The Edina Innovation Lab was featured on WCCO with Chief Innovation Officer Annette Wildenauer and BIG Cohort graduate, Dietrich Nissen of Inherited Stories, showcasing how the Lab helps to support established small businesses.

“The lab was formed to help businesses of beyond three years gain clarity, give them strategies to focus on their growth,” she explained on air. ”Being a business owner and entrepreneur is very lonely, so we want to be that support system and do that through community and education.”

“Everybody comes into the program with their own business and whatever their needs might be, and through a series of questions and activities, we figure out how to help them,” she continues. “We help them with finance, marketing, branding, insurance, planning, and how to decide who to hire next. We do a series of exercises to give them a roadmap for the course.”

“I started my business – Inherited Stories – right before the pandemic. And then during the pandemic, I had a moment of ‘oh no, what do I do now?’ It taught me things I didn’t know about my business that I wish I had known during the planning stages. It gave me perspective on what others are doing in other industries and how can I implement that into my own business,” shared Dietrich Nissen of Inherited Stories and a graduate of the BIG program at Edina Innovation Lab.