A tornado led to a hospital that’s now ranked the best in the world
- Mayo Clinic — Newsweek’s #1 hospital on Earth, 8 years running
- Medtronic, the world’s largest medical device company, started in a Minneapolis garage
- The first wearable pacemaker was built there in four weeks, in 1957
- The North Star State, 32nd to join the Union (1858)
How Minnesota’s digital economy grew
A tornado devastates Rochester
With no hospital in town, the injured are nursed by Mother Alfred Moes and Dr. William Worrall Mayo — who agree to build a permanent hospital together.
From tornado to the world’s #1 hospital
The origin story is genuinely unusual: a tornado forced a Catholic order of nuns and a frontier doctor into partnership, and that accidental collaboration became one of the world’s most respected medical institutions. Today Mayo Clinic runs three major US campuses plus one in London, employs more than 50,000 people in Minnesota alone, and was named the world’s #1 hospital by Newsweek for the eighth consecutive year.
The pacemaker built in a garage
Medtronic started as a medical-equipment repair shop in 1949. A 1957 Halloween blackout, which endangered hospital patients on AC-powered pacemakers, pushed founder Earl Bakken to build the first battery-powered wearable pacemaker in four weeks. By 1960 Medtronic held exclusive rights to the first fully implantable pacemaker, and it’s now the world’s largest medical device company. The 1984 founding of the Medical Alley Association formalized what’s now a cluster of 700 to 800-plus healthcare organizations along the Rochester–Twin Cities corridor.
How Minnesota businesses buy websites
Mayo and Medtronic get the headlines, but most of Minnesota’s businesses are the trades and shops serving the Twin Cities, Rochester, and towns across the rest of the state.
Professional and B2B services
A medical-device and health-insurance economy rewards clarity about exactly what you do.
Trades and home services
Minnesota covers a lot of ground — say plainly which towns and counties you actually serve.
Shops and hospitality
Clear hours and location, readable on a phone, win the quick local search.
How well do you know Minnesota’s digital economy?
3 quick questions. Get all 3 right and you win a 10% off discount code. Every answer is somewhere on this page.
Minnesota quiz · 1 of 3
What natural disaster indirectly led to the founding of Mayo Clinic’s first hospital?
Why FastSites works here
A state that built the first wearable pacemaker in four weeks understands the value of moving fast without cutting corners. A clear one-page site, live in days, at a published price, is that same instinct for a small business.