Silicon Prairie News

Photo by Quinn Dombrowski via Flickr

Published every Tuesday, Prairie Moves keeps our readers informed about career moves, media coverage, product development, and more from the companies and individuals we cover on Silicon Prairie News.

If you or your company would like to submit one of the items below for our next Prairie Moves post, please email info@siliconprairienews.com. And if you have suggestions on how we could improve these posts or any of our coverage, please contact me at danny@siliconprairienews.com.

Career Moves

• Bryan Findell joined the team at Secret Penguin (Omaha) as Visual Effects Editor & Producer – via twitter.com/secretpenguin
• Chris Larkin joined the team at Graffiti Tracker (Omaha) as Chief of Staff – via twitter.com/timothykephart

Funding & M&A

• Dwolla (Des Moines) closed a $1M round – via dwolla.org/blog
• Mrail (Lincoln) received $500K seed investment from Nebraska Angels – via omaha.com
• Archrival (Lincoln) acquired by Dachis Group (Austin, Texas) – via dachisgroup.com

Media Mentions

• Archrival (Lincoln) acquisition by Dachis Group (Austin, Texas) covered by TechCrunch: Dachis Continues To Shop For Facebook Preferred Developers, Buys Archrival and Omaha World-Herald: Lincoln agency acquired by Texas firm
• Mrail's (Lincoln) $500K funding from Nebraska Angels covered by Lincoln Journal Star: UNL research leads to rail-testing company and Omaha World-Herald: MRail to get seed money
• Dwolla's (Des Moines) $1M round from Veridian Group and The Members Group covered by Des Moines Register: Des Moines startup Dwolla wins $1 million investment & Briefs: Dwolla secures $1 million from Iowa investors, Business Record: Dwolla secures $1 million investment, Mike Colwell's blog on the Business Record: What makes an entrepreneur successful?, and Credit Union Times: Iowa CUSOs Make P2P Investment
• Zac Triement of Lucky Bucket Brewing (La Vista, Nebraska) interviewed by Getting Tanked With Frank: GTWF Minisode: Lucky Bucket Brewing
• Pandora Founder Tim Westergren's "Pandora Listener Town Hall" in Omaha covered by Omaha.net: Opening Pandora's Box with Tim Westergren

Product Development

• Tim Siedell, a.k.a @BadBanana on Twitter, (Lincoln) had his book, Marching Bands Are Just Homeless Orchestras, Half-Empty Thoughts Vol. 1, released: amazon.com/Marching-Homeless-Orchestras-Half-Empty-Thoughts – via twitter.com/badbanana
• Blend Interactive (Sioux Falls) launched Channel Cat – via twitter.com/blendtweets

New Work

• Carla White of Happy Tapper helped design the iPhone app Wordismo – via twitter.com/carlawhite

Misc.

• Vendorin (Omaha) launched redesigned company website: vendorin.com
• University of Nebraska at Omaha's Collegiate Entrepreneurs’ Organization launch a redesigned website: unoceo.org
• Omaha Beer && Code launched a website: beerandcode.org
• Blend Interactive (Sioux Falls) was a media partner of Web 2.0 Summit 2010 (San Francisco)
• Dwolla (Des Moines) moved offices to the Midland Building (206 6th Avenue) – via dwolla.org/blog