Global Spin on the Search for Seed

The Vikings are coming. Not the football Vikings, but a band of Norwegian entrepreneurs.

They’re flocking to Minnesota in search of capital, and much more, by way of Seed Forum International, a nonprofit foundation that began in Norway and is based now in London. Seed Forum offers foreign-based start-ups the chance to showcase their prospects during matchmaking events around the world. At the two forums held so far in Minneapolis, last November and May, 11 of the 13 presenting companies have been from Norway. A third Minneapolis forum will be held this November.

These gatherings are small-scale versions of the events that The Collaborative in Minneapolis has staged here for years to match promising Minnesota entrepreneurs with interested investors. What’s different about Seed Forums is that all of the entrepreneurs are from abroad.

“They are looking to get licensing agreements, marketing relationships, research and development agreements, contacts, and trusted advisers,” says Kermit Nash, an attorney at Minneapolis law firm Fredrikson & Byron, who met with presenters from the May forum.

The forums are another sign that capital knows no borders in today’s global economy. They are also a key element in a concerted drive by business leaders in both Norway and Minnesota to leverage their longstanding cultural bonds.

Questions endure about how much seed capital is available here, but it should come as no surprise that Norwegian entrepreneurs are eager to give Minnesota a try. In Norway, Seed Forum comprises a well-established network of entrepreneurs and investors at both the local and national levels, who participate in a standardized matchmaking process. By exporting its matchmaking model, Seed Forum aims to do two things: create an international market for seed capital and meet the needs of entrepreneurs who are taking their businesses overseas earlier than ever before.

There’s also the heritage connection. As we know so well from Garrison Keillor, the ties that bind Minnesota and Norway range from Lutherans to lutefisk and well beyond. The state is home to 831,000 Norwegian Americans—almost twice as many as runner-up Wisconsin has, according to the Norwegian consulate in Minneapolis.

Growing Connections

Globally, Seed Forum and its international affiliates have put on more than 40 matchmaking events in 18 countries. This year, they are adding meetings in Boston and Washington, D.C., to the three U.S. locales—Minneapolis, New York City, and Silicon Valley—where they’ve already convened gatherings.

The consulate here played a pivotal role in bringing the forum to the Twin Cities. Rolf Willy Hansen, Norway’s consul general in Minneapolis, sees the Norwegian entrepreneurs’ new campaign for more start-up money and expertise as a logical move. “For an entrepreneur, there is really no greater country to come to than the United States,” Hansen says.

While the cultural and historical ties between the state and Norway are deep, the potential for more business ties is considerable and the commercial connections are growing. In 2005, Trondheim, Norway–based Powel ASA, a software and technology company that serves the energy industry, merged with Minimax, a growing software provider based in Eagan. And in October, the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development will lead a trade mission to Norway.

Jeff Mueller, president of the Upper Midwest Chapter of the Norwegian-American Chamber of Commerce, says that until recently, Norway hadn’t shown the commitment to entrepreneurship evident in other Scandinavian countries. Last fall, Mueller developed a 17-page playbook identifying multiple ways to strengthen commercial ties between Minnesota and Norway.

The forums, launched with Norwegian companies in 2002 in London, now draw entrepreneurs from throughout Europe. Norway’s companies have made more than 160 of the presentations, Finland’s another 50 or so, and Sweden’s about 40, says Steinar Korsmo, president and CEO of Seed Forum International. Start-ups from Russia, Poland, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania have also presented.

This year, the list of cities where Seed Forum is putting on matchmaking events looks like a concert schedule for a globehopping rock star. Among the 40 stops slated during the last eight months of 2007: Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Singapore, Tokyo, London, Madrid, Warsaw, Moscow, all of the Nordic countries’ capital cities, New York, San Francisco and, yes, Minneapolis.