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The Twin Cities has a long way to go before it can be considered a hotbed of the new high-tech economy. It lacks a big success story, like Microsoft or Dell Computer, companies with sufficient critical mass to generate spinoffs, satellite firms, and perhaps most important, national buzz. Many entrepreneurs say they have to look elsewhere for venture capitalists willing to invest in their start-up companies. But Twin Cities' technology industries are growing despite these obstacles, and companies that are thriving here say the area provides some unique advantages over high-tech centers such as the San Francisco Bay area.



IF YOU STICK AROUND long enough to see the scrolling credits at the end of the latest "Star Trek" movie, you'll see mention of "WAM!NET," a Twin Cities company that specializes in the manipulation and transportation of large computer files. WAM!NET serves the graphic arts industry, moviemakers and other creative types who need to get data from point A to point B. Denice Gibson is senior vice president of marketing and development at WAM!NET.

Gibson: In the graphics-arts industry, in order to move a proof or an ad or concept from the agency to a company, they have to go to Federal Express, they have to fill out an envelope, they've got to send it overnight and it gets there the next day. When you're on WAM!NET what happens is you just hit "send" and it's automatically transported over our infrastructure direct to their desktop instantaneously, allowing that company to be productive within minutes as compared to overnight and sometimes days.

Gibson: We had an average turnover rate around 21, 25, or 27 percent. Over a quarter of your workforce leaves every year. So you are losing your intellectual power, because they all want to go to startups. Here in the Twin Cities, although there are a lot of startups here, we are able to retain almost all our employees because they want to be here. That's a unique advantage.

Gorman: There is a strong history of real heavy-duty processing power that has developed out of the Control Data's of the world, and the spinoff companies associated with that, where Minnesota does have a strong infrastructure of heavy-duty number-crunching and database programmers that translates into a real capability of developing these robust applications that ride under the glossy front end.

Prais: Chumbo actually means unleaded gas in Portuguese. I actually got the name when I was on holiday in Portugal and I was filling the car up with gas.

Prais: The reason people need boxes with high-gloss graphics on it is really so the product will sell from a retail store. It's nothing to do with the value the consumer gets. So the consumers' value is the value of the software rather than the nice marketing material needed to attract their eye when they walk in the store. So by taking away the cost of the box and also the distribution channel, i.e. not shipping from retailers or distributors, but directly from CD replicators, we pull out two chains in the physical movement of the product. We're actually changing how software is distributed.

Pendleton: There's lot of understanding of agriculture here. It's also a very desirable place to live if you grew up on a farm in Iowa, Wisconsin or the Dakotas. So there's lots of very-skilled knowledge workers here in the Twin Cities that understand agriculture.

Rybeck: I think the issues is a midwestern conservatism. People are less apt to say, "We're going to create a brand-new market or revolutionize how business is done in this particular industry or part of the economy," as they are to say, "Our customers have this problem," or "Our market faces this problem and here's the solution." And I guess you might describe it as parochial as well as pragmatic, but I tend to look at it more positively.