Francisco Hockey is Finalist in MN Cup Competition

HERMANTOWN, Minn.  –

A Hermantown company is a finalist in the Minnesota Cup Competition.  Francisco Hockey’s founder Joe Francisco presented his final one-minute pitch to Venture capitalists and others Thursday morning at the Carlson School of Management in Minneapolis.

Before he left for the Cities, Francisco talked with FOX 21 about his company. Francisco Hockey started five years ago to educate youths about checking and concussion prevention. He uses dummies that move around the ice to help teach the students.

“Football’s had dummies for 40 years and hockey doesn’t have anything else that’s out there,” said Francisco. “II was able to kind of combine the hockey aspect of it with the dummies and get them to move on the ice with some coaches and some help and be able to train kids and students.”

Using the dummies is the current way Francisco is training now he wants to be able to control the dummies more and have the dummies collect information that can be used by the students.

Francisco is working with the UMD Engineering department, which is saving him a great deal of money. “UMD has been great for me.  I’ve been able to work with UMD and they are currently building a prototype for me. We are shooting for the moon with this one. We have some chips, some accelerators, and some data chips that are going to be able to collect data on concussions, G-forces, and also for equipment companies as well. We’re really excited about his project.”

There are two other finalists in the education and Training division. The winner will be announced on September 8th at the 2023 MN Cup Grand Finale.