Meet the 2020 Lunar Expert Award Winners
For the second year in a row, we’re thrilled to recognize Lunar Experts who have gone above and beyond to support Lunar Startups founders.
Lisa Goldson Armstrong, Mike Rakes, and Megan Trice have made exceptional contributions as members of the Lunar Expert Network, a group of over 75 highly accomplished business professionals in the Twin Cities who volunteer their time to provide high-ROI consulting and other business training.
Clockwise from left: Lisa Goldson Armstrong, Mike Rakes, and Megan Trice.
We created the Expert Network because we know that founders who are women and people of color start their businesses with less than half the capital of their white male counterparts. That makes it tough to access the critical business expertise — legal, financial, marketing, tech, and more — that startups need to survive, thrive, and grow. Lunar cohort members are able to connect with the Expert Network for highly-specialized advising sessions designed to make an immediate impact in their business. We’re grateful to all of our experts for their support of Minnesota’s next millionaires.
Read on to meet our Lunar Expert Award winners!
Lisa Goldson Armstrong
Most memorable Lunar moment:
Attending "UnDemo Day" 2019 and celebrating the transformation, confidence and polish of the graduating cohort.
hidden talent:
Matrix-like ability to connect the dots from problem to idea to opportunity to action.
Why she’s amazing: In addition to providing coaching and thought partnership to Lunar founders, Lisa Goldson Armstrong has been an invaluable advisor to Lunar Startups staff since the early days of Cohort 1. As we continue to shape the future of Lunar, she’s been right there with us contributing her wisdom and expertise to our vision of more people and more ideas.
Lisa Armstrong is a strategic marketing leader with expertise in developing, prioritizing and implementing growth opportunities to drive growth. Her expertise includes marketing, branding, new business initiatives, innovation, product development, digital transformation and go-to-market strategies into new industries and new markets. She’s currently the Senior Vice President of Marketing, Business Development & Strategy for Filtration Group, as well as a member of Pipeline Angels.
Mike Rakes
Most memorable lunar moment:
Best Lunar memory so far has been teaching the basics of bookkeeping and financials to the last cohort. I enjoyed hearing everyone's stories and learning about the cool startups that are being launched right here in our local community. It's also rewarding for me to be able to help people that are in the same shoes I was in 8 years ago.
Hidden talent:
Financial file maintenance (Xero/Quickbooks), financial statement preparation, and grilled cheese mastery.
Why he’s amazing: Mike has led multiple events for Lunar Startups, including a trademarking event for the broader entrepreneurial community, and a finance workshop for Lunar founders. He’s generous and forthcoming with his thought partnership and advice, especially for our food startups!
Mike is an entrepreneur, marketing, and finance professional with experience building and managing new business ventures from concept into scale. His first entrepreneurial venture, Philia Foods grew from concept to retail distribution in over 350 locations throughout the United States. He led the company through acquisition by Land O'Lakes, Inc., and is currently working as Entrepreneur in Residence at Land O'Lakes to enable and encourage an entrepreneurial culture within the Dairy Foods business.
Megan Trice
Most memorable lunar moment:
My business partner, Beth Meyer, and I had the privilege of giving our negotiation training to the Lunar cohorts. Each one of the founders was engaged and passionate about learning new skills that would help them move their business forward. It left me with the feeling that great companies were going to come out of this program and that with these founders at the helm, the world was in good hands.
hidden talent:
I use my creativity, curiosity and empathy to help businesses and people grow and transform.
Why she’s amazing: Megan has co-led a negotiation workshop for every Lunar cohort, and it has consistently earned some of the highest ratings from participating founders. Her advising sessions have made such an impact that she’s even partnered with Lunar Startups founders for work beyond thought partnership.
From Wall Street to Fortune 500 titans in the Twin Cities, Megan has spent over a decade leading companies to more profitable futures. She co-founded Empower Equity Partners, whose mission is to help women dream big and build transformational skills they need to unlock growth. Megan coaches and trains female founders and has served as an interim executive at several premier Twin Cities start-ups, including The Coven and Louise Gray.