I’m excited to embark on a new adventure with this company, which has been run by some exceptional people over the past few decades.

If we haven’t met, I’m Charlie. I was born and raised in Minneapolis, and I’ve been working in digital media strategy for more than a decade. I’m joining the team at Twin Cities Business to reach more of you in more ways than we ever have before.

As a brief introduction, I’ve started three different businesses (one of which, a local news company that operates Southwest Voices in Minneapolis, is still alive). During that time, I advised executives on how to help grow their organizations across a few industries. I have worked with fast-growing tech companies in San Francisco, and most recently, I helped lead a renewable energy cooperative in Minneapolis.

We are living in an era of transformation. Minnesota needs to grow. Our businesses and our population need to grow. And we, all of us, need to grow. There is a nostalgic tendency that too many of us have that leaves people reaching for a past that’s no longer there rather than building a dynamic new present. Embracing the fact that a successful future might look nothing like what we have experienced in the past might be critical for success for both our business community and for us as a media organization.

Building a media company for 2026 and beyond is challenging. We are living at a time in which more people are getting their information from digital media channels. We need to meet them where they are. There also seems to be an increased appetite for things that build connection and trust, which can make in-person events like the ones Twin Cities Business hosts special. As more things in our lives move online, it also creates an opening for exceptional physical media to break through the noise, and I think Twin Cities Business has played and will continue to play that role for our community.

Businesses big and small are going to have to be a big part of the solution for where this state is going. Many of our seemingly intractable problems could be solved by a fast-growing company that needs 1,000 new desks in downtown Minneapolis or St. Paul a month from now, and we should all hope that something like that emerges—if not right away, then sometime soon. Minnesota’s policymakers at all levels need to make it easier to start a restaurant, build a house, expand your business, put solar panels on your roof or your land, and more. It’s the only way we’re going to get there.

I’m looking forward to working to build on the foundation laid by this great team to explore the stories behind our great companies, look at more ideas to grow and sustain the ones that most people haven’t heard of, and to examine how we can work together to build a better state for all of us.

If you’re working to start something, build something, grow something, save something, or keep something afloat, please reach out and let me know what you want to see from us. The people taking risks and putting it all on the line have shaped the Minnesota that we know today. If that’s you, I am all ears, and I can’t wait to help tell your story and to make Minnesota an even better place for the next generation and beyond.

You can reach Charlie at crybak@tcbmag.com