The EDA retained Momenteum in 2021 to grow our entrepreneurial network paid for out of federal Coronavirus Local Fiscal Recovery Funds. Since that time, they have met with a large number of entrepreneurs and conducted in-depth interviews with our growing group of members. Through these interviews and surveys they have identified needs to grow this base in Shakopee and Scott County.  These have included additional capital support, assistance to founders with management, search engine optimization, marketing, and intellectual property protection. They are working on a schedule of workshops through the year to address these issues.

The group of entrepreneurs has also identified issues they are having in our community, the largest is finding available space. Staff is working with a number of sources to better identify space and to work with developers to construct new space or renovate existing buildings to meet their needs.

This group and Momenteum have reviewed the application to the Economic Development Administration and suggested changes and identified that there is a need for a hard-tech hub. This is for companies that actually create/manufacture new products. That is in synch with what we have observed with many companies that are in the region, especially in Shakopee with companies like Entrust, Emerson, Cherne and Shutterfly.  As part of that process, we have had several meeting with Minnesota State University and they have amended their agreement through 2023 and also have agreed to offer programs specialized towards hard-tech. The have agreed to offer their start-up boot-camp program in Shakopee.

Local employers and the entrepreneurs have all agreed that finding and hiring employees now is very difficult.  Momenteum connected the city with a company with leading edge technology that actually goes to employer's web sites and gathers job to one location so that potential applicants can see jobs that are appropriate to their skills. More than 200 cities worldwide have implemented this tool for talent attraction.