Alvarri (www.alvarri.com) is a company that has created innovative solutions using a data compression technology called deduplication. This technology greatly reduces the amount of bandwidth and storage  required whenever there is data being sent that has redundant data, which deduplication eliminates in transmittal and storage, but retains the exact content. Applications include endpoint backup, virtual image backup, to  disk to disk storage data and bandwidth reduction. Alvarri is a seed stage company created by the founders of Sistina, which was sold to RedHat.

Bard's Tale Beer Company (www.bardsbeer.com) has developed and is distributing a craft beer that is gluten-free that has been acclaimed by beer fans and gluten-intolerant individuals that cannot drink conventional beers containing malt.

Cardialen, Inc., www.cardialen.com. Cardialen is developing low-voltage implantable cardioverters to provide painless defibrillation for treatment of atrial and ventricular tachyarrhythmias. It will use low-energy pulsed unpinning therapy, to which it holds an exclusive global license jointly from Washington University in St. Louis and Case Western Reserve University, to achieve pain-free defibrillation. It will focus on atrial fibrillation (AF) and atrial flutter (AFL), the most common cardiac arrhythmias worldwide. It anticipates that low-energy atrial cardioverters will help address unmet clinical needs, deliver pain-free therapy, reduce risk of stroke, lower healthcare costs and offer significant business opportunities. It will explore alliance opportunities for low-energy ventricular cardioverters.  Implantable cardiovascular devices require extensive pre-clinical testing, clinical trials and regulatory approval in the US and major international markets. Cardialen has initiated preclinical testing, established offices in St. Louis, MO, and commenced product development in Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN.  

EcoEnvelopes LLC (www.ecoenvelopes.com) is an environmentally conscious company with a proprietary line of reusable envelopes, label and postage concepts that reduce costs and benefit the environment.   The company's innovative solutions meet the growing need of corporations to be more environmentally responsible and consumers desire to participate in environmental stewardship.  EcoEnvelopes has enormous growth potential with reusable, two-way postage solutions that increase revenue, profit margins, operational efficiencies and reduce costs while delivering real environmental benefits.

Marner (www.marner.com ) Marner Storage Technologies develops intelligent network storage systems that offer the sophisticated features needed to manage today's rapidly growing information requirements without the complexities inherent in many storage systems available today. Utilizing standards-based technology augmented with patented innovative enhancements, our products offer: superior flexibility of configuration; scalability that includes both local and remote virtualization; simplicity of installation, maintenance and upgrade; better performance and reliability; and a smaller "footprint" in the datacenter, packing more storage into a smaller space.  These advantages result in reduced operating expenses for our customers, in addition to the reduced acquisition costs offered by our products.

PlaCor, Inc. (www.placorinc.com)  is a privately-held company that has developed a simple, easy-to-use, proprietary test for platelet reactivity called the PRT™.  Antiplatelet drugs, such as aspirin and Plavix®, reduce platelet reactivity and are prescribed to prevent heart attacks and strokes.  However, up to 50% of people may not respond to these drugs and are at an increased risk for an adverse event.  PlaCor’s PRT differs from other platelet reactivity tests in three important ways:  only a fingerstick blood sample is needed, total test time is less than 10 minutes and the test mimics how platelets are activated in the body.

ReconRobotics Inc. (www.recon-scout.com) based in Edina, has been formed to commercialize patented field-proven technology developed at the University of Minnesota Distributed Robotics Laboratory.  The company designs, manufactures, deploys and supports miniature, mobile robotic systems and distributed robotic teams that are used by the military, and federal and municipal law enforcement agencies.  These robots are specifically designed to save lives by providing real-time video reconnaissance about dangerous, hazardous or restricted environments.

TST Media (www.tstmedia.com) is a leader in Web solutions for organizations and focuses on the amateur sports vertical and currently provides services to clients in all 50 states, each Canadian province, and countries around the world.  The company's easy-to-use website platform for organizations, NGIN.COM   (pronounced "Engine") is a powerful, easy-to-use website platform for organizations - a robust platform featuring a complete suite of timesaving tools that empower organizations and their members to connect online.  Features include front-end website content management, member management, financial transactions, e-commerce activity, document storage, and social member interaction. The company takes pride in providing real software solutions to the real needs of formal organizations.

UnityWorks Media (www.unityworksmedia.com) uses proprietary technology to create inexpensive, high-quality streaming video advertisements on the internet with an initial market focus on automotive dealerships.  Streaming video ads are placed on the dealer’s own website, on 3rd party websites such as carsoup.com, and embedded into e-mail promotions issued by the dealer or one-on-one from a salesperson to a known prospect. These videos are hosted by UnityWorks Media.  UnityWorks has developed an extremely cost effective and efficient platform for businesses to send powerful, media rich content to any personal computer regardless of configuration and bandwidth.

Vixar (www.vixarin.com) develops and manufactures high performance visible light lasers.  Our lasers, known as VCSELs, enable significant performance improvements in products as diverse as medical sensors and diagnostic equipment, industrial and military sensors, home and vehicle networks, and office equipment.  Vixar provides innovative VCSEL components and solutions.  The management team consists of leaders in the field of VCSELs since their initial commercialization in the early 1990’s.  Vixar is located in Maple Grove, Minnesota.