TechCrunch is thrilled to announce our next City Spotlight event will focus on Minneapolis. On September 7, TechCrunch Live will host an extended event featuring the best startups and investors from the city. As part of our City Spotlight series, the intent is to feature and explore the opportunities and challenges facing startups outside of Silicon Valley.
By most metrics, Minneapolis is among the top cities in the Midwest in which to start and run a company, as the region has a long history of creating and sustaining businesses.
It sports the highest density of Fortune 500 companies and the highest five-year survival rate for new businesses. VC activity is ticking up with several notable firms, including Rally Ventures, Arthur Ventures, Matchstick Ventures, Bread & Butter Ventures, Groove Capital, Great North Ventures, Vensana Capital and Brown Venture Group.
The greater Minneapolis area is even ranked as the second-best startup hub in the Midwest, just trailing Chicago.
To help highlight what the city has to offer, we are looking for startups to pitch at the event! Like past City Spotlights, this one will feature a pitch-off with local Minneapolis startups pitching to VCs. The winner gets fast-tracked into Startup Battlefield 200, which includes free exhibition space at TechCrunch Disrupt 2022. Apply here.
This will be our third City Spotlight event this year; in March we visited Austin, and in June we showcased Columbus, Ohio. Last year, we featured Miami, Pittsburgh and Detroit.
We hope you can join this free event. Register here.