Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Twin Cities entrepreneurs

Mar11

“As end-users, we don’t need a CTO or CIO telling us what software will help us do our job; —we can figure it out ourselves and make a better decision in the process.”

Chad Halvorson

When I Work

CEO

When I Work is the easiest way for businesses to schedule and communicate with their employees. It puts the work schedule in everyone’s pocket as a text message or on their smartphone. When I Work helps restaurants, retailers and healthcare providers run more efficiently and simplify labor management. With over 50,000 monthly active users and hundreds of new businesses signing up every week, When I Work is reinventing the way businesses manage labor and communicate with staff.

MO: What inspired you to launch When I Work?

Oct19

No Comments

“Most businesses are not equipped to handle failure. They are not prepared to address the impact of failure on the organization prior to launching these innovations, and are, therefore, ill-prepared when it does happen – impacting everyone involved.”

Matt Hunt

Stanford & Griggs, LLC.

CEO and Founder

http://www.MattHunt.co

Matt Hunt is a professional speaker, blogger, consultant and founder of Stanford and Griggs, LLC. With over 20 years of business and technology experience he has a demonstrated excellence in business strategy, innovation, and leadership development with large companies, small companies and non-profit organizations.

Matt has worked for Morgan Stanley and Best Buy throughout most of his career. During his time in corporate America, he saw that failure has recently become a favorite buzzword in the popular press and business journals. However, it is still a tainted word in most American businesses that are driven by continued career growth, quarterly profitability and shareholder returns. Executives rarely get promoted based on their long list of failures and employees who risk becoming intrapreneurs are often discouraged from telling their stories and frequently end up leaving the organization where that wisdom becomes lost forever. This missed opportunity to learn from our failures became the spark Matt needed to fuel his drive to move innovation forward. Now, Matt Hunt is ready to share this wisdom and innovation strategies with your organization to fuel innovation and catalog failure as a learning tool to drive organizational enhancement.

Sep18

No Comments

“Behind the curtain, people let their guards down, their creativity flow, and take the most honest and beautiful self-portraits imaginable which result in a rare glimpse of who they really are.”

Matt Gassman & Jacob Stewart

The Traveling Photo Booth

Co-Founders

http://www.TheTravelingPhotoBooth.com/

Matt Gassman and Jacob Stewart— one an architecture student, the other a budding photographer — cultivated their friendship throughout their college years, staying up late amidst the hazy afterglow of rowdy weekend nights and contemplating their respective futures.

Their aspirations weren’t limited to their majors, and an entrepreneurial spirit colored their conversations. While photographing a wedding reception, Jacob witnessed the popularity of an old photo booth the guests used to commemorate their special day. As the guests frolicked around the contraption, a flash went off in his head — “we could do that better.”

On a whim, he pitched the project of building a booth to Matt. They spent the following months designing and hammering out their booth, planning to showcase it at a year’s end holiday party.

The Traveling Photo Booth rents the Greatest Photo Booth’s in the Galaxy to private events such as weddings, corporate events, graduation parties, bar and bat mitzvahs and everything in between.

MO: Have both of you always had entrepreneurial spirits?

Apr4

No Comments

“There’s no such thing as “Think of all your audience members sitting in their underwear.” Staring at a group of people staring back at you can be extremely intimidating…”

Christine Clifford, CSP

Christine Clifford Enterprises

CEO/President

http://www.christineclifford.com/

Christine Clifford, CSP consults with companies on marketing with a special emphasis on branding and positioning. She combines her wisdom, humor, insight and lifetime experiences to encourage great accomplishments in others. Don’t forget to laugh!™ and Don’t forget to ask!™ are her two trademarks.

Diagnosed with breast cancer in 1994, Christine Clifford wrote a humorous portrayal of her story in Not Now, I’m Having A No Hair Day!, a nominee for 1996′s “Best Motivational Book”. She is also the author of Our Family Has Cancer, Too! ; Inspiring Breakthrough Secrets to Live Your Dreams; Cancer Has Its Privileges; Your Guardian Angel’s Gift; YOU, Inc: The Art of Selling Yourself, and her two newest releases: Laugh ‘ Til It Heals and The Clue Phone’s Ringing… It’s for You! Healing Humor for Women Divorcing. She also contributed to three Chicken Soup books.

Christine Clifford serves on the boards of Angel Foundation and the state chapter of the National Speakers’ Association.

Christine Clifford Enterprises is a consulting company that helps companies and individuals craft and tell their story. She is also a full-time, award-winning Professional Speaker, having achieved her CSP designation (Certified Speaking Professional) from the National Speakers Association.

The Cancer Club markets humorous and helpful products for people with cancer.

Divorcing Divas hosts all-day educational conferences for people facing divorce.

MO: How did you discover that you had a gift for professional speaking?

Mar28

No Comments

“I believe it’s critical to build a relationship with an organization, I am very selective about when it is appropriate to execute an eSourcing event.”

Tony Moldo

TCO Sourcing & Consulting, LLC

Principal

http://www.tcosourcing.com/

Tony Moldo, brings years of expertise in the sourcing process, with a primary focus within the eSourcing practice. With the multitude of different bid strategies that he’s worked with, TCO Sourcing & Consulting helps organizations determine the optimum strategy for your business and sourcing decisions. He utilizes a unique proprietary system to execute various bids and drive the process for you.

TCO Sourcing & Consulting has been developed with one goal in mind: to make the procurement process more efficient. They aim to save dollars for organizations during a time when companies are looking for more ways to cut expenses and save money.

MO: What influenced your decision to create TCO Sourcing & Consulting? How has your experience and background contributed to the development and success of the company so far?

Jan24

No Comments

Kelly Garrett – Subject Matter Resource

Kelly Garrett

Ekcetera

Founder

http://www.ekcetera.com/

MO.com is pleased to announce the addition of Kelly Garrett as a Subject Matter Resource for Internet Marketing. Kelly is President and Founder of Ekcetera. Kelly helps small business owners and entrepreneurs overcome their fear of technology and marketing their small businesses by providing articles and resources through her self-titled blog. Kelly will be posting soon so subscribe to our feed to get all the latest tips and insights.

Interested in becoming a Subject Matter Expert for MO.com? If you have business expertise and can offer insights to MO.com readers, you can learn more about our Subject Matter Expert program.

Jan3

No Comments

“…boom, RockPaperStar was born as I kept honing my focus to product development, publishing and implementation.”

Cathy Paper

RockPaperStar

President

http://www.rockpaperstar.com

Cathy Paper, M.A., markets select authors and promotes unique speakers to National status. She designs and creates powerful products to guide individuals to create better results through inspiration, reflection and action. Think dynamic growth catalyst!

RockPaperStar and its team specializes in accelerating speakers and authors into motion through business planning, promotional marketing, and product development. The company provides creative growth solutions to provide turnkey marketing maps for others to gain lift off on their ideas and reach desired results.

MO: You already founded and sold three companies before creating RockPaperStar. What factors contributed to starting a marketing and training company after all these years and why have you focused on the publishing world?

Jul26

No Comments

“Everyone promotes themselves as an expert with some special money making opportunity that’s going to make you rich. When in fact, 99% is pure horse manure. “

John Schulte

National Mail Order Association

President

http://www.nmoa.org/

Everyone knows that direct marketing is effective. The problem is not many know how to do it effectively. This is where John Schulte, President of the National Mail Order Association comes in. The NMOA provides information, education and business contacts to those involved in direct marketing and mail order selling, and those that wish to be.

NMOA was founded in 1972 and, in their 39th year of business is still dedicated to helping small businesses and entrepreneurs looking to find another way to reach consumers. Their website offers an entire resource library at no cost, a free basic membership in their network with weekly news and tips to reap even more benefits!

Spotlight: Minneapolis - Saint Paul, Minnesota

Spotlight Interview: Gordon Logan

Spotlight Interview: David Allen

Spotlight Interview: Chris Babel

“As end-users, we don’t need a CTO or CIO telling us what software will help us do our job; —we can figure it out ourselves and make a better decision in the process.”

“Most businesses are not equipped to handle failure. They are not prepared to address the impact of failure on the organization prior to launching these innovations, and are, therefore, ill-prepared when it does happen – impacting everyone involved.”

“Behind the curtain, people let their guards down, their creativity flow, and take the most honest and beautiful self-portraits imaginable which result in a rare glimpse of who they really are.”

“There’s no such thing as “Think of all your audience members sitting in their underwear.” Staring at a group of people staring back at you can be extremely intimidating…”

“I believe it’s critical to build a relationship with an organization, I am very selective about when it is appropriate to execute an eSourcing event.”

Kelly Garrett – Subject Matter Resource

“…boom, RockPaperStar was born as I kept honing my focus to product development, publishing and implementation.”

“Everyone promotes themselves as an expert with some special money making opportunity that’s going to make you rich. When in fact, 99% is pure horse manure. “

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