The systems behind
Twin Cities Startup Week
The problem
BETA.mn, a nonprofit, runs Twin Cities Startup Week: five days of sessions across Minneapolis and Saint Paul, September 14–18, 2026, put on by a small team.
Contacts lived in an old CRM. Sponsor confirmations arrived in personal inboxes and weren't tracked anywhere. The program calendar had host slots to fill, and every paid pass had to end up on the right guest list.
“Sponsors buy momentum. Attendees buy programming. Fill the calendar first.”
— Our first read of the week
How Setup AI helped
We kept the tools that fit and built only the connections between them. Notion became the CRM, with 2,258 contacts moved in. Luma held the passes, RSVPs and the program calendar. Stripe took payment, and every sale landed on the guest list on its own.
Sponsor outreach ran on a schedule: approved letters went out twice a day from the TCSW address, paused when someone replied, and held back at the first sign of a bounce.
The weekA check-in roster at the door, built from every pass on record.
- 1One CRM for everyone
- 2Sponsor outreach on a schedule
- 3Payments that become passes
- 4One program calendar
- 5A check-in roster for the door
- 6The wrap and the numbers
What we made
The week, in the things people held
What happened
The week ran September 14–18, 2026.
- 11,301 people registered across 90 events on one calendar.
- 2453 paid passes, each one on the guest list without anyone copying it.
- 3After the week: thank-yous to every sponsor and speaker, a feedback survey, and a report on where every pass came from.