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Welcome to the Minnesota Cup!

The Minnesota Cup is an annual, statewide competition that seeks out aspiring entrepreneurs and their breakthrough ideas. We are looking for the next great entrepreneurial success story in our state.

This competition is for all entrepreneurs, whether your breakthrough idea is high tech or no tech, whether you are just putting your ideas into a business plan or if you've been out building your venture.

The 2009 Semifinalists have been announced!

The competition for the top spots was fierce as more than 1,000 aspiring entrepreneurs participated – a competition record. After a great deal of deliberation by the judges, we have determined that 49 of these business ideas will now compete in the second round of the contest. Congrats to all semifinalists and good luck in the next round of the competition.

Minnesota Cup on Twitter

New 2009 Divisions:

Minnesota Cup 2008 Recap

The 4th annual Minnesota Cup launched on March 31st with the first round concluding on May 23rd. Since then, members of the review board have read the submissions of over 800 entrants. On June 16th, we announced this years semi-finalist who provided amazing plans on their breakthrough business concepts.


Through late July & August, the review board read the submissions of our 30 semi-finalist and on August 20th, we announced this years Minnesota Cup finalist (to learn more, read the MN Cup Finalist Announcement).


On September 11th, the 2008 Finalists presented their plans to an esteemed panel of judges at the McNamara Alumni Center at the University of Minnesota. After these presentations, an awards event was held at the Alumni Center that included the awarding of the Entrepreneur of the Year award to Valerie and Tim Doherty, founders of Doherty Employment Group. As well as the presentation of the Minnesota Cup from Dave and Carolyn Cleveland. (to learn more, read the MN Cup Winner Annoucement).



Each year, Twin Cities Business provides enhanced coverage of the Minnesota Cup through an 8 page supplement.



Following you can find the supplements for the 2005,2006 ,2007 & 2008 competitions!

Twin Cities BusinessTwin Cities Business 2007 Supplement CoverMagazineTwin Cities Business Cover

HealthSimple Success Story

As the Minnesota Cup program grows and evolves, one of the most important themes is that the program works. Many past finalist and semi-finalist have met investors, advisors, board members, business partners and business professionals through the semi-final reception, the awards event in the fall and through media attention received.

One such example is Type 1 Tools (HealthSimple), a finalist from the 2005 event. Through the Minnesota Cup, Doug & Lisa Powell, the founders of HealthSimple were able to develop a team of advisors, consultants and professionals that both helped validate the strength of the business and assist the Powells in it's growth.

For HealthSimple, the Minnesota Cup was a great catalyst that helped support the business as it went through early stages of growth up to a very successful acquisition by McNeil Nutritionals, a company owned by Johnson and Johnson.

Doug Powell, the co-founder of HealthSimple writes about his Minnesota Cup experience in his blog called Merge.

Read Doug’s article about entrepreneurship and design here.

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The Minnesota Cup is Supported By:
University of Minnesota Partners
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