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Trace Drechsler, product design engineer, and Cole Fisher, director of human resources, sit at a rectangular table in a part of the room called The Box, Drechsler working on a laptop, Fisher taking notes.
Darren Shuster, Los Angeles' public relations manager – for the week – leans back in a chair around a round table, encouraging others to take pie shares in two boxes of Pizza Luce.
Nathan Lipinski, the 25-year-old CEO, pbades, smartphone in hand. All are down – rules of the house. Most of the 12 crew members did not arrive. Some still attend clbades at the University of Minnesota Duluth. Franklin, the dog comes in and out.
It's an unconventional staff that meets in an unconventional space that is at the heart of an unconventional business – at least by Duluth's standards. For a stranger, it is difficult to see what is work and what is game.
"That's exactly what Silicon Valley startups look like," says Shuster, whose company is called Pop Culture PR. "Colorful, fun and designed to express creativity and a balance between work and lifestyle. And no cabins.
Lipinski, of Zimmerman, Minnesota, has already appeared in these pages for the development of StarShip, a device that can determine whether items shipped, such as vaccines, are at the right temperature. A first-year medical student two years ago, he won the UMD Shark Tank competition with gizmo, which MC-Cubed is developing.
But Shuster was invited – at his instigation – to help commercialize the new product of MC-Cubed, a social media app called Platonic that, as the name suggests, speaks of friendship and not romantic relationship.
"The dating apps are for dating," Lipinski said earlier this week. "Facebook is for friends you already have. And Twitter is for people who have no one to send a text message. So we wanted to create this activity-driven platform. "
Already marketed to 18 to 34 year olds, Platonic will be available in the app store by May 1, said Lipinski, who takes a year off from the medical school to develop and develop it. his company.
It works like this:
The user clicks on the Platonic app and can choose between two major categories: active or social. Each has four sub-categories: outdoor activities, crafts and recreation, coaching and team sports for "active" nightlife, food and drink, games and movies and sightseeing for "social" activities.
The person clicks on one of the subcategories, called "baskets", and then can type the completion of a sentence beginning with "I would like …" but only has 15 letters to do it. . Lipinski's example is "look at everything Disney does".
This "title" appears for six hours, allowing other people in the same area with similar interests to spot it and agree to meet and watch Disney.
Lipinski had the idea of the application, he said, in response to the epidemic of loneliness. It's really a thing. Cigna Corp., the insurance company, produces an annual survey on the subject. Last year, Cigna said that nearly half of the Americans surveyed said they sometimes felt alone or always left out.
He saw the loneliness around him at the medical school, said Lipinski, a UMD graduate in biochemistry, who attended the Duluth campus of the University of Minnesota's Faculty of Medicine for two years.
"I have seen (loneliness) contravene equal opportunities," he said. "No matter where you come from, what kind of person you are. This concerns everyone. "
He thinks that people can improve each other's mood better than any medication, Lipinski said. He wants to use Platonic as a way to bring together people with common interests.
The goal may be altruistic, but Lipinski has identified five ways in which Platonic will generate revenue. Among them is the acquisition of data, he said. Although individual identities are protected, companies appreciate the general information that will be available.
"Where do men from 20 to 34 years old go …?" Lipinski asked rhetorically. "What are they doing? … What's popular right now? So these data are very valuable."
Lipinski seems to have a strange ability to attract attention. He raised more than $ 6,500 during a Kickstarter campaign and two investors, he said. He has hired six part-time employees, but the rest of the staff work without pay.
Fisher, who processes the payroll, is not on the payroll. She became friends with Lipinski after meeting a few years ago in a biology lab at UMD, and she wants to help.
"I'm a sucker for a good cause," she said. "Nate was a good friend."
Drechsler, who graduated as an industrial engineer last May, is paid but has job offers that would have paid more, he said. The Cloquet native wanted to stay in the area and liked the idea of a start-up.
"The work atmosphere is excellent," said Drechsler, 24. "The culture is great. … I came in as a designer engineer and did some tasks I would never have dreamed of doing as a design engineer. "
Lipinski said he was excited about the opportunity to keep talented engineers in Duluth. In a presentation to Gov. Tim Walz at the Natural Resources Research Institute on Wednesday, he badyzed data from job listings and the number of computer and engineering students at Duluth to conclude that the city loses 1,800 talented people in four jobs to match their abilities.
Walz asked if Lipinski's staff would leave Duluth if the opportunity was not offered by MC-Cubed. "Yes," said Lipinski.
This staff is taking on new challenges as an incubator of engineering and application development. Silverware, a Platonic version suitable for 50-65 year olds, will be released at the end of the year or early next year.
"I do not think (Platonic) is my last attempt at all," said Lipinski. "I think we will continue to create and develop new software and applications."
Learn more about MC-Cubed on mc-cubed.com
Learn more about Platonic at beplatonic.com
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