Startup Sioux Falls’ First-Ever Startup Sunrise
Dozens of Startup Sioux Falls community members gathered Wednesday morning for the first-ever Startup Sunrise event. Startup Sunrise is a monthly gathering of founders and innovators to connect, learn, share ideas and problem solve.
For the September event, the theme was “Igniting Innovation.” We heard from Melissa Goodwin, senior vice president for the Innovation Lab, and Peter Burghardt, executive director of The Batchery.
Here are some of the big takeaways from the discussion:
Your best ideas for innovation come where your pain points are.
“I always tell people to look for those places – something that always rubs you the wrong way, that thing that’s always such a bother – that’s where the innovation is,” Goodwin said. “That’s where the opportunity is. And if there are a lot of people that agree with you that it’s a problem, that’s a good sign.”
Ideas are easy. Making them come to life takes hard work.
- At Innovation Lab, Goodwin has seen thousands of ideas on how to improve healthcare. The tricky part is figuring out which of those ideas is viable and how to bring it to life. It’s a process that can take months, even years, to figure out.
Innovation happens through collaboration.
- Burghardt has helped hundreds of startups in his work at The Batchery, and the most successful are the ones that truly innovate with the input of all relevant stakeholders – from customers to government to technology to researchers.
Your ‘spark’ and your creativity set you apart.
- He noted that what sets entrepreneurs apart is a unique and creative spark. It’s that unique insight and how they harness it to help drive solutions to problems where innovation happens.
“Our job at the accelerator is to help them turn that insight and perspective into a lever that you can push to provide solutions for these problems,” Burghardt said. “There’s nothing more exciting than when someone brings an idea to the table that I never would’ve thought of.”
Want to join the conversation next month?
Check out this segment from Dakota News Now:
These notes are sponsored by Megan Raposa with Sioux Falls Simplified
We'd like to recognize The Source for being our coffee partner and Gabriel Knight Shield for sponsoring the random act of art portion of this event. You can see his full performance at the next live and local event at The Washington Pavilion.
Thank you to Maddie Peschong for being our welcomer for the event.
