The 2011 N2TEC Technology Accelerator Program just completed its third year in Sioux Falls, South Dakota under an SBA grant and in collaboration with the South Dakota Technology Business Center. Six companies were chosen from a field of 21 applicants who went through an interview process and had to submit evidence that they had viable businesses near ready to launch. The Accelerator program focuses on technology businesses and is designed to help the entrepreneurs get traction and actually launch their businesses.
John Meyer, co-founder of 9 Clouds, a Sioux Falls, SD-based new media company, was nominated by Business Week as one of the Top 25 Young Entrepreneurs for 2010. Meyer won the nomination out of hundreds of candidates selected byreadersand evaluated by BusinessWeek.com reporters
Robert Amundson is taking his company, 2DigitMedia, into the healthcare field in a big way. A recent issue of MED Magazine (June 2010) featured this Sioux Falls start-up and graduate of the N2TEC Institute's Tech Accelerator Program, which is giving healthcare providers a new way to use text messaging to communicate with their patients.
Scott Meyer, a 2009 N2TEC Technology Accelerator participant, represented N2TEC Institute at the National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators' Alliance (NCIIA) in San Francisco recently.
Four of the N2TEC Technology Accelerator teams pitched their businesses to investors Monday evening at a Deal Dating event sponsored by N2TEC Institute and the South Dakota Enterprise Institute. The event was the culmination of an 8-week intensive program designed to get these businesses organized and launched.
On June 12, Sioux Falls Public Radio's Dakota Midday focused on Innovation and the N2TEC Technology Accelerator Program. Cara Hetland welcomed Kathleen Allen, the author of more than 15 books in the field of entrepreneurship and technology commercialization. Also appearing was Dan O'Neill, the Director of Entrepreneurial and Research Initiatives at Arizona State University.
N2TEC Director Delore Zimmerman of Grand Forks ND has made a big difference for a number of people in the African country of Ghana. Zimmerman, who is president of Praxis Strategy Group, organized a group to import pineapples to North American via a sustainable farm community project. Zimmerman is also organizing the first agricultural expo for Ghana, brining in participants from across north America. See the attached article for more about this important project.
The N2TEC Institute is kicking off its new Technology Accelerator summer program designed to jumpstart technology companies. Based on a national search for new technology companies, four entrepreneur teams were selected for the Technology Accelerator program. The teams will be awarded $15,000 each in seed capital and will spend 8 weeks in South Dakota with access to industry and professional experts to help them launch their businesses. The companies will also participate in business workshops, networking opportunities, access to potential investors, and mentoring.
N2TEC Institute recently announced the four teams whose start-up businesses will take part in the 2009 Technology Accelerator Program in Sioux Falls, South Dakota beginning in June. They will be awarded grants of $15,000 each and spend 8 weeks in incubators in Sioux Falls and Vermillion to refine their businesses and get ready to launch.
Applied technology and entrepreneurial spirit lay just beyond your city gates in the rural landscape. Tapping and supporting this talent requires a combination of boots-on-the-ground evangelism—“success starts right here”—and, to develop these rural assets, the support of local community colleges, tech schools, high schools and regional universities. This is an interesting paper by Michael S. Summers, Director of Technology Development and Commercialization at California State University, Fresno.