Amplifying stories from the Rochester, MN entrepreneurial ecosystem.
Collider Quarterly Report
To our friends and supporters in the Rochester community, thank you so much for your continued support of Collider Foundation and the work we do here. As the quarter draws to a close, we wanted to take a moment to reintroduce our mission and share with you the work we’ve been doing in the community for the past few months.
Collider Foundation is a Rochester, Minnesota based 501(c)3 organization. Our mission is to activate, connect, and empower early stage starters in Rochester, MN. Our vision is to create a community with zero barriers to entrepreneurship for anyone with a great idea and a passion to see it grow.
How do we do that?
Amanda Leightner, our Executive Director, along with recent Collider team addition, Manasseh Kambaki, our Director of Navigation, work together to reach starters in our community through connection to business resources. Together they link early stage entrepreneurs to the resources they need with a highly personalized approach to help overcome business barriers for local starters. Their insights into a resource rich network is key to making starting a business faster and easier for entrepreneurs.
We especially seek to serve minority entrepreneurs in Rochester as our research has shown that women and BIPOC starters to be the most likely to not be linked in to a network of connections and support, making it more challenging for them to start or grow their idea into a business.
We’re excited to share that Amanda and Manasseh were able to serve fifty-seven unique starters between January and March over the course of seventy-five hours of communication, support, and relationship building. Out of these fifty-seven entrepreneurs they assisted, forty-eight percent were women and forty percent were BIPOC starters.
Thank you so much to Mayo Clinic, Rotary Clubs of Rochester, the City of Rochester, the Small Business Development Center, Altra Federal Credit Union, and Premier Banks for supporting this work in the Rochester entrepreneurial community.
Thank you to all of our sponsors who make Collider’s work possible!
Another way we seek to enrich the entrepreneurial community of Rochester is through education and peer support.
Collider Foundation facilitates the meeting of two local peer networks, one for different food business founders and one for women founders, which each meet on a monthly basis to provide ongoing support and advice for these communities of business owners. These meetings provide a space to reduce the isolation associated with running a business. They also provide starters with an opportunity to connect with other business owners to learn from each other, celebrate their successes, and work together to think through challenges their businesses are facing. We are excited to see these two groups continue past their pilot phases into a second year of meeting and to connect eight unique entrepreneurs through these two peer networks. Both groups are actively recruiting members to their group, driven by current members of each network.
We are grateful to both Rochester Area Economic Development Inc. (RAEDI) and The Southern Minnesota Initiative Foundation (SMIF) for directly supporting our work with these peer networks.
We have a series of educational events and programs in motion for the coming months. We are excited to partner with Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota School of Business and Technology to host Critical Conversations, which are panel discussions led by local starters discussing topics key to all entrepreneurs including: buying a business, finding co-founders, mental health, and hiring your first employees.
We are also thrilled to be launching our CO.STARTERS programs next quarter! CO.STARTERS is a program that helps starters move from idea to action. This program uses entrepreneurship to transform communities. Some major programs that are offered through CO.STARTERS include Get Started, which is a 3 hour workshop to help starters think through their business idea(s) and figure out which idea has the best chance to support a business. The other major program is CO.STARTERS Core, an eight week, cohort based education program to give starters the tools and support they need to take their ideas into action. Amanda spent a lot of time this quarter going through CO.STARTERS extensive training (along with some amazing partners in the community) to facilitate this program in the community. After piloting several different forms of cohort based education in Rochester after the past few years, we are so excited of the potential that CO.STARTERS offers to all starters in Rochester, MN.
CO.STARTERS is specifically supported by Think Bank, Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota School of Business and Technology, and Fredrikson & Byron.
Another recent addition to the Collider team, Corrie Strommen, who joined us in January of this year as our Director of Community, has spent much time this quarter revitalizing our storytelling efforts in the community and amplifying the stories of Rochester entrepreneurs through original, insightful content. This includes weekly articles or videos and the monthly Rochester Rising podcast. This work helps provide inspiration capital that shows that entrepreneurship consists of many different things and that there is not one pathway to get there. It opens up the possibility of entrepreneurship by sharing stories of many different types of starters and allows anyone with a business idea to see entrepreneurship as something accessible to themselves.
Over the past few months, we have released four articles, one podcast, and one video with many more in the works! It has been a joy connecting with so many different entrepreneurs, from many different backgrounds and walks of life. So far this quarter, we have had the opportunity to connect with ten different business owners who are either women, BIPOC, or LGTBQ+ members of the Rochester community and are excited to share each of their stories.
Along with Collider’s work with the local entrepreneurial community, we also work to provide a coworking community to the Rochester area. Collider manages a low cost space for starters to connect and collide to spark new ideas. We currently have forty-nine members and are looking forward to seeing growth in our community in coming months. We provide member specific programming, such as peer networks and other member-only activities, as well as networking and social opportunities for anyone in the community.
Our coworking space, located in the Minnesota BioBusiness Center.
This week, Collider is running our quarterly fundraising campaign to support our mission to activate, connect, and empower early stage starters in Rochester, MN. If this work speaks to you, please consider becoming a donor: https://bit.ly/3NDhAXv.
How can your support help?
$100 helps 5 starters in the community get connected to the support they need.
$225 allows one entrepreneur in the community to participate in the 8-week CO.STARTERS Core program.
$50 allows one entrepreneur the opportunity to participate in the Get Started workshop.
$75 subsidizes the cost of 1 entrepreneur to participate in CO.STARTERS Core.
Regardless of amount, every dollar helps to support our mission of zero barriers for everyone in Rochester with a great idea and a passion to see it grow.
The Collider Team - photo by William Forsman
Collider Peer Groups Enter Second Year to Support Local Starters
This month, Collider Foundation wrapped up its first year hosting peer-to-peer groups, called Peer Networks, to support female and food business founders across southeastern Minnesota. This work assisted twenty-two different businesses through thirty-six hours of monthly meetups. Overall, participants viewed these Peer Networks as a unique experience that helped them feel supported and understood and reduced the isolation and loneliness of entrepreneurship.
This work leveraged the success of the Southern Minnesota Initiative Foundation’s (SMIF) well established peer efforts to create these two pilot groups in the Rochester area.
Collider’s Female and Food Peer Networks connected entrepreneurs together, allowing them to provide solutions for one another as they individually started or scaled their businesses. These networks were built on mutual trust, respect, and vulnerability to allow founders to get value out of these interactions and be able to speak freely about their business struggles and successes.
In total, sixteen different women-led businesses participated in the Female Peer Network over the past year. In addition to monthly structured meetings, participants in this network have been organizing their own monthly meetings for the past several months to connect and work on their businesses together.
Our pilot Food Peer Network assisted six local businesses within the region. In addition to monthly get-togethers, this group created holiday gift boxes in late 2021, which were sold through Collider to benefit the continuation of this Peer Network as a way of giving back to the community.
Over this past year, the Female and Food Peer Networks were generously supported by the Southern Minnesota Initiative Foundation and Rochester Area Economic Development, Inc. (RAEDI). We are excited to announce that these two groups will continue on in the community for another year with support of these two organizations.
March 7, 2022: This week in the Rochester entrepreneurial ecosystem
Welcome to another week in our entrepreneurial ecosystem!
Events are back at Collider! First off, don't miss out on our brand new Walk In Wednesdays recurring series. This event will take place on Wednesday March 9th from 11AM-12:30PM within the Collider coworking space (221 1st Ave SW, Suite #202). We'll be joined by representatives from Rochester Area Economic Development Inc, the Small Business Development Center, and CliftonLarsonAllen to answer your business questions and get you connected to just the right resources. This is a low pressure, no appointment needed way to connect with multiple business resources in one spot and get your questions answered on how to start or scale a business in this community. We hope to see you there!
After two years of being gone, our free days of coworking are also back. Join us starting at 9AM on March 17th to spend the day in our coworking space and experience the Collider community. All are welcome to attend. Due to space constraints, we do ask you to register so we will know to expect you that day.
And lastly, we were honored this week to announce that we are a 2022 recipient of a $100,000 grant from Mayo Clinic's Community Contribution Program. We are so grateful to Mayo Clinic for supporting the work we do to create a community with zero barriers to entrepreneurship. These funds are critical to continue our work in this community. A huge thank you to all of our past Collider team members, including Julio Molina, Sara-Louise Henry, Kristopher Derwin Loving, Senior, and especially Jamie Sundsbak for their invaluable contributions to Collider Foundation that made this possible. I look forward to the work our current team will do to build on this strong foundation.
-Amanda
Walk in Wednesdays are a monthly event to bring together people with business ideas or people already running businesses with individuals and organizations that can help in Rochester, MN! Join us each month to talk through your business and let's get you connected to resources in the community to help it grow.
Register HERE.
Come join us at Collider for a free day of coworking! Come in to our space at the Minnesota BioBusiness Center at any time from 9am to 4:30pm to work and experience the Collider coworking community! We have desks, wifi, and snacks available for you. Get out of your house, meet some new people, and have a productive workday with us here at Collider! We will be gathering for Happy Hour afterward at Olde Brick House to unwind, enjoy some beverages, and network!
All are welcome!
This event is limited to fifteen people due to space limitations so please sign up with the free ticket link to reserve your spot!
*Please note that Collider is accessible via the skyway near the 3rd Street Parking Ramp and Think Bank.
Register HERE.
Mayo Clinic Awards Grant to Collider Foundation for Continued Community Support, Storytelling, and Education in Entrepreneurship.
Rochester, Minnesota: Rochester 501(c)3 nonprofit Collider Foundation was recently awarded a grant in the amount of $100,000 by the Mayo Clinic Community Contributions Program. This grant will support Collider’s work to empower Rochester’s early stage entrepreneurs, amplify the voices of Rochester’s local business starters, and provide community education.
Collider Foundation believes that the support, education, and growth of our entrepreneurial ecosystem is a pathway to a more prosperous and inclusive future for the Rochester community. As an organization, Collider Foundation aims to identify and assist local innovators in overcoming barriers to success by empowering an impactful, inclusive, and entrepreneur-first ecosystem.
Collider Foundation supports its mission through events, education, space, and storytelling to help foster an inclusive, diverse, and healthy entrepreneurial ecosystem. This grant award will allow for programmatic and operational support of the foundation’s ongoing activities throughout 2022.
Collider Foundation is led by Executive Director and entrepreneurial ecosystem builder, Amanda Leightner. She is supported in her efforts by Director of Community and storyteller, Corrie Strommen. Taking the lead on Collider’s ecosystem navigation efforts is Manasseh Kambaki, President and founder of Hope Fuse, another local nonprofit organization. As a strong and passionate team, they work toward building, educating, and substantiating the vibrant community of Rochester entrepreneurs.
“Our team at Collider is beyond grateful to receive this generous support from Mayo Clinic. We look forward to continuing to foster relationships with entrepreneurs and other support organizations this year to help create a community where anyone with passion and a strong business idea sees and has access to a pathway to bring that idea forward in the community,” said Leightner.
January 31, 2022: This week in the Rochester entrepreneurial ecosystem
Welcome to another week in our entrepreneurial ecosystem!
First off, I wanted to announce that our team is now full! We were very excited to have brought on a brand new Director of Navigation, Manasseh Kambaki, to our Collider team last week! We will introduce you to him more fully over the next few weeks. But I am beyond thrilled to have Manasseh on the Collider team. He has an extremely deep history of relationship building and small business development in the city of Rochester. He has also built communities of support for many years and is the founder of Hope Fuse, a local nonprofit that explores and addresses solutions to generational poverty in Rochester youth. Manasseh will be focused on Collider's Ecosystem Navigation work, meeting 1:1 with entrepreneurs, listening to their story, and rapidly connecting them into the right resource to remove business challenges they're facing. If this sounds like a service that could be helpful to you, please contact Manasseh at manasseh@collider.mn.
Our Collider storytelling is back! Please take a few moments to learn the incredible story of Paige Jehnke, owner of Janky Gear. This is quite the story of how this Rochester native and marine engineer followed her passion to launch an outdoor consignment shop in September 2021.
And lastly, we now have a new and improved community calendar to make it easier for you to find events taking place in the Rochester ecosystem. You can access the calendar here. If you have a business event taking place in Rochester, MN that you think should be added, please email us at hello@collider.mn.
-Amanda
Join us on Thursdays to unwind, share ideas, network and support local businesses! All are welcome! Our next Happy Hour is Thursday, February 3rd at Bleu Duck Kitchen (14 4th Street SW) from 4:30-5:30.
From Marine Engineer to Consignment with Paige Jehnke
Collider is passionate about sharing the stories of Rochester entrepreneurs and small business owners! We recently had the pleasure of meeting with Paige Jehnke, owner and founder of Janky Gear, a local gear shop that sells top brand outdoor clothing and equipment on consignment, who was willing to tell us her story and share some insight on what it’s like opening a small business in Rochester.
Paige’s journey with Janky Gear, though it wouldn’t open for another 13 years, started when she graduated from Mayo High School in 2008. After graduating, she spent the summer working at a camp in Northern Minnesota, with plans to attend college in the fall in pursuit of an art history degree. But amidst her days spent taking kids outdoors, hiking, backpacking and sailing, she couldn’t shake the doubts she had about pursuing that path. During a “freak out” she decided to change course, and zip codes, in a big kind of way! For the next year, Paige worked in Alaska with at-risk youth through AmeriCorps before instead pursuing further education at the University of Alaska, majoring in Outdoor Recreation.
After her time in Alaska, Paige headed to Colorado where she worked a variety of jobs, from being a ski attendant to working on trail crews, all in her favorite field- literally anything outdoors. She had found her desired lifestyle, but she wanted it to be more sustainable. Driven by a desire for stability and health insurance, Paige returned to school, this time to become a marine engineer with the end goal of working on ships.
->Read the full store HERE