Recapping Twin Cities Startup Week 2025

The room buzzed with the particular kind of energy that only happens when founders and investors are genuinely connecting. Not networking for the sake of it, but having real conversations about opportunities, capital, and challenges. This was Tuesday afternoon at the Great North Ventures and EmpowerHER startup-investor networking event, and it captured everything Twin Cities Startup Week 2025 was trying to accomplish. 

Over five days in early October, more than a thousand entrepreneurs, investors, and ecosystem builders convened in Minneapolis and St. Paul for what BETA and Communiful called the largest startup week in the Midwest. I was only able to attend a few days, but even with a split schedule, what struck me most was the momentum. Minnesota’s startup ecosystem is maturing in ways that matter for founders trying to scale.

Monday: A deep dive into what gets funded now 

The “Inside the Mind of an Early-Stage VC: AI, Markets & What Gets Funded Now” panel opened with a candid assessment of today’s fundraising landscape. When asked to describe the current venture capital market, the words shared were: unknown, volatile, competitive, AI. These weren’t exactly comforting words, but that honesty set the stage for the practical advice that followed. 

The panel brought together investors from Minneapolis-based Bread & Butter Ventures and Matchstick Ventures, alongside Chicago-based M25 and Hyde Park Venture Partners. The discussion covered a lot of ground: how AI is impacting both investing and building, what signals matter most to investors right now, and why Minnesota founders should lean into regional strengths while building with global ambition. 

The panelists emphasized that regional advantages like strong talent, collaborative culture, and lower burn rates are assets. But they only matter if you’re building something that can scale beyond the Midwest. Leverage being in Minnesota but don’t let it limit your thinking. 

As the panel wrapped, many attendees headed directly to the Minnesota Cup Grand Finale at the University of Minnesota campus. The state’s premier startup competition closed out its 2025 cycle by awarding over $400,000 in cash prizes. AcQumen Medical took home the $100,000 Grand Prize for their work combining ultrasound precision with continuous monitoring to help doctors manage the heart function of critically ill infants and children. Swinergy earned $40,000 as Runner Up for their innovation converting livestock waste into renewable natural gas and fertilizer using advanced bioreactors. 

The evening continued with networking events across the city. La Crosse-based Idea Fund hosted a happy hour, while the group I’m in, MN:EVC, gathered Minnesota’s emerging investors and out-of-town visitors just down the street from the MN Cup venue. It was the perfect way to close out day one. 

Tuesday: Structured connections 

On Tuesday afternoon, I headed to downtown Minneapolis for the investor-founder networking event hosted by Great North Ventures and EmpowerHER. The format was smart, every founder in attendance had revenue and was planning to raise in the near future and every investor was actively looking to  deploy capital. That specificity made conversations efficient and relevant for everyone who attended. 

I connected with several founders I’d been wanting to meet or catch up with, including Janice Tam of TruetoForm (3D body scanning for apparel brands), Brittany Bell of Gametime Hero (transforming how communities connect through sports), Katie Shahan of Yarlow (like Carfax for houses), Heath Polivka of Awesome People Leaders (workplace solution for developing leadership skills), and Benjamin Scharf of Remarket Space (marketplace for low-value vehicles). These structured events work because they remove the guesswork. Everyone knows why they’re there and what they’re looking for. I was grateful to make it to this event before heading out of town for other events. 

A week of learning across every stage

Beyond the headline events, Twin Cities Startup Week packed the schedule with programming for founders at every stage. Panels covered the fundamentals many founders deal with daily: building company culture, leveraging AI in marketing, understanding venture math, and navigating first VC rounds. For bootstrapped founders, sessions like “Bootstrapped & Brilliant: Growing Big Dreams on Small Budgets” acknowledged that venture capital isn’t the only path to building something meaningful. The variety of topics reflected the diversity of the ecosystem itself. Some founders are raising their Series A round, others are making their first hire, and many are intentionally choosing to grow without outside capital. All deserve programming that meets them where they are. 

Thursday: Operational wisdom 

By Thursday, I was in St. Paul watching my boss, Scott Burns from Mairs & Power Venture Capital share the stage with Cora Leibig from Chromatic 3D Materials and Sunny Han from Fulcrum. The panel topic was scaling B2B tech companies in the Midwest. 

Scott kicked off the discussion by stating that Minnesota has one of the best economies in the world. We have Fortune 500 density, deep industry expertise across sectors, a global airport, and a highly educated workforce. Despite this, the panel also shared our state’s challenges. Sunny articulated a frustration many feel: talented people here often avoid risk, and those willing to take risks tend to think too small. He challenged the audience to go after trillion-dollar ideas, not just incremental improvements. 

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It was exactly what Minnesota needs more of: experienced operators willing to be both cheerleaders for our potential and honest critics of where we’re holding ourselves back. 

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The conversation balanced big thinking with tactical execution. The panelists discussed how their companies grew efficiently without the headcount VCs typically expect, urging founders to challenge assumptions about revenue per employee. Culture matters in hiring, but so does mindset. They emphasized finding people who focus on how to solve problems, not why they can’t be solved. 

Sitting in the audience, I felt proud watching Scott challenge the room to think bigger while offering practical wisdom from his years building GovDelivery and Structural. It was exactly what Minnesota needs more of: experienced operators willing to be both cheerleaders for our potential and honest critics of where we’re holding ourselves back. 

The days I missed (but heard all about) 

While I was out of town for another conference on Tuesday evening and all day Wednesday, the week’s programming continued at full speed. 

Tuesday evening’s Communiful Innovation Crawl paired with a Naturally MN Food & Beverage Showcase sounded fantastic. This entailed three parties across three downtown Minneapolis offices, each highlighting local food and beverage brands. From what I heard, people loved getting inside thriving companies while discovering local brands. It’s harder to feel like strangers in an ecosystem when you’re literally walking through each other’s offices. 

Wednesday brought the capital showcase events I was most disappointed to miss. Groove Capital’s Pitch Night featured portfolio companies sharing real progress and milestones. Founders from Detect Auto, Carba, Q-Rounds, Babbl Labs, and AcQumen Medical took the stage. I always enjoy these types of events because they show what’s actually working in the market right now, not just what’s promising on paper. 

Later that evening, the BETA x gener8tor Showcase drew more than 200 people to hear live pitches from gener8tor’s MSP Equity cohort, while the 13 startups in the BETA accelerator set up demo tables around the room during networking. The turnout alone tells the story. When two major ecosystem players collaborate to amplify Minnesota startups, the community shows up. It’s a great example of what makes our ecosystem work: cooperation over competition. 

What it all means 

Twin Cities Startup Week 2025 marked BETA and Communiful’s first collaboration on the week as co-hosts, and the partnership brought fresh energy to an already vibrant week. Even in a market described as unknown, volatile, and competitive, Minnesota showed up. Investors shared candid insights. Founders pitched with confidence. Operators passed along hard-won wisdom.

From Monday’s honest conversation about what gets funded, to Tuesday’s structured networking, to Thursday’s call for bigger thinking paired with tactical execution, the week proved Minnesota’s ecosystem is exactly where it needs to be: serious about growth, committed to collaboration, and willing to think bigger. 

My calendar is already marked for 2026. 

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Elise Riniker is an Associate at Mairs and Power Venture Capital in St. Paul, a firm which focuses its investments on businesses in Minnesota and the Upper Midwest. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Marketing from the University of Minnesota Carlson School of Management, and has previously worked at Techstars and Bread & Butter Ventures.