MOORHEAD — Aaron Halik and his start-up firm Trimyxs will be looking for statewide recognition after the local entrepreneur won first place and a $5,000 prize in the West Central Trailblazer Challenge 2022, held recently in St. Cloud, Minn.
The North Dakota State University graduate will now be pitching Trimyxs in the semifinals of the MN Cup competition , a program of the Holmes Center for Entrepreneurship at the University of Minnesota’s Carlson School of Management.
Halik, a mechanical engineer, is the creator of the Trimyxs, which is an electric weed trimmer and edger that is attached to a push lawnmower.
The finals of the Trailblazer Challenge were held at St. Cloud’s ILT Academy on April 13.
“It was a fantastic experience. There’s a lot of good competitors out there,” Halik said Friday, May 6. “It was our first pitch competition for the Trimyxs. We were humbled to be chosen the winner.”
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Halik is founder and president of Trimyxs, and shares ownership of the company with his father and mother, Brian and Sara Halik, and his fiancee, Marissa Bridgeman.
The initial product run of 500 to 1,000 units should be ready for sale near the end of May. The company is taking pre-orders, he said.
“We are planning to have them manufactured here in Moorhead. For the time being, it will be set up in my basement, which is set up for assembly, packaging and ready to be shipped,” Halik said.
The Trailblazer Challenge introduced him to other entrepreneurs.
“You aren’t the only kind of entrepreneur out there. It was an entrepreneurial atmosphere. Everyone wanted to help each other,” he said. “They all have their full time jobs and their night jobs is their entrepreneurial dream set.”
He’s thankful for the guidance and support he’s gotten from the Greater Fargo Moorhead Economic Development Corporation, Emerging Prairie, SCORE (the Service Corps of Retired Executives), and the North Dakota State University startup incubator. He also appreciates the help he’s received from ILT Academy.
“There are a lot of great people out there helping entrepreneurs. If you are lost or need connections, there is a lot of help in the area,” Halik said. “I really couldn’t be where I am at now without the community.”
Halik got the idea for the Trimyxs after he started a lawn service and realized how much time it took to cut both the lawns and trim weeds.
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It took about four years to develop the Trimyxs, he said.
The MN Cup was founded in 2005 by serial entrepreneurs Dan Mallin and Scott Litman in partnership with the U of M. Since MN Cup’s founding, more than 19,000 Minnesotans have participated. The program has given away $4.4 million in seed funding and alumni have gone on to raise nearly $850 million in capital.
MN Cup brings together corporations, venture capitalists, foundations, government and skilled volunteers to support Minnesota’s entrepreneurs.
