TALENT PIPELINE

The Techstars Retail accelerator in partner

ship with Target has worked with 30 startups since hatching in 2016. Participants—like Local

Crate— often end up working with the bigbox retailer.

Minnesota Cup, the largest statewide competition for startups in the country, is run by the University of Minnesota. Winning startups include Astropad, maker of an app that turns an iPad into a drawing pad, and

MicroOptx, a medical device company changing how glaucoma is treated.

In 2015, General Mills launched 301 Inc, an incubator that invests in early-stage food companies (see “For Love or Meat,” page 30) such as No Cow, a vegan protein-snack company.