I didn’t get much sleep this week. And I’ve already been restless the past two weeks and did not know why until a conversation with a friend at the Enterprise Rising Happy Hour and another this morning. Let’s say… I was challenged. There are a lot of things I want to do and rather than do them, try it, test it… I over think it (them) and days become weeks become months become (sometimes) never. Or some over thought idea that I squeezed the fun out of and now is not as cool as it could have been.

Enough of that failed strategy

Do you remember the Diet Coke and Mentos videos from a decade ago? That’s how I feel. And I am going to go with it.

More on that below…

Here is a photo from the Enterprise Rising Happy Hour:

Save the date for the next Enterprise Rising Conference May 8th & 9th 2019.

HomeSpotter Expands

Good news from HomeSpotter yesterday… they announced their first acquisition, Spacio, HQ’d in Vancouver and the addition of Dug Nichols (@dugnichols) to the team => HomeSpotter makes first acquisition, hires former Kidizen CEO (MSP Business Journal). I’ve been a long time fan of Aaron Kardell (@akardell) , CEO. We worked together a few times between 2012 and 2015 as Aaron was growing the team. He is one of the best people, personally and professionally, I’ve been around. I am assuming prepping for the announcement the HomeSpotter web site has had a refresh. Click HomeSpotter Careers… they are hiring.

I’ve been a bit surprised at the surprised response from some in the Minneapolis and St Paul tech community about the announced Code42 layoff and restructure. Some are worrying… wondering if it’s a “sign”.

I get that Code42 is one of our most high-profile tech companies. I get that they are the most likely talked about company to have an IPO.

And for the 55 people who have been impacted by this… this is a huge thing for them and we all need to help them find a soft landing, fast.

But what does it mean for the MN tech scene in general?

My opinion… nothing.

That’s right… absolutely nothing.

Here is the statement from Joe Payne, CEO:

“Code42’s evolution into a data security company has seen us advance our offering from IT infrastructure products to application security products. Now we are making some organizational changes to realign our resources around how we sell, deploy and support these new products in the market. These changes reflect shifts in our market and in the needs of our customers. They are not a reflection on the talented people whose positions were affected,” said Joe Payne, Code42’s president and CEO. “In 2018, we grew to approximately $115 million in annual recurring revenue. The steps we are taking today are focused on further accelerating our growth. With more than $30 million in cash and the backing of some of the world’s best investors, Code42 has the financial resources we need to win in the data loss protection market.”

And this from the StarTribune, Minneapolis-based Code42 to lay off 55 workers as growth slows

Code42 is like most companies, they are learning and evolving. They are trying new products. They are making decisions on which way to go.

With that comes change and that change at times will impact people. That part sucks. The impact on people. But I have a newsflash… this is normal.

It all started with Casey Allen sending me an email:

“do you want to be on a podcast with me?”

And a link to Steve LeBeau’s podcast “Synapse: Think Tank Of The Air”

While I had not previously met Steve (@splebeau), I knew who he was. At one time he was the Editor in Chief of Minnesota Business and at other times a writer, producer, editor for TV, radio, print and the web. His current passion is Synapse:

“The Social Mission of Synapse is to Connect Diverse Twin Cities Influencers and pick their brains for the Greater Good”

“Heck yeah” was my reply.

Casey follows up by saying there is a 3rd guest who I had also heard of but never met. Louis King is the CEO of Summit Academy OIC:

“We exist to assist individuals in developing their ability to earn and to become contributing citizens in their community. Our fundamental belief is: the best social service program in the world is a job”

I told Casey:

“We might be in over our heads… these are some smart fellas”

As Casey and I are walking in the elevator to the studio we meet Louis. It took maybe 3 minutes for us to be quick friends. We’re already talking about jobs, the economy and stuff when Steve comes out and asks us to stop talking. He wanted to be able to record our chat.

What follows is a summary of our conversation and at the bottom you can hear the whole conversation.

Our last episode of 2018 is with a guest and one of my favorite people in the Minnesota tech scene… Patrick Meenan (@pmeenan1), Partner with Arthur Ventures (@arthurventures).

We jump right in with who Patrick is and get history of Arthur Ventures. He talks about the investments they have made in 2018 and spends some time talking about investments to date in Minneapolis totaling 7 companies and $25M.

We also talk about:

• When should someone contact him about funding
• Their investment strategy
• Why they invest anywhere but the Bay Area
• How they find companies to invest in
• What are the differences in the cities in which they have invested
• Their recent investment in Nomics
• What 2019 looks like for Arthur Ventures
• What companies did they not invest in they wish they would/could have
• Scaling recruiting, retention of staff and executive recruiting
• Why a recruiting hire should be around 20-30 people. HR leadership around 50-60 people
• How the Minneapolis and St Paul tech scene is doing

We transition to top business stories from MSP Business Journal in 2018 including Bite Squad, Bright Health, Bind, Total Expert, Flip Grid and Reeher.

We talk about leading rounds, being on a board, when/why companies disclose purchase prices (or not) and what happens post acquisition.

We spend some time talking about IPO’s and private equity acquisitions.

If you’ve stopped by here a few times you are aware that I love a good survey, ranking or index. It’s why I like sports… every day you can look in a newspaper or online and find out if your team is winning, losing, where it ranks and how it is trending.

In this case my team is Minnesota and I like to gauge how we are doing, trending and comparing.

The Milken Institute released their 2018 State Technology and Science Index, something they do every 2 years, and it always has a lot of data to look at.

For 2018 Minnesota ranks #8, -1 from 2016.

From the report:

Minnesota drops one spot to end up eighth on the 2018 STSI. After a strong performance in 2016, Minnesota’s score decreased by 6.47 points to 63.11. The state dropped two places on the RDI to land at 21st. Minnesota also ranks 21st on the RCI in this edition of the STSI, a five-rank drop from 2016. Minnesota increased one rank on the HCI to fourth, while the state dropped to seventh from fourth on the TSW sub-index due to decreases in the concentration of computer, engineering, and science-related occupations. Minnesota dropped three ranks to 18th on the TCD.

The state has been focusing on creating a workforce to support the growing high-tech sector. The statewide College Occupational Scholarship Pilot Program for STEM-related degrees is one such program, and in conjunction, Minnesota has built eight IT Center of Excellence facilities to focus resources on education and internship programs. These eight centers provide a pathway for entering the high-tech workforce, with an emphasis on cybersecurity, expanding the high-tech workforce through diversity recruitment, and providing K-12 grades with a tech-related curriculum.

Minnesota is also making efforts to expand access to broadband internet. Currently, Minnesota has 69 percent of households with broadband internet, ranking 19th in the nation. One estimate puts a $1.4 billion price on the infrastructure needed to connect the remaining 31 percent of households in the state. If Minnesota can provide statewide high-speed internet access, this could generate long-term economic benefits by connecting its population to opportunity through modern infrastructure development. By providing the necessary education, workforce, and infrastructure as the knowledge economy develops, Minnesota should be competitive in the long run.

Overall Minnesota ranking by year:

• #8 2018
• #7 2016
• #13 2014
• #12 2012
• #12 2010
• #11 2008
• #8 2004
• #10 2002

After a weird tangent about 7-Eleven and software… we get started.

Bright Health picked up a $200M round of funding and Pitch Book now values them at $950M. I ask about “Unicorn” status and if that helps or hurts. Casey explains why and why not and the difference between the Bay Area and the Midwest. Casey also talks about the Bright Health leadership team, their competition and what a potential outcome might be.

Sezzle announced a $100M line of credit, not to be confused with a round of funding. Casey walks us through what Sezzle is and does. And how what is Sezzle now is not what it started as.

That gets me a startup question… what is the percentage of startups that make a pivot or fundamental change in the business.

Dispatch raised a Series A of $7.8M and I talk about the cofounders, what they do, recruiting plan, and the recent hire of a HR Director hire.

Casey talks about raising money from customers.

We have a sweet conversation about startup funding press releases, how to follow up with reporters, the mechanics of how it works, etc. If you’re announcing a round of finding this segment is highly valuable to you.

Target changes their accelerator program away from TechStars and I ask if it is a step back. Clearly Casey agrees. We talk about what it means for the local tech scene.

I learned Nordstrom is a player in the invest in and acquire startup space.

Good news… a new accelerator is starting with Gener8tor, Allianz Life and Securian Financial called OnRamp Insurance Accelerator. And this one seems like a win.

Casey show us more of his nerdy side by talking insurance and fintech.

Minnestar sent out their email newsletter today and I saw after the Minnedemo 31 save the date for February 7 at Pantages Theater and the Minnebar 14 save the date for April 27th at Best Buy HQ’s… there is a note that Minnebar 13 session were posted in the past days and one of the videos in the image is mine.

And I thought… oh (bleep), did I say anything stupid that was caught on the audio?

So I am listening to it and taking notes for you here so you know ahead of time if this has some value to you. I’m talking about:

• Why “Why Recruiters Suck So Bad” is in my session title. And no, I don’t think all recruiters suck. And I explain why some tech pros think we do

• I do a quick intro of me and worked in that the “Badgers Suck”. I look forward to having a picture of Paul Bunyan’s Axe

• Then clients who I was working with phData (Big Data consulting), Daugherty Business Solutions (IT Consultants) & Livefront (iOS & Android Dev’s and Designers)

• My love for Prime Digital Academy

• I mention the MSP on Deck podcast and CoCo now Fueled Collective

• What the local job market is like and I use terms like funky, churn and weird

• Why tech salaries seem stagnant

• Why Midwest employers seem slow to hire Junior Dev’s

• How to find potential employers that are not well known (and a what is going on in St Paul)

The Minneapolis St Paul Business Journal has their annual poll open for voting => “What's the most promising Minnesota startup of 2018?”

This year’s list:

• Bind Benefits

• Bright Health

• Dispatch

• Foodsby

• HabitAware

• Sansoro Health

• Sezzle

That’s a sweet list of groups and all of them are doing well. All of them are hiring with the exception of HabitAware… they will be doing it in 2019.

Of course… after spending the past seven weeks with Dispatch I am cheering them on. Click and bookmark Dispatch Careers to see what they have going on.

I’m also a fan of my friends at HabitAware, Foodsby and Sezzle.

As is noted… “This poll is not a scientific sampling. It offers a quick view of what readers are thinking.”

The poll is open until the 14th so if you have a moment cast one more vote this year… this time for the most promising Minnesota Startup.

Click Minnesota Headhunter for current blog posts and Minneapolis Tech Jobs for Minnesota IT jobs I am working on.

Stay in touch with me by clicking:

This year I have had a lot of conversations about the 2018 spike in demand for Recruiters and Sourcers (corporate, consulting and search firm). In August I put some data together for the first time => Minnesota Recruiters In Demand–Summer 2018.

Above is the chart through November 2018. I get that those data points and lines are a bit messy. Here is what you need to know… that top line, that’s 2018. By far the most Minnesota recruiter jobs I have posted.

Here is another way too look at it:

The column on the left is the year and the column on the right the total number of jobs posted that year. Through November I have posted 378 jobs. If you take the next top two years and add them together you are less than this years total through November.

So what does this suggest… these are my opinions that combine my experience and from speaking with labor analysts, CEO’s and peers. Some of these may be making impact more than others and know these are “in general” and not “absolute”:

• Recruiter and HR groups have been understaffed for a long time. We’re finally getting our teams to the size they should have been a long time ago.

• Recruiters are in demand so Recruiters are looking and moving around a lot. There’s a ripple effect for sure.

• We have very low unemployment in most job categories causing greater stress on the business to grow resulting in more attention to recruiting.

• Some groups are stepping up and getting more aggressive/serious about recruiting. #ItsAboutTime

• I think this was the peak and we will not see numbers like these again for a long time.

• Staying away from politics… the economy is likely to slow down a bit so the frenetic pace many recruiters have been maintaining will be reduced to “really busy” or something more normal.

• There should be a continued low employment rate in the region for the next six months.

I’ll likely think of some more points and add them later.

Some things to know:

• This is not a scientific set of data… it shows trends.

• I post jobs that are sent to me or that companies have said that if I see them post something then I can add it too. It is not a data set of all the Recruiter jobs that are, have been available.

• 90%+ of the jobs posted are corporate recruiter roles. Infrequently I get a consulting or search firm role to post.

• Labor markets are lagging economic indicators

• I’ve been doing this a long time and the Minnesota Recruiter community generally knows about this site so I don’t think there is any other “influence” that inflates the numbers other than demand.

This is how I am seeing it and I gladly take Twitter and LinkedIn comments and email to hear what you are seeing.

Click Minnesota Headhunter for current blog posts and Minneapolis Tech Jobs for Minnesota IT jobs I am working on.

Stay in touch with me by clicking:

We start this podcast light on news so it allow us to dig into a few topics deeper than we might usually do.

Casey starts by talking about Atland Ventures… an investment group made up of students at the University if Minnesota. Casey walks us through how it started and how it works. They have already made investments in Structural and Dispatch. 100 students applied to the program and only 8 were accepted

I ask for a definition of “seed round” because I think numbers varying from $500,000 to a few million.

I briefly suggest a future podcast should be Kathy, Casey and I starting a company.

We move on to me and a bit of a rant… OK, it is a rant. I am frustrated with how the tech industry says it needs workers and young people should focus on STEM classes yet, companies do not seem very eager to hire them out of college or a coding bootcamp. So, how does that work then if we don’t hire them now how will they ever become the 3-5 year developer that is in such huge demand?

I go off on a number of tangents… I’m telling you, I am frustrated with companies (not just here in Minneapolis, St Paul and the Midwest) and the tech industry as a whole.

I also invite companies who are recruiting, hiring, onboarding and mentoring well to give up some of their “secret sauce”. Let’s a get a few groups to share their ideas and have an event in 2019.

And… I’d like to know what you think about this topic. You may be a recent college or bootcamp grad, an online learner, hiring manager, recruiter or CTO. What do you think are the issues? Send me a note paul@mnheadhunter.com

We do something new… we each talk about a recent conversation we had that listeners may find interesting.

Casey starts with a conversation he had a with a founder who is not taking outside money. I was super interested to hear Casey’s take on the topic because so often conversations in the startup space are about raising money. This really got me thinking and I loved when Casey said that most entrepreneurs should not raise money.

I talk about how I think most people are trying to recruit without actually engaging people. It’s bonkers to me. It’s like we don’t want to talk to people. We don’t want to learn about them, what their dreams and fears are or what they really want to do. We just want to check off a list and if they have enough check marks we’ll get back to them. That’s a horrible way to build teams. It’s a terrible way to do business in this (your) town.

Kathy talks about a conversation she had with Parker Schlank, CEO of Travel Labs. They are a startup and raised $500,000. They are recommending flights and travel arrangements for travelers based on previous trips and behavior. It’s a cool concept and has companies already testing it out.

We get into dares and Kathy starts with inflatable colons (as in the organ). Serious.

To connect with Kathy, Casey and MSP On Deck:

Kathy Grayson

• Minneapolis / St. Paul Business Journal
• LinkedIn
• @mspbjGrayson

Casey Allen:

• EnterpriseRising
• LinkedIn
• @casey__allen

MSP On Deck

• We have a Twitter account: @mspondeck
• And a web site too where you can listen to our sessions: MSP on Deck Podcast
• You can find the podcast and subscribe by clicking MSP on Deck  on iTunes and MSP on Deck on Stitcher

And click MSP On Deck Podcast Is Live And Focusing On The Minnesota Tech And Startup Scene if you are new to this and wondering how it came to be.

Here we go…

Click Minnesota Headhunter for current blog posts and IT Jobs In Minnesota for Minnesota IT searches I am working on.

Stay in touch with me by clicking:

A big thank you to Foundry for hosting us again in their podcast studio and for the invitation to continue through the end of the year. Hopefully we have been, will be the best guests and they like having us around because they make doing this soooo much easier than when we were doing it on our own.

We start this episode with funding news…

Total Expert raised $20M. I am a HUGE fan of their team and Casey walks us through who they are, what they do and why most people have not heard much about them. As I mention… yes, they are hiring.

We move to how funding announcements, SEC Form D, are found by reporters, bloggers and those creeping for competitive intelligence. And sometimes how, why they get it wrong… what the filing really is. Casey explains what a convertible note is and gets in the weeds. I learned a lot during this part. I tell a brief story about how a company filed their Form D, it was reported on and the staff of the company was not yet aware. I quickly run through some steps a company may want to do ahead of filing the form.

I do a recap of Twin Cities Startup Week mentioning events I attended, conversations I had and trends that seemed to appear. Also, talk a bit about the future of Twin Cities Startup Week. And my excitement over the energy in the Minneapolis and St Paul startup and tech scene.

Kathy talks about her conversation with Ascentis CEO, Brian Provost and their path to an IPO. Casey gives us some historical perspective on how this team has been built.

Casey talks about how and why private equity groups have focused on Minneapolis and St Paul.

We talk about HR Tech in Minnesota including Structural, Click Boarding, CATS, When I Work, Branch Messenger, and Ceridian. I add CollegeRecruiter and ZAPinfo.

Casey adds some health and wellness groups: RedBrick Health, Gravie, Further.

He then talks about tech in Eagan. Yes… Eagan.

We get a quick history of ThomsonReuters names.

Kathy and Casey talk about how Caribou Coffee has a number of stores inside Minnesota corporate headquarters.

We finish with our dares and while I was originally weirded out by Casey and his dare to listen to podcasts in the shower… we received an email from a friend of ours who was listening to this episode… while in the shower

I learned so much nerdy, weird things during this podcast…

To connect with Kathy, Casey and MSP On Deck:

Kathy Grayson

• Minneapolis / St. Paul Business Journal
• LinkedIn
• @mspbjGrayson

Casey Allen:

• EnterpriseRising
• LinkedIn
• @casey__allen

MSP On Deck

• We have a Twitter account: @mspondeck
• And a web site too where you can listen to our sessions: MSP on Deck Podcast
• You can find the podcast and subscribe by clicking MSP on Deck  on iTunes and MSP on Deck on Stitcher

And click MSP On Deck Podcast Is Live And Focusing On The Minnesota Tech And Startup Scene if you are new to this and wondering how it came to be.

Here we go…

Click Minnesota Headhunter for current blog posts and IT Jobs In Minnesota for Minnesota IT searches I am working on.

Stay in touch with me by clicking:

It’s a BIG episode for the MSP On Deck podcast. We successfully upgraded our sound. We can’t credit for it and will give it where it belongs… our friends at Foundry. Last week they moved into their new office space and are in the process of creating a podcast studio. They invited us over to see the space and record there. We spend the first couple of minutes on Foundry and to be clear, Kurt and the team did not ask us to nor did we plan to gush over them. They are good people doing good work. Click the following to learn more about them:

• Foundry web site

• Foundry Twitter

• Foundry Instagram

• Foundry is hiring

• Schmidt List Podcast

Here’s a photo collage from the day:

We shift to recent funding announcements starting with Sentera. They raised a $14M round of funding. Casey walks us through how they use drones and software to help farmers manage their land. They are hiring… click Sentera Jobs. We also show our lack of knowledge of drones and airports

I give a nod to CollegeRecruiter.com

Evolve Additive Solutions is in the manufacturing and 3D printing space. They raised $19M from groups including LEGO and Black & Decker.

We create a new term, “urn tech”.

Omnia Fishing raised $1M and rather just be a “bait shop” they will be using technology to help anglers find the right lures for specific lakes.

TroutSpotr is the app we mentioned that debuted at MinneDemo a couple of years ago.

Oh, how I like lists… particularly when something I am fond of is on one. This one is from Forbes and Revolution. They list the Top 10 Rising Cities for Startups and Minneapolis – St. Paul is on it. Being a “homer” I think we are better than #9 but I’ll get over it. I have been saying for a long time that I do not think this region needs to be compared to Seattle, Bay Area, Boston or New York City. We do want and need to be at the top of the next list… the Tier II cities. And we need to stay at #1 or #2 in the Midwest with Chicago.

To get to the “rising cities” Forbes took out the top 10 cities that brought in the most VC funding the past three years: San Francisco, New York, Boston, San Jose, Los Angeles, San Diego, Seattle, Chicago, Washington, D.C. and Austin. They then took the next 30 largest cities and used 13 metrics: costs (business and living), education levels, college presence, entrepreneurship rates, working-age population growth and venture capital investments (density, total number, dollar value and growth).

That data gives the following ranking:

• Columbus, Ohio

• St. Louis

• Atlanta

• Denver

• Baltimore

• Cincinnati

• Portland, Oregon

• Philadelphia

• Minneapolis-St. Paul

• Charlotte, North Carolina

The data specific to Minneapolis-St. Paul

• Major VC Deals: Bright Health, CVRx, Relievant Medsystems
• 3-year Deal Count: 284 
• Cost of Doing Business: 2% above the national average

The annual Twin Cities Startup Week allows entrepreneurs to reach investors, customers and future employees. Innovation is strong on food and agriculture with food giants Cargill, General Mills, Hormel and Land O’Lakes all based in the area.

Our 3-year deal count is 4th highest on the list and of course I am happy to see a nod to Twin Cities Startup Week. I would like to see the cities ranked by each of the metrics… I’m nerdy when it comes to these things.

Click Minnesota Headhunter for current blog posts and Minneapolis Tech Jobs for Minnesota IT jobs I am working on.

Stay in touch with me by clicking:

Some bummer news last week as Wells Fargo and Regis Corp announced layoffs on the same day.

First the small one… the Regis Corp situation was reported by the Minneapolis StarTribune saying that 75 corporate workers have been impacted including 15 in IT. Regis has been restructuring a bit including a sale of some mall based salons. Click Regis cuts several dozen headquarters staff.

The big one… Wells Fargo (who used to be headquartered in Minneapolis with an ongoing significant presence of around 20,000 workers in Minnesota in banking, mortgage services and investing) announced a 10% reduction over the next three years. Wells Fargo has around 265,000 employees in total so 10% being 26,500… that’s A LOT of people. CNBC has Wells Fargo is going backward with thousands of job cuts as JP Morgan and other banks boom showing how what is going on at Wells Fargo, and why, is not going on at other banks.

The Portland Business Journal did a Q&A with Tim Sloan, CEO, EXCLUSIVE: Wells Fargo CEO talks cuts, calls reports of his pending departure 'just not true' on the day of the announcement and here is one item regarding the layoff:

“The bank this morning announced it would reduce headcount by 5-10 percent. Why?”

Given the transformation going on in the economy and going on in financial services — somewhat driven by technology — as we provide more technology to our consumers to help them self-service, we're going to need a few less people. Likewise as we've transformed the company we've centralized a fair number of activities. Whenever you do that you tend to have a bit of an overlap from a team member standpoint.

What I commented to the team is that, over the next three years, it's likely we'll have 5-10 percent less team members. It's not layoffs of 5-10 percent. It could be through attrition. Some of it will be displacement. I just wanted to make sure folks appreciated the likely scenario is we're going to have fewer people working at Wells Fargo even though we're going to continue to grow.

A couple of months ago the MSP Business Journal had Wells Fargo lays off 130 Twin Cities employees.

While the economy in general is doing well enough this is (and I say this all the time) another reminder that everyone needs to be managing their career, ongoing education and networking.

Click Minnesota Headhunter for current blog posts and Minneapolis Tech Jobs for Minnesota IT jobs I am working on.

Stay in touch with me by clicking:

Episode #22 starts with Kathy and Casey jump in on recent funding announcements starting with Foodsby. Casey talks about why this investment is significant.

We move on to Zipnosis (former client) and their funding and the odds of something larger on the horizon.

Sansoro Health round of funding gets us into the weeds talking about how many, many groups gave tried to figure out how to get all the different health systems and their technologies to talk to each other. And I ask if anyone will fix this in my lifetime.

Casey and I spend a lot of time on a conversation he had with a founder of a Minneapolis startup about how long it would take them hire a CTO. We go on a tangent into what is the hardest tech skill to find in town right now and I went with Big Data. The most out of whack in terms of demand and supply of skilled professionals. We come back to the question Casey was asked and I walk through how long it might take and came up with a minimum of six weeks. And that’s if everything goes easy and fast.

We go on a bit more talking about creating short lists of candidates for senior roles that are created over time and through casual conversations. I then rant a bit about using search firms. Yes… there is some irony in this. I think using a search firm for a CTO, VP Marketing or Director of Product can make sense. I don’t think it does for hiring Developers. You’ll burn through too much cash on fees.

GO TO EVENTS AND CHAT WITH PEOPLE!!!

Casey mentions SDR’s and BDR’s (Business Development Rep’s) as being out of whack for B2B startups. And finding a Growth Hacker or Head of Growth is difficult to do.

Kathy brings up her conversation with Dean Hager from Jamf on why they did not go the IPO route. She also mentions Ability Network.

We talk about other groups on the potential IPO list.

We quickly mention FlipGrid and ilos Videos is now VidGrid. Yes… similar company names and not the same company.