Hosted by

Governor
Tim Pawlenty

Welcome to the 5th Annual Minnesota Cup

Welcome to Minnesota’s 5th Annual Minnesota Cup competition! This year’s competition is expected to be bigger and better than ever, with more Minnesota entrepreneurs getting the help they need to commercialize great ideas.

The Minnesota Cup creates opportunity during this challenging economy. The competition provides greater incentives this year by raising contest winnings to a total of more than $130,000 and expanding to six divisions.

New to this year’s competition is the Clean & Green Division, an award designed to advance breakthrough ideas in sustainable solutions and applications. The development of green businesses and jobs represents one of the biggest changes in our economy since the Industrial Revolution, and the Minnesota Cup can help advance this developing industry.

In this rapidly changing world, our future success depends in large part on our ability to innovate and inspire innovation among Minnesota entrepreneurs. The Minnesota Cup was launched in 2005. True to form, Minnesotans did not disappoint. There have been more than 2,600 entries from all areas of the state over the past four years.

Minnesota is living up to the promise of author Thomas Friedman who said America can win the global economic battle as "the world's dream machine." Minnesotans are great innovators because we’re big dreamers. We are blessed with an entrepreneurial spirit that is fueled by a long heritage of innovation. More than half of our economic growth comes from industries that barely existed a decade ago, and the search for great ideas - or the discovery of the next big thing - is key to our success.

Innovation is what Minnesota does best, and I expect the ideas that emerge from this year's competition will demonstrate that spirit.

Sincerely,

Tim Pawlenty
Governor