zeal) and Startup Sioux Falls. …
At the beginning of the year, it looked like 2020 was going to be a big year for the Sioux Falls startup community. We had gotten into a groove of running 1 Million Cups weekly, doing monthly startup events for Startup Sioux Falls and Zeal, and were planning a couple of bigger events as well. …
I had the opportunity to be on a panel discussion about how COVID-19 has impacted the information technology industry in Sioux Falls. Other panelists included Natalie Eisenberg, Click Rain; Dr. JoseMarie Griffiths, Dakota State University ; Mike Grigsby, City of Sioux Falls; and Michael Zuercher, Prismatic. You can watch the recording below: Spark Sioux Falls …
Looking back at my most recent quarterly update, it’s amazing to see how much the world has changed in such a short period of time. A little over a month ago, we were attending church every Sunday morning and Wednesday night, our children were in school and we had a full travel schedule planned for …
We find ourselves in unprecedented times. Many small businesses have had to close their doors and furlough employees with no idea when they might be able to re-open. Unemployment claims have hit an all-time high and some are predicting that COVID-19 related job losses could reach 47 million. The United States economy is undoubtedly in …
These thoughts are my own and are not necessarily those of the Startup Sioux Falls, the Zeal Center for Entrepreneurship or any other organization I may be involved with. With the launch of the new Zeal + Startup Sioux Falls website, the merger between the Zeal Center for Entrepreneurship and Startup Sioux Falls is now …
For the last seven years, marketers have had the ability to send push notifications to website visitors directly through their web browsers using a technology called web push notifications. A website can issue a prompt to a user in their web browser asking them if they want to receive notifications from that website. If they …
Startup Sioux Falls and Zeal Center for Entrepreneurship first hosted a Morning Marketing Party on October 4th. It was a great success with over 55 people in attendance, and we have decided to do it again! Please join us at Zeal Center for Entrepreneurship on Friday, February 14th at 8:30 AM. This is an opportunity …
In the last couple of weeks, our startup community has welcomed a fresh set of eyes that has provided a very helpful outside perspective on the strengths, weaknesses and opportunities that our startup ecosystem has. Zeal has brought on Kate Flemming, who was most recently the director of the Center for Entrepreneurship at Millikin University, …
Startup Sioux Falls and and Zeal Center for Entrepreneurship will be hosting a mini-mastermind event on November 27th at 9:00 AM at Zeal, 2329 N Career Avenue. This is getting to become somewhat of an annual tradition the day before Thanksgiving. Since 1 Million Cups usually takes that day off, we have this opportunity to …
(Watch this Video on YouTube) The topic of hiring has come up a lot recently in the Startup Sioux Falls community and this shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone given our city’s historically-low unemployment rate. Chelsea Giedd, a local boutique owner in Sioux Falls, recently published a series of podcast episodes about hiring and that …
I’m pleased to announce another new event being put on by Startup Sioux Falls and Zeal Center for Entrepreneurship: Failure Fest. Most small businesses and startups fail, and that’s okay. Failure Fest is a unique event that celebrates the entrepreneurial spirit and recognizes that trying and failing to do something important is better than never …
I have been organizing community events for small business owners, startup founders and entrepreneurs for the last five years through a variety of different organizational umbrellas. The first event that I organized entirely on my own accord was a mini-mastermind event on November 26th, 2014 at the Sioux Falls Design Center. Since then, I’ve been …
I’m pleased to announce a Halloween event for the Sioux Falls Startup community. Startup Sioux Falls and Zeal Center for Entrepreneurship are hosting “Startup Horror Stories” on Thursday, October 31st at 9am. The event will take place out at Zeal, 2329 N Career Avenue. This event is geared toward small business owners and startup founders. …
About a year and a half ago, I began to sense there were some unmet needs in our small business and startup community. While there are approximately 4,300 businesses with fewer than 20 employees operating in the Sioux Falls MSA, we had difficulty getting more than fifty entrepreneurs to attend our 1 Million Cups event …
25 meetings in one week. I have no idea how I did that, but that was my life earlier this year. Over the summer, I set a hard cap of 10 meetings a week on my calendar and here’s what happened. (Watch this Video on YouTube) Prefer to read instead of watch? Here’s a rough …
I am going to try to get back in the habit of publishing quarterly updates about the various projects that I’m involved with. It can honestly be difficult for me to keep track of everything that I’m working on at any given time and these posts provide me the opportunity to think through each project …
I’m excited to announce a new event coming up in about a week – the Morning Marketing Party. Being an entrepreneur or small business owner is sometimes a lonely gig, so opportunities like this are a great way to find connections while hopefully picking up a tip or two for your business. On Friday, October …
Last fall, I penned an article titled “What Would a Startup Ecosystem Organization Look Like in Sioux Falls?” which discussed the different components that the startup ecosystem in Sioux Falls would need to be operating at full capacity. Our community has made a lot of progress since then with the launch of Startup Sioux Falls, …
(Watch this Video on YouTube) One of the most difficult components of running a non-profit organization is finding funding. You’ve got a great mission that you believe in. You’re incredibly passionate about the work your non-profit is doing and you genuinely think you can make a dent in the issue that your non-profit is …
At the 2019 YPN Crossroads Summit, I prepared a talk that discusses the trends surrounding remote work and how we do remote work at MarketBeat. Thanks to the help of Josh Novak and Main Street Media, I was able to record the presentation so that it can be distributed more widely. Below you will find …
We are now just under six months into operations of Startup Sioux Falls. During that time, our primary efforts have been around content creation and building an online community for small business owners and startup founders in the Sioux Falls area. We’ve highlighted the stories of 16 ecosystem organizations and community groups. We’ve published 9 …
Two years ago, I wrote a comprehensive article covering the state of co-working in Sioux Falls at the time. The Bakery, which was the largest standalone co-working space in Sioux Falls at the time, was on the verge of closing and Meso, another co-working space, had closed the year earlier. This left the Zeal Center …
Startup Sioux Falls is about 6 weeks into its operations and I thought it would be a good time to give an update on what we’ve accomplished so far with the brand and what we’re hoping to do moving forward. (Watch this Video on YouTube) Prefer to read instead of watch? Here’s a rough script …
In this video, I discuss the experience I’ve had with my local chamber of commerce and whether or not you should join your local chamber of commerce. (Watch this Video on YouTube) Prefer to read instead of watch? Here’s a rough script I used for this video. For a long time, I thought being part …
Last week, Andy Jorgensen from Firebrothers Fireworks and I had the privilege of spending a day with some key stakeholders of the startup ecosystem in Fargo, North Dakota. I had dinner with local startup founders, met with some NDSU entrepreneurship students, spoke at their local chapter of 1 Million Cups, and met with the team …
Do you plan on being successful? You will almost certainly attract a small group of haters that speak poorly of you, minimize your success and talk about you behind your back. Every successful person I know has a few haters. It comes with the territory. People will project their own insecurities on you and use …
Today, I am pleased to announce the creation of Startup Sioux Falls. Startup Sioux Falls is a digital hub that connects entrepreneurs to the startup ecosystem and startup community in the Sioux Falls metro area. You can think of Startup Sioux Falls as one-stop shop to learn about resources available to entrepreneurs and small business owners, to …
Falls Angel Fund just made its 10th and final investment. In this video, I provide some unscripted thoughts and retrospective about the fund and what I learned in the process. (Watch this Video on YouTube)
Are you looking to help grow the startup community or ecosystem in your city? There are three key things that you can do to help bring more startups to your city. (Watch this Video on YouTube) Want to read instead of watch? Here’s a rough script I used for this video. I live in Sioux …
March 6th, 2019 marks the five year anniversary of 1 Million Cups in Sioux Falls. In March 2014, we held the first 1 Million Cups event at Queen City Bakery and heard from Andy Traub of Take Permission Marketing. 1 Million Cups has since expanded to more than 100 cities across the country, helping answer …
MarketBeat has created seven-figure revenue streams with email and web push notifications, now we’re going to try it with SMS. I believe SMS could be the next big marketing channel for our business, and maybe yours as well. Watch this Video on YouTube Here’s a rough script if you prefer to read instead of watch: …
Last fall, we had a speaker cancellation at 1 Million Cups and John Meyer suggested we experiment with an “ask me anything” format where the speaker didn’t have a prepared talk and the audience could ask the speaker anything they wanted to. I agreed to be the guinea pig for this format and you can …
A lot of people have built 7-figure and 8-figure online businesses by selling through Amazon FBA, but does that opportunity still exist in 2019? I wouldn’t try to start a new Amazon business in 2019 and here’s why. Watch the Video on YouTube here Want to read instead of watch? Here’s a rough script I …
Watch this video on YouTube. Here’s a rough script I used for this video if you prefer to read: If you’re starting a business, one of the hardest aspects is finding your early customers. You don’t know what works for advertising. You may not be 100% certain who your ideal customers are. You just know …
Every year, the Governor’s Office of Economic Development puts on a startup competition for South Dakota residents. There are some good reasons to apply and participate in the competition, but there are limits on how beneficial it can be for your company. Watch This Video on YouTube Learn more about Giant Vision at http://www.southdakotagiantvision.com/ Here’s …
Every now and then, someone asks me what digital marketing and entrepreneurship conferences I’ll be attending in 2019. In this video, I discuss which conferences I’m attending and why I attend each one year after year. (Watch this video on YouTube)
Mike Vetter (CEO of DataSync), Tom Eitreim (Manager of Angel Funds and Market Research at The Enterprise Institute), Dwaine Chapel (Executive Director of The Research Park at South Dakota State University) and I sat down with Jackelyn Severin from South Dakota Public Broadcasting for their Making a Living program to discuss the start of venture …
I largely took a break from creating content and community building in 2018 to double down on MarketBeat. I plan on doing three big things to grow entrepreneurship in my community, as well as my personal brand as an entrepreneurial thought leader, in 2019. Learn more about them in this video. Watch The Video on …
MarketBeat’s revenue grew by 71% in 2018, but it didn’t happen because of some amazing new marketing strategy, significant prices increases, new employees/talent, or an overheated market. There are two things we did in 2018 that allowed this growth to happen. We significantly increased advertising spend and I stopped trying to do any side projects …
As the public face of Falls Angel Fund, I receive a lot of inquiries from entrepreneurs and would-be business owners that are looking to raise money to get their businesses off the ground. In the past couple of weeks, I have received inquiries from an entrepreneur running a medical devices startup, an entrepreneur running a …
Between my commitments with MarketBeat, Zeal, Falls Angel Fund, 1 Million Cups and other organizations, I had 15 meetings this week. However, I could have had 10 more meetings if I had said yes to everyone that wanted to have a meeting with me to discuss their business or non-profit. There are four questions that …
If you’re a business owner, hiring other entrepreneurs to work for you can be a double-edged sword. They can provide a significant contribution to your business, but may ultimately be unhappy working for someone else. I recorded a short video that has discusses the considerations if you’re thinking about hiring an entrepreneur to work for …
Some entrepreneurs believe they can’t compete with other players in an existing market and should try to invent a brand new business idea from the ground up. You should be able to corner a market and build a profitable business with no competitors, right? Turns out, that’s not usually the case. Existing competition in a …
Please note that the thoughts expressed in this article are my own personal opinions and do not reflect the opinions of any group, organization or company that I am involved with. The next few months will be one of the busiest seasons for the entrepreneurial community in Sioux Falls in the last several years. A …
Each month, I meet with five to ten business owners that want to raise money for their startups. Since I’m the chair of a community angel investment fund, there are a lot of people that are told “go talk to Matt” when they ask around about raising capital to grow their business. I take as …
Every successful community has a central hub for the sharing of ideas the facilitation of random social interactions. Churches have Sunday worship. Service clubs like Rotary and Kiwanis have weekly meetings. Geeks have game nights at local comic shops. These regular places of meeting provide members of a community a forum to engage other people …
“What’s the first step to starting a business?” Common answers to this question include coming up with a name, figuring out who your target market is, identifying the products and services you want to sell, identifying a location for your business or setting up an LLC. These tasks are all important, but I would argue …
Entrepreneurship has been a passion for me since my formative years. I sold candy to friends in grade school to make a bit of cash. I made a website about SimCity 2000 in middle school that somehow earned $25.00 per month from ads. In college, I started a personal finance blog that quickly became an …
If you’re an entrepreneur in the Sioux Falls area and you haven’t been to the Zeal Center for Entrepreneurship, you are missing out on a hub of support and resources for growing businesses. The Zeal building, which is on the northwest side of Sioux Falls near Southeast Tech, houses a mix of idea-stage entrepreneurs, scaling …
Imagine an organization funded by the SBA, the DoD, the Department of Commerce, and the SDGOED, chartered by USD, and operating under the names SBDC, PTAC, MTS, and SBIR. If you think that getting help from this organization must be like visiting the DMV, you would be mistaken. It turns out that the South Dakota …
For every dollar that I have available to invest in start-up businesses, there are at least twenty people that would happily take that dollar and promise me big returns in the future. Since the vast majority of start-up businesses fail, I have the overwhelming task of determining which entrepreneurs that want my money will be …
A few weeks back, I wrote an important article focusing on the four things that the city of Sioux Falls will need if it is going to be a community that fosters new startup businesses that attract outside capital and create high-paying jobs. Since then, I have discussed capital availability, building community, and storytelling as …
Where can an entrepreneur go for guidance when their product is selling like hotcakes but they can’t keep up with demand? Or when they can’t make necessary hires because of cashflow issues? Or when the only way to bring their product to market is to build a multi-million dollar processing facility, and they don’t yet …
A few weeks ago, I published an important post highlighting four things that the city of Sioux Falls will need if it’s going to become a city that fosters new startup businesses that create high-paying jobs and attract outside capital. Since then, I’ve dived a bit deeper into the topics of making capital available to …
It’s amazing how much can change in your personal and professional life in six short months. At the beginning of the year, I published a list of written personal and professional goals I hope to accomplish in 2017. I thought I’d take a few minutes and provide an update on how each of my goals are …
A couple of weeks ago, I had the opportunity to participate in the God as CEO breakfast lead by Paul TenHaken. More than 300 local business leaders attended the event. Paul challenged us to stop compartmentalizing our lives and to live out our Christian faith in the workplace. He shared examples of local companies that …
A few weeks back, I highlighted four things that the city of Sioux Falls will need if it wants to become a true entrepreneurial city that regularly spawns job-creating and capital-attracting startups. In short, if we want a stronger social community of entrepreneurs, we need to do a better job of sharing our success stories, …
A couple of weeks ago, I highlighted four things that I believe Sioux Falls will need if it wants to follow the footsteps of Austin, Boulder and other startup communities and become a city that regularly spawns startups that create new jobs, attract investment capital and foster economic growth. We will need opportunities for collaboration …
Over the last several months, the business community in Sioux Falls has taken a renewed interest in the role that entrepreneurship plays in bettering the city. The Zeal Center for Entrepreneurship has become more prominent in the community with their recent rebrand and remodel, as well as their launch of an accelerator program. The closure …
Last week, we received word that The Bakery, a co-working space and entrepreneurial community in Sioux Falls, will be giving up its physical space at the end of April and will become an online community of entrepreneurs that has in-person meetups and events at other locations. The Bakery is now the second co-working space to …
“How do I raise money for my business?” This is the number one question that gets asked in the entrepreneurial communities that I am a part of in Sioux Falls. The people that ask this question aren’t large enough to attract interest in any local venture capital firms, can’t get a bank loan and aren’t …
If you wanted to hire an agency to build your website, you might search for a term like “Sioux Falls Web Design” or “South Dakota Website Design Agencies”. (Let’s assume you live in Sioux Falls, South Dakota for the sake of this post). Your search engine of choice would present you with more than 75 …