Planting Seeds:
Cultivating Seeds Appropriate for Our Soil
Coolest thing about the boiling Indian summers is a large bucket filled with ice-cold mangoes. Ecstasy! The yellow Dasheri from early season, green Langra during the peak and the whitish Safeda with the monsoon, are among 30 “best in the world”. The pink-yellow Alphonso is the acclaimed “King”. The Americas also have around 500 varieties of mangoes. But with my palate, admittedly biased, the best of them are more appropriate to make pickles.
Similarly my Latin friends tear up when describing their love for guanabana. I had never heard of it.
My Fruit-snobbery has now shifted to apples; the most ancient fruit brought to North America from Asia and Europe. Relatives have now conceded that Honeycrisp, the Minnesota state fruit, even beats the Kashmiri best- Ambri. Washington State’s Red Delicious may be the “world’s favorite snack” but, for me, it is a source of fiber and nothing more.
The soil of a particular area is a mixture of minerals, organic matter and countless organisms. Together with climate, landscape and human practices, it favors a particular crop that is difficult to duplicate elsewhere. Minnesota spuds may never rival Idaho nor citrus from Florida. Our own strengths are in corn, the most valuable crop and soybean, our top export commodity.
Sir Arthur Tansley, a century ago, coined the term for this feature in ecology- ecosystem. James Moore, in the 1990s, applied this concept of ecosystems into economic activities. Biomimicry uses the proven examples from nature to show us solutions for our issues. It posits that each place has and needs to mobilize a random collection of elements to create its own distinctiveness.
Silicon Valley is known for starting and growing certain types of ventures. Simply copying and labeling it Silicon Alley, Silicon City, etc. may never get close to it or give us much advantage. Over the years local VC firms have left town to Sand Hill Road and others have set up local scouting branches to find and move top potentials to California. Exceptions like Arthur Ventures in Minneapolis and Great North Labs in St. Cloud are funded from the regional success of respective software companies. The Land of Lakes soil is not likely to be the right one for the Silicon Valley type VC model.
Minnesota, in its own right, is credited as the birthplace of various leading technologies. Local entrepreneurial firms, in the past, have led to the creation of entirely new industries that ended up changing the world. These include food technologies, computers, medical devices, healthcare delivery, educational technologies, retail and now 3-D printing.
It is a very broad set of competencies that have been a source of pride and vitality for the region. This is our strength and can provide our ongoing edge. Local expertise is available. So are mentors with deep and unique insights to counsel newcomers. Beneficiaries from past successes are more likely to be investors at an early stage. Seeds planted in this space can start with the local presence and grow well beyond for a global reach.
What we need is a concerted effort to create our special ecosystem that nurtures seeds in these specific areas and grows them into seedlings. When we do that, we will find opportunities/ideas at the intersection/permutation/combination of these technologies that can lead to even more new radical ones. This provides the competitive strategy to continue rejuvenation of our economy. I salute three efforts:
Angel Adams, Founder and CEO of Catchwind is focused on Medical Device, Biotech and Healthcare IT and incubates in this space.
Sarah Couenhoven Co-Founder of GIA Kitchen provides a state of the art commercial kitchen space for entrepreneurs developing their own Food businesses. She comes from having developed her own business in this space.
Dan Smithmier is CEO and Co-Founder of GoKart Labs. Being successful with his own venture in Educational Technology, his active incubator is a launch pad for new ventures in that space.
While these three have different business models, their commonality is the focus on developing ventures that are in MNstrengths.
Our scientists did not stop after developing over 24 varieties of apple that suited Minnesota climate perfectly. They have now created, my new favorite, the SweeTango. Should we not apply the same diligence to new ventures? Mother Nature tells us that it is sound practice to have many more seeds planted in the technologies of Minnesota’s proven strength.
This first appeared in Twin City Business Magazine September 2017. For other columns see Planting Seeds.
Dr. Rajiv Tandon is an advocate for the future of entrepreneurship in Minnesota. Facilitates peer groups and runs programs for propelling ideas into ventures (rajiv@mnexecutivegroup.com).
