Arthur Ventures kicked off on Thursday its two-day Cultivate 2013 conference in Downtown Fargo. The purpose of the Cultivate 2013 event is to inspire growth amongst the Arthur Ventures portfolio companies (which Arthur Ventures refers to as Partner companies) and related companies in the region through “networking, sharing, and learning from each other as [they] collectively pursue meaningful impact in the world.” The Cultivate 2013 event is a private, invitation only event that is a precursor to the Cultivate.You event, which is open to the public and allows all interested participants to hear select speakers from the Cultivate 2013 event.
The Arthur Ventures Partner companies participating in this year’s event included Infusionsoft, Preventice, Intelligent InSites, Altravax, Loyalty Builders, LiquidCool Solutions, and Workface. Guest speakers at the 2013 event included many notable names including Fargo North High graduate Steve Sydness, who was formerly CEO of Internet hosting services company Endurance, and is now Entrepreneur-in-Residence at the Harvard Business School. Also joining the Cultivate event were Steve Kiene, Managing Principal of Nebraska Global, a software investment fund located in Lincoln, and Lauris Molbert, Chairman and CEO of TMI Hospitality and Chairman of Sanford Health. In addition, several senior executives from Partner companies of Arthur Ventures spoke on panels at the event.
On Thursday, we spoke to Mark Klein, CEO of Loyalty Builders, an online marketing analytics and services company with offices in Fargo and Portsmouth, New Hampshire, who told us “I’m a small town guy and I find Fargo friendly and nice and I have a lot of friends here.” As to Klein’s view of the startup scene in the small town of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, in which Loyalty Builders is based, Klein said “there’s a group of entrepreneurs and businesses in the technology scene they call the “eCoast,” so it’s a fairly hot technology environment.” Klein said that the most valuable aspects of the Cultivate 2013 event was “learning from talking to other entrepreneurs…I get a lot of insight into what others are doing by coming to a conference like this.”
Stay tuned to Emerging Praire for coverage of Cultivate.You and related events happening this week.
