2019 is here! Since Great North Labs is a proponent of iterating based on data-driven feedback, it’s time for a look at the best-performing content from 2018. What captured people’s interest? What is the Great North community interested in?
The Posts
- Facebook controversy. Rob Weber’s post about Sheryl Sandberg and the importance of “integrators” titled, of course, “Sheryl Sandberg and the Importance of Integrators“,is the top post of the year. The Facebook COO faced a lot of criticism in the past year, and Mark Zuckerberg, the Woz to Sandberg’s Jobs, found himself testifying before Congress this past April for 10 hours. Facebook has come under increasing scrutiny in the wake of data breaches and the Cambridge Analytica scandal, and public interest remains high as the 68% of Americans who use Facebook grapple with the implications of data insecurity.
- The Internet of Things. Pradip Madan’s white paper on the third generation of IoT and the industrial internet is well-researched and thought-provoking, with input by Great North Labs advisors at Protolabs and Misty Robotics. Pradip makes the case that we are uniquely situated in the upper Midwest to originate the next wave of tech-enabled disruption in IoT in “IoT 3.0“.
- Venture capital investing. Pradip Madan writes about VC as an investment class is his white paper, “Where to Invest in the Midwest: Venture Across Asset Classes“. He examines the benefits of venture investing as an asset class even during a down cycle, and how funds can provide protection from multi-year downturns. Pradip also enumerates the unique advantages that Midwest venture funds offer.
- The Midwest tech ecosystem. “Putting the ‘Silicon’ in Silicon Lakes”, by Great North Labs Managing Partners, Rob Weber, Ryan Weber, and Pradip Madan, enumerates the key ingredients required to create an innovation hub like Silicon Valley that fosters growth and startups. It is part mission statement, part love letter, and all about the opportunity present in the upper Midwest.
For more content, click below to browse all of our articles. You can also sign up below to receive our newsletter, which has job links, portfolio news and events in addition to articles; or follow the links to social media and video content on Youtube.

Great North Ventures
June Newsletter

Rob Weber
Demystifying Startup HR

Great North Ventures
Head of Finance & Fund Administration- Venture Capital Firm (Remote)

Great North Ventures
Demystifying Startup HR

Great North Ventures
3 Portfolio Companies Make Inc. 5000 + Quicklly & Instacart Expand

Great North Ventures
3 Portfolio Companies Ranked on The Inc. 5000 List

Great North Ventures
iraLogix closes $22M + Branch expands with Uber

Great North Ventures
iraLogix closes $22M Series C

Great North Ventures
Flywheel lands Gates Foundation grant

Great North Ventures
Venture Capital Analyst

Great North Ventures
Orazio Buzza, Founder and CEO of Fooda – on Episode 13, “Execution is King”

Great North Ventures
$40M Fund II Raised!

Great North Ventures
Eric Martell, Founder of Pear Commerce: Episode 13, Execution is King

Great North Ventures
Great North Ventures Raises $40 Million Fund II

Great North Ventures
Investment Thesis: Fund II Strategy

Great North Ventures
Investment Theme: Community-Driven Applications

Great North Ventures
Investment Theme: Digital Transformation Through AI

Great North Ventures
Investment Theme: Solving Labor Problems

Great North Ventures
Trends in the Gig Economy + Work in the Metaverse

Great North Ventures
Portfolio raises $125M + talking fundraising with Branch CEO

Great North Ventures
Omnia Fishing closes $4M round, joins Great North portfolio!

Great North Ventures
Atif Siddiqi, Founder/CEO of Branch: Episode 11, Execution is King

Great North Ventures
Michael Martocci, CEO and Founder of SwagUp: Episode 10, Execution is King

Great North Ventures
Yardstik new to portfolio, closes $8M Series A

Great North Ventures
First venture studio startup comes out of stealth!

Great North Ventures
Insights for founders from a data guru, + FactoryFix raises a Series A!

Great North Ventures
Una Fox: Episode 9, Execution is King

Rob Weber
Start With a Mobile App, Not a Website

Great North Ventures
2ndKitchen acquired by SoftBank-backed REEF + advice from an early Googler

Great North Ventures
Joe Sriver, 4giving: Episode 8, Execution is King

Great North Ventures
2ndKitchen Acquired by REEF

Great North Ventures
Venture studio startup jobs + advice for founders from founders

Great North Ventures
Best Advice from the Great North Annual Event: Episode 7, Execution is King

Great North Ventures
Newsletter: Do you fit our investing themes?

Great North Ventures
Jonathan Treble, PrintWithMe: Episode 6, Execution is King

Great North Ventures
Anna Mason, Revolution: Episode 5, Execution is King

Great North Ventures
Mynul Khan, FieldNation: Episode 4, Execution is King

Great North Ventures
Nick Moran, New Stack Ventures: Episode 3, Execution is King

Great North Ventures
Molly Pyle, Center on Rural Innovation (CORI): Episode 2, Execution is King

Great North Ventures
Justin Kaufenberg, Rally Ventures: Execution is King Episode 1

Great North Ventures
Newsletter: “Podcast Launched: Execution is King!”

Great North Ventures
“Execution is King” – the Great North Ventures Podcast

Great North Ventures
Newsletter: Fund II is open for business!

Great North Ventures
Unlocking the Potential of Anonymized Commercial Real Estate (CRE) Data

Great North Ventures
Fund II is open for Business!

Great North Ventures
Mike Schulte Promoted to Venture Partner

Great North Ventures
New Name + New Venture Studio

Great North Ventures
Great North Launches Startup Studio

Great North Ventures
We Don’t Need No [full-time MBA] Education

Great North Ventures
How the University of Minnesota is Embracing Startup Culture

Great North Ventures
Top Stories of 2020, iraLogix, and LaunchMN Calls for Mentors

Great North Ventures
Building Capacity for Innovation

Great North Ventures
Seizing Opportunity in a Recession, Allergy Amulet, and Twin Cities Startup Week

Great North Ventures
Recessionary times, a record-setting IPO, and Minnesota’s Resilient Startups

Rob Weber
Minnesota's Resilient Startups

Great North Ventures
July 4th, Equitable American Dream-ing, and Robots Diagnosing COVID

Great North Ventures
Jumpstart, the Startup School, and Branch Wins a Webby!

Great North Ventures
COVID-19 Trends, the Great North response, and our Founders Survey

Great North Ventures
Giving in the Time of Coronavirus

Great North Ventures
COVID-19 Resources for Startups, State-by-State

Great North Ventures
COVID-19, the CARES Act, and startups stepping up

Great North Ventures
New Business Preservation Act

Great North Ventures
Digital Future Boardroom, PartySlate, and The Lean Startup School

Great North Ventures
Great North Labs’s Startup Summit 2020

Great North Ventures
Great North Labs's Startup Summit 2020

Great North Ventures
World Economic Forum, NoiseAware, and the Startup School reboot

Great North Ventures
Great North Labs at the World Economic Forum 2020 in Davos

Great North Ventures
Top 5 Stories of 2019

Great North Ventures
Taking the Founders Pledge, Inhabitr, and gBETA Pitch Night

Great North Ventures
Founders Pledge: Support the Organizations that Support You

Great North Ventures
BETA Showcase, Greater MN, and Launch MN comes to St. Cloud

Great North Ventures
7 Places to Spot Us at Startup Week

Great North Ventures
The Greater MN Meetup, Parallax, and Exponential Medicine

Great North Ventures
Greater MN at the big show, Neela Mollgaard heads Launch MN, and Misty’s roadtrip.

Great North Ventures
Talking VC, tech kids, and Forge North’s Horizon

Great North Ventures
June: Great North Labs’s first fund raised!

Great North Ventures
May: Innovation Ecosystems, SingularityU Kickoff, and PrintWithMe

Great North Ventures
April: Minnebar Recap, ZenLord Pro, and Supporting Entrepreneurs

Great North Ventures
MinneBar 14 Recap

Great North Ventures
Dispatch and 2ndKitchen claim Tech Madness titles

Great North Ventures
Minnesota Innovation Collaborative

Great North Ventures
March: Minnebar, Hockey + Hustlers, and Innovation Workshops

Great North Ventures
Great North Labs at CES

Great North Ventures
Dec.-Jan.: Top Posts from 2018, pepr, Glowe, and Misty Robotics

Great North Ventures
Carried Interest: Top Posts from 2018

Great North Ventures
Oct.-Nov.: Singularity University, Exponential Tech, and the State of Innovation

Great North Ventures
July: Pitchly, ForwardFest, and Where to Invest in the Midwest

Great North Ventures
Digital Transformation Summit, July 25th in Minneapolis

Great North Ventures
June: Silicon Lakes, FactoryFix, and the Digital Transformation Summit

Great North Ventures
Putting the “Silicon” in Silicon Lakes

Pradip Madan
Digital Manufacturing and Logistics

Great North Ventures
May: Team Genius, IoT, and the Future of Everything

Pradip Madan
IoT 3.0

Great North Ventures
Healthcare Innovation

Great North Ventures
March: Exponential Tech, the “Goldilocks Zone”, and Minnebar 13

Great North Ventures
February: Team Expansion, Dispatch, and Startup School Events

Great North Ventures
Great North Labs Newsletter – December 2017

Rob Weber
A Letter To My Younger Self

Great North Ventures
Great North Labs Newsletter

Ryan Weber
Great North Labs Featured on Tech.mn

Great North Ventures
Great North Labs Featured in St Cloud Times

Great North Ventures
Great North Labs – Featured on BizJournals.com

Ryan Weber