Since meeting in the early 1980s and building Northwest Airlines’ WorldPerks frequent-flyer program, Mark Lacek and Peter Brennan have started five businesses, with a sixth on the way—nearly all devoted to helping businesses keep their customers coming back.
Stu Utgaard was the Twin Cities’ biggest dealmaker in the ’80s and ’90s, a master of M&A. Then he made his own acquisition, Sportsman’s Warehouse, and built a single store into a $718 million retail chain. So how did Utgaard wind up buried under $31 million in personal debt?
What would lure Mark Jacobs (Irwin Jacobs’ son) from Manhattan to Winona to run an old-fashioned door-to-door business? The chance to apply entrepreneurial liniment to a tired, aching brand.
Still, planned projects and industry advocates will help ensure that the state's wind-energy future is bright.
Views from both sides of the fence.
With a new, proprietary product line, Burnsville’s Valley Natural Foods co-op is looking to a bigger market.
Surly makes a new extreme beer. What’s driving the bitter-beer trend?
Segetis produces bio-based plastics and chemicals. But it’s emphasizing value more than values.
Pixel Farm Digital hits “Refresh.”
At OrthoCor, a venture capitalist and an electrical engineer create “a next-generation heating pad” for troubled knees.
What’s happening with local meeting planning and spending in 2010?
Faced with disagreeable circumstances of our own making, we determine that they are inevitable, desirable, or someone else’s fault.
Brennan and Lacek's Loyal Subjects
The Twins and one courageous local politician listened.
Piroshki- fast food from the Russian Tea House.
An evening of ritmo caliente or “hot rhythms” feted the ISES winners.