Twins, Techstars partner for startup program

MINNEAPOLIS -- As the Twins look to evolve their organizational goals with an eye toward the future, they've looked for ways to enhance their brand to diversify and broaden their audience beyond just baseball.

That mindset has taken them into the world of startups.

On Thursday morning, the Twins announced a partnership with Techstars for an accelerator program called "The Minnesota Twins Accelerator by Techstars," during which the organizations will provide funding and mentorship for 30 startups over three years, with a focus on the intersection of technology, sports and entertainment.

"Baseball is our core; our priority will always be to win a World Series, to win multiple World Series championships," said Joe Pohlad, the Twins' executive vice president for brand strategy and growth. "That said, I feel like we would be missing an opportunity to not try to grow our brand and our business, and our audience for that matter, in other ways. And that's, that's really the impetus of this Techstars partnership."

The program will support developing startups in their early growth, with the hope of building stable, self-sufficient businesses. It is the first of its kind in Minnesota sports and the second in MLB, following a similar initiative launched by the Dodgers in 2015.

Interested startups can begin applying for the first year of the program on May 10. Every year, 10 startups will be selected for the 13-week program, with the first year expected to run from November 2021 through February 2022. Participating entrepreneurs will have access to curated workshops and resources along with mentorship and financial investment from the Twins and Techstars.

“Partnering with the Twins to influence and lead change in the way people and communities embrace experiences -- on and off the field -- is something Techstars is very excited about,” said Techstars general manager Nancy Wolff in a release. “Techstars is a proven and powerful engine that drives access and growth to startups and entrepreneurs across the world. As the first accelerator of its kind in Minnesota sports, this is a unique opportunity to join the Techstars and Twins networks for a powerful program.”

The initiative is experimental to a certain extent, without a fully fleshed-out vision for targets or success metrics as the organization begins its unprecedented activation. The goal for the Twins is more to leverage the ingenuity of global entrepreneurs to see if it can help expand their footprint in sports and entertainment and to open doors to new ways of thinking with the hope of financial upside through savvy investments.

The Twins aren't limiting this to local companies; they're also hoping to leverage the broader reach of Techstars, an established seed accelerator, to expand their presence to startups around the country and the world.

"We hope that this can help bring new ideas to the Twins," said Jason Lee, the Twins' senior vice president of business strategy and analytics. "We hope that we can kind of mentor and guide some of these founders and kind of give back to that community. We also hope that there's a financial product to this where we can make some investments in some really promising companies."

As they look ahead to monitoring the progress and ideas posed by the first cohort of startups, the Twins also hope to leverage the expertise of their own leadership figures to provide more specific guidance regarding the specific needs and use cases for technology, problem-solving and business approaches in the sports and entertainment industry.

To that extent, the Twins and the Pohlad Companies will provide a group of mentors that will work alongside the structure afforded by Techstars to help with industry-specific knowledge and connections. Lee is one of those mentors on the Twins side, along with team president Dave St. Peter, chief business officer and executive vice president Laura Day, senior vice president of technology John Avenson and assistant general manager Daniel Adler.

There's a limited amount of precedent for an initiative like this around the sports leagues, but not much -- and the Twins hope that this opportunity could help them serve as an example and industry leader in the evolution of the sports business.

"I do hope that this can become a model," Lee said. "I do think that if other teams, other leagues, other organizations can look to what we're doing and start to think outside the box a little bit, think about how they can engage with the startup community, and organizations outside of their walls, I think that would be a fantastic thing."