We’re trying to do three things. First, we are creating access to capital through grants, angel tax credits and working with our investor community. Second, we’re increasing entrepreneurial knowledge on how to start and grow a business. And third, we hope to simplify the journey for our startups.

Our hub-and-spoke model creates a density of people, talent and resources in each of these regions and builds off the strengths of other organizations. Best practices and other statewide resources such as access to investors can be provided through these access spokes.

Sure. Let’s say you’re a mom in Ely, Minn., which is a small city on the edge of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness and historically home to several iron ore mines. She might have a full-time job, but she has this business idea for a new venture. Who does she turn to for mentorship? She can now connect to Carla Pavone at the Center for Entrepreneurship at the University of Minnesota. She can take a virtual class on lean startup models and get access to mentors she would have never had before.

In Minnesota, we have a plethora of amazing organizations and talented people who want to give back. We want to make sure they can, and in a collaborative and coordinated way. With our program, resources are maximized across the state so local businesses and entrepreneurs can get the knowledge they need.

With taxpayer dollars, we have to be fiscally responsible. So high-tech startups that receive our innovation grants have 12 months to seek private matching investment. It’s a nice way for our businesses to reach out to private investors and say, ‘I’ve received a grant from the state, would you be able to match this?’ It is a good way to leverage dollars and validate the businesses in the private sector.

We also created a grant called the Housing and Childcare Grant to help reduce that risk of entry in launching a new business. We know that launching a new business doesn’t come with the security of benefits and health insurance that these founders would have had if, say, they remained in a Fortune 500 company job instead of branching out on their own and launching a new venture. So we offer individual founders a $7,500 housing and childcare grant to offset those uncertainties.

We’ve only been operating a year, but we are proud of our progress. We’ve been able to get capital in the hands of startups, provide education to increase the knowledge of entrepreneurs and created a statewide network that simply didn’t exist before. We are looking at numerous metrics to measure progress. We hope that the grant dollars to startups would advance their business, for example: Were they able to move from idea formation to growth? Did they increase their revenue, hire new employees or consultants to round out their team, or acquire intellectual property?

I think the role of state government is to fill the gaps and to incentivize others to fill the gaps. Minnesota has a 25% angel investment tax credit which has spurred a great deal of investment. We’ve received very positive feedback on the benefits of this tax credit. Last year, we had $10 million that was fully allocated to investors. We were able to drive investment dollars from outside of Minnesota to support our businesses, which is phenomenal.

In Minnesota, we’re fortunate our governor and legislators allocated dollars to focus on the development of new technologies, startups and new ventures. Research shows it’s important for government to assist in fostering an innovation ecosystem. Government can play a unique role by being a neutral entity to connect and convene people to help drive change and take action. We hope our efforts will make it easier to start and scale new ventures in Minnesota. We’ve allocated funding to grants, tax credits, education and a clear path to navigate the wealth of resources.

In other words, Launch Minnesota aims to be the front door for startups, to get the connections to resources, access to funding and education they need to grow.