Twin Cities
Startup Week

Where

Classroom C301

Bringing back a long-standing TCSW staple, Mentor Morning is an casual gathering space for founders and experienced business leaders to connect one-on-one, talk through real challenges, and build relationships that can continue beyond the week. Who should come: If you're a…

Where

Schulze Hall

In a world where AI has made everything faster and easier, it’s easy to think a computer can also write a serviceable brand strategy. But while AI does a great job of analyzing data and driving efficiencies, building a successful brand and creating compelling ways to connect…

Where

Schulze Hall

Session details coming soon.

Where

Macalester College

With Accredited Investors Wealth Management. Session details coming soon.

Where

Schulze Hall

Risk shows up in a startup in more places than cybersecurity alone. In this rapid-fire Ignite series, three speakers will each have five minutes to share one lesson on identifying and managing risks before they become expensive problems, followed by two minutes of audience Q&A.…

Where

Schulze Hall

Building a company rarely goes exactly as planned. Sometimes the market isn't responding, sometimes the business is growing in a direction you didn't expect, and sometimes what you built simply isn't the business you want to keep building. This panel brings together founders and…

Where

Classroom C301

Open to anyone attending Startup Week. You'll be paired up with other attendees for a series of quick, timed conversations — no awkward mingling, no standing around trying to figure out who to talk to. Just structured, low-pressure intros that rotate every few minutes. It's…

Where

Schulze Hall

Women are not just advocating for better healthcare, they are building it. Across research, care delivery, technology, and investment, women are creating new models designed around needs the traditional system has too often overlooked. This conversation will explore what it…

Where

University of St. Thomas Minneapolis

What happens when decades of startup mentoring experience meet AI? This is a hands-on workshop where you'll apply an AI mentoring framework to your own business, built by the MESA Mentor Group. Rather than relying on generic advice, you'll work through a model informed by the…

Where

Schulze Hall

You don't have to be a software engineer to start building with AI. In this fireside chat, Kathleen will share how she took an idea rooted in a problem she understood deeply and began turning it into a real product, despite not having a traditional coding background. Her…

Where

University of St. Thomas Minneapolis

Session details coming soon.

Where

Schultz Auditorium

Hear directly from founders who got some of their earliest exposure to entrepreneurship through student programs, in this case the MN Cup Student Division, then went on to build growing Minnesota companies. Founding teams from Minneapolis Cider Company, Refr Sports, and Charm…

Where

Schulze Hall

Building with AI in healthcare means working within an industry where speed and experimentation have to coexist with regulation, risk, clinical accuracy, and real-world usability. In this rapid-fire Ignite series, four speakers will each have five minutes to share one lesson…

The conversation doesn’t have to end when the session does. Speaker Office Hours create dedicated space for 1:1 support between speakers and attendees in a more personal, informal setting. Come ask the question you didn’t get to during Q&A, dig deeper into something you heard on…

Where

Schulze Hall

Growth looks different depending on what you're building. A strategy that works for a consumer product may fall flat in manufacturing, healthcare, or MedTech, especially when startups are navigating long sales cycles, complex buyers, regulated industries, and limited resources.…

Where

Schulze Hall

Social media has changed how companies find customers, but the old playbook of posting from a brand account and hoping people pay attention isn't working particularly well anymore. People follow people, algorithms determine what gets seen, and content that feels personal and…

Where

Schulze Hall

Meet the newest cohort of the Techstars Future of Food Powered by Ecolab accelerator and get an early look at what founders are building across the future of food. The accelerator invests in pre-seed and seed-stage companies working across the food value chain, including supply…

Where

LaSalle Plaza

For one evening, founders and mayors step away from the pitch deck and onto the podium to share their origin stories. 5 to 7 speakers from across the ecosystem will gather to share their stories, opportunities, and obstacles that sparked their most inspired initiatives. Every…

Where

Schulze Hall

There isn't one right way to fund a startup. This series of rapid-fire talks will look at different pieces of the capital stack and the decisions founders make about how to fund their companies as they grow. Speakers will bring perspectives from raising equity and non-dilutive…

Where

University Enterprise Labs (UEL)

Minnesota has one of the strongest healthcare and MedTech ecosystems in the country, and for one night during Twin Cities Startup Week, we're bringing as much of it together as we can. The Mega Med Social is a gathering for the people building, funding, supporting, and advancing…

Where

Improving Minneapolis

Registration for this event is handled by the host on the Atlassian Community Events page:

Where

LaSalle Plaza

Session details coming soon.

Where

Minneapolis College of Art and Design

A casual gathering for the people and organizations who organize, operate, and sustain programs, events, spaces, and resources that support innovation, startups, and technology in Minnesota. No agenda — come as you are, when you can. Our goal is to connect, share context and…

Where

Minneapolis College of Art and Design

ILT Startup Connect brings Starters, Connectors, and Collaborators together to learn, support, and inspire one another through the real stories and hard-earned lessons of people building what’s next. For this special Twin Cities Startup Week edition, we’re bringing together two…

Where

Minneapolis College of Art and Design

You're scrappy. You're moving fast. You and your cofounders wear multiple hats. That's not the problem. The problem is when building at AI speed creates quiet, expensive ways for someone to take over what you're building - and a single security failure can stop the company.…

Where

Minneapolis College of Art and Design

Twin Cities Podcast Studio started with three founders, an empty room, a lease, and no experience running a podcast studio. They signed the lease in September, brought in their first paying client by November, and were profitable within six months. In this talk, Karl Ness will…

Where

Minneapolis College of Art and Design

Crowdfunding can do more than raise money. For the right product, it can be a way to validate demand, take preorders before producing at scale, build an early customer base, and turn those customers into people who actively help spread the word. In this session, Valerie Blomberg…

Where

Minneapolis College of Art and Design (MCAD) — Entrepreneurship Center Student Lounge

Session details coming soon.

Where

Minneapolis College of Art and Design

Every founder thinks their startup is interesting. But getting journalists and the media to actually care is another matter. The panel will explore what founders really need to know about PR, media and communications: When should a startup start thinking seriously about PR? What…

Where

Minneapolis College of Art and Design (MCAD)

Deep tech companies face a different path from idea to market than most software startups. The technology may begin in a university, research lab, or highly technical field, but proving that it works is only one part of building a viable company around it. This panel will look…

Where

Minneapolis College of Art and Design

Building a business affects much more than your work. It can change your relationships, your routines, how you spend your time, and even how you define success for yourself. This panel brings together women founders for a candid conversation about the parts of entrepreneurship…

Where

Minneapolis College of Art and Design

Your pitch deck is complete. You are dressed for the occasion. Now prepare your voice, your body, and your authentic self. Learn quick, accessible theatrical techniques to manage nerves, strengthen your presence, connect with your audience, and land your pitch with impact and…

Where

Minneapolis College of Art and Design (MCAD)

Hosted by Diamond Resilience x Blacks in Technology x Cryptic Institute. Session details coming soon.

Where

Minneapolis College of Art and Design

During this shared showcase, meet student entrepreneurs from Minneapolis College of Art and Design (MCAD) and St. Catherine University and get a look at the ideas, ventures, and creative projects they’ve been bringing to life through their respective entrepreneurship programs.…

Where

Minneapolis College of Art and Design (MCAD)

This panel is focused on helping founders understand federal resources, funding pathways, and commercialization opportunities they may not realize they have access to. Brought to you by Brown Venture Group & Federal Mashup Labs, this talk will be featuring representatives who…

Where

Minneapolis College of Art and Design

Finding your first customers usually isn't about doing more outreach. It's about knowing who you're trying to reach, where you're most likely to find them, and having a process for turning conversations into actual opportunities. This workshop will help early-stage founders…

Where

Minneapolis College of Art and Design

It’s easier than ever to turn an idea into something real. But moving faster doesn’t necessarily mean you’re building the right thing. Before founders invest in prototypes, engineering, manufacturing, or AI-generated code, there are critical decisions that determine whether a…

Where

Minneapolis College of Art and Design

Some of the world's most enduring musicians have spent decades doing many of the same things founders and leaders are asked to do: perform under pressure, build fiercely loyal teams and audiences, reinvent themselves as the world changes, collaborate with different…

The conversation doesn’t have to end when the session does. Speaker Office Hours create dedicated space for 1:1 support between speakers and attendees in a more personal, informal setting. Come ask the question you didn’t get to during Q&A, dig deeper into something you heard on…

Where

Minneapolis College of Art and Design

Founders often know they need to create more marketing content but get stuck trying to figure out what to say. The answer may already be inside the business: why you started it, what your customers experience, how you work, what you've learned, what you believe, and the moments…

Where

Minneapolis College of Art and Design

Moving an AI product from prototype to production introduces problems that aren't always visible while you're building it. This panel will look at some of the most common ones: infrastructure that needs to support AI at scale, unexpected behavior and bias in AI outputs,…

Where

Minneapolis College of Art and Design

Following Federal Funding Mechanisms You Didn’t Know You Had Access To, stick around to strengthen the connections that make those pathways possible. Meet founders, federal funding experts, researchers, ecosystem partners, and others working to turn innovation into…

Where

Minneapolis College of Art and Design

When should a founder actually bring in a lawyer, and what should you have figured out before you do? Join Avisen Legal for a practical conversation about the legal decisions that show up as a company moves from idea to startup to growing business, including formation,…

Where

Minneapolis College of Art and Design

What does it take to build a business that creates meaningful impact and actually works in the real world? Educators from St. Catherine University join local business leaders to explore how interdisciplinary entrepreneurship addresses pressing environmental challenges. The panel…

Where

Minneapolis College of Art and Design

Early-stage founders have to make a lot of go-to-market decisions before they have the budget or team to do everything the “right” way. What positioning work actually matters right now? What can you do yourself? When do you need a salesperson? Which parts of your marketing can…

Where

The Market At Malcolm Yards

Registration for this event is handled by the host on Eventbrite:

Where

Minneapolis College of Art and Design (MCAD)

BETA helps Minnesota’s early-stage founders move their companies forward through accelerator programming, mentorship, connections, and access to the broader startup ecosystem. The BETA Showcase brings those founders and their companies directly to the community. Throughout the…

Where

Macalester College

What if you didn't have to figure out who to talk to at a networking event? Let us make the introductions for you. This is an experimental form of live networking where everyone in the room will be matched in real time based on shared values, interests, and what they're hoping…

Where

Macalester College

Building the right board and advisor bench can be one of the highest-leverage moves an early-stage founder makes, and one of the easiest to get wrong. This panel brings together experienced founders and investors to talk through how to identify the right board members and…

Where

Macalester College

Successfully implementing AI is as much about the people and systems around the technology as the technology itself. This panel will look at how organizations can introduce AI in ways that reflect how people actually work, where human judgment and connection still matter, and…

Where

Macalester College

There comes a point when doing everything yourself stops being scrappy and starts holding your company back. But building beyond yourself doesn't necessarily mean immediately hiring a team or raising a round. This panel is for founders navigating that transition from "I can do…

Where

Macalester College

Raising money is only half the equation. The other half is knowing what to actually expect from the people who back you - whether that's an angel writing your first check or a VC leading your seed round - and how to pick investors who'll show up for you later, not just write a…

Where

Macalester College

Strong entrepreneurial ecosystems don't happen just because resources, programs, and people exist in the same place. They grow when people intentionally build connections across communities, make it easier for entrepreneurs to find the people and resources they need, and create…

Where

Macalester College

When sales aren't growing, the problem isn't necessarily sales. You might be talking to the wrong buyer, struggling to explain why they should care, losing people somewhere in your funnel, failing to turn interested prospects into actual customers, or leaving revenue on the…

Where

Macalester College

During this showcase, meet student entrepreneurs from Macalester College’s Department of Entrepreneurship and Innovation and get a look at the ideas, ventures, and projects they’ve been bringing to life. Macalester’s entrepreneurship programs are built around turning bold ideas…

Where

Macalester College

Join us in the Investor Arena to watch top early-stage founders pitch their startups to investors from Gopher Angels, Capita3, Bread & Butter Ventures, Mairs & Power Venture Capital, and Idea Fund. This is for: Founders: See what the process is like, from constructing and…

Where

Macalester College

Speakers: Beth Elliott, John Armstrong, Michael Lasky, Jason Clement. Session details coming soon.

The conversation doesn’t have to end when the session does. Speaker Office Hours create dedicated space for 1:1 support between speakers and attendees in a more personal, informal setting. Come ask the question you didn’t get to during Q&A, dig deeper into something you heard on…

Where

Macalester College

This session gives founders an honest, investor's-eye view of what actually shapes a fundraise, beyond the standard pitch advice. We'll walk through patterns we've observed: what founder behavior builds investor confidence during a raise, and what quietly undermines it, from…

Where

Macalester College

The things that get a business started aren’t always the things that help it grow. As customers, revenue, and complexity increase, founders have to make decisions about what to standardize, what to delegate, where to invest, and which parts of the business need to evolve before…

Where

Macalester College — Mairs Concert Hall

A featured event of Twin Cities Startup Week 2026, September 14–18. Thursday, September 17 | 2:30–6:30 PM Macalester — Mairs Concert Hall, 130 S Macalester St, St. Paul Minnesota has the raw ingredients for a startup boom: Fortune 500 headquarters, world-class research…

Where

Great Northern Building

A hands-on community volunteer day for Minnesota nonprofits and the tech community. The Great Minnesota Give Back Hack brings nonprofit teams together with technologists, builders, mentors, and problem-solvers to work on real challenges. Come ready to listen, build, advise, and…

Where

Great Northern Building

Session details coming soon.

Where

Great Northern Building

With Owl Eye, Osborn, Wellworth. Session details coming soon.

Where

Great Northern Building

This is where Twin Cities Startup Week ends with something big. Ten startups. One stage. One regional champion. And a chance to represent the Twin Cities on the global stage, competing for a $1,000,000 investment prize at the Startup World Cup Grand Finale in San Francisco. The…