One market is easy, scaling to a hundred is hard (obviously)

TechCrunch Live took a virtual trip to Minneapolis, Minnesota for this week's event. And it was a great trip!

This event is extra long, and includes conversations with some of the best founders and investors from the region. Following the panels and interviews, three Minneapolis startups competed for free tickets to TechCrunch Disrupt.

I love the first panel. It's a conversation with Andrew Leone, CEO and Founder of Dispatch, a last mile delivery platform that started with a couple guys and some box trucks. Since then the company shifted to a SaaS model and is now in 60 markets throughout the United States. You'll hear from Andrew and investor Anna Mason, Managing Partner at the Rise of the Rest fund, on how the company made the significant transition and continues to reinvent itself.

The next two conversations involve other local startups and investors from the Minneapolis region.

The final panel was hosted by TechCrunch's Haje Kamps where he speaks with Mary Grove, managing partner of Bread & Butter Ventures, and Justin Kaufenberg, managing director of Rally Ventures, about their investment strategies. Both are based in Minneapolis, and they are using the city as a lookout tower for what's happening across the US. Those not familiar with the Minneapolis ecosystem might scratch their heads, and wonder why not be based in the more traditional epicenters of investing -- Bay Area, New York, or Boston. It may have been true in the past that that's where the bulk of the opportunities are, but in our interview, Grove and Kaufenberg explain that a lot has changed in the last 10-15 years.

Finally, TechCrunch's Anita Ramaswamy spoke with Atif Siddiqi a Southern California transplant who first relocated to the Twin Cities to participate in the Target Techstars accelerator program. He hasn’t looked back since. Siddiqi has spent the past seven years building up Branch from its roots as a Midwestern upstart focused on earned wage access into a formidable Series C-stage business with $75 million in funding from investors such as Addition and General Atlantic and clients including Uber and Walmart. Siddiqi and early Branch investor Ryan Broshar of Minneapolis-based Matchstick ventures explain how the city’s venture ecosystem has evolved over the years and share their tips for founders outside coastal tech hubs looking to raise capital, bring in customers and make an impact on their industries far beyond their immediate locales.