The Power of Building Business

The surge in new businesses since the pandemic is going strong. The U.S. is averaging 430,000 new business applications per month this year, according to the U.S. Treasury. That’s 50% more than 2019 levels. In Minnesota, new business applications were up more than 26% in 2023, according to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. All signs point to this trend continuing, and when you read through our annual entrepreneurship issue you’ll understand why: a whole lot of Minnesotans who are determined to solve problems and working together to make it happen.

It’s no accident that you’ll find our annual Minnesota Family Business Awards in the same issue as StartMN, a section focused on innovation and entrepreneurship. You wouldn’t call the Opus Group or Pilgrim Dry Cleaners startups today, but that’s exactly what they were decades ago, when their Minnesota founders built them from the ground up into sustainable organizations that have been passed from one generation to the next.

And that’s what our cover star, Minneapolis entrepreneur Houston White, is working on today: building an enterprise bigger than himself to lift up his entire community—in particular, to create an environment where other Black professionals feel at home in Minnesota. That’s a mission that benefits large companies looking to retain talent as well as other aspiring founders.

There’s a lot of talk in startup circles about Minnesota’s aversion to risk and subsequent lack of capital, and about what more our network of Fortune 500s could do to support small businesses. White’s story shows how it’s happening, from U.S. Bank investing in his North Minneapolis real estate development and other enterprises to Target welcoming his products and creating shelf space for them nationwide.

One of my favorite examples of the creative way White partners with established companies is his relationship with Minneapolis-based Dogwood Coffee. The easy move in the aftermath of George Floyd’s murder would have been to put White’s name on a bag of Dogwood beans and call it a collaboration. But White told Dogwood founder Dan Anderson: “Don’t give me a donation.” And Anderson took it to heart. Instead, he opened the Dogwood roastery to White, easing the burden of starting The Get Down Coffee Co. And as the brand took off—it’s now sold at Target—Anderson encouraged White to move roasting operations into a vacant space right next door to Dogwood in Northeast Minneapolis. They cut a hole in the wall to stay connected, and the two separate entities describe themselves as siblings. Dogwood is not a partner in White’s coffee business, but Anderson says the gains for his company have been significant.

“It’s brought a richness to my staff,” Anderson says. “The cultural makeup of the shop is different than it was five years ago.”

Dogwood and The Get Down recently launched Sweet Renaissance Coffee Academy, a residency program that trains individuals from underrepresented populations in barista skills and coffee knowledge.

“This is so needed—coffee has been very monocultural,” Anderson says. “We’re all trying to build economically viable businesses.”

In this issue, you’ll also read about several Minnesota innovators working on climate change and clean energy advances. And you’ll hear from a couple of startup icons, Angie Bastian of Angie’s Boomchickapop, which sold to Conagra in 2017 for $250 million, and Janet Johanson, the founder of BevSource, a beverage development and production company in St. Paul, which ended 2023 with $300 million in annual revenue.

Both of these successful entrepreneurs have stepped away from the companies they built, and now they’re sharing their time, wealth, and expertise with other founders. Bastian chairs the board of Prospera Foods, a nonprofit that supports famers in Central America. Johanson, who stepped down as CEO of BevSource just a year ago, has set a bold personal vision: “to be the catalyst for a change in the lives of 1 million people. … By inspiring personal growth and resilience, we aim to ignite a ripple effect—encouraging others to join us on our mission to alleviate poverty, nurture successful entrepreneurs, and make the world a better place for everyone.”