By All Means

It took nearly a decade for Tim Murphy and his father Dennis to build Softies into a modestly profitable women’s loungewear brand, and just one mention by Oprah to catapult it into a whole new stratosphere. A career manufacturer’s rep specializing in women’s apparel, Dennis Murphy decided to start his own company in 2006. Inspired by his wife Peggy who was battling leukemia, Dennis Murphy created a line of super soft, moisture wicking sleepwear. His son Tim Murphy joined the business, based out of their Edina garage, in 2008 and together, they built a decent following. "It was enough to live on, but we were at the point where it was stagnant," Tim Murphy says. Six years ago, at a Dallas trade show, the Softies Snuggle Lounger caught the eye of Oprah’s longtime creative director Adam Glassman. Softies debuted on Oprah’s Favorite Things list is 2017 and has managed to stay on the list every year since. How does a small company prepare for an Oprah-sized spotlight and not buckle under the pressure? Tim Mur

She may be the only beauty industry executive who is also a veterinarian with a Ph.D. in molecular biology. In 2009, Dr. Simone Xavier founded Sigma Beauty with her husband Renee Filho, while working as an assistant clinical professor within the University of Minnesota’s College of Veterinary Medicine. By day, she led a lab that developed vaccines and diagnostic tests. By night, she studied beauty influencers on YouTube to learn what products they liked and where holes in the market existed. Sigma Beauty started with makeup brushes, which Xavier sent to beauty YouTubers for feedback. They responded by sharing the discovery of the new indie line making high quality brushes at prices lower than the leading brands of the day, and Sigma Beauty caught fire. Today, the company brand based in Mendota Heights, Minn. produces around 300 products including makeup, brushes and cleaning items. Sigma is sold in 70 countries around the world and in major department stores across the U.S. Xavier and her husband bootstrap

“Art is about exploration, process, potential.” A glassblower by training, Jackson Schwartz is an entrepreneur by instinct. A graduate of the Australian National University, renowned for its glass program, Schwartz returned to the Midwest to teach, and co-founded the Hennepin Made glass lighting studio in 2012 with the goal of creating jobs for his students, and himself. Today, Hennepin Made manufactures lighting for Room & Board and sells direct to consumer while also growing its business clients in commercial architecture and luxury residential design. You’d think that would be enough to keep the artist-turned-business owner occupied, but Schwartz set his sights on broader goals. He purchased a 30,000-square-foot industrial building on the edge of downtown Minneapolis to give the business plenty of room to scale, and also, to transform an underutilized pocket of the urban core, which he helped to name the Root District. “I want to see artistic production in the city,” Schwartz says. “We have the opportun

The decision Lisa Hannum made back in 1998 to leave the world of large communications agencies and start her own, to find balance as both a mother and professional, proved prescient as she scaled through the years. It made her agency especially adaptable when the pandemic hit. Beehive Strategic Communication had always been a hybrid workplace, where employees knew they could get a haircut in the middle of the day without being judged. But flexible and responsive does not mean fully remote. Beehive opened a new office in late 2022 that prioritizes gathering space, wellness, and technology. Hannum expected employees to come in one or two times per week, but they’re showing up even more than that, and clients want to meet at “The Hive” as well. Hannum walks us through the process of designing the office of the future, and creating a culture that makes employees feel trusted. “If you talk to your employees about flexibility and then don’t deliver, they will leave,” Hannum says. “Our team is so invested in the spa

"There was no one better positioned to build a solution than the three of us," says Jazz Hampton, co-founder and CEO of TurnSignl, a tech platform that provides on demand legal advice to drivers with the goal of deescalating police interactions and ensuring that everyone "gets home safe." The app launched in 2021, a year after the murder of George Floyd at the hand of a Minneapolis Police officer. At that time in Minneapolis, Hampton was working as a corporate attorney. His partners were also in rising stars in their careers, both with MBAs: Mychal Frelix worked in sales for Sony Electronics; Andre Creighton worked for major accounting firms and Cargill. Three Black professionals. "I spoke on so many panels," says Hampton," But it wasn't enough. I felt guilt as a Black lawyer in [Minneapolis] representing large companies. There were so many more opportunities to use this degree in a way that could help people." TurnSignl is now live in 25 states and expects to be in all 50 this year. In addition to selling

"A white haired gentleman came in the door and said I heard about this deal at the Minneapolis Club and I want to invest. And I'm sitting there going, I don't see and women—white haired or otherwise—knocking on the door saying I heard about this deal and I want to invest."  In 1998, Cathy Connett co-founded one of the nation’s first angel investment funds. Sofia Fund invests in high-growth, women-led businesses. Connett stepped away from a successful corporate manufacturing career with giants like Proctor & Gamble and 3M to buy a company of her own and in the process realized that women were being left out of dealmaking—an inequity she hoped to rectify. “We hope we’re making progress,” she says. Connett offers advice for would-be investors and founders, who, these days, she says, are often too quick to try to raise money. Following our conversation with Connett, we go Back to the Classroom with University of St. Thomas Opus College of Business finance professor Mary Schmid Daugherty. “Women are still u

Dan Mallin and Scott Litman have become synonymous with entrepreneurship in Minnesota. Together, they’ve co-founders several successful technology startups starting with Imaginet in the 1990s and moving on to Magnet 360, a marketing tech firm they sold to Mindtree in 2016 for a reported $50 million. In all, they’ve had four exits of their own, and advised countless others. Beyond their own companies, Litman and Mallin may be even better known as the founders of the Minnesota Cup, the state’s largest startup competition. Launched in 2005, it’s become the gold standard for startup contents—a rite of passage for many Minnesota companies that have gone on to great success and exits of their own. For the last six years, Litman and Mallin have been building another tech company: Lucy. Unlike their previous service-based businesses, this one is a product: an AI-powered management platform designed to help businesses keep track of internal files and documents and find answers quickly. But beyond innovation, this is

“I didn’t start The Stable for it to be big. But it probably had to be big because we had a big idea.” Chad Hetherington is the co-founder and CEO of The Stable, a “next generation” retail rep group that was acquired by Accenture in the summer of 2022, after just seven years in business. The Stable takes an omnichannel approach to launching products and has help digitally native brands such as The Ring and Quip go to market both online and in stores. Hetherington shares his path from Adaliade, Australia to sales rep for Quirky, a platform that crowd sourced product ideas and developed them. That experience opened his eyes to the need for a new approach to retail rep groups that would take multiple channels into a account. The Stable launched in Minneapolis in 2015 and within two years expanded to Seattle and raised venture capital—a rarity for a service agency. By the time Accenture made an offer, The Stable had grown to more than 500 employees with offices in Los Angeles, Seattle, and Bentonville, Arkansas,

For 8 million K-12 students and their parents, Infinite Campus is as essential to schooling as pencil and paper. The software platform serves as an administrative support tool for more than 2,000 school districts across the country—managing class schedules, tracking grades, collecting lunch money, scheduling conferences—all to minimize paperwork so that teachers can focus on teaching, and parents can get a real-time glimpse at how their students are doing. Charlie Kratsch started Infinite Campus in 1993—long before kids had their own iPads in the classroom. As his vision evolved, the company grew, and grew. Today, Infinite Campus, based in Blaine, Minn. employs 500 people and continues to perform at the forefront of ed tech—a category that has been growing by leaps and bounds since the onset of the pandemic. “Prior to the pandemic, it was tough to convince school districts they needed a learning management system,” Kratsch says. “Suddenly, a reluctant marketplace showed up at our door.” Kratsch talks abo

Just a little over a decade ago, Emily Pritchard’s job didn’t exist. As an undergraduate entrepreneurship student, she noticed that her friends were communicating over social media, but businesses weren’t meeting them there. In 2011, straight out of the University of St. Thomas, she and a partner launched The Social Lights, a social media agency that helps brands with strategy, content, and optimization. Today, the Social Lights works with big brands including General Mills, Pentair, Cargill, and Polaris. In just the past year, the agency has grown its revenue by 87% and its staff by 70%, now up to 43 employees. Keep in mind, Pritchard has never had a boss. She’s never worked for an advertising agency. The role of social community manager—now commonplace at many companies—did not yet have a name when the The Social Lights launched. Today, the agency offers a training program for corporate social media managers. “What we’re doing is actually having implications on traditional agencies that have been doing

On Indigenous People’s Day 2021, Minnetonka –the 76 year-old non-Native owned company known for its moccasins, publicly apologized for appropriating native culture and promised to make reparations. Guiding that work was Adrienne Benjamin, an artist, community builder, and member of the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe. Benjamin was suddenly thrust into the spotlight as news of Minnetonka’s apology and reconciliation work made national headlines. Since then, Minnetonka has released two hat collaborations with Benjamin and beaded moccasins designed by a native artist. The company has also donated money to Native organizations, hired Native workers and continues its journey to own and repair generations of hurt. You can read more about that at tcbmag.com. In this episode, we discuss what it means to be a reconciliation advisor, including Benjamin’s unexpected path from her childhood on a reservation to channeling her own struggles into art and unexpectedly finding her way into business. We talk about whether or not i

What happens when that corporate leadership path leaves you a bit unfulfilled? Amanda LaGrange got involved in the creation of a social enterprise designed to reduce waste and create jobs. Two years later, she exited the Fortune 500 career she thought she wanted to run that new social enterprise. LaGrange is the CEO of Repowered, formerly Tech Dump. Established in 2011, Repowered is now one of the largest collectors of e-waste in Minnesota and has processed more than 35 million pounds of electronic waste while also providing jobs and training for people facing barriers to employment, and building a marketplace for affordable refurbished electronics. That’s what the nonprofit calls a “triple bottom line.” “Impact work has to be financially stable,” LaGrange says. “Where there’s no margin, there’s no mission.” LaGrange talks about the role of founder vs scaler. She offers insight on the pros and cons of being a non-profit vs a social enterprise business. She talks about the "pile of denial" lurking in our cl

Scott Olson is the founder of one of the most iconic lifestyle products to come out of Minnesota in the 20th Century: the Rollerblade. He didn’t invent the inline skate, but he improved on a design that had virtually no market traction and made it an international fitness phenomenon and a product that endures still today. Launched in 1980, Rollerblade steadily grew into a hot commodity. But by 1986, Olson was out of the company. Just 19 when he started working on the product, he had the vision and drive, but lacked the business know-how to scale the brand. Money problems forced him to sell to Robert Sturgis and Robert Naegele, who soon took over the company and eventually sold it to Nordica, which is now a division of Technica Group and still the parent company to Rollerblade. "I was bummed out for a day or two," Olson recalls. But I had to regroup. I still had the goal of being successful with this product." And despite the disappointment, he considers his Rollerblade run a success. It's the product that d

“Know what your mission is and what your values are. You can’t engage in everything. If there’s an issue that affects your mission and values, you better speak out. You better be behind it.” Bill George is the former chairman and CEO of Medtronic, and currently a professor at Harvard Business School. He’s the author of several books on leadership. The latest, "True North: Emerging Leader Edition," coauthored by millennial entrepreneur Zach Clayton, calls on executives to lead with their hearts. In a wide-ranging conversation, George recounts his own path to leadership, and what he’s learned about success. Driven by Medtronic’s mission to “alleviate pain, restore health, and extend life,” the company’s market capitalization grew from $1.1 billion to $60 billion during his tenure from 1991 to 2001. “You’re here on earth for a short time and you want to make a difference. I felt like leaders can make the greatest difference because they have such a powerful impact on people. It can be for good or it can be for

“We are trying to build a really amazing company founded on principles of equity that makes money…and that delivers a new future for what work can look like.” Kate Downing Khaled is the founder and CEO of Imagine Deliver, a Minneapolis-based consultancy that specializes in workplace transformation. She takes us inside her process of finding new ways forward by putting people who have experienced a problem in the design chair. “Change is really hard,” Khaled says. “Sometimes an outside perspective can really help leverage what’s new.” She’s also using technology to solve for the current workplace challenges around recruitment and retention and shares a preview of her new software platform Mailroom, designed to help companies maximize the potential of their own employees. “The future of our workplaces is going to be determined by the people who work there. We can’t hold tight fisted to the old ways of being,” Khaled says. “There is no going back.” How does one learn to become a change agent? In Back to t

“I didn’t have a business model. I had an idea. And I refused to give up.” Former pro athlete Tyrre Burkes is on a mission to make youth sports safer. His Minneapolis based company, Players Health, provides a platform for coach credentialing and training, injury reports, management, and abuse investigations. The company has raised $30 million since its 2016 formation. But Players Health really hit its stride just a couple of years ago when Burkes realized a huge opportunity in becoming an insurance brokerage. In 2021, Players Health sold $7 million in insurance policies; this year it expects to top $40 million. Already one of the top 10 providers of youth sports insurance, Players Health serves 60% of U.S. youth soccer teams and more than 50,000 teams across sports in North America. Burkes’ entrepreneurial journey is one of perseverance and pivots. The child of a single mother who grew up on the south side of Chicago, he credits sports with saving his life and taking him all the way to Winona State Unive

Julie Allinson didn’t just create a company; she invented a new product category in 2000 with the launch of Eyebobs, the eyewear brand that turned reading glasses into a fashion statement. With its bold colors and daring shapes, Eyebobs developed a cult-like following that included celebrities from Elton John to Lauren Hutton. Today, Eyebobs offers both prescription glasses and readers that are sold in hundreds of stores nationwide as well as online and at three company stores in and around Minneapolis, where the company is based. Allinson sold Eyebobs to Northwest Equity Partners in 2015 and is no longer involved in the company. She offers a rare look back at her unexpected entrepreneurial journey from recognizing the opportunity idea, to finding the right audience, to knowing when it was time to step aside. Allinson started her career in finance at Piper Jaffray. She had moved on to a startup that she was helping to raise money when the numbers on the spreadsheet started to look a bit fuzzy. So Allinson w

Manny Villafana is responsible for some of the most important breakthroughs in cardiovascular health care in the last five decades starting with Cardiac Pacemakers Inc. (CPI), the world’s first lithium-powered pacemaker and St. Jude Medical, which introduced the heart valve that became the industry standard and was sold to Abbott Laboratories in 2016 for $25 billion. He’s now working on his eighth startup, Medical 21, which is developing an artificial artery for bypass surgery. Human clinical trials could start in the next six months. His career history reads like a playbook on innovation. “If you don’t take risks, nothing’s going to happen,” says Villafana, who is 81 and shows no interest in slowing down. “I go after things that people say can’t be done. That’s one of the greatest pleasures in life. Just go the opposite direction.” He charts some key career highs and lows, from being fired by Medtronic and then sued by the company that eventually gave him free access to its patents and bought his secon

When Junita Flowers was at her lowest, baking cookies became an escape. She turned that feeling into a social enterprise business. “Junita’s Jar is so much more than a delicious bag of cookies,” Flowers says. “It’s a bag of hope.” But striking a healthy balance between purpose and profit can be challenging for a mission driven startup. The initial model of selling to businesses that would bring Flowers in for “cookies and conversation” about surviving domestic violence and overcoming adversity proved difficult to scale. The pandemic, and the social unrest that followed the death of George Floyd just blocks away from the Junita’s Jar kitchen and offices in Minneapolis gave Flowers time to recalibrate and take advantage of mentorship and grant programs like Stacy’s Rise Project. Target also took an interest, and helped Flowers gear up for a national launch of Junita’s Jar. HyVee will follow in August. A focus on growing the business, Flowers has realized, will give her a larger platform to share her purpo

As the co-founder of Primp, a Minneapolis-based “cheap chic” boutique chain that grew to nine stores throughout the Midwest and a robust online following, Michele Henry had barely taken time off with her first two kids. When her third baby arrived, she vowed to take a true maternity leave, and that’s when she realized that an entrepreneur never really stops. Short on time for herself with three little ones at home and suddenly dealing with postpartum skin issues, Henry wished for a spa where she could run in for a quickie skin treatment—without all the trappings, or price tag, that typically go along with a “spa day.” Express facial spas were beginning to pop up on the coasts, but there wasn’t one in the Twin Cities. She went to work on a business plan for Face Foundrie, a facial bar focused on “efficient, effective, approachable” skincare. In late 2018, Henry sold her half of Primp to her founding partner and immediately signed a lease for her first Face Foundrie, which is now a fast growing franchise chain