Are drones the new oil in North Dakota? b u s i n e s s m a r c h
m a g a z i n e
2 0 1 6
Hatch Realty Owner Erik Hatch
How two Fargo entrepreneurs are making standing desks more affordable
Why we embrace it in business and what we can learn from it
EDITOR
EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD UPDATE As we alluded to in our inaugural January issue, we are currently in the process of assembling a Fargo INC! editorial advisory board that will assist us in curating content for the magazine. Photo by Paul Flessland
Fear Not Failure FAILURE. It's such an ugly word. So final. And maybe that's the problem with it. We use "failure" to describe the end of things, when it's often anything but. Though it can be hard to see at the time, failure gives us a fresh start and a perspective that's impossible to gain without crashing and burning ourselves. It renews our focus and strengthens our resolve. It makes us more practical, yet also more compassionate.
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From Erik Hatch willingly gracing the cover with "Failure" plastered across his chest to John Schneider offering his now-defunct venture as a blueprint for what not to do to Kirk Anton opening up about the very personal experience of having to fire his dad, they were troopers at every step of the process. (And that includes the initial phone call where we opened with, "We'd like to feature you in a story about failure.") As Emerging Prairie Cofounder Greg Tehven says, "When we talk about our successes, we create competition. But when we talk about our failures, we create community."
This month's cover story is about failure, yes, but more importantly, it's about not letting it define you. nate@spotlightmediafargo.com
We told the subjects that if they were going to participate, they had to wear their scarlet letter "F" and wear it proudly. And boy, did they ever.
Thanks for reading!
Nate Mickelberg Editor, Fargo INC!
NateMickelberg
linkedin.com/in/natemickelberg
The idea behind the board is three-fold: 1. To assist us in staying informed about the most important topics in a variety of industries 2. To provide an objective third party that will ensure content decisions are made based on quality and merit and not business relationships 3. To ensure diversity of thought and opinion throughout the magazine – including race, gender, age and otherwise If you yourself are interested in serving on such a board or might know someone who is, please contact Fargo INC! publisher Mike Dragosavich or myself directly, so that we can provide you with more details.
March 2016
Volume 1. Issue 3.
Fargo INC! is published 12 times a year and is available at area businesses and online at fargobusiness.com.
Publisher Mike Dragosavich
drago@spotlightmediafargo.com
General Manager Brent Tehven
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CREATIVE
Editorial Director Andrew Jason
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Editor Nate Mickelberg
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Fargo INC! is published by Spotlight Media LLC. Copyright 2016 Fargo INC! & fargobusiness.com. All Rights Reserved. No parts of this periodical may be reproduced without written permission of Fargo INC! Fargo INC! & spotlightmediafargo.com will not be held responsible for any errors or omissions found in the magazine or on fargobusiness.com. Spotlight Media LLC., accepts no liability for the accuracy of statements made by the advertisers.
Meet The Team MIKE
BRENT
BOUGIE
MICHAEL
SODA
DANIELLE
TRACY
ERICA
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To learn more about Spotlight Media, go to spotlightmediafargo.com
CONTENTS
MARCH 2016
ADDITIONAL CONTENT
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A Message from Craig Whitney
FMWF Chamber of Commerce says the FM Diversion is vital to Red River Valley commerce.
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The North Dakota Drone Revolution Why this Fargo startup thinks it can be the Microsoft of drones.
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Meet Fargo's Abdur Chowdhury This entrepreneur with ties to the FM area is building you a personal submarine.
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12 Tips for Clearing Office Clutter
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A professional organizer helps you create a more productive workspace.
COVER STORY
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MARCH 2016
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FAILURE: WHY WE EMBRACE IT IN BUSINESS AND WHAT WE CAN LEARN FROM IT These three Fargo business owners have one thing in common: they failed. Actually, they have two things in common: they're all better off for it.
How Sleep Can Affect Your Bottom Line
The ND Center for Sleep's Dr. Seema Khosla says not sleeping enough isn't a badge of honor, and it could be costing you $$$.
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Business Fundraising for Nonprofits Best practices for connecting with corporate donors
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Local Leader Dan Hicks Talks Commercial Real Estate
This Property Resources Group commercial agent talks about buying vs. renting and why it's important to build a good commercial real estate team that you trust.
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A Standing Desk That Won't Break the Bank ​ hy 71 donors gave W this Fargo startup $10,000 to build a new kind of standing desk
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Office Vibes: Dakota Medical Foundation
How a Fargo nonprofit designed an office around healthy living
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Ultimate Networking Guide ​ hether you're a W young professional, an environmental activist or both, we have the best events for you to check out.
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Business Events Calendar
COLUMN NEXT STARTUPS
FM DIVERSION
Imperative to Metro’s Flood Protection
L
et’s flash back to 2009 for a moment, shall we? It was March, the snow was melting and the Red River was rapidly rising. By late into the month, it became clear this was going to be a record flood for the region. Well above flood stage with an expected crest of nearly 43 feet, the city sprang into action to fight the waters and protect our cities. I wasn’t living in Fargo then, but I’ve heard story after story about what happened that year. Schools were closed, workers were let off to help the sandbagging efforts, dikes were breached, hospitals were evacuated, court trials were suspended, emergency shelters were set up, residents and pets were rescued south of the city, the National Guard and American Red Cross came in and Mayor Walaker had plans to shut down the city. Now, the city did not actually shut down due to the fear of stopping commerce in the region, but it was a scary possibility. This is why the FM Diversion Project is crucial to Fargo-Moorhead-West Fargo and our surrounding communities.
Take a look at what happened in New York City when they were hit with a massive snowstorm this past January. The city was shut down, and travel was banned. The impact was huge. While we’re no New York City and the comparison may be apples to oranges, the principle and effect are the same, regardless. Businesses need to care about the flood issue here because it can mean a loss of revenue to their organizations and the flow of commerce in the community, a loss of wages to employees and extra expenditures to keep up operations. In 2009, Sanford (then still MeritCare) spent millions moving their patients and putting up their own sandbags. While an expense like that is possible for a large organization, small businesses simply cannot afford it. Because we haven’t had a significant flooding event since 2009, it can be easy to forget just how devastating and scary a major flood can be to our community. But that is why investing in and supporting permanent flood protection is absolutely vital. It’s just not worth another risk.
I know there are critics to the Diversion out there, and people are entitled to their own opinion. However, when opinion tries to trump fact, there’s a problem. There is no Craig Whitney is the shortage of answers president and CEO of or facts regarding the Fargo Moorhead why a diversion is West Fargo Chamber needed. For the of Commerce. past six years, The Chamber has been on the forefront of, not only trying to be part of the solution, but being a critical part of the education process to make sure that the answers are there for all to see.
Photo by J. Alan Paul Photography
By Craig Whitney
I’m optimistic due to the many facts provided by experts in so many fields and the unquestionable commitment of our congressional delegation, Sen. Hoeven, Sen. Heitkamp and Rep. Cramer. We are closer than ever to making the valley safe from a natural disaster that would cripple an economy essential to thousands of people in the metro.
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STARTUPS
STARTUP SPOTLIGHT
Botlink
The New D
By Nate Mickelberg | Photos by J. Alan Paul photography
Shawn Muehler
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Terri Zimmerman
Georgia peaches, Wisconsin cheese, North Dakota … drones? This Fargo startup says it’s a lot closer than you think.
STARTUPS
Disruptors A TOY FOR HUMAN EFFICIENCY Shawn Muehler can point to the exact moment he had the idea for his company. “I was flying a combat mission,” he says, “And I just happened to be watching the news afterward and saw that a drone had almost
hit an airliner in La Guardia (N.Y.) airspace. I was like, ‘Okay. There’s an issue here.’” Fast forward almost two years, and Muehler is the chief operating officer at Botlink, a Fargo startup that designs drone software and power electronics and is at the forefront of the rapidly expanding unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) industry. Muehler’s a native of Fargo and
a pilot by trade, going all the way back to his days as a fourth grader flying a remote controlled aircraft. After getting his pilot’s license in high school at the Fargo Jet Center, he joined the Air Force after college and did his flight training in Columbus, Miss., flying T-6 Texans and T-1 Jayhawks. Eventually, he made his way back to Fargo and began flying MQ-1 Predator drones, which is
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STARTUPS
A look inside Botlink’s offices in the Black Building in Downtown Fargo
where he was introduced to the UAV universe. “As a pilot, I knew there were regulations, there was already stuff out there that prevented manned aircraft from hitting each other,” Muehler says. “So I thought to myself, 'Why can’t we take that technology, build software around it and push it out to the drone space?' “To give operators the situational awareness – or SA, as we call it in the military – as to what’s going on around them. Really building that picture of what’s around them airspacewise, manned aircraft-wise, other unmanned aircraft. And really, just to make sure they know when they take off, they understand what’s around them and they know what they can and cannot do.” In spring of 2014, Muehler went to Alex Kube, who’s now the chief software
architect at Botlink and who has an extensive background in Predator drone sensor operation, and asked him if the idea was even feasible. “I said, ‘Hey, Alex, you’re a software guy. Is this a doable product? Can we build this?’” Muehler says. “And Alex said, ‘Yeah, we can totally do it.’” So they hit the ground running, pitching at 1 Million Cups Fargo and attracting interest from five or six different local investors within a couple weeks. They accepted an offer for half a million dollars in December 2014, but little did they know, their path was about to cross with another Fargo startup – located just across the Downtown Fargo skyway – that was going to take Botlink to the next level.
WHAT ARE THE ODDS? The CEO of Fargo-based power electronics company Packet Digital, Terri Zimmerman, remembers a day back in fall 2013 when North Dakota Lieutenant Governor Drew Wrigley visited Packet’s Fargo office to talk drones. “He and Gov. Dalrymple were very passionate about creating new industry in North Dakota in unmanned areas,” says Zimmerman, whose extensive resume includes a stint as CFO and VP of operations at Great Plains Software. “And Drew said, ‘With your expertise in power electronics, you should really do something in unmanned aircraft.’ “So he and Gov. Dalrymple invited me to a few events where there were a number of leading
companies in the unmanned space there. And we have about $10 million in government contracts at Packet Digital, so when I was in DC meeting with some of our DoD (Department of Defense) people, they asked me what I wanted to work on in a new project, and I said I was interested in maybe doing a project in unmanned aircraft.” It was winter 2015 – a few months after Packet had started work on their first project developing power electronics for unmanned aircraft – that Zimmerman arrived “fashionably Terri late” to a small FMWF Chamber of Commerce dinner for local entrepreneurs. There was only one seat left, and it was next to, you guessed it: Shawn Muehler. “We started talking about what we were doing and realized we could really help each other,” Zimmerman says. “Us on the
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Wide Open Spaces (and Minds) Muehler and Botlink were featured prominently in a front-page New York Times article in December 2015. The piece centered around both how the commitment from state lawmakers has greatly contributed to the industry’s rapid growth in North Dakota, as well as why the state is an ideal hub for UAV companies and enthusiasts alike. “I think North Dakota and Fargo are great places to have a business,” Zimmerman says. “There’s access to capital, research, talent. We’ve been able to collaborate with the North Dakota test site, and we’ve been able to leverage relationships there. We’re looking forward to working with the new unmanned aerial vehicle school they’re starting in Grand Forks. “And the reason we’re staying here is because of that, because North Dakota wants the industry to be here. They’re incentivizing it for us to stay here. We could go to Silicon Valley or wherever else, but we can fly anywhere here.”
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electronics side and him on the software side. With the capabilities we had and the capabilities he was developing, we felt together we could develop something quicker and faster and get to market before anyone else did. And by May 15, 2015, we had signed a memorandum of understanding and by June 1 started a company.”
AN INDUSTRY FOUNDATION “Think of us as being the Microsoft for drones,” Muehler says. “You have Dell and HP that use Microsoft for their platform. So there’s companies out there such as AgEagle, xCraft and a couple other major players that we’re partnering with shortly. So what they do is they build the
hardware behind it and they say, ‘Hey, Botlink, can you power our drones for us?’ They use us as the software that enables the entire industry.” The software provides data processing and delivery, automated drone control, airspace awareness, manned aircraft locations, weather overlays, and radio and cellular connections. And if that all seems a little abstract, Muehler says to just take a look at a couple of real-life industries in which drones are already making a significant impact.
Agriculture “Right now, when a farmer enters the field – most farmers blanket spray their crops with fertilizer and water. Think of the huge cost associated with that. But with a drone, what we can
do is we can fly that aircraft out in front of the tractor, we can capture aerial data, process it and send it back to the tractor, so the tractor can make real-life adjustments as to where to put fertilizer and where not to put fertilizer. And the farmer is doing it in real-time. So instead of blanket spraying an entire crop, he can now pin-point down to 2.5 centimeters, the actual amount of chemical or water that needs to go there or doesn’t need to go there. “In the long run, think of all the cost savings – just from a farmer’s perspective – that it’s saving. Not to mention, now that’s going to trickle down to the marketplace and everybody’s going to see their food costs go down.”
STARTUPS NEXT FAILURE
Construction “What we can do with an aircraft is, every day, that drone can fly over the job site, capture aerial data, and let the foreman and general contractors on site know what has changed, what has not changed, if everything is where it needs to be, if there’s equipment there that should not be there or if there’s equipment that needs to be there for the next day’s work. And so, really a general contractor is now using a drone as its job site management tool.” The possibilities are endless, say Muehler and Zimmerman, from safer cell phone towers and pipeline inspections to aerial advertising to civil service. “You could have a drone fly out immediately after a person dials 911,” Muehler says. “So by the time the ambulance, law enforcement or fire officials arrive
on scene, that drone’s been on scene for 10 minutes already, collecting data and sizing up the scene for them. So when (responders) get on scene, they already know exactly what to do.”
WHERE IT’S HEADED Currently, most drones are flown by a person and so necessarily send data and safety information back to the operator, but the future of UAVs, Muehler says, is in artificial intelligence. “Right now, we give alerts to the pilots, so the pilot makes the decisions,” he says, “But where we really want to take this is within the machine learning aspect, to where the drone knows what’s around it, it knows what to do, what not to do, and it bases its decisions on human life. So when it’s out
there flying and it sees another manned aircraft or it knows it’s in controlled airspace, it can make the decision itself and say, 'Okay, I’m going to go home.' And we’ve created the foundation layer to be able to do that. Despite launching its first official product in January 2016, Botlink already has partnerships lined up with two of the largest general contractors in the United States, as well as the top industry-specific software companies in North America. And if the UAV industry projections are correct – $8 billion by 2019 – it might just be a matter of time before we can’t leave home without our drones.
Botlink botlink.com 118 Broadway N. Unit 504, Fargo 701-412-29881
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FAILURE
By Nate Mickelberg Photos by J. Alan Paul Photography
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MARCH 2016
FAILURE
Meet three local business owners who failed and learn why they're better because of it.
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FAILURE
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FEBRUARY MARCH 2016 2016
By Nate Mickelberg | Photos by J. Alan Paul Photography and courtesy of Hatch Realty
Keep Main Thing the THE
FAILURE
Erik Hatch
For a long time, Erik Hatch couldn't get out of his own way. Then he discovered that helping others was the best way he could help himself in both life and business.
There’s a familiar theme in Erik Hatch’s life. “Every time I thought I was meant for something else,” says Hatch, who owns Fargo real estate firm Hatch Realty, “I was meant to be home the whole time.” “Home” for Hatch is not so much a physical space as it is an idea. An identity, really.
CONTACT
Hatch Realty livefargomoorhead.com 4215 31st Ave. S, Fargo 701-212-1572
A self-proclaimed “goody-twoshoes, suck up, brown-nosing, super involved giver,” he’s about as self-deprecating and comfortable in his own skin as they get, but he hasn’t always been that way. In fact, he spent
many of his teenage and adult years embracing and then resisting the identity, a tension that’s not only caused its share of personal problems for him but also played a significant role in his professional rock bottom. His first bout of rebelliousness hit him during his freshman year of college at NDSU. “My experience had always been ‘safe’ in high school,” says Hatch, a Fargo native. “And I was tired of safe. I felt like life gave me a bad hand at times, having a father who wasn’t involved and a mom who was fighting cancer. And I felt like I never had a fair shot, as some of my peers did. And so I tried to run from that. “I thought that church and community and things that were familiar were going to hold me back. And I ran from it to throw myself a pity party because I felt like it was one of those things that was holding me back, when really it was the thing that was lifting me up.” His first six months on campus, he started drinking, stopped going to church, and actively avoided the clubs and leadership positions
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he’d sought out during high school. It wasn’t until he stumbled back into church one morning months later, hungover and unshowered, that he had an interaction he says he sorely needed at the time. “I sat there and I just wept,” Hatch says. “Tears of guilt, tears of coming home, tears of everything else. And a guy came up to me, put his hands on my shoulders and he said, ‘Where have you been?’ And it was just that reminder that it was home all along and I had run from it.”
“I was trying to be everything to everyone,” says Hatch, whose mom passed away around the same time after a five-year-long battle with cancer, “And I was mad at the world and I was pretty broken myself. And so I sat with Rollie Johnson, who works at First Lutheran Church. And he was my youth director, and Rollie told me the words I’ll never forget: ‘Hatch, you’re not that important.’ “And that resonated with me over and over again, when I get this ego of myself that I’m essential to things being successful and for them to happen in the best sort of way. And even at the age of 21, my ego got ahead of me because I thought: this university won’t function without me. And saying that now feels so farcical and yet, when I was caught in it, I felt like I was so important and I wasn’t. And he was such a great reminder in my life of my lack of importance.” It was Hatch’s second reality check in a relatively short period of time, and even though they manifested in different ways, the common thread was a kind of deluded self-absorption not uncommon in 20-somethings. Finally ready to make an impact on lives that weren’t his own, after college, Hatch accepted a full-time position as a youth director at First Lutheran Church in Downtown Fargo. “I loved the idea of being impactful,” Hatch says. “I loved the idea of sharing stories and energy and humor and enthusiasm with people, specifically kids. It was a natural place for me to talk and to give voice. I wanted to find (a small group of) people to pour into.” He’d found his calling: giving back to and developing young men and women. And for nearly eight years, he led prayer groups, organized mission trips and immersed himself in the lives of kids he’s still close with to this day. By 2011, though, he was at something of a personal crossroads again. His part-time real estate business, which he’d been involved with for close to five years, was gaining momentum at the same
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"Hatch, you're not that important."
Armed with a renewed energy and sense of purpose, Hatch threw himself back into the community, getting involved on campus with his fraternity, student government and homecoming, among others. This time, though, he strayed from “home” in the other direction. time that he and his family were facing some personal and financial issues that were going to require a larger paycheck. So he made a decision. He’d flip-flop his full and part-time jobs, devoting the majority of his time to growing his real estate business and supplement it with some ministry work on the side, a decision that was not without some anxiety. “It was twofold,” he says. “I was ready to jump into real estate full-time, but a life of 100 percent commission is really scary. And, in addition, ministry is part of who I was. And I was scared to death of losing that.” And if you didn't know he was new to the full-time real estate game, you wouldn't have believed it. Within 12 months – working under the Keller Williams Roers Realty umbrella – he'd sold 52 homes, and by his second year, he had $25 million in commercial listings in Western North Dakota and had grown his team of four to a team off 11. And his success didn’t go unnoticed.
“I have a large personality,” Hatch says. “And it either attracts or detracts. A lot of people have opinions on me, and it’s either favorable or unfavorable. I’m okay with that. It still hurts when I find out people don’t like me. Most everybody who knows me and knows me well really thinks pretty fondly of me. But it’s the peripheral people who will make assumptions and see how bold and audacious I can be sometimes, which can come across as cocky and egotistical. “And I’ve blurred that line far too many times. Not intentionally, but it’s simply from trying to stand proud as who I am and what I’ve done. But those who know me intimately know how vulnerable and transparent and broken I am.” What he also had, in addition to a booming business, was a laundry list of headaches that often come with growing too quickly, too soon. “I had more leadership, more management, more inventory and more problems than I ever knew what to do with,” he says. “I kept my foot on the gas pedal no matter what. If it had a pulse and could fog up a mirror, I wanted to work with it.” He says he also made the mistake of restricting his hiring pool to his circle of friends. “If somebody came and wanted to be on the team and if I had a good relationship with them or I even thought I’d really like them, I brought them on,” Hatch says. “Which was really unfair to them. Because I hadn’t grown as a leader, I hadn’t grown as a manager and I was busy trying to find a bunch of people to work for me. When I should’ve been
trying to find a bunch of people I could go to work for.” He found himself drifting from “home” again, even if he didn’t see it at the time. He became obsessed with being The Boss and making sure everyone knew he was. “I was not authentic to who I was,” he says. “Because it was all about me and not about we. I wanted my name on everything. Not because I knew the intricacies of marketing but because I wanted my ego stroked. It was a mess that I had created, and I didn’t realize it because I was right in the middle of the storm. Getting kicked out is what it took to become more aware of it.” After a series of mistakes by Hatch and his team led to irreconcilable differences between him and Keller Williams management, a decision was made that he says hit him like a bus. They let him go and told him that he and his team of 12 had 48 hours to find a new brokerage or else his real estate license would be sent back to the state until he did. Hatch says that while he lashed out at the time, looking back now he sees that the bulk of the blame falls on him. “I didn’t take ownership of the things I had allowed to happen,” he says. “Because it all started with hiring people who weren’t right for the job that I put them in. Or even if they were right, I didn’t give them the right runway to succeed. It was all my fault. From beginning to end, it was all my fault. “The mistake I made was – imagine you’re building a house on an improper foundation.
FAILURE
No matter how great the construction and craftsmanship are, if that foundation isn’t steady, it’s going to fall apart. And for me, I messed up in the beginning and it all fell apart.”
After a nine-month stint working with a local construction developer, Hatch took just two members of what was left from his Keller Williams Roers team and assembled what he describes as a ragtag staff of bartenders, struggling marketing coordinators, really anyone who he thought might fit the new culture he was trying to build, and he gave them a shot. It was, after all, not cultivating the right culture that he insists was his downfall the first time around. He says he and his team finally understood the importance of having a concise set of values and an established mission, and it bled over into the process of building his Hatch Realty team. “When you hire someone
"It was all my fault.
“I wasn’t okay with my wake and my ripples affecting other peoples' business anymore, within the same office I worked in,” Hatch says. “And working at a larger brokerage as a loud, boisterous, aggressive advertiser and marketer – somebody who puts his name and face on everything – creates ill will in some environments.”
From beginning to end, it was all my fault."
And so, armed with the lessons of the falling out between himself and Keller Williams Roers, Hatch set out to build the right foundation the second time around – starting with the business model itself.
and don’t listen intently to why they’re motivated and what brings them to work every day, you essentially have somebody just going through the motions, as opposed to following their passions,” Hatch says. “I want people who work with me to feel like they are the owners and I’m working for them. In the past, (people) were working for me. “Fast forward (to today), and every person who’s on our team, I know intimately what keeps them awake at night, I know how much money they want to make, I know what kind of car they want to drive, I know what kind of family they want. And my business never used to look like that. I dive in deeply to the intricacies of each person. I find out what their real skills and natural talents are. And instead of me trying to put them in a position that I need them to fill, I listen to what they’re great at and build a position around that.” Business is booming these days with a staff of 31 and 2015 sales totaling 516 homes and more than $108 million. Hatch says much of that is owed to finding his way "home" and remembering that he'll only ever be as good as the people he surrounds himself with. “I don’t believe there’s such a thing as self-made men,” he says. “I’m a product of my environment and the people around me who have held me up when I couldn’t stand on my own. I always knew how to sell houses and serve and take care of people, I just had no idea how to run a business. And I’m figuring that out every day. “But at the core of it, we can figure the business stuff out so long as we keep the main thing the main thing. And the main thing is that I’m a youth director, a youth minister.” He just happens to sell real estate now.
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FEBRUARY MARCH 2016 2016
By Nate Mickelberg | Photos by J. Alan Paul Photography
FAILURE
I Should've
failed
John Schneider
Faster
John Schneider loves puzzles.
“What I really like doing is seeing how things fit together,” says the 26-year-old president and cofounder of Fargo 3D Printing. “I like figuring out how to make systems work together and (saying), ‘Okay, what are the tools we need to use to make everything work well?’” So when he decided to pull the plug on his Fargo MELD Workshop in early fall 2014, it was as much an inability to make the pieces of the business puzzle fit together as it was the financial loss that got to him.
CONTACT
Fargo 3D Printing fargo3dprinting.com 3041 1/2 Main Ave., Fargo 866-326-3363
3Dom USA 3domusa.com 3041 1/2 Main Ave., Fargo 877-336-6097
From Bees to 3D
he began buying LEGO sets and selling the individual pieces online.
If there were ever an argument that entrepreneurship is in your blood, Schneider might be it.
“There’s software that can take a look at a particular LEGO set, look at what pieces are in it and calculate the average selling price based on a six-month running average,” Schneider explains. “So you’d know before buying a set how much money you could make on it.”
Raised on a farm 20 minutes outside of Morris, Minn. – in the west central part of the state – Schneider got really into beekeeping in eighth grade, a pursuit he continued into his senior year of high school. Around the time he was finishing up his apiarist career,
From there, it was on to NDSU, followed by a position as an insights analyst with Fargo-based marketing and technology company Sundog. He was performing website analytics and preparing advertising reports, and while he says it was a good job and a steady paycheck, he had an itch he needed to scratch before too long. “I was looking for an industry that had a lot of growth potential,”
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Schneider says. “I didn’t even have a business idea in mind, I just had a notion that I wanted to have my own business. I just wasn’t sure what that was. “And I was reading an article in Inc. or Fast Company – looking at high-growth industries – and the highest ones were biomedical and 3D printing. Biomedical, I didn’t have the background for that kind of stuff, but 3D printing, I started looking more into that and the geek side of me really gravitated toward it. It was something I could wrap my head around, something I felt confident I could do.” As he says he tends to do, he threw himself into it headfirst, spending hours online every day in 3D printing communities and message boards, learning everything he could about 3D printing.
FAILURE
The current Fargo 3D Printing space and former site of MELD Workshop.
“When I get in my head that I want to do something, I don’t just kind of casually do it,” Schneider says. “And that’s not always a positive thing, because I tend to go after shiny stuff. I get distracted really easily. So it’s difficult for me to focus on just one thing, unless it’s that one thing I’m really diving deep into.”
A makerspace is like a gym, except instead of exercise equipment, you have tools that allow you to make stuff. There are typically laser cutters, 3D printers, soldering irons, really anything that would either be too expensive or impractical for people to own themselves. Hemorrhaging Money It was January 2013 that Schneider had the initial idea for what would eventually be called MELD Workshop, and by May of that year, he had approval for a small loan and a lease on a space. He also started an Indiegogo campaign, which he said not only provided some extra dollars but also some validity to the idea, and he started pre-selling memberships to interested customers. It was with the memberships that he said he made his first big mistake. “I didn’t spend enough time building the community of people,” says Schneider, who officially opened MELD in October 2013. “Knowing for sure that, ‘We’re going to have 50 people who are going to be using this space, day one.’ This was before Emerging Prairie. This was when Emerging Prairie was just starting, so there weren’t a lot of events I could go to, to really get in front of people and say, ‘Hey, this is what I’m doing. Come be a member.’ If 1 Million Cups would’ve been around back then, I think it would’ve been a different story. Because what I needed was 50 members to break even, and the closest I got was 35 at one point. “And so, you can imagine, as this whole thing’s going along, I’m hemorrhaging money and supporting it with just my Sundog income. It’s not really self-sufficient, and so it never gets me any closer to being able to leave my full-time job and do MELD fulltime.”
building the community of people."
“I thought, alright, what if a bunch of people went in and we shared the use of the 3D printer?” he says. “So I started looking into if anyone had ever done that before, and that’s when I came across the concept of makerspaces.”
"I didn't spend enough time
He discovered very quickly, too, that his new passion was not a cheap one – the printer he was looking at retailed for $2,000 – and that’s when he had an idea. Having to stay on full-time at Sundog had other ramifications as well. “So I still have my full-time job, and I’m trying to get the space prepared with my leftover energy,” he says. “I mean, my mental energy, by the time my day is done at Sundog, is pretty much gone. (The bank) wanted to make sure I still had income coming in, but that made it very difficult to get the space running quickly.” Another thing that Schneider says caught up to him pretty quickly was trying to go it alone. “The thing I didn’t get into my head was that I needed to have people helping me run it,” he says. “I needed to have a member board where it’s like, ‘Hey, we’ll help you with this thing.’ Splitting up the responsibilities of running stuff. Because then they would’ve become better advocates for the space and they would’ve really helped me promote it. “And here’s another mistake. I brought in equipment without
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FAILURE
"It's not always the financial cost,
it's the cost in time."
being proficient myself at using it or without having someone committed to teaching other people how to use it. So I had a mill and a lathe and no one was using them because no one really knew how to. I didn’t have anyone who was able to teach a class on it.” After months of problems compounding and money continuing to flow outward, Schneider grew increasingly frustrated. While MELD had plenty of busy periods, there’d be nights when only one person would come in – some nights even zero – but he had to be there because the space was open. “It left no time to do anything else,” he says. “I was just getting burned out.” Where Were You Before? It was around this same time – in January 2014 – that Schneider was introduced to Jake Clark, a fellow, local 3D printing enthusiast who had just started a 3D printing business in his spare time. Clark expressed interest in taking Schneider on as a partner, but Schneider, ever confident in his abilities and still clinging to the idea that things would turn around with MELD, was hesitant at first.
“When Jake first approached me,” Schneider says, “I looked at it as, ‘Okay, I’ll help you. I’ll give you some advice. But I don’t want to become too involved.’ But then, by around March 2014, it was really becoming clear that Fargo 3D Printing is the thing that’s actually going to make money. MELD, even if I’d gotten things really figured out, at that point it was only ever going to break even.” So Schneider quit his job at Sundog and after a few more months, shut the makerspace down as well. He sent out an email to the members he did have, saying it was just not sustainable any longer, and in one final twisting of the knife, says he got some after-the-fact commitments from interested customers. “After I sent that email out,” he says, “I had a number of emails saying, ‘Oh, I really wanted to get a membership’ or, ‘I was just going to get a membership next month.’ That was extremely frustrating because, if you were going to get a membership, you should’ve gotten one. Because if the 15 people who reached out to me afterwards would’ve had a membership, then MELD probably wouldn’t have closed.” Onward & Upward Schneider now spends his days trying to grow Fargo 3D Printing, which sells 3D printers and provides custom 3D printing services, as well as 3Dom USA, Fargo 3D Printing’s sister business that manufactures eco-friendly 3D printer filament using everything from beer to coffee grounds. He says that he’s been able to apply a number of lessons he learned from his experience with MELD Workshop to his current ventures and says that the thing he maybe regrets the most is the speed with which his failure happened. “I would almost say I didn’t fail fast enough,” he says. “I think I drug out the failing a little bit too long. And I almost think that’s more expensive. Instead of just hit it hard and if it doesn’t work out, then you can quickly move on. It’s not always the financial cost, it’s the cost in time. Time you could’ve spent doing something else.” Schneider adds that while his failures have made him more practical, they’ve also made him a more compassionate business owner. “Because I’ve been on that side of things,” he says, “When I see another business going through something similar, it’s like, ‘Okay, I get it. I get it.’ “I don’t dance around stuff as much as I used to. I mean, I still do. My business partner would say I’m not enough of an a**hole, almost because I’m too empathetic. He’s like, ‘Hey, John, you gotta watch out for yourself a little more.’” Schneider ends with this: “Someone can tell you, ‘Hey, this is going to happen’ until they’re blue in the face,” he says. “But until you experience it yourself, it doesn’t really cement itself until you’ve gone through it. There’s always that hope that (you’re the exception).”
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MARCH 2016
FAILURE
34
FEBRUARY MARCH 2016 2016
By Nate Mickelberg | Photos by J. Alan Paul Photography
FAILURE
a
FAMILY Kirk Anton
Affair
Over the course of his 20-year career, Kirk Anton has learned a lot of lessons. One of them is to tread lightly when mixing family and business.
Ramblin' Man To understand Kirk Anton's greatest professional failure, you need to first understand his many successes. And his restlessness. Now the owner of Fargobased heat transfer material wholesaler Heat Transfer Warehouse, Anton got his start more than 20 years ago when he found his niche in signmaking materials.
CONTACT
Heat Transfer Warehouse heattransferwarehouse.com 1501 21st Ave. N, Fargo 701-356-3160
"I grew up in the sign industry," says Anton, whose father, Butch, founded Moorhead sign design shop Superfrog Signs. "For me, though, it was like, I'm not very talented on the graphics and design part. And we were doing all these trade shows and had all these people
asking, 'What else do you guys sell?' And I was like, okay, maybe there is a possibility I can still be in the industry, just in another part of it." He soon parlayed a $20,000 loan from a family friend – a loan he says was agreed to over a handshake – into a thriving business, supplying materials to sign shops throughout the tri-state area. By 2006, Far From Normal had 25 employees and was doing $5 million in business a year, but Anton says he was unfulfilled. "My wife says it was my midlife crisis," Anton says. "It probably was. I felt like I'd kind of peaked, and I was just kind of like, I've got to go do something different." So he pursued his long-time dream of serving and joined the North Dakota Air National Guard. If you find it odd that a man in his mid-30s with a family and a successful business would voluntarily give everything up to spend seven months in basic training and Guard school, Anton probably wouldn't blame you. And his wife would probably agree with you. But he is who he is. When he finished his Guard training, Anton says he felt "done with Fargo" and wanted to experience living in some different parts of the
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FAILURE
And then the boredom bug bit him again. "At that point, I realized I was probably not that person to work for people," Anton says. "And my bosses were actually really good about it. I said, 'This is not my gig.' I'm eight months in and they're like, 'Really?' So I said I'd keep on commissionwise and help find a staff to replace me, but I really just wanted to move on." And move on he did. Three more times. There was a stint owning and operating his own sign design business followed by a stretch working as a traveling salesman for a banner mounting hardware company, before an illness in the family brought him back to FargoMoorhead for good. After scaring off a number of potential employers with his nomadic resume, Anton says that, for the first time in his adult life, he felt uncertain about the direction he was headed.
"My wife says it was my
He took a job with Grimco, a national wholesale sign supply company, setting up a San Antonio branch and doing more or less what he'd done at his own company not a year and a half before. Now, there was just some different scenery.
midlife crisis. It probably was."
country. So it was off to San Antonio for him and his family.
A funny thing happened while Anton was getting Heat Transfer Warehouse off the ground, though. In what might best be understood as an attempt to pre-empt his inevitable boredom, Anton decided to dip his toes back into the sign business yet again and buy the company that gave him his start: Superfrog Signs. "So me and my friend go into a deal to buy the family business," Anton says. "And that's where the biggest mistake was made. I should've known that, for my dad, (Superfrog) was his life. And when we went into it, one of the things I learned is we never, ever sat down and said, 'When are you going to actually leave the business?' "There was a handshake (agreement) to keep him on, where he said, 'I still want to work. I'll help out.' But we would, ideally, run the business. Lesson number one out of the whole thing, though, was that you have to look at it like, somebody who's been in there for 40 years, you have to figure out what they want to do next and have an exit strategy for them. And so that was mistake number one, not thinking about that." The problems really began, Anton says, when his dad overstayed his welcome. "It was causing tension between us and the employees," Anton says. "They would say, 'You're telling us one thing, but he's saying
Heat Transfer Warehouse's Fargo center
"That was probably the point in my life where I said, 'What am I going to do?'" he says. Like Oil & Water After a tip from an old business acquaintance turned him on to the then-largely uncaptured market of textile and garment decoration, Anton knew he'd found his next thing.
37
FAILURE
Looking back now, Anton says choosing to give Superfrog back was not only good for his dad, it helped renew his commitment to his other business as well.
Anton eventually let his dad go, which not only led to a nine-month hiatus in communication between the two of them, but also led to the rest of the staff quitting. "Basically, (at this point) I have two things going on," Anton says. "I have a lot of tension on the one side, which I'm trying to give some attention to. And then I've got Heat Transfer Warehouse going on on the other side. "And we're like, 'Okay, now what are we going to do with this business?' Because I can't come over here and run it. I've got Heat Transfer. And so, we were kind of at a crossroads." So Anton made a decision. "At that point, I'm basically eating my crow," he says. "I'm like, 'We're going to give it back. We're going to give the business back.' So at that point, I just went (to my dad) and I said, 'The business is going to be yours (again). The business, the property everything else.'"
"Thank you for giving it back.
"We were looking to take (the business) to the next level, and he was like, 'No, I'm at this level. I'm okay with this.' He was like, 'I'm okay with $300,000 a year and we were like, 'No, we want to go to $1 million.' And so you've kind of got this back and forth."
That was my life."
this.' He still wanted to run it. And so, basically, we ran full steam ahead and eventually it caused a falling out between the two of us.
"Even today, (my dad) says, 'Thank you for giving it back,'" Anton says. That was my life.' I learned a lot of lessons from it. Yeah, it hurt, but I look back, and I told my wife that focus was the biggest thing I learned out of it. I was working (at Superfrog), I was working (at Heat Transfer), and neither of them were doing very well. But as soon as I gave Superfrog back, I focused all my efforts on Heat Transfer, and look where we got it to today." Where they got it is to three locations – in Fargo, Cincinnati and Las Vegas - a staff of 31 and an international client base, shipping heat transfer materials everywhere from the U.S. to South America to Canada. Now, hopefully he decides he doesn't want to sell cars.
39
Meet Fargo’s
Abdur Chowdhury:
On Failure, Success & Positively Buoyant Submarines
F
argo native Abdur Chowdhury fails every day, he says. Every day.
His track record certainly looks good, for that matter: former chief scientist at Twitter, former chief architect at AOL, cofounder of the Alta Vista School in San Francisco, current CEO of a startup building digital framing called Pushd. But each of the successes comes from a road littered with scrapped ideas, he says. His current project has gone through at least eight. (They finally landed on a digital frame that can pull photos directly from your phone and display in your house.) “Every day, I do something stupid,” Abdur says in a phone interview, speaking from his home in San Francisco. “I can’t think of any entrepreneur who doesn’t fail every day. You have to be okay with failure. It’s not going to work the first time, not the second time, not the third time. You just gotta wake up every day and say what’s working and what isn’t working and how do I evolve and adapt with what I now know,” he says.
COLUMN
By Marisa Jackels, lead writer & social media manager at Emerging Prairie Photos courtesy of Abdur Chowdhury
The Process of Adaptation This is the process of adaptation, one Abdur sees as crucial to progress. Look at farmers, Abdur says. He knows farmers. His early childhood was spent about 70 miles from Fargo, on farmland in Colfax and Barney. His parents met at North Dakota State University and, though they moved when he was five, he still came back every summer. “The farmers in North Dakota are more efficient than anyone else in the world,” he says. “It’s not a trade secret, they just work at it.” He traces his own journey of adapting back to a major turning point during his time as a professor at Georgetown University. He taught in the computer science department for many years, until a question began to pester him. It’s a question that still comes to mind whenever he visits Fargo, he says. “I come and stand in the
mall or the Wal-Mart, and I always ask: how is what I’m working on important to these people?” he says. “It’s the question that grilled me out of academia. I realized, I could write this paper about this crazy algorithm. Maybe someone will eventually use it. But this is not making a meaningful impact in people’s lives. Life is mostly simple.”
Adaptation 1: Summize & Twitter This new drive led him to leave education and cofound Summize, a search engine that provides listings of the most reviewed and liked products. In 2008, Summize merged “with a startup called Twitter,” Abdur says - a company which, at the time, employed 12 engineers and was in sore need of a business plan. As Twitter’s chief scientist, Abdur established the Twitter search, recommendations and trend features, while watching the Twittersphere expand. When he left three years later, during the mass exodus of the 06 Twitter crew in 2011, there were around 950 employees, he says. 43
COLUMN NEXT ADVICE
“There are three things you can do when you see a problem. Ignore it, complain about it or fix it.” – Abdur Chowdhury
Adaptation 2: Be a Dad, Start a School He adapted, too, to become a husband and a father to a little girl. And when it came time for his daughter to enter the education system, Abdur, unimpressed with what California had to offer, adapted to become a school director as well. “There are three things you can do when you see a problem,” he says. “Ignore it, complain about it or fix it.” Choosing the latter, Abdur founded a K-8 charter school with a focus on experience-based learning and technology called the Alta Vista School. The San Francisco school now has 220 kids and employs 47 faculty, with a 5:1 student to teacher ratio, Abdur says. The school allows him to teach the necessity of failing and adapting at an early age, he says. Here, too, he fights what he sees as the “illiteracy of the future” – the inability to keep on learning. “Have you ever heard of the
paper clip test?” he asks. “It’s where you give a paper clip to a kindergartner and ask them what it is,” he says. “And it’s a spaceship, a laser, a dog. Give it to a third grader and it’s 20 things. By high school, it’s a paper clip. What happened? Did we kill the creativity?” “Education should be pushing the other way,” he says. “We shouldn’t be going backward. If we’re not going to start out day one teaching critical thinking and keep students still loving to learn, then we’ve failed at education.”
Adaptation 3: Build Personalized Submarines Some adaptations are sacrificial, like Abdur giving up cave diving at his wife’s request (with the fatality rate, it makes sense). Now he gets his fix from what he calls his favorite investment project, a company called DeepFlight that is making personalized submarines. “Three-fourths of the planet is underwater,” he says. At DeepFlight, they’re building
what are called 'positively buoyant submarines,' “so that more and more people can explore the world’s oceans.” They expect to have their first subs at resorts by the end of the year, Abdur says.
Adaptation 4: Throw Spaghetti Meanwhile, he and the team at Pushd continue to throw spaghetti at the wall to see what sticks. The digital frame idea, which emerged from a frustration with having to print and frame photos, is the latest venture. But, of course, Abdur says, this has not stopped the constant questioning. “Question everything,” he says. “Have hard debates internally. I want our biggest critics to be in here, questioning every one of the things we have.” Abdur equates starting a company with pushing a boulder uphill. One must reconcile with the fact that failure is inevitable, he says. The key to success – at his school, in his startups, in his personal life, is having the
tenacity to adapt, he says. “I talk to these new startups and they pitch you a new idea. Yeah, yeah, whatever. You made up every number. All your assumptions are wrong. Whatever you’re doing today is wrong,” he says. “You will evolve and change. You either believe you will evolve, and you change ... or you don’t.” Perhaps it’s like the submarines. Abdur explained, in rudimentary terms, how the physics work: it’s like an airplane, where the lower pressure on the top of the wing and the high pressure on the bottom pushes the plane up. If you flip that upside down, you have a positively buoyant submarine. “If everything fails,” he says. “It floats back up.” Abdur will be returning to Fargo on March 6 as the keynote presenter for Startup Weekend Fargo. Everyone is invited to hear him share more about failure, success and submarines. Join Emerging Prairie at 4 p.m. at the Fargo Theatre for the free event. 45
ADVICE
before
By Nate Mickelberg Photos by Paul Flessland and courtesy of Everything Has a Home 46
MARCH 2016
Clear That Office Clutter
12
Tips from a PROFESSIONAL ORGANIZER
W
e’ve all been there. You have a busy week at the office, things start piling up on your desk, and before you know it, your workspace looks like a tropical storm just swept through. Have no fear, though, because professional organizer Amy Kobrinsky is here. Kobrinsky is the owner of Everything Has a Home, a professional organizing service in Fargo, and she wants to share with you 12 tips for keeping your workspace tidy and functional.
1. after
First and foremost, prepare yourself for the hidden budget that will inevitably pop up when getting organized. Totes, office supplies, shelves, it all adds up.
2.
Inboxes! Set up a “home” for each of your important document categories.
3.
Store things digitally AND have one spot in the entire office that keeps the paper copy. My suggestion would be with HR or the office manager’s office.
1.
2.
Sort
Purge
Zone and categorize
Let go of unnecessary clutter
ADVICE
Whether she’s working on a home or a business, Kobrinsky says she sticks to her proven, five-step organizational system:
3.
4.
5.
Assign
Compartmentalize
Equalize
Decide and plan
Everything has a home
Maintain the organization
after
4.
Two consistent folders I use are “Delegate” and “In Progress.” It clears the clutter off your desk but
before
does not get forgotten.
5.
Zone out work areas. Maybe you have a credenza or a conference table that is used specifically for filing, sorting or assigning.
6.
File weekly. Force yourself to schedule out two hours every week to devote solely to paperwork.
7.
Assign discard dates on items that seem iffy. If you haven’t used or even thought about it when the date rolls around, it’s time to get rid of it.
8.
Use height to your advantage. If you don’t have a lot of room to work with, stack inboxes, hang mail sorters and utilize bulletin boards.
9.
Label and color code wherever you can. It might seem obvious, but it’s a simple system, it’s fun and it makes your life so much easier.
10.
Choose a simple desktop background for your computer. Busy = clutter, clutter = stress and stress = low productivity.
11.
Don’t leave important items inside their envelopes. When you open mail, place the document(s) inside the inbox assigned to your weekly filing session.
12.
If you’re interested in either professional or personal organizational services: Amy Kobrinsky Owner, Everything Has a Home amy@everythinghasahome.com Fargo 701-238-9030
Don’t store items inside of other items that can be used for storage. For example: bags inside of bags inside of totes. And remember, everything has a home! 49
ADVICE
WHY SLEEP
Is Good for Business By Andrew Jason | Graphics by Sarah Geiger
F
or some reason, in the U.S., it seems like people are proud of how little sleep they can operate on. Motivated businessmen and women brag about how many hours straight they can work or how little sleep they can function on. Dr. Seema Khosla, the medical director for the North Dakota Center for Sleep, wants to change that. “The first shift I took as an internal medicine intern, I had been up for 40 hours and I fell asleep at a stop sign and somebody had to beep their horn to get me to go,” Khosla recalls. “I was so proud of myself for years. I was like, ‘I’m a good doctor. I do great for my patients.’ It wasn’t until years later I realized how terrible that is.” Dr. Khosla wants you to put down the work, turn off the phone and get to bed at a reasonable time. These are some of the top things she wants you to know.
Dr. Seema Khosla Medical Director North Dakota Center for Sleep
2.
1.
Flexible Hours
Most businesses are structured around a schedule of 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. However, according to Khosla, a study a couple of years ago showed that many people’s circadian rhythm – the body’s natural clock – isn’t set to this timeframe. “There’s some work showing that if we time somebody’s work schedule to their circadian rhythm, then you hit them at their most productive time,” Khosla says. “If you let them come in a bit later, they’ll probably be a bit more efficient.” Khosla believes that having flexible hours for employees can be beneficial to the productivity of the company.
Change Your Nightly Schedule
You’re probably doing your whole nightly schedule wrong. Khosla recommends not using electronics two hours before bed. She also closely monitors her children’s screen time to make sure they don’t spend too much time on devices. Among Khosla’s recommendations for things to do before going to sleep are: yoga, meditation, a warm bath or reading. “Unfortunately, we’re in a culture where people take a pill to wake up and a pill to go to bed,” she says. “We’re kind of eliminating that natural need to have that downtime.”
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3.
You’re Tired for a Reason
Khosla remembers a story that most people in the Red River Valley can relate to. “I trained in the south, and when I moved to Grand Forks, I remember one day in February being in the ICU and asking one of the nurses, ‘Why is everybody so cranky?’ she says, ‘Because it’s February and we need sun.’ It was such an offhand remark that I didn’t think anything of it, but years later, I reflected on it and it’s true.” From November to March, it's possible that you'll be working the entire time the sun is out. This can throw off your sleep. Khosla recommended buying a light box that will give you vitamin D. However, there is another light that you need to be aware of, too …
4.
Turn Off Your Phone
Phones have some wonderful uses. They've been shown, though, to be detrimental to our sleep. The blue light from your phone can be awful for your sleep pattern. There is some evidence that suggests that cheap orange glasses will help block some of that blue light. These glasses can be easily purchased online.
ADVICE
5.
Getting Stuck in Your Head
6.
“We all want to excel at what we do,” Khosla says. “We want to be good parents. We want to be good at work. We want to do all of these things well, and so it’s natural to have those fears and concerns. But you still need to be in control of it. You get to drive. You don’t need to let all those thoughts drive you. That takes training.”
“If you’re reaching for that Rockstar at one o’clock in the afternoon, you probably really need to reflect on, 'How much sleep did I actually get last night?'” she says.
It’s happened to everybody out there. You lay down after a long day and are all set for a good night’s sleep, but all of the day’s problems start to race through your mind. Soon, you become so fixated on all those problems that a good night’s sleep is out of the question. Khosla said there are behavioral therapy programs for this problem. A lot of it has to do with meditation and focusing on something else. Khosla even recommended that you set aside worry times right after supper, where you write down the issues so you get the concerns out of your mind.
About
Precision Diagnostic Services
Kick the Caffeine
The coffee pot can easily become the most popular place in the office, which is fine at 8 a.m. However, Khosla warned that people should be wary of the amount of caffeine they’re consuming throughout the day. She recommended cutting yourself off from all types of caffeine six to eight hours before bed.
About 20 years ago, while working as a respiratory therapist, John Lund realized that sleep testing wasn’t something that many rural North Dakota hospitals were offering. In 1998, he and his partner started Precision Diagnostics Services. As the parent company of the ND Center for Sleep, PDS works with hospitals around North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin and elsewhere in providing technical assistance. What happens is, a patient goes into their hospital and will do a sleep study. PDS will then provide technical assistance and read all of the charts and data from the sleep study and then do a teleconference with the patient and staff of the hospital. PDS was a pioneering company in doing teleconferencing, doing it as early as 1999. pdssleep.com
4152 30th Ave. S, Ste. 103, Fargo
877-877-1267
53
ADVICE
Q Mentor Meetup:
A
Mission First, Donor-focused
By Nate Mickelberg | Photos by J. Alan Paul Photography
54
MARCH 2016
ADVICE
T
world of fundraising, while often complex and he ambiguous, is an inevitability in the nonprofit world. It's the lifeblood of the industry, after all. This month, we sat The Arc of Cass County Assistant Director Kati Nelson down with Impact Foundation Fellow and FundingLogic Co-creator Scott Holdman to talk business-centered nonprofit fundraising. The Arc of Cass County provides advocacy and educational programs for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Impact Foundation offers resources that equip social and businesses entrepreneurs to accomplish their missions. FundingLogic empowers do-gooders to raise the funds they need to make a difference through training resources and group or oneon-one coaching.
ABOUT
Q KATI NELSON The Arc of Cass County Assistant Director Kati Nelson
A SCOTT HOLDMAN Impact Foundation Fellow and FundingLogic Cocreator Scott Holdman
Q&A Kati Nelson: Should we be focusing our resources only on businesses we work with – people who do our plumbing, our banking, etc. – or should we go to businesses that are known in the community to be charitable and fight with all the other nonprofits to be seen? Scott Holdman: Where we like to start is with what we call constituent mapping. We start by naming the audiences that are interested and are affected by our mission, and we start mapping out who’s closest to us and who’s a little bit further out.
We call those first, second and third tier relationships. So who is out there that aligns with the work that we do and would support us? And so your question is, inside of that audience, what about corporations, specifically, and the question of which ones and where to go. Here’s what I recommend is to frame this as, when it comes to contributions to an organization, there are two pockets of supporters. There is a donation pocket and an investment pocket. And one way you could look at that is, you’re raising money from the car dealership or the car owner. The car dealership would 55
ADVICE COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE NEXT
Q&A be more of an investment, because there is a marketing outcome attached to the gift, versus a donation, which is, ‘You’re putting my values into action and I support the good work that you do.’ And when you’re talking about corporations, it becomes a little bit blended because we have to be able to have an offering that is both a contribution, as well as an investment for them, because the business is the entity, instead of a single person or family. And so certainly, the vendors you work with is a good place to start, and with them – pick three of them – just put together a rough draft of a corporate giving program that you think would be aligned with them, specifically, and then go make a presentation and ask them what their thoughts are. So you can say, ‘We’re starting this corporate giving program for the Arc – telling your compelling story – and then ask them for feedback. Because one of the things we don’t want to do is make up other people’s minds, because we really don’t know where they’re at. So let’s get some information that allows us to define and refine what it is we want to build in a corporate giving program. KN: What is best for the business when they’re getting approached for the first, second, third time? Initially, do they want a letter? Is it better to stop in and visit? Do they prefer a scheduled appointment? SH: Be extremely respectful about who they are and how they operate. It’s different for all organizations. The only thing that makes success in fundraising is being consistent. It’s not five corporations, it’s, we need to talk to 10, 20. We need to get out in front of a lot of them. And we need a process that fits with our ethos and who we are. Some people prefer a letter, some
The Arc of Cass County LOCATION 215 University Dr. N, Fargo PHONE 701-293-8191 WEB arccassnd.com
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people like a phone call, some people like you dropping in. The truth is, you really don’t know until you get to know them. So then your question might be, ‘Well, how do I start?’ You just get movement. Do whatever is most comfortable for you. We’ve had organizations have a lot of success by just dropping in and saying, ‘Who is the best person I can talk to about your organization’s corporate giving program?’ Or even just picking up the phone and calling them or emailing them and trying to get a name or a contact. And one thing you can do, too, is work with your board or other staff members, asking, ‘Does anyone know this person well?’ And even if they don’t, you’re going to contact them anyway, but it just helps to have a little bit of a collaborative session about what’s the best way to approach this person.
of a sponsorship, I would recommend not waiting until the next year to have any sort of communication. Specifically if they sponsor something, let them know what the turnout was, send them some highlights, a photo of the event, a handwritten note. Tell them ‘thank you’ and tell them that it was because of them that you were able to do this and what the net result was. We want to have contact with them three or four times a year, and we want to increase the personalization. The No. 1 reason why somebody stops giving or doesn’t increase their giving is that they don’t feel personally connected. KN: Should that personalization be aimed at our contact at a company or the company itself?
KN: We’ve gotten that a lot in the past, companies saying they’ve already made their donations for the year or they’re not ready to make their donations for the year. So is it better to ask at the beginning of their fiscal year or at the end, when they’re trying to use up the rest of their funds?
SH: To the person you’re working with and to the (company). You can decide how to do this. There’s a bit of alchemy involved here because what you want it to look like is that this is not mass but rather that this is, 'We are greatly appreciative of your support as an organization,' and specifically naming the person is helpful. The central point is to make them feel that you thought about this and that you are authentic and genuine in your communication with them. What tends to happen in fundraising is we really tend to overthink it into a set of practices and standards of how it really needs to be done, and really, it just needs to be an authentic channel between your organization and whoever your donor or sponsor is.
SH: The best way to do that is to have an ongoing system and not consider it so linear. What you want to do is develop a caseload for all of your donors and supporters, including your corporations, where you’re in contact with them more than once a year. So after somebody gives a gift
For instance, there was a group of nuns who had received a gift, and instead of writing just one ‘thank you’ note, one of them said, ‘How about we each write one?’ And there were about 20 of them I think, and then they mailed a ‘thank you’ note every day for 20 days. It’s mission first, donor-focused.
And for some of those corporate giving programs, you’ll want to recognize that a lot of them have a cycle. And so you may not be this year, you may be the next year. And just be aware of that when you’re making your presentation.
Impact Foundation
LOCATION 4141 28th Ave. S, Fargo PHONE 701-271-0263 WEB impactgiveback.org
Funding Logic
WEB fundinglogic.com
ADVICE
By Andrew Jason | Photo by Paul Flessland
Dan Hicks
LOCAL LEADER:
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Commercial Real Estate with Property Resources Group
E
ntrepreneurship is in Dan Hicks's blood. During high school, in his hometown of Milbank, S.D., Hicks started subcontracting for his brother’s construction company. It was in college, though, that he really took off. After he moved out of the dorms, Hicks and four of his friends were looking to rent a house. Hicks decided to buy one instead, and he was hooked. He ended up buying an apartment complex after that and has stuck with real estate for the last 10 years, where he now works as a commercial realtor at Property Resources Group. We caught up with him to answer some of the most pressing questions about commercial real estate.
ABOUT PROPERTY RESOURCES GROUP
ADVICE
Dan Hicks is a commercial realtor at Property Resources Group. You can find more information about him at propertyresourcesgroup.com.
Q & A When is it time to buy versus rent? That topic alone could be three pages, but the biggest thing on buying and renting comes down to time and capital. The time frame is based on uncertainty. If the company’s a startup, is it going to be successful? Is it going to outgrow the space? Is it going to move cities? If you don’t know all those answers, it’s best to lease rather than to lock yourself into a large investment. The second piece of the puzzle is capital. Buying takes a lot more up-front money, so you need 20 or 30 percent down on a deal. So a) you have to have it and b) you have to decide if you would be better off using that money and investing it into the business rather than tying it up in a building. Depending on the age of your company, oftentimes, the capital is better used for expanding, growing and other resources rather than locking it into a building. Those are the two primary factors, but over the long run, it’s usually cheaper to own if you’re in the same spot for around seven years. When you start factoring in all of the numbers, if you’re under five and you’re unsure, it’s best to lease for that period of time.”
If I come to you and say, "I need to find some space to buy or lease." What would be the questions that you ask me and how do you start that search? It comes back to the needs and wants. I want to know if you’re an office user, your number of employees, parking you need additional to employees. Whether it’s a destination office where you have clients coming in so you need something nicer or if it’s something that’s just employees. Where is your workforce located? Are most of your people in this section of town? If you go to industrial space, some people will call up and say, ‘I need 5,000 square feet of warehouse.’ I could spend two days showing them 5,000-squarefoot warehouse spaces, but if they tell me, ‘I need a 14-foot overhead door to get my equipment in, I need a loading dock and I need two acres of yard space,’ I can show them three. There’s a ton of property available, but when you really narrow it down to what works for you, it usually slims it down to a handful. Can I get funds from a landlord to help me with my construction costs? Most of the time, that answer is 'yes.' With new construction, for example, most landlords who are going to build you an office space already have allocated X amount of dollars toward tenant improvements. It varies from
This complete commercial real estate brokerage and property management firm has multiple divisions, including farmland sales, residential lot sales and residential management. propertyresourcesgroup.com 4265 45th St. S. Ste. 200, Fargo
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TIPS FROM HICKS
One of the main resources is developing a good team. The primary team in commercial real estate is a commercial real estate agent, a real estate attorney and a good accountant.
property to property, and it’s usually advertised right with the lease. How much does the realtor assist the buyer with any zoning or city permitting processes? It depends on the buyer’s level of experience. Most need or want help, but some have been there or done it 100 times. Quite often, agents will step in and help with that process because, a lot of times, the deal is contingent on whatever they need to be approved by the city. If that doesn’t happen, they don’t buy. To help facilitate the process, you need to be involved. Sometimes, that’s just providing the research and information
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Find a good attorney. Commercial real estate transactions revolve around contracts, whether it's a purchase agreement, lease agreement, option agreement or dozens of others. The difference is in the details. Agents are able to offer opinions on these documents, but they are not attorneys. A single word can change the meaning of a contract. You should always have an attorney look things over before you sign.
for them. Other times, that’s going to the meetings and pleading the case with them or for them. It’s an individual decision on how much you help in that process. It is beneficial for all parties if you do take part in it. Oftentimes, the person you’re helping has another job or business. It’s not their primary focus to figure out what they need to do to make this work on this piece of land. That’s why they called you. What are some of the biggest issues you’ve seen with zoning and permit issues? A lot of it, I would say, stems from type of use. A good example would be this morning I was working on a deal where they need an office showroom
Almost all real estate transactions have tax implications, whether good or bad. Most agents can put you on the right path. However, they usually don't know your income, if you have bought, sold other property that year, the financial status of your business. Accountants take all that into consideration when advising whether to buy, sell, lease or take a loss or gain in a given calendar year.
Quite often, commercial real estate, including leasing is the largest investment in a person’s life. It is best when the client, realtor and attorney work together. Develop those relationships before it becomes a last-minute deal.
type of setup. That works in general commercial. They need an office and showroom, but they also store a lot of their products outside. They sell bulky products so there are storage yards and equipment. Now you fall into industrial. The industrial’s usually off the beaten path, so they want the showroom on the higher traffic spot, but they can’t store their stuff there. A lot of times, it’s a process of getting a variance, so the city may say, ‘Okay, we’ll allow you to do that plan there, but you have to fence in the whole lot and screen it from public view.’ Most of the time, it comes down to the intended use or what the person has in mind doesn’t fit the land code.
STARTUPS
S ' T E
G N I D N A T S GET By Nate Mickelberg Photos by J. Alan Paul Photography and courtesy of Fargo Made
I
f you’ve ever shopped for a standing desk, you know you’re typically faced with a decision: that continuing pain in your back or a pain in your wallet. Two Fargo entrepreneurs want to eliminate that decision for you.
During the day, Tucker Richardson and Mikhael Teryohin work at Fargo electronics manufacturer Appareo Systems, and for the last eight months, they’ve been moonlighting as cofounders of their new startup, Fargo Made. Fargo Made’s flagship product is what they believe is an affordable alternative to the nearly $1,000 standing solutions often seen in furniture stores and online, and we recently sat down with them to learn a little more about the desk and why switching to one is like going on a diet.
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Fargo Made Cofounder Tucker Richardson
Fargo Made Cofounder Mikhael Teryohin
STARTUPS
It seems like the biggest barrier to standing desk having mass appeal is the price. Is that fair?
Tucker Richardson: That has
a lot to do with the fact that they have moving parts, typically, and people think or assume that they need a desk that goes up and down. That they can use their current chair and transfer up and down. The other thing is that furniture has huge margins. Like if companies were to – rather than buying regular cubes, initially, if they were to incorporate stand-up stations in their initial purchase in their furniture, it probably wouldn’t be that much extra.
Mikhael Teryohin: It’s also kind
of a niche product. They’re still not that widely used. Most desks that people get from Ikea or otherwise – they’re just normal desks. You don’t get standing desks. So there isn’t particle board made for high-level tables, so it’s not mass-produced. If you go to the quality side, furniture is expensive. So a nice, quality table that’s normal height is going to be about the same as a high table. But like Tucker said, if a standing desk has moving parts, that makes it quite a bit more expensive because it’s more complex. Why do you think they haven’t caught on, culturally?
TR: It’s like going on a diet almost. It's a
big commitment. You set that thing up and what if you just decide you don’t want to do it anymore or you feel stupid being that guy? It’s a commitment. You’re making a lifestyle change. It’s just like deciding you’re going to go on a workout regimen or that you’re going to change your diet.
MT: It’s also tradition to sit at a table to
work. Tables were made so families could sit around to eat. Eventually, people were writing on tables. And then, once we got computers, people just kept working at that table. They didn’t realize that being hunched over a table is bad. So now
The Sven (black) and Ole (white) are made of aluminum, assemble in about 30 seconds and will retail for $200.
people are realizing the effects on your body are really bad. So standing makes more sense. But again, like anything, change is hard.
TR: I don’t think people realize how
detrimental it is to your body. It’s becoming more well known, but they don’t know what normal feels like (anymore). They think, 'This is just how life feels.' To be fair, what are some of the downsides to standing for eight hours a day?
TR: There are some joint problems. Not
problems but concerns. If you were to ask a chiropractor who really knows what he’s talking about or an occupational or physical therapist, they would say you probably shouldn’t stand for eight hours a
day without an ergo mat. And you should also probably spend some time sitting.
MT: Walking throughout the day is
important. Any excuse you can come up with to walk somewhere, move around. You don’t want to lock your knees. If you have hard shoes, yeah, that’s going to make it harder. Like Tucker said, an ergo mat helps. You do have to do it right. You can’t just lock your knees and stand there and think you’re going to get better.
TR: The other thing is – and this is a
difference between our product and a lot of others – is, ergonomically, you need to set everything up properly. Things need to be right. You want your screen at the top of your eyes and you want the screen
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about 20-30 inches away from your face. You want your arms at 90 degrees. But it’s shocking how much an inch or two in the wrong direction can make a difference. Take us through how the idea for the desk was born.
MT: The way it started is we sit next to
NEXT
each other at work, and we’re always throwing ideas back and forth. And we probably just started complaining about sitting all the time and wanting a standing desk, wanting a standing solution. So we started thinking about getting a standing desk but started looking out there and everything’s really expensive. Upwards of $350 for the cheapest.
TR: There’s less expensive ones, but the
quality’s not there. So there’s the onepiece standing desks that don’t move – there’s some of those out there. But they’re not ergonomically friendly. People use them, but then they get rid of them because they’re not set up right or they don’t actually put things at the right angle. If you stand and things aren’t right, you’re going to end up sitting because you aren’t comfortable. And then if you want something that moves up and down – which isn’t necessary – that’s $350 and that’s just the
desktop style. And then if you want to go with something that’s a full desk, that lets you get rid of your cubicle, I don’t even know where you start there, $600-$800 probably. How are you able to offer a similar or higher quality product at the price point you do ($200)?
TR: Cutting the middle men out, so you’re buying it from us. You don’t have three layers of margin on top. And then it’s basically three very simple processes. It’s the laser-cutting process, break press
and paint. Throw in the packaging I guess and you’ve got four and then shipping is five. But I mean, the product is born in three processes.
MT: It’s really simple. It’s a single material. You don’t need any other bolts or any other parts. It starts with a sheet of aluminum and from there, we get the complete, finished product.
TR: There’s probably seven or eight
people in Fargo alone who can laser cut. You send them this one file and it’s like a cookie cutter. They can cut whatever shape you want. And it gives you this huge range of capabilities. And it took a while to find the right supplier to get the right pricing. So there’s that, and then, you throw three processes at something, you get prices down. Let’s talk about the design of the desk itself. Did you guys identify any obvious flaws with the design of other standing desks that you wanted to fix?
TR: The main focus was making sure we
could provide an ergonomic solution for heights of a wide range. Maybe you raise the monitor up, but it wasn’t made so that it could go high enough for everybody. And it forced people to have the screen at a certain distance.
MT: Especially if you’re talking about
The Sven & Ole in action
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just a flat tabletop, the screen and the keyboard are going to be at the same level. And that’s usually wrong, because the screen ends up being lower. And you end up looking down. So having that angle and having that difference, there’s better distance. It’s more ergonomic.
TR: The other thing is the fact that it’s
one setup. It’s configurable. It’s not really adjustable. You kind of have to take a deep dive in to some different concepts to really understand why that’s so much better and different from what’s out there. So that went in to our design, too, but it’s more of a conceptual thing. A different path, as opposed to, 'Ours are better for this reason.' People think they need this adjustable work surface when, in reality, you could just have a tall chair or a bar stool and sit in that and then, all of a sudden, you want to stand? Just stand up. You want to sit? Sit. Work surface stays the same, right? At first glance, it seems like there’s not a ton of desk space. Was that intentional, given the fact that a majority of work these days is done on screens and devices?
MT: The design effort was to fit a
keyboard and a mouse. We weren’t thinking about the photographer who has a bigger pad or somebody with a notepad on there, writing stuff. But it is feedback that we’ve gotten, and we might make the bottom shelf a little longer.
TR: When you’re going to design
something and really go for a costeffective, quality solution, which rarely happens – you rarely get quality and cost at the same time. You have to decide, specifically, how you want it to be used. And we decided we wanted a keyboard, we wanted a mouse and we wanted two monitors. And that’s what we designed it for. And that’s how we got the cost.
MT: And then it also proves whether
people want your product. People start thinking, ‘Oh, everybody wants this,’ and maybe nobody wants it. And then you’re throwing away a lot of money. So this way, it’s a safe option. It’s a great marketing platform.
TR: If you’ve got no capital, it’s a really
great option. You get this great market research basically for free, and you can take that and make decisions off it. Where are you planning to sell the desks?
TR: We’ll sell them online, and then
our plan at the moment is to develop a distribution channel through chiropractors – partner up with chiropractors and set them up in their shops and stock if they want. And just produce orders if they want. Maybe talk to teachers, schools, other businesses, offices. There’s also Amazon, Touch of Modern. This product would be awesome for that.
MT: For the chiropractic stuff, Tucker
went to a chiropractor after using the desk, as well as our friend, and the chiropractor said, ‘This is the best I’ve seen you yet.’ Just because they’re standing. So we’re getting results.
TR: We haven’t talked to a chiropractor yet who doesn’t like the stand.
Why did you decide to go the Kickstarter route?* *Fargo Made recently finished a successful Kickstarter campaign in which they raised more than $10,000 from 71 backers.
TR: You can always front yourself,
right? There’s a huge marketing aspect to Kickstarter. It carries a defined message. You say, 'I’m doing a Kickstarter,' and people instantly understand what you’re doing. And then it’s about your story and you can sell yourself. You can sell what you’re doing.
If you’re interested in purchasing a desk(s), you can contact Fargo Made directly: Tucker Richardson fargomade.com 218-329-3628 tucker@fargomade.com
CULTURE
OFFICE VIBES
Dakota Medical Foundation
Practicing
What They Preach By NATE MICKELBERG Photos by PAUL FLESSLAND
Dakota Medical Foundation
4141 28th Ave. S, Fargo
701.271.0263
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President Pat Traynor
Strategic Communications Director Tami Rust
dakmed.org
ach year, Dakota Medical Foundation helps hundreds of area charities and nonprofits spread the gospel of healthy living. So it’s that much more important that they live the message themselves. DMF Strategic Communications Director Tami Rust and President Pat Traynor showed us how the design of DMF’s South Fargo offices reflects and helps support the long-standing mission of the organization.
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A Shared Space
In just the last quarter of 2015, more than 4,000 people came through DMF’s facility – the most ever in a three-month period, according to Traynor. The DMF building not only houses their own staff of 15 but is also the home base of the Impact Foundation and the Alex Stern Family Foundation. One of the primary functions of the space is to provide area nonprofits – especially those that lack a physical location – with a place where they can meet with clients and donors, as well as hold meetings, presentations and various other functions.
Practical Exercise
The 2,500-square-foot event center has been used by more than 400 charities and thousands of people since DMF moved into its new space in March 2013. It can seat as many as 200 and is where DMF hosts many of its fundraising training programs, but Rust says it’s also become something of a makeshift track over the last couple years. “We have this brown carpet around the perimeter, and as it relates to wellness, this has kind of become our lap room. I think everybody thinks, ‘I can’t take time away from my productivity,’ but what you see in this room is people on their cell phones and working (at the same time).”
Au Naturale
When you walk into DMF, you’re greeted by soaring 26-foot ceilings and a Scandinavianinspired atrium flooded with natural light. This space is often used as an area dedicated to socializing before and after events held at the center. It’s also your first introduction, as a guest, to a couple of different elements seen throughout the building: standing-height work surfaces, as well as bowls of fresh produce.
Stand Up!
Almost every staff member at DMF uses some form of a standing workstation. Some people have a desktop add-on and others a standalone model. One workstation even features a working treadmill, so you can work and walk at the same time. One person in the office, after using the treadmill desk for a couple months, lost an entire inch off her waist. Traynor and Administrative Specialist Lana Foss both say they stand at least 90 percent of the day, and Traynor says his core has never been stronger. This “active work” approach has even made its way into meetings, with employees often standing or walking as they chat about the day’s business.
How DMF Came to Be CULTURE NEXT
DMF was formed in the 1960s by a group of Fargo physicians and community leaders as part of an effort to build a new hospital on Fargo’s growing south side. After operating for more than 30 years, Dakota Hospital was eventually sold to a for-profit organization, and, because of DMF’s nonprofit status, the proceeds from that sale could not go back into the pockets of the founding members. Because of this, the almost $100 million from the sale went into an endowment, the growth of which funds the majority of DMF’s efforts. DMF is not an active fundraiser itself, as it doesn’t believe in competing with the fundraising organizations it works to promote and assist.
NETWORKING
Giving Hearts Day Probably the best-known DMF initiative is the annual Giving Hearts Day. Now in its ninth year, Giving Hearts Day is a friendly online giving competition among local charities that takes place each February and is open to any nonprofit that wants to go through DMF’s training program and meet the pre-Giving Hearts Day fundraising requirements. Initially started as a fundraising event aimed at nonprofits with health and hospital backgrounds, Traynor explains why it quickly came to include a wider variety of causes. “We recognize that there are a lot of determinants to health that are beyond just funding health-related things,” he says. “Poverty, all sorts of things that give people purpose and are good for their mental health. And so we really believe that by opening it up to all charities, it really helps form a broader definition of health.” The growth of Giving Hearts Day 2008: $479,028 2012: $2,107,311 2016: $8,272,489 giving.impactgiveback.org
Fighting Noise with Noise
One unique piece of technology DMF has incorporated into its main office area is a series of white noise machines that line the walls. The idea behind them is to help mask the myriad distracting noises and conversations throughout an office space. Rust says that while it took a while to get them calibrated and find the right volume, they’re a very effective tool.
Clean Eating
DMF’s in-house kitchen functions as a training ground for contracted chefs to teach area school cooks how to prepare healthier meals in their cafeterias. DMF even has a contracted dietitian who provides schools and childcares recipe ideas and helps them meet federal food guidelines. Rust says the kitchen is also useful for those longer functions that organizations host at DMF. “The other nice thing about having this kitchen,” she says, “Is if somebody has an all-day meeting or a board meeting – the Anne Carlsen Center, for example – when they had a lengthy meeting here, they’ll break it up by having a healthy cooking demo in here. And they can weave it into an existing meeting.”
Getting Inspired
“We made all of our own art in here,” Rust says. “We want to set the tone that you’re coming here to innovate, you’re coming here to think big. We want to inspire people to think and stretch boundaries. People are in here and training through the facility and we want to send a message about the mindset we operate from.”
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NETWORKING
By Andrew Jason
The Ultimate Guide to
NETWORKING 1
FARGO MOORHEAD WEST FARGO CHAMBER OF COMMERCE fmchamber.com As the largest chamber of commerce in Minnesota and North Dakota, the FMWF Chamber hosts a variety of networking events. With events such as educational classes and Business After Hours, this is a must for any business professional.
From sustainability groups to deep thinking to food and drinks, Fargo-Moorhead has some great opportunities for you to get out there in the name of business.
WOMEN CONNECT 1 fmwfchamber.com/women_connect A program of the FMWF Chamber of Commerce, Women Connect hopes to inspire women in business by addressing unique challenges that professional women face today. They also have a small-group extension program called PUSH, which stands for pursue dreams, unite women, shatter barriers and have heart.
YOUNG NONPROFIT PROFESSIONALS NETWORK facebook.com/ynpnfargo With a mission of strengthening, promoting and advocating for the nonprofit and philanthropic sector in Fargo-Moorhead, the YNPN offers a variety of personal and professional development opportunities with speakers, workshops, discussions and more.
Events Women in Business: How to Embrace Being Dubbed a Mean Girl Tuesday, March 22, 3:30-6 p.m. Avalon Events Center
Events Watch Facebook page YOUNG PROFESSIONALS NETWORK 2 fmchamber.com/YPN An FMWF Chamber Program, YPN provides an opportunity to inform, involve and network for young professionals in town. They do this through a variety of fun networking events. The average age range is 25-35, and the annual cost is $35 for Chamber members and $60 for non-Chamber members.
Shattering Gender Barriers – Four Generations of Women in Our Community Tuesday, April 26, 3:30-6 p.m. Avalon Events Center
Events Learning to Lead Wednesday, March 9, 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m. Ramada Plaza & Suites Business After Hours Thursday, April 21, 4:30-6:30 p.m. Ramada Plaza & Suites
2
Events Networking to Business Lunch: Coaching Up and Down the Ladder Tuesday, March 15, 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m. Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Dakota
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T H E U L T I M A T E G U I D E T O NETWORKING
NEXT
CALENDAR
1 MILLION CUPS 3 emergingprairie.com/1-million-cupsfargo Dubbed the “church for entrepreneurs,” 1 Million Cups brings speakers together under one roof – usually The Stage at Island Park – to listen to presentations from area entrepreneurs. This weekly event is a prime networking event for those in the startup community.
4
Events 1 Million Cups Every Wednesday The Stage at Island Park (unless otherwise noted) GROUP THINK facebook.com/GROUPTHINKfargo This group is a monthly platform for public dialogue that hopes to discuss essential 21st century questions. The group meets the first Monday of the month in the evening at the Troll Bar at the Sons of Norway. The meeting involves 20 minutes of conversation between two dynamic speakers, followed by 20 minutes of group discussion. March 7 Sons of Norway
STARTUP DRINKS 4 emergingprairie.com/startup-drinks This monthly event hosted by Emerging Prairie gives businessmen and women the opportunity to network in a fun and casual setting. The free event includes appetizers from local caterers and a cash/credit bar. The event’s location switches from month to month. Events Startup Drinks March 10, 5:30-7:30 p.m. The Prairie Den
3
SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURS - THE FARGO GROUP Search “Social Entrepreneurs - The Fargo Group” on Facebook This grassroots group started about four years ago through the combined efforts of several social-minded entrepreneurs. Similar to 1 Million Cups, this group meets once a month on the first Tuesday of the month in the back room of Atomic Coffee in Downtown Fargo. March 1 Back room of Atomic Coffee
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WOMEN’S BUSINESS EXCHANGE 5 facebook.com/WBEFM WBE hosts events that provide an environment of leadership for today's professional women. Businesswomen are inspired to reach for and achieve their full professional potential through personal development, relationship building, business-to-business mentoring and networking. Events Business Development Through Mentoring – Now It's Your Turn March 7, 4:30-6 p.m. Usher’s House Business Through Conversation April 12, 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m. Usher’s House Business Through Conversation May 10, 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m. Usher’s House Business Through Conversation June 13, 4:30-6 p.m. Usher’s House
For more great networking events, see page 74 for our business events calendar.
FM SUSTAINABILITY NETWORK 6 facebook.com/fmsustainabilitynetwork The FM Sustainability Network was started as a way to connect community members interested in learning about the environment. They are a local “Green Drinks International” group and meet once a month to socialize, network, learn and collaborate. They typically start with appetizers and conversation and have a brief presentation from someone in the community. The topics and membership are diverse, and everyone is welcome. All events are from 5:306:30 p.m., and people can come and go as they are able. Events Ugly Food of the North March 14, 5:30-6:30 p.m. Prairie Den
5
AMERICAN ADVERTISING FEDERATION – NORTH DAKOTA aaf-nd.org One of 210 local affiliates of the AAF, the North Dakota branch is open to anyone in a communications-related field. One of their best events is the monthly member luncheons.
Fargo 2050 April 11, 5:30-6:30 p.m. Boiler Room Clay County Solid Waste May 9, 5:30-6:30 p.m. Clay County Landfill
Events Matt Wegerer: Creative Director/ Designer at Whisky Design March 15, 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m. Courtyard by Marriott Fargo-Moorhead
Audubon Dakota June 13, 5:30-6:30 p.m. Usher’s House Growing sacred and rare seeds and Worm Farming July 11, 5:30-6:30 p.m. Doubting Thomas Farms
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20/20 FARGO facebook.com/20.20Fargo The three main focuses of 20/20 Fargo are service, learning and networking. This group meets weekly at Drekker Brewing Company at noon on Tuesdays. They host a variety of unique events, such as last month’s brewery bus tour.
CALENDAR
1
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BUSINESS EVENT
CALENDAR 1 GEEK MEET FM
Meets the second Tuesday of each month, 6:30-8:30 p.m. This meetup is for geeks, nerds, hackers and everyone in between. The group was founded primarily on a common interest in diving deeper into web platforms, frameworks, technologies and best practices. The goal is to create a solid community where geeks can get together, get to know their peers and share their knowledge in an industry that is always changing. meetup.com/Geek-Meet-FM/
2 1 MILLION CUPS FARGO
Every Wednesday, 9:15-10:15 a.m. Join the vibrant entrepreneurial community of Fargo-Moorhead and Emerging Prairie by participating in an event filled with guest speakers, tons of coffee, ideas and excellent networking opportunities. 1millioncups.com/fargo The Stage at Island Park 333 4th St. S, Fargo
3 FARGO STARTUP WEEKEND
March 4-6 Some of the Red River Valley’s best developers, designers, marketers and other non-coders will be coming together to pitch their business ideas and work on launching their own business. If you have an idea you’ve been dying to get off the
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ground, this is the perfect time to do it. facebook.com/StartupweekendFargo Various locations
4 BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT THROUGH MENTORING: NOW IT’S YOUR TURN Monday, March 7, 4:30-6 p.m. Join the Women’s Business Exchange as they talk about how to implement mentorship into your life and business. Tickets are $25 for early registration or $30 at the door. facebook.com/WBEFM Usher’s House 700 1st Ave. N, Moorhead
5 GROUP THINK
Monday, March 7, 5:30 p.m. This group is a monthly platform for public dialogue that hopes to discuss essential 21st century questions. The group meets the first Monday of the month in the evening at the Troll Bar at the Sons of Norway. The meeting involves 20 minutes of conversation between two dynamic speakers, followed by 20 minutes of group discussion. facebook.com/GROUPTHINKfargo Sons of Norway 722 2nd Ave. N, Fargo
6 LEADING LADIES LUNCHEON
Wednesday, March 9, 11 a.m.-1 p.m. The Center for Technology & Business's Leading Ladies Luncheon will feature female panelists representing a variety of
historic roles in the state. The luncheon honors women who have made an impact on the history of North Dakota. The intent of the luncheon is to create an intimate experience, with audience participation and open discussion among the panelists about their experiences as women leaders of varying backgrounds. The event is open to the public, and everyone is invited to attend. trainingnd.com Holiday Inn 3803 13th Ave. S, Fargo
7 LEARNING TO LEAD
Wednesday, March 9, 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m. While many in leadership positions are born with some leadership qualities, most lead by what comes naturally but never develop into the leader they could be. At this session, Steve D. Scheel of SCHEELS will share with attendees proven habits that SCHEELS works hard to teach each of their 450 "leaders." Hosted by the FMWF Chamber of Commerce. Registration includes lunch and is $25 per person in advance and $35 at the door for Chamber members. $45 in advance and $55 at the door for non-members. fmwfchamber.com Ramada Plaza & Suites and Conference Center 1635 42nd St. S, Fargo
3 8 STARTUP DRINKS
Thursday, March 10, 5:30 - 7:30 p.m. Engaging conversations, connections and community building. That’s what Emerging Prairie’s monthly Startup Drinks is all about. This event is open to all people with an interest or involvement in the startup community in the Red River Valley. There’s a cash/credit bar for wine and beer and just good times in general and it is being hosted by Fargo INC! emergingprairie.com The Prairie Den 122 1/2 Broadway N, Fargo
9 UGLY FOOD OF THE NORTH
Monday, March 14th, 5:30-6:30 p.m. The FM Sustainability Network was started as a way to connect community members interested in interacting with others interested in the environment. Megan Myrdal and Gia Rassier from Ugly Food of the North will speak at this free event at the Prairie Den. facebook.com/fmsustainabilitynetwork Prairie Den 122 1/2 Broadway N, Fargo
10 1ST ANNUAL YEA! INVESTOR PANEL SHARK TANK
Wednesday, March 16, 5:30-7:30 p.m. Everyone is invited to attend and support the event of the year for the inaugural Fargo-Moorhead Young Entrepreneurs Academy. A panel of 12 investors from local businesses will hear pitches from
local middle school and high school students in a competition based on ABC’s “Shark Tank” series. Attendance is free, registration required. fmwfchamber.com Offutt School of Business - Concordia College 1104 7th Ave. S, Moorhead
11 AAF-ND’S MARCH LUNCHEON
SPEAKER: MATT WEGERER, CREATIVE DIRECTOR & DESIGNER AT WHISKEY DESIGN
Tuesday, March 15, 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m. aaf-nd.org/events Courtyard by Marriott Fargo-Moorhead 1080 28th Ave. S, Moorhead
12 WOMEN IN BUSINESS: HOW TO
EMBRACE BEING DUBBED A MEAN GIRL
Tuesday, March 22, 3:30-5 p.m. Jodi Duncan, president of Flint Communications, will cover how we can build a business culture that allows both men and women to have direct, fruitful conversations without being interpreted as mean or callous and still show that we are caring, connected human beings. $25 in advance and $35 at the door for Chamber members, $45 in advance and $55 at the door for non-members. fmwfchamber.com Avalon Events Center 2525 9th Ave. S, Fargo