Five Ways To Find Entrepreneur Resources In Fargo Moorhead
By John Machacek, Chief Innovation Officer, GFMEDC
As the Chief Innovation Officer at GFMEDC, I’ve interacted with hundreds of entrepreneurs over the past decade-plus, listening and learning and then assessing how I may help. Every entrepreneur is different, as are their industries, stages and needs, so my guidance and responses to them are never quite a cookie-cutter template. And unfortunately, there is no “Easy Button” or “one-stop shop” for assistance!
However, there are all kinds of resources out there to help entrepreneurs along the way. So many, that it can be a bit overwhelming for an entrepreneur to know where to look. While not all-encompassing, here are five ways to find some of the entrepreneurial resources in our community.
GFMEDC Website
As an economic developer, we are often a marketer and concierge for the programs that exist & people behind them. We’ve refined our website over the years to aggregate a lot of good info in an easy-to-read manner for businesses as well as other ecosystem folks to reference. From the Entrepreneurs page, you can easily find links to our Frequently Used Resources and Get Connected pages. I’d say my most common referrals for early-stage entrepreneurs are the Small Business Development Centers and SCORE, and idea validation programs like ILT Academy and Great Plains I-Corps Hub.
Techstars Startup Digest Fargo
In addition to the static info found on our website, I’ve received great feedback over the years about my knowledge-sharing through my biweekly Startup Digest Fargo emails. The digests are a great way to share information about upcoming applications or new programs or find events & webinars targeted at entrepreneurs and small businesses.
The Vault
Powered by Dakota Business Lending, the Vault is a database of programs and organizations in North Dakota that provide information or support. The database has filtering capabilities that help narrow down the resources based on geography, stage, industry and topic.
Learn From Other Entrepreneurs
I find that feedback and guidance from other entrepreneurs is effective, and many are more than happy to help you learn from their past experiences, and sometimes mistakes.
I suggest attending Emerging Prairie’s StartupBREW to hear from and meet them. Also check out my monthly interviews in Fargo INC! as my line of questions are not only to learn about their startups but to also learn from the entrepreneur.
Social Media
I actually find many things for my Startup Digest Fargo from quickly scanning through my LinkedIn feed and from startup-relevant newsletters I subscribe to, which I often first learn of from LinkedIn. Whether through keyword searches or hashtags or however you see it, if you come across a person or organization or resource that aligns with your business, I’d recommend following the person or page and checking out their website for a newsletter or additional following options such as Instagram or Facebook.
Fargo Moorhead is home to a robust ecosystem of many programs, organizations and people here to help startups grow. And as referenced above, it is so robust that you may not know where to start, so hopefully this information can point you in the right direction.
Feel free to reach out to me, as it is our job to know a little bit about a lot of things to help guide you to the proper programs and people.
