Minnesota

Ilmiya

Location: Bloomington, Minnesota
Website: https://ilmiya.com/
10 employees

Taha Bahaji’s early experiences as a substitute teacher gave him a firsthand look at the pressures educators face, and the many needs, stakeholders, and goals they have to address daily. Add in students’ varied learning styles, staff shortages, and class time lost to the pandemic, and “teachers end up with their hair on fire,” he says. With a master’s degree in data science and a PhD underway in learning technology, Taha saw an opportunity to design digital classroom exercises that help K–12 teachers overcome learning barriers and close achievement gaps. He launched Ilmiya, an AI-powered lesson planning platform, in 2021. AI technology can adapt lessons automatically to a student’s pace, flag areas where they need extra assistance, and offer students helpful nudges, in the form of questions and hints. “By introducing AI into the process, we're able to improve student outcomes and make teachers’ jobs easier,” he says.

Ilmiya’s infrastructure is built on Google Cloud. “With Cloud, we’ve been able to create a seamless, efficient platform that supports our mission, while ensuring we can grow and adapt as our customers’ needs evolve,” Taha says. Google Workspace helps the distributed team easily collaborate, and they use Gemini and Gemini Advanced to speed up internal processes. “These products help us do a lot of things on the fly now that just a year ago took a lot of time,” he says. “We can get processes that used to take two weeks down to a single day.” Ilmiya’s goal is to help students improve their scores within six months or less, and last month, their Vertex AI model served more than 1 million requests for students. While Taha finds tangible numbers encouraging, he’s most passionate about seeing students engaged with learning. “Now they have confidence, and they're excited to be in school. And teachers can get back to doing what they love–focusing on the children.”

Thread Logic

Location: Jordan, Minnesota
Website: https://threadlogic.com/
28 employees

After being laid off from his corporate communications job in the early 2000s, Jeff Taxdahl said to his wife, Wenda, “Let’s do something for ourselves.” He knew about putting company logos on apparel from his work–and that the custom embroidery industry was open to newcomers. “There’s not a lot of capital required, and it’s a low barrier to entry,” Jeff says. “We actually started in our basement.” With “one small embroidery machine, a computer, and a dream,” they founded Thread Logic in 2002, selling custom logo-embroidered shirts and hats to local businesses. In 2005, they decided to “dip our toes into this internet thing,” launching their first website. “We started with pay-per-click ads and never looked back,” Jeff says. As more competing businesses got online, the couple revised their marketing strategy, switching from a previous ad service to Google Ads in 2010 to expand their reach beyond the region.

“Google Ads allowed us to find a much bigger audience,” Jeff says. “We’ve grown seven times since using them.” Thread Logic now operates in an industrial facility with 60 embroidery heads and 28 employees, shipping hundreds of thousands of products to customers across the country each year. They’re a long way from their basement operation, but their commitment to quality and customer service hasn’t changed. “We really want to establish relationships to get repeat orders,” Jeff explains. Since Thread Logic adopted AI-powered Performance Max in 2022, new customer acquisition increased by 73 percent. Their customers now include corporations, government, law enforcement, education, and nonprofits. They use Google Analytics 4 with AI to analyze data about the customer journey, while their Google Business Profile features hundreds of rave reviews. “E-commerce is about trust, and that's what a review conveys,” Jeff says. “This is true today as it was true in 2005.”

Coconut Whisk

Location: Rosemount, Minnesota
Website: https://coconutwhisk.com/
10 employees

As a college senior, Bella Lam spent many nights cooking and baking vegan treats with her boyfriend, Myles Olson. That’s what inspired Bella and Myles to create Coconut Whisk in 2018. Today their company sells plant-based and gluten-free pancake, waffle, and cookie mixes in over 1,000 stores in the U.S. and on the Coconut Whisk website. “We’re really complete opposites, but what grounds us is our shared values: sustainability, compassion, family, community,” says Bella. The team has always run their operations with Google Workspace tools like Drive, Slides, and Sheets. “When we started the business, it was very scrappy and DIY. We used all the free tools that we could, and Google really came through,” says Bella. Google Ads help Coconut Whisk reach would-be customers looking for delicious plant-based foods and ingredients. “That was a huge tool for us to use to capture people who were searching for our products,” Bella says.

In 2021, Bella and Myles also opened Coconut Whisk Cafe, offering a place where the downtown Minneapolis community can gather and enjoy delicious treats. The cafe sells their popular mixes as well as bubble tea and coffee, and has a retail space that features local and BIPOC-owned businesses. The Google Business Profile for the cafe brings many hungry customers to the door. “It’s been really huge for us when it comes to driving traffic and searchability,” Bella says. The coconut tree is known as the “all-giving tree,” and Coconut Whisk has fought against hunger and for many other causes. That includes supporting artists who showcase their work at the cafe and will soon design Coconut Whisk packaging. Says Bella, “That's what our mission was from day one, ‘How do we give and how do we serve people?’ I think that's what food is all about.”

Millennial Farmer

Location: Lowry, Minnesota
Website: https://www.youtube.com/c/MNMillennialFarmer
+875K YouTube subscribers

Zach Johnson takes pride in being a sixth-generation family farmer in Lowry, Minnesota. The sprawling farm has evolved to meet new demands in the more than 150 years since his ancestors first bought the land, now primarily growing corn and soybeans. There once was a time where everyone knew a farmer, but Zach sensed there was now a disconnect between farmers and consumers. He grew frustrated with the misinformation about farming he saw online, so, in 2016, he started his YouTube channel, Millennial Farmer. “The entire idea behind it was to try to connect with people about farming,” Zach says. And he chose the name Millennial Farmer to showcase how hardworking his generation can be. “[Farmers] are still those same people doing what we love to do. We've grown more efficient. We've gotten better at what we do...and I wanted to show people that from the inside out.” Zach’s vlogs documenting life from his perspective have gained him over 875,000 subscribers in five years, fueled by his on-camera charm and the evergreen day-to-day challenges of a farmer.

Now, Zach earns much more from YouTube than he does from the farm. He also sells merchandise and has two podcasts. “We work with sponsors. I do a lot of public speaking and YouTube remains and will always be the foundation for why the brand is here,” Zach says. Through YouTube, Zach has reached an entirely different audience than he ever thought possible. Zach has also been able to give back to his community, raising more than $65,000 for first responders who help keep farmers safe. Most importantly, he is securing the future of his family’s farm for the next generation thanks to the “FarmTube” phenomenon. “I'm able to help finance my own tractors, my own land…at a faster pace than I would be able to otherwise.” Change happens fast, even if the people stay the same, and that’s what makes farming so special in the first place.

Civic Eagle

Location: Minneapolis, Minnesota
Website: https://www.civiceagle.com/
13 employees

Growing up, Damola Ogundipe and Yemi Adewunmi counted politics among their many interests. Damola, who emigrated from Nigeria to Minnesota as a child, developed an interest in immigration legislation. He and Yemi, who is from Upstate New York, realized how confusing it could be to understand and track lawmaking. As they got older, their frustration at navigating the legislative system sparked the inspiration to build an innovative solution. For two years, the team worked to create an app for navigating the policy arena. In 2017, they spent time in the Google for Startups residency program and an idea crystallized: “We realized that if we could make legislation truly transparent for advocacy groups, we could make a big difference, and have a viable business,” says Yemi. They founded Civic Eagle and launched Enview, a digital platform that helps organizations search, identify, and track legislation so they can focus on policies that matter to them and their constituents. Civic Eagle then started using Google Ads and Google Analytics to reach these organizations.

As the company continues to refine how they improve messaging, enhance tracking, and adjust user experiences, they’re also experiencing increased interest in their product during the pandemic. “We’ve seen a real need from current and potential customers to understand the new legislation coming out from different states in response to the pandemic,” says Yemi. Looking forward, Civic Eagle believes Google will continue to be key to their growth. “Google has invested $100,000 through the Google for Startups Black Founders Fund,” says Damola. “It's a great program and a great opportunity for us to get non-dilutive capital that we can put to work and use as an opportunity to grow.” Their goals also include a plan to expand beyond the U.S. “Being able to bring that level of value at scale, both domestically and internationally, is on our roadmap. And we think that we have an incredible opportunity to accomplish it,” says Damola.

Branch Basics

Location: Minneapolis, Minnesota
Website: branchbasics.com
8 employees

Marilee Nelson has long been an advocate of clean living. It started when illness had her facing a kidney transplant and she needed to change her diet and lifestyle. Years later, her 10-year-old son Douglas was exposed to high levels of pesticides, leaving him extremely sensitive to chemicals. Determined to heal him, Marilee learned how chemical exposure can impact health and removed all products with harmful chemicals from their home. Douglas recovered, but soon after, Marilee’s niece, Allison Evans, was experiencing unexplained pain. Marliee invited Allison and her best friend Kelly Love to join her at her home for a summer detox. Soon, Allison was pain-free, too. Marilee had now seen and experienced enough to know there was a need for clean products. Together with Allison and Kelly, she started Branch Basics, a company that makes and sells natural, non-toxic cleaners and laundry detergents.

In 2009, the team launched a website with two goals: sell cleaning products and educate people on health and wellness. “Cleaning was always our way of opening people up to the wealth of knowledge that Marilee had,” said Kelly. “We truly are an education company — that’s where our heart is.” Using a content marketing strategy, the trio initially focused on search engine optimization to promote products and blog posts. They saw success and eventually decided to try paid search with Google Ads as well. Today, Google Ads accounts for about 20% of the company’s total site traffic. “We’ve seen great success with Google Ads,” said Tim Murphy, CEO of Branch Basics. The company also uses Google Analytics to monitor its campaigns and G Suite tools like Hangouts, Docs, Sheets, and Drive to stay connected.

Google has helped Branch Basics educate more people about the dangers of toxic cleaning products and sell more of its safe-to-use cleaners and detergents. “We love hearing that someone else’s life has been transformed,” said Marilee. Branch Basics plans to continue growing. Moving forward, Branch Basics wants to continue to build on its mission to help those suffering from chemicals by offering clean-living experiences. “We do eventually see ourselves going beyond just cleaning,” said Kelly. “We want to open a space that serves clean food and products, where people can come and experience what we’re preaching.”

Faribault Woolen Mill Co.

Location: Faribault, Minnesota
Website: www.faribaultmill.com
90 employees

Faribault Woolen Mill Co. is one of the last vertical mills in the U.S. They dye, spin, and weave their woolen products all under one roof. Founded in 1865, their pride in craftsmanship saw them through two World Wars, the Great Depression, and a mill fire, along with the trials of each passing decade. But after five generations of family ownership, the mill was bought by investors in the early 2000s and closed in 2009. The century-old machines went silent, and the workforce went home—that is until Paul and Chuck Mooty stepped in. Determined to save the mill, the two cousins purchased Faribault in 2011, hired 40 employees, and turned the factory lights back on. “We fell in love with its story,” Paul recalls. “And so we sought out to restore this iconic American business.”

At Faribault, old and new technologies work together to create a thriving business. The mill uses traditional dying and weaving techniques to manufacture premium blankets, throws, and scarves. “These decades-old machines still produce the highest-quality wool goods by far,” explains Paul. And digital tools like AdWords, Google’s advertising program, help to reach customers well beyond state borders. “It allows us to get our products out to customers in New York, California, and Boston, and not just be a local brand,” he adds. The Faribault team also looks to Google Analytics to improve their AdWords campaigns, which currently drive 20 percent of sales. “Because we’re a lean company, we appreciate having a tool like Analytics that lets us measure results, maximize return on investment, and make our ads work for us even better.”

Today, Faribault’s products can be found in stores all across the country. Since their reopening, they have more than doubled their workforce and rehired original employees, some of whom have been weaving for the mill for over 60 years. The impact of Faribault’s revitalization, however, goes well beyond job creation. “It’s restored a lot of excitement in the community,” Paul says. A play recounting the mill’s history was shown in the local theater; a newly built senior center was named after the business; and their storefront has attracted countless visitors, from out-of-state tourists to the Minnesota governor. “We’ve received more love and support than I can even describe. To get a company like this back up and running in a small town—nobody imagined that it could happen,” Paul muses. “But here we are. And it’s our hope to keeping it going for another 150 years.”

My Name Is Yeh

Location: East Grand Forks, Minnesota
Website: www.mynameisyeh.com
Molly Yeh has over 300,000 followers

Molly Yeh started blogging in 2009 as a classical percussion student at The Juilliard School in New York. She wrote about city life, including its diverse cuisine. After a few years, she and her then boyfriend (now husband) returned to their native Midwest and moved onto a working farm, chickens included. This provided a fertile setting for Molly to reinvent herself. "I didn't have lots of friends nearby, so I threw myself into the blog and worked on my photos and recipe writing," she recalls. "My Name Is Yeh shows my life on the farm and the recipes I create, which are influenced by my Chinese and Jewish heritage and my travels." Her unique perspective and recipes, from Brussels sprout latkes to whimsically colorful cakes, combined with a glimpse of farm life became a big hit with foodies. "By networking online and meeting other bloggers, I grew the blog into a business," she says.

Google has helped Molly grow her blog from something "only my mom and mom-in-law read" to an income-generating, award-winning destination. Google Analytics provides valuable insights on her audience and web traffic. “Most of my business is from working with sponsors. And potential sponsors always want to know if my audience aligns with their customer base. With Google Analytics, we can see whether or not my blog is a good fit,” Molly explains. Her social media channels, including YouTube, bring her experiences, recipes, and personality home to over 300,000 followers. Gmail lets her communicate with fellow bloggers, advertisers, sponsors, and other business contacts. And AdSense enables her to sell ad space on her site as an additional source of revenue.

Since her humble beginnings, Molly has won numerous awards and accolades, including Yahoo's Food Blogger of the Year and Forbes 30 Under 30 for Food & Drink 2017. She is now a sought-after freelance food writer and has published a cookbook, Molly on the Range. She gives back by volunteering at her local food co-op and community food truck. "Through generating a following on social media and traffic on the blog, I'm able to make a living," Molly says. We can't wait to see what she'll serve up next.

HalloweenCostumes.com

Location: Mankato, Minnesota
Website: www.halloweencostumes.com
HalloweenCostumes.com has $70 million in annual sales

The Fallenstein kids were the envy of their neighborhood, thanks to mother Jenice’s creative, homemade Halloween costumes. In 1992, sisters Lisa, Heather, and Julie started renting out their old costumes from their garage. Brother Tom joined in part-time while studying computer science in college. After graduation, he decided to scare up new business by selling specialty costumes online. "I started building websites for us in 2004," Tom says. "By October 2005, everything exploded." They took over their mom's house, stocking inventory and shipping packages. "We had to unplug the phone because we couldn't take any more orders," Tom says. The family has since turned their garage operation into a full-fledged business in their hometown.

HalloweenCostumes.com sells costumes for adults, children, babies, and pets, as well as accessories and decorations. They've used AdWords, Google's advertising program, since 2007 to attract customers looking for particular types of costumes. "Our biggest traffic driver is AdWords, bringing in millions in sales," Tom says. They've redone their mobile-friendly website to appeal to shoppers using smartphones and mobile devices. Their social media, including Google+ and YouTube, showcases their vast inventory, demonstrating everything from mask-making to makeup-application techniques, and conjures up interest in costumes people never dreamed of (even in their best nightmares). Google Analytics lets them track what people are searching for and how they use the website.

Since their humble beginnings in their family garage, the business has outgrown two buildings. They now occupy a 200,000-square-foot facility, employ 150 full-time staff, and hire 1,500 seasonal workers during Halloween. They've launched two speciality websites to keep business hopping off-season. And they're expanding their brand internationally. "My sisters and I stand in the aisles here and say, 'Wow. This has come a long way from our parents' house,'" Tom says. "Google created the opportunity for me to bring a small costume shop online—and then bring it to the world."