University of Minnesota Moment: Earth Land Surface Transformation

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[Announcer]: I'm Rick Moore with the University of Minnesota Moment. This month organizers have launched the second annual Minnesota Cup, a statewide contest designed to discover, support, and promote Minnesota’s newest and most innovative business ideas. Scott Litman, a graduate of the U’s College of Liberal Arts and successful entrepreneur, serves as co-chair of the Minnesota Cup. Litman says the contest connects winning Minnesota entrepreneurs with the state's leading business executives, investors, and the University of Minnesota.

[Litman]: There is this great history of entrepreneurship in our state, and one of the things that we really believe in is that we need to continue to foster an environment that is supportive and nurtures and brings entrepreneurs along. One of the things that’s powerful about this competition is that we have really the pillars of support for entrepreneurship in the state partnering up, which is the University of Minnesota, which is a center of business innovation; the state of Minnesota; and leaders in business like Wells Fargo. We believe that it’s critical to have all those elements working together to create a supportive environment for small business and entrepreneurship.

[Moore]: Dan Mallin, a graduate of the U’s Carlson School of Management and the Cup’s other co-chair, says there will be a special category for student entrepreneurs this year.

[Mallin]: One of the things we added this year is a student award or student category, so it’s the same entry and the same process, but students also have category that they’ll just be competing with other college students with less than five years’ business experience.

[Moore]: Minnesotans may submit their breakthrough business ideas at www.breakthroughideas.org.