Minneapolis ad agency owner opens up free office space to budding entrepreneurs

MINNEAPOLIS — A Minnesota entrepreneur and diehard thrifter is on the cusp of some big things.

He’s got a big idea, and thanks to a stranger’s decision to let his own employees work from home, this big idea is about to launch.

It’s a state-of-the-art Uptown Minneapolis skyline space. But the space is more open than it used to be, as Jim Scott explains.

“Pre-pandemic, every day of the week we filled this place up,” Scott said.

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Like many companies, MONO ad agency went hybrid, creating flexibility and availability. That gave Scott, MONO’s owner, an idea.

“We should invite into this space, share this place with people that are building businesses that have brands that need to go to market and may not have access to all the resources it takes to do that,” Scott said.

He chose Jake Webb, who’s about to launch an app to sell hugely-popular vintage clothing.

“There was a problem that Jake was able to solve and we could all see it immediately. We’re like that is an opening in the market and nobody is there right now, and that’s super exciting.”

“The problem with vintage was fake T-shirts,” Webb said.

He and his team are creating an app that uses AI to solve that problem.

“You can take pictures of a check and verify a check, you have to be able to take a picture of a T-shirt and verify if a T-shirt’s real,” Webb said. “And that kind of thought in my brain started to caused me to spiral, and I’m the type of person if I see something, if it’s in my head, I got to make it a reality.”

He is. He’s been able to pitch investors at his free workspace.

“When they come here, it’s serious,” he said. “They know that this guy, it’s not in his garage, it’s not just something that he’s making up. This is a legitimate business that we can get behind.”

He just closed a new $2 million deal in the MONO space, and Thrift MRKT will go live in 2024.

“Super exciting, super happy that that happened,” he said. “Now it’s just like it’s time to go, it’s time to work, so I am really excited about the opportunity.” 

He says he is grateful for the space, too.

MONO agency plans to continue supporting minority-owned businesses with free space. They will open up applications again in the spring.