From Bootstrapping a $70M Company to Leading a VC Fund: Lessons for Founders
By Graeme Thickins Twin brothers Rob and Ryan Weber, founding partners of Great North Ventures, have raised two funds and invested in more than 50 startups to date and counting, throughout the Midwest and the rest of the county. Well before that success, however, they were founders themselves of their own ventures, beginning in their […]
How Two Midwest VCs Have Mastered Success Through Multiple Tech Cycles
by Graeme Thickins For twin brothers Rob and Ryan Weber, founding partners of Great North Ventures in Minnesota, entrepreneurship began in college, just as the Internet was taking off in 1996. As computer science majors (and Rob later switching to entrepreneurial studies), they learned quickly that Internet traffic could be monetized. Over a few years, […]
Let’s Celebrate the Two Year Anniversary of Great North Ventures Fund II
We announced our $41 Million Fund II back on May 23, 2022. On the two-year anniversary of our Fund II announcement, here’s a progress update- Team Update Future Outlook I’d like to personally thank each of our Fund II investors. It’s through their capital commitments which we are able to continue on our journey backing […]
Great North Ventures Raises $40 Million Fund II
Doubling Down on Success Investing in Trailblazers Minneapolis – May 23, 2022 – Early-stage VC firm Great North Ventures announced today it has closed $40 million for its second venture fund (“Fund II”). The fund aims to continue the firm’s success investing in startups from Seed to Series A stages. New investments will address three […]
How the University of Minnesota is Embracing Startup Culture
The University of Minnesota is embracing startup culture across disciplines and producing results in the number of founders, tech talent, and startups. One of the top universities in the country with enrollment regularly over 50k, a system-wide endowment of nearly $4B, and over $1B spent annually on research and development, it’s incredibly important for the […]
World Economic Forum, NoiseAware, and the Startup School reboot
Welcome back to the Great North Labs newsletter! 2020 kicked off to a fast start. We were invited to participate in the World Economic Forum, and we announced the next chapter in our Startup School. There’s also a new advisor on the team, and a new portfolio company. World Economic Forum Managing Partner Pradip Madan […]
BETA Showcase, Greater MN, and Launch MN comes to St. Cloud
Twin Cities Startup Week is over! It was a busy week for many of us in the tech and innovation community, with around 300 events to attend and thousands of people to meet. This year, Great North Labs was proud to bring Greater Minnesota into the BETA Showcase for the first time ever. Thanks to […]
7 Places to Spot Us at Startup Week
Twin Cities Startup Week kicks off tonight, and goes until October 16th! This is the biggest startup (event? happening?) anything in Minnesota every year, and TCSW 2019 is bigger than ever, with over 300 events. So what does a venture fund like Great North Labs have to do with it? Are we just wandering around […]
MinneBar 14 Recap
The annual MinneBar event, hosted by non-profit Minnestar, is the largest bar camp-style conference in the country. Saturday, April 27th was the fourteenth incarnation of this highly anticipated event, and it did not disappoint. How highly anticipated was it? Tickets were released in two waves this year, and the first wave sold out in under […]
Announcement: SingularityU Minneapolis-St. Paul Chapter and Great North Labs present Intro to Exponential Technology & Leadership in Fargo
SingularityU Minneapolis-St. Paul to explore and foster the use of Exponential Technologies for Good with local Fargo-area businesses, innovators and entrepreneurs Fargo, North Dakota – November 9, 2018 – SingularityU Minneapolis-St.Paul will present an introduction to the exponential technologies that are rapidly shaping the future of humanity. These technologies are poised for quick growth […]