About Us

minne✱ exists to bring together Minnesota’s technology community. Our goal is to promote connections that help our community learn from each other, build their businesses, and start new entrepreneurial ventures. We aim to bridge the gap between software developers, designers, entrepreneurs, and investors.

We want to make our events the place where you…

• learn about a hot new technology
• meet like-minded nerds
• get a great job
• find your next superstar employee
• meet your first angel investor
• announce your $20M acquisition by Google

History

In early 2006, Ben Edwards organized the first Minnesota BarCamp (un)conference, which he dubbed MinneBar. The first event attracted about 100 people to the Warehouse District in Minneapolis. Luke Francl, who volunteered at that first event, went on to start the first MinneDemo event—a geek “show-n-tell” for Minnesota-made technology—in the fall of 2006. minne✱ (pronounced “minne-star”) was founded 2009 to bring a series of events and programs under one organization.

minne✱ has organized dozens events that have attracted thousands of people. Hundreds of presenters have shared their knowledge at MinneBar, and dozens of projects—from weekend hacks to funded startups—have been demonstrated at MinneDemo.

In 2011, minne✱ decided to make it official, and formed a 501(c)3 organization with a Board of Directors and Advisory Board comprised of community leaders. We have exciting plans, and look forward to what the future brings!

Leadership

Ben Edwards, founder and community catalyst. Ben is a partner at Refactr, a forerunning agile software consultancy specializing in developing custom software for demanding clients. After Refactr’s work with CloudProfile resulted in an acquisition by ReachLocal, Ben and the Refactr team joined ReachLocal as a crucial part of that company’s IPO. Ben started MinneBar as “BarCamp Minnesota” after talking with the founder of BarCamp at a conference in California.

Luke Francl, founder and community catalyst. Luke has been a professional software developer for over a decade. In that time, he’s worked with nearly every web technology out there (including Tcl). After a brief fling with the crushing poverty of Silicon Valley startup life, he became an independent consultant specializing in building awesome software at exorbitant rates. Luke attended the first MinneBar in 2006, where he met Ben. He started MinneDemo that fall and has been at it ever since.

Adrienne Peirce, taskmaster and community catalyst. Adrienne brings solid project management from her time as an engineer in the medical device world, and strategic business development from her MBA at Carlson to match her genuine interest in building the technology community.  She has a particular interest in technology for non-profits and general social good.  Adrienne attended a few MinneBars and MinneDemos before joining Ben and Luke in maintaining the great momentum and moving the organization forward.

Board of Directors

Kevin Spreng: Keven is a partner at Robins, Kaplan, Miller, & Ciresi. Kevin’s practice focuses on helping entrepreneurs and investors build technology based businesses by providing experienced, practical and tech savvy counsel in the areas of corporate finance, general corporate matters, mergers and acquisitions, strategic intellectual property monetization, and technology transactions.

Jamie Thinglestad: Jamie is COO and CTO of 8thBridge, a pioneering social commerce startup. Previously, he served as CTO for leading financial publishers including the Wall Street Journal Digital Network, Enterprise Media Group of Dow Jones and MarketWatch, Inc. He was the founding CTO of BigCharts, the leading provider of financial tools and information to consumers and financial services companies via the web. In 1999, BigCharts was acquired by MarketWatch and the technology is still used by Dow Jones & Company today. In addition, Jamie has developed and managed products and technologies for properties including Barron’s, Virtual Stock Exchange, Dow Jones Newswires and Dow Jones Indexes.

Jamie is excited to leverage his fifteen years of technology industry experience to further Minne*’s mission of helping to seed innovation in the technology community throughout the Twin Cities and the region.

Robert Weber: Robert Weber co-founded W3i in 2000. As CEO, from inception through November 2007, and as VP of Business Development thereafter, Rob grew W3i into a leading distributor of consumer applications. In 2006, Rob shared the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year award with the other co-founders of W3i, Aaron Weber and Ryan Weber. Rob was also named to the 2007 Inc. 5,000—CEO’s Under 30 list. Rob received his B.S. in Entrepreneurship from St. Cloud State University. He is a Board Member of W3i and is a private angel investor in a number of music, game, video, social media, mobile application start-ups.