After hosting a successful launch party with a local hip hop artist at Red Rocks in downtown Mankato, Jackman and two college buddies launched EXP Promotions and put on more than 30 concerts and a nationwide tour.
While still a student, Jackman landed an internship via a
Maverick job board
Made in
MANKATO
F
with southern Minnesota’s own Schwan’s Company. After graduation he took a full-time position with Schwan’s where he met Local Crate co-founder, Mike Stalbaum, and started down the path toward becoming a food entrepreneur.
rank Jackman, founder of Minneapolis-based Local Crate, has deep roots in southern Minnesota. Raised in Tyler, Minnesota, Jackman chose to attend Minnesota State University, Mankato and headed straight for the College of Business. Nine years after graduating, Jackman returned to campus as part of the Richard and Mary Schmitz Food Entrepreneurship Series. From the stage in Ostrander Auditorium, Jackman reminisced about his time as a student and the lessons that helped him along the way. “Mankato had a big impact on my entrepreneurial spirit,” he says. “The classes definitely laid the building blocks, but it was the hands-on experience that gave me the confidence to go out and do things.”
Professor of Management Shane Bowyer was so impressed with Jackman that he hired him as a student to help launch the first Mankato Marathon. The experience was transformative for the young would-be entrepreneur. “It was really cool to see,” Jackman says. “One day it was an idea, the next day there were 3,000 people running the marathon.” Bowyer dug back into his emails from that first year of the event and found that Jackman wasn’t only watching from the sidelines. “Frank sold over $8,000 in ad sales for the marathon,” he recalls.
The mission of Local Crate is to source locally grown and produced products. Jackman keeps his
southern Minnesota ties
strong through partnerships with growers like Larry Schultz Organic Farm in Owatonna and Ferndale Market in Cannon Falls.
Among Jackman’s favorite local haunts as a college student: Boom Town ($5 pitcher night!), Johnny B’s and Mazatlán. During his junior year, as part of Brenda Flannery’s entrepreneurship class, Jackman and his group decided to design and sell t-shirts for homecoming. After vendor issues and bumpy roads with designing to Minnesota State Mankato standards, the project was a success. “That was a moment of confidence,” he says. “Like, ‘wow, we just did something, and people paid for it.’”
LISTEN | READ | LEARN Jackman is a huge advocate of learning from others in the business world. Here’s what he recommends tuning into: Book E Myth by Michael E. Gerber Magazine Fast Company
Jackman met his wife, a fellow Marketing major, at Minnesota State Mankato. She now works for a Minneapolis marketing agency.
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