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We are saddened to say we're losing 1/3 of our beloved team, likely the most valuable member. Kathy has hung up her journalistic cleats and is no longer embedded in the exciting world of tech startups. In similar fashion, she is hanging up her MSP On Deck podcast cleats as well.In this episode we run through the early days of the podcast, highlight the top episodes, ask Kathy questions she couldn't answer before, talk about what's next for MSP On Deck, and give you our deepest dares yet.

E27 Special Guest: Patrick Meenan, Managing Partner of Arthur Ventures Riffing points Why 2018 was Arthur Venture’s biggest year. Why recruiting and HR matter a ton in a startup. Patrick’s take in the Twin Cities vs other cities. Our commentary on 2018’s top stories that include Bite Squad, Bright Health, Bind, Total Expert, Flip Grid, and Andy Slavitt. Our ridiculous predictions for 2019.

Riffing points Bright Health raises an eye popping $200m round. Sezzle lands a $100m credit line to fund easier online buying. Holiday gifts you can buy from Minnesota startups: KATHY'S GIFT PICKS:https://forcefieldfun.com https://www.macchina.cc https://www.sipdark.comPAUL'S GIFT PICKS:https://www.omniafishing.com https://kidizen.com CASEY'S GIFT PICKS https://upsie.com https://dosehealth.com

Young MN VCs -- Atland Ventures, the 1st student run VC firm in Minnesota. The state of junior developers and the jr. dev landscape in MN. Our most interesting, recent conversations with local founders.

--- We've upgraded our audio quality. Hope you like! --- Riffing points TotalExpert, MN’s fastest growing startup, raises $20m more. Why a SEC filing does not necessarily equal a funding round. Paul’s post game analysis of Twin Cities Startup Week. Enterprise HRtech company Ascentis’s ascendency and path to IPO. The robust HR technology landscape of Minnesota hrtech.

--- We've upgraded our audio quality. Hope you like! ---Riffing points Sentera raises $14m in new funding. Evolve, the Minnetonka plastics printer, raises 19m in a fresh round of VC. Omnia Fishing raises $1m for anglertech startup. Paul gives you an epic 80/20 of Twin Cities Startup Week 2018. Novel Coworking buys it's way into dowtown Minneapolis. Techdotmn and the state of startup news coverage in MN. MN named top 10 rising cities by Rise of the Rest and Paul has opinions on it.

E22 Riffing points Foodsby raises $13.5m to feed people nationally Sansoro Health hauls in $8m in new funding The MN tech companies that still might IPO Our latest list of the hardest roles to hire for in a tech startup Paul’s panel on Sep 19th on recruiting talent to MN --> www.mntrn.org Casey’s launches a live interview series --> www.candor.live New startup job fair @ WeWork Minneapolis Sep 20th --> https://startupjobfairproductedition.splashthat.com

Riffing points Dispatch raises a $2.6m oversubscribed funding round Doug Berg launches ZAPInfo, raises over a million dollar seed round ClickSwitch raises $3.5m in funding from serious fintech investors Assemble becomes the first bigger downtown coworking space to shutter Paul gives the skinny on the brand new Spaces Coworking space in North Loop Recruiter recruiting is through the roof because companies are hiring like crazy

Special Guest: Kyle Coolbroth, Cofounder and CEO of Fueled Collective, formally CoCo Coworking Riffing points Structural raises $2.5m more in seed funding. Kyle Coolbroth’s take on WeWork and its rapid rise. How CoCo became Fueled Collective and the big expansion plans it has. A Leadpages/Drip competitor AutoPilot sets up shop in Minneapolis too.

E19Riffing points Minnesota tech's newest IPO pipeline and who could pop. Startup Gravie continues to raise VC cash. Reeher has a great exit after Blackbaud’s acquisition. How often do startups shut down quickly like One20 did? Redbrick’s acquisition an whether the founders and early employees made money. Paul on companies hiring recruiters, where it’s trending, and what it means for where our economy is headed.

Riffing points Paul’s State of Tech Events Report: Tech Cities, MinneBar, Enterprise Rising Conference Ability Network has a huge exit Enterprise healthtech + health IT continues to thrive in Minneapolis Connexio and K12 companies still have an edtech stronghold in MN Sezzle raises an ever growing chunk of cash and is hiring full throttle Local MN startup Dispatch is killing it Arthur Ventures and Rally Ventures on the fundraising trail Amazon Minneapolis office keeps growing and growing Follow us at www.twitter.com/mspondeck where we will never tweet about Stormy Daniels.

E17Riffing points Bind Benefits lands $60m series A in funding. The Definity Health Mafia and the startups that its ex-employees have created. HelpSystems at $160m in rev is acquired by another private equity firm and valued over $1b. Casey displays a company-crush on Help Systems’ outlier Glassdoor rating. Paul shares the state of recruiting recruiting and most people will want to hear it. Ping.mn emerges to be a source for all things Minnesota tech and seeks contributors. Venture backed SaaS startup Icertis, HQed in Seattle, is opening an office in Minneapolis.

Special Guest: Jenna Pederson, Minnestar board member and Hack the Gap cofounder Riffing points Upsie closes $1.7m seed round funding Two MN tech startups, SparkDJ and Players Health, leave MN to join Techstars programs in Los Angeles and Boulder Casey’s rant on startup moving away Tech ecosystem observations from Jenna Pederson What Minnebar is and what’s in store for 2018

E15 Riffing points Loup Ventures closes their first fund and proves researchers can be VCs CoCo Coworking launches a 2nd coworking space brand, goes big and goes national SportsDigita launches their first product, Digideck, + raises investor cash for it Why Minnesota’s Amazon bid didn’t make us any smarter A rundown of VC firms outside of Minnesota that have repeatedly invested in MN tech Kathy’s list of ‘non-VC’ investors that have invested in MN tech

E14 Riffing points Andy Slavitt launching a VC fund to make the world a better place The best rundown of MN VC firms that are active What does a seed round actually get a startup? Paul explains why being a developer is the best job in the world SPS Commerce doubles down on Accenture Tower and why it won’t be anything like ADC Who the hell is ADC?

Special Guest: Maria Ploessl, new Director of MinnestarRiffing points The state of Minne*, present and future Tech ecosystem observations, good and bad, from Maria Ploessl Inclusion in the Minnesota technology community Cargill and Ecolab Techstars launching in Minneapolis in 2018 Priorities, outlooks, and predictions of tech jobs and hiring in 2018

Riffing points: The top, most popular tech stories of 2017 get dissected in true geek fashion. We throw out detailed funding, IPO, and recruiting predictions for 2018.  Also new announcements for Optum Ventures who formally launched, Revel Health who raised a ton of cash, and WeWork which graced Minneapolis with location #2.

GUEST: Rob Weber, Great North Labs Venture Fund + Startup School Riffing points 1. Why Rob is starting a fund rather than doing another startup. For more details on Great North Labs, see: Great North Labs on MSPBJ 2. How Rob and his partner Ryan think about investing and what kind of startups the fund will invest in. 3. Rob's best angel investment ever and his biggest miss. 4. What the startup community needs more of and how Rob is trying to fix that. 5. MN tech startup products that you can buy as holiday presents for colleagues or family:Casey's picks - CooperAndKid.com   Trevls.com/gift   RelateToday.com Rob's picks - QFOLabs.com   Jamstik.com   LocalCrate.com Paul's pick - Kidizen.com Kathy's pick - YOXOtoys.com   PetChatz.com 6. Follow us at www.twitter.com/mspondeck where we don’t tweet about politics. Ever.

Riffing points Is downtown HOT and the suburbs COLD as a place to grow a startup? Calabrio is blowing up their team in Minneapolis -- for more see story on MSPBJ The hardest and easiest roles to hire for in a startup right now A great blog post by Patrick Meenan of Arthur Ventures about recruiting an HR team for startups: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/dont-forget-scale-hr-patrick-meenan Tesla acquires Perbix -- for more, see story on MSPBJ Casey’s list of crazy MN tech startups you’ve never heard of that do awesome stuff

Riffing points 1. Techstars is launching a brand new program in Minneapolis in 2018. Find out which huge corporation they’re partnering with 2. If we won’t get Amazon, who would we want? 3. The reason why big tech companies opening offices in MN is actually good for tech companies already here 4. What you missed at TC Startup Week 5. Follow us at www.twitter.com/mspondeck to see the minute a new episode is launched.