CC038: Casey Allen // building the Twin Cities enterprise SaaS community

Interview starts: 7:15
Debrief starts: 54:23

Casey Allen is the founder of Enterprise Rising, a Minneapolis-based conference specific to SaaS startup topics. 2020 will be Enterprise Rising's fifth year, and they pride themselves on focusing on under-discussed or taboo topics related to founding a startup.

Casey himself has started five companies as well as a B2B SaaS accelerator and discusses his personal experience going from one to the next. This year, he will also be launching a boot camp called SeedMN for first-time angel investors with the hopes of teaching successful founders how to give back to the startup community.

We discuss:

• AD: Finding experienced employees for your new business with Integrity Power Search (5:37)
• Starting a conference and the first few years of failure (8:06)
• Opening one of the first tech accelerators in Minneapolis (12:09)
• Fundraising an accelerator in 2009 (15:09)
• Building the reputation to launch an accelerator (20:27)
• The struggle and mental obstacles behind founding five startups (22:13, 34:58)
• Starting a company in the right community (27:14)
• The Twin Cities' DNA for enterprise SaaS (31:48)
• The pattern of fear of success vs. fear of failure in startups (37:55)
• Metrics for conference success (39:51)
• Special markets in Minneapolis: b2b sports tech, enterprise health tech, and edtech (45:00)
• SeedMN for first time angel investors (47:19)

Learn more about Casey: https://angel.co/caseyallen
Learn more about SeedMN: http://seedmn.com/
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This episode is sponsored by Integrity Power Search, the #1 full stack high growth startup recruiting firm between the coasts. They partner with venture capitalists, private equity groups and CEOs to build amazing teams for the world’s most disrupting companies.

Learn more about or get in touch with Integrity Power Search: https://upside.fm/integrity