Small Business Spotlight: Twin Ignition Startup Garage

Article by Becky Fillinger, photos provided

Left to right - Scott Aubitz, Ben Rasmussen and Seth Peter

Sometimes an entrepreneur needs some advice in areas outside of his or her product or concept design – areas like management, finance, strategy, and marketing among others. That’s where Twin Ignition Startup Garage in Northeast Minneapolis can step in and provide the expertise necessary to bring the dream to life. We talked to co-founder Scott Aubitz about the genesis of Twin Ignition, their portfolio of success stories and one very fun reason (you’ll be surprised) to visit their business.

Q:  Please tell us a brief history of Twin Ignition Startup Garage. 

A:  Seth Peter, Ben Rasmussen, and Scott Aubitz came together in 2018 with a shared vision to support a thriving startup ecosystem in the Twin Cities through a tailored approach to startup incubation. We all saw the need to help bridge the gap between a community of innovative founders and access to the resources, support and capital they needed to succeed.

While Seth had acquired the building that is now known as Twin Ignition Startup Garage at 1317 Marshall Street NE in 2017, we weren’t able to move in until late in 2019, so we started meeting with companies every Wednesday at Sip Coffee Bar in Northeast. What we quickly learned is we all agree you just need to start “doing” to make things happen, and that our different experiences and approaches to startups worked well together.

With the opening of the garage in 2019, we confirmed that the Twin Cities has a growing community of first-time founders that need various components of the pillars of our offering - the space to work, capital to invest and advice to grow. Since those beginnings we have invested in over 20 start-ups in the Twin Cities area, with an average of 8-10 new and follow-on investments a year. We have also partnered with several funds, angel organizations and other startup investors to expand our reach and impact to create a thriving startup community in the Twin Cities.  

As we have seen our startup companies grow and expand, we realized the need to provide additional office options as they become too big for our founders’ space in the Startup Garage. As a result, in 2022 Twin Ignition purchased the Keg House building at 34 13th Avenue NE on the former campus of the Grain Belt Brewery. This 45,000 square foot building gives us more options to provide space to grow as businesses gain traction in their markets.

Twin Ignition common area

Twin Ignition garage area

Twin Ignition kitchen area

Q:  What’s a typical day for Peter, Ben and you, the founders of Twin Ignition? 

A:  We typically meet with 1-3 companies a week to hear investment pitches. We also meet with 2-3 advisory clients typically on a biweekly basis. There is a standing weekly "internal" meeting on Monday where we discuss pitches we've heard the week before, any follow-on investment opportunities we have, as well as operations of our buildings. As a result, we are meeting as a team most mornings each week, with afternoons dedicated to various other aspects of the business.

Individually, Seth focuses much of his time on ensuring the buildings are operating smoothly. He also is actively meeting with prospective businesses and others in the start-up community. Ben devotes most of his time to networking within the community to identify new opportunities both for investment as well as for candidates to office out of the Garage and Keghouse buildings. I focus more time on the financials of our investment portfolio and the building operations.  

Q:  Twin Ignition Startup Garage is a technology incubator AND it also houses a woodworking studio - that must keep the environment interesting and full of beautiful art.  

A:  Being located inside the Northeast Minneapolis Arts District was an important factor in determining our location. We believe the process of creating a work of art is similar to creating a technology offering. It’s about putting your creative energy into something entirely new, bringing an abstract idea to reality, and presenting that concept to an audience. We also believe that being surrounded by beautiful physical creation is inspiring to those working on their virtual technical creations. We have found that entrepreneurs in our space often have an artistic side to them.

Q:  In September of 2021, Twin Ignition told the Star Tribune that the goal was to “invest and mentor companies that would collectively create 100,000 jobs across the Twin Cities in the next 20 years.” We’re just two years into that timeframe, but have you seen your portfolio companies start to hire?

A:  Our portfolio companies have definitely been in expansion mode over the last several years. Every one of our portfolio companies has hired additional staff to varying degrees. We have companies anywhere from 2-4 employees up to 30+ employees, depending on their stage of growth and their cadence with capital raising.

With our mission to support a thriving tech startup community in the Twin cities we think Minnesota has a great opportunity to create 100k+ jobs in new growth over the coming decades. Our hope is to be one catalyst to ensure that happens.   

Q:  May a client just purchase access to your collaborative workspace – perhaps as a way to get started with Twin Ignition’s services?  

A:  The Startup Garage is a collective workspace for founders to utilize and collaborate with each other. Per our goal of creating a thriving tech startup community, we want to create a place where founders can plug into a broader community of like-minded people, experiencing similar issues and help support each in their growth. We're hoping to reduce some of the isolation of starting a business while providing support as they grow.

The space is designed to grow with businesses from "soloprenuers" up to businesses of 8-10 people. If a founder has started a business and is looking for office space on a part-time or full-time basis, they should definitely reach out to info@twinignition.com to arrange a time to come try out the space.

Q:  Can you share some of your success stories with us?

A:  We've been investing in very early stage companies for over 4 years now, but have seen some great traction with our portfolio companies. A great indicator of the success of our businesses and our strategy is we've had 3 different businesses gain enough traction that they needed to move out of the Startup Garage because they had become too big for the space - two of those have been moved into our Keghouse building. We've had a business exit within 2 years of our initial investment. Several of our portfolio companies have been listed as "startups to watch" in the Twin Cities in 2023 by the Business Journal (Turnsignl, ProsperStack, Omnia Fishing). Two of our businesses were MN Cup Divisional Winners (Turnsignl & Carbon Origins) with Carbon Origins being runner up for the grand prize. One of our businesses, Big Wheelbarrow, won a $500k investment in the 43 North startup competition in Buffalo, NY. Many of these businesses have benefited not just from our investment and advice, but from the community we were able to plug them into within our ecosystem.  

Q:  Great results – congratulations! Have you considered expanding your business to other cities with rich startup cultures?

A:  Our commitment is really to the Twin Cities and Minnesota more broadly. This is an area that has provided so much for each of us individually, we really see our work as a way to give back and make Minnesota a destination for startup activity. We think there is plenty of opportunity to keep doing what we are doing and grow this ecosystem into something really special.

Q:  How may we follow your news?

A:  Please feel free to follow Twin Ignition on LinkedIn. We tend to repost news about our portfolio companies as well as post for any upcoming events with which we may be associated. We also post more social events on our Facebook page as well. For example, make sure to come join us for Art-A-Whirl in May!