Collider Quarterly Report
To our friends and supporters in the Rochester community, thank you so much for your continued support of Collider and the work we do here. As our second quarter of the year draws to a close, we wanted to take a moment to share with you our mission and 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?
Resource Navigation.
We connect early stage entrepreneurs to the resources they need with a highly personalized approach to help overcome business barriers for local starters. We especially seek to serve BIPOC and female entrepreneurs in Rochester, individuals who face the most barriers in starting or scaling their business.
Through this work, we’ve served 67 unique starters between April and June over the course of 105 hours of communication, support, and relationship building. Out of these 67 entrepreneurs assisted, 50% of them were women and 40% of them were BIPOC starters. 87% of these individuals had some barrier they were facing removed through this work to help move progress forward with their business.
Ecosystem Navigator, Manasseh Kambaki
Some exciting milestones reached over the course of the last few months have been completing our first successful 4 month contract with the SBDC as well as serving as navigators for DMC’s Main Street Grant.
Thank you so much to Mayo Clinic, Rotary Clubs of Rochester, City of Rochester, Small Business Development Center, Altra Federal Credit Union, Destination Medical Center, and Premier Banks for supporting this work in the Rochester entrepreneurial community.
2. Education and Peer Support.
Collider 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 as well as 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. This quarter, this work supported 14 different starters.
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 support groups.
During May and June we were able to host four Critical Conversations panel discussions in collaboration with Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota School of Business and Technology to provide educational opportunities to the Rochester entrepreneurial community. These discussions were led by local starters and discussed topics key to all entrepreneurs including: buying a business, finding co founders, mental health, and hiring your first employees. Across all events we had 46 registrants, nearly all of which indicated through surveys that they found the events to be helpful to their business.
Critical Conversations: Buying a Business
We are also thrilled to be launching our CO.STARTERS programs this week! CO.STARTERS is a program that helps starters move from idea to action. This quarter our team spent a lot of time preparing to facilitate this program in the community, including being trained as certified CO.STARTERS facilitators. Starting July 5th, we will be launching CO.STARTERS Core, a ten week, cohort based education program to give starters the tools and support they need to take their ideas into action. We have ten local starters registered to participate in the program and we are so excited to work with each individual entrepreneur and help them move their business plans forward.
CO.STARTERS is specifically supported by Think Mutual Bank, Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota School of Business and Technology, Launch Minnesota, Red Wing Ignite, and Fredrikson & Byron.
3. Storytelling
Our storytelling efforts have continued this past quarter. 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 also provides visibility to local small businesses and the incredible individuals who made their dreams a reality.
Over the past few months, we have released 9 articles and 3 podcast episodes, with many more in the works! It has been exciting connecting with so many different entrepreneurs from different backgrounds and walks of life. So far this quarter, we have had the opportunity to connect with 10 different business owners who are either women or BIPOC members of the Rochester community and are excited to share each of their stories.
Entrepreneurs whose stories we shared this quarter.
Through our storytelling efforts, we’ve also connected with Rochester Women’s Magazine to share the story of Paige Jehnke, local entrepreneur and owner of Janky Gear, for their June/July issue. We love the work that Rochester Women’s Magazine does to share the stories of women in our community and it was wonderful to be able to participate in that work this quarter.
We’re so grateful to Fredrikson & Byron for becoming an annual sponsor of our podcast this past quarter!
4. Coworking
Along with Collider’s work with the local entrepreneurial community, we also 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 48 members and are looking forward to seeing growth in our community in coming months as we plan to expand into a larger space (more details to come!). We also 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.
And a big thank you to our sponsors CliftonLarsonAllen, Hill Capital Corporation, Schad Tracy Signs, Noble Health, and our newest sponsor Cozen O’Connor for helping to fuel all of our work.
A big thank you to all of our sponsors!
We could not do any of this work without the help of our donors and by great community members LIKE YOU who give back to this community in many different ways.
If you find value in the work that Collider is carrying out in the Rochester community, consider supporting us in one of these ways!
Like and share our social media content! This helps more people see what Collider is doing and spreads awareness about our work in the community.
Come to an event! We would love to connect with you!
Leave a review! If you’ve had a positive experience with Collider, leaving a review on Google can really help increase visibility of our non-profit.
Volunteer your time or share your skills! Please reach out to us if you feel that you can personally assist our organization with your time.
A monetary donation! Donations of any amount help us continue to serve the Rochester entrepreneurial community. You can donate through 4giving.
Thank you so much for reading about our work over the past quarter and for your support of Collider!
Much thanks from the Collider Team for your support!
