Minnesota Cup 2008

Now in its fourth year, the Minnesota Cup has attracted increasingly more applicants. Compared to nearly 500 entrants last year, this year 844 innovators from 40 counties submitted their ideas on the Minnesota Cup Web site minnesotacup.org. The jump in participation could be due to the award for first-prize seed capital doubling from $25,000 to $50,000, but Mallin and Litman also attribute the increase to awareness generated by the contest’s partners and to the resources available to participants.

All competitors get access to the James J. Hill Reference Library’s Minnesota Cup Resource Center—a site that’s loaded with free tools such as business calculators, business plan templates, how-to guides, and other resources not publicly available elsewhere on the Internet. In addition, organizations for entrepreneurs and program sponsors offer articles and guidance on the Minnesota Cup Web site.

The Next Level

At the semifinal level, entrepreneurs have one month to submit an extensive business plan, but get assistance along the way. They receive a 30-day membership to “HillSearch” from the James J. Hill Reference Library, which includes help from its librarians and access to thousands of trade publications, journals, and market research.

Semifinalists are paired with experienced business leaders who mentor them and provide feedback on their business plan submissions. Since the beginning of the Minnesota Cup, the University of Minnesota’s Gary S. Holmes Center for Entrepreneurship has been a major partner. The Holmes Center plays a lead role in matching semifinalists with mentors, including University of Minnesota alumni, other executives who support the U’s entrepreneurship programs, and members of the CEO Roundtable, a nonprofit networking and education group for leaders of fast-growing companies.

CEO Roundtable members want to participate in the Minnesota Cup to support other entrepreneurs and cultivate new businesses that strengthen the Minnesota economy. Brad Cleveland, CEO of Proto Labs, Inc., a custom manufacturer of plastic prototypes in Maple Plain and a member of the CEO Roundtable, says fellow executives like to share their knowledge and experience with other innovators, particularly to guide other entrepreneurs writing or finessing a business plan.

“Building businesses is what we do,” Cleveland says, “and if someone can learn from the lessons we’ve already learned, that’s great.” Even though members of the CEO Roundtable are busy running their own companies, they volunteer to help the Minnesota Cup semifinalists because “it invigorates them and reminds them of what got them started in the first place,” says CEO Roundtable President Susan Tucker. “It’s that entrepreneurial spirit and the ability to help somebody else through the process.”