Hello Branch and Minnesota!

So I bought a one way ticket to the Minnesota State Fair…
After spending 8 amazing years in the Bay Area, my wife and I decided to move back to Minnesota to be closer to family. It was a really tough decision, but the timing was right with our oldest daughter, Misha starting Kindergarten this week!
About a year back, Matt Marshall, the Editor in Chief of Venturebeat reached out to me to discuss a new event series called Blueprint. Venturebeat’s articles typically covered the coasts; mostly Bay Area and New York. Matt wanted to diversify and see what is going on with tech and startups in the middle. It had been quite some time since I last wrote a piece for Venturebeat so I mentioned to him that I’m from Minnesota, and even I’m curious about what is going on back there. He suggested I start writing again, and I’m so glad I did!
I left Minnesota in 2010 after being frustrated in the lack of startup ecosystem or a tech scene. It was tough to get mentorship for your startup, and getting early stage capital was non-existent. After chatting with a number of tech startup founders in Minnesota over the last year, I’ve found that things have really changed here. The tech scene is thriving with events like Twin Cities Startup Week. There is access to “Smart” capital from the region including Techstars, Drive Capital, and Rise of the Rest Fund. Finally, there are some really hot tech companies out here that I would consider as “Silicon Valley Grade”, including Mitch Coopet’s Rambl, and finally, Atif Siddiqi’s (no relation to me) Branch.
In December 2017, I wrote a piece in Venturebeat about Minneapolis being the hub for Retail Tech, and I covered a small company called Branch Messenger. At the time, the focus was offering shift workers at places like McDonalds and Target a way to view their shift schedules on their phones, and message their colleagues if they needed to change their shifts.
I didn’t realize how big of an issue “communication” is with shift workers, but as I dug deeper, there are even bigger challenges managers face in managing and creating shift schedules. I stayed in touch with Atif over the course of a few months and then in August, he asked me to join as their first Product Manager.
So here I am, in Minnesota, working to build a world-class Enterprise SaaS product from the ground up. I again am fortunate to work with an amazing team, cranking out code, and delivering delightful experiences to a market that has largely been neglected. Excited for the future of Branch and the future of startups in Minnesota!
