Thinc Iowa: The return of the startup T-shirt roundup

If, as we posited in May, Big Omaha is like Paris Fashion Week — and at this point we see no grounds for questioning that claim — then it stands to reason that Thinc Iowa is akin to a runway show in Milan. Sure, Versace and Prada are replaced by Zaarly and Dwolla. But, still,…

If, as we posited in May, Big Omaha is like Paris Fashion Week — and at this point we see no grounds for questioning that claim — then it stands to reason that Thinc Iowa is akin to a runway show in Milan. Sure, Versace and Prada are replaced by Zaarly and Dwolla. But, still, it all comes down to who you’re wearing.

With that in mind, Silicon Prairie News set a crack team of intrepid reporters loose on the streets of downtown Des Moines on Friday — or, more accurately, I walked around creeping people out by asking to take photos of their shirts — to get an idea of the hottest look for the 2011 fall conference season. Here’s what I found. 

SPN contributor and 9 Clouds co-founder John Meyer donned a Zaarly tee designed by 9 Clouds.

Rick Knudtson prepped for the launch of Randomnade — we’ll have more on that soon — by sporting one of the gaming strategy site’s shirts. 

The ubiquitous Hudl Tee made an appearance in Des Moines, thanks to Lyndsey Howe.

One day before local radio site Locusic celebrated its launch with a rock show in Des Moines, Jake Kerber rocked one of his startup’s shirts.

Charise Flynn of Dwolla wore one of the company’s myriad of trendy tees. 

Uh oh. Did Flynn and her Dwolla cohort Jordan Lampe call each other the night before Thinc Iowa and plan this? Well, we’ll give them a free pass this time. After all, they had to make sure to properly rep their startup with Dwolla CEO Ben Milne speaking at the conference.

Gene Miguel from Twilio packed his startup gear when he traveled from San Francisco for Thinc Iowa.

Greg Jass of TargetClick showed off some of he schwag from his Cedar Falls shop. 

Erin Ginkens of Entrepreneurial Technologies reserved a TableNabbr shirt for use at Thinc Iowa. 

Robert Hidajat, who also appeared in our Big Omaha roundup, offered a new variation on the bHeroic tee theme. 

Brad Dwyer of Hatchlings was eggcited to show off one of his startup’s shirts. 

And, with that painfully bad pun, we’re throwing in the towel — or the T-shirt, as it were — on this version of the SPN startup T-shirt roundup. But if you have photographic evidence that you sported startup schwag at Thinc Iowa, send it our way and we’ll add it to the roundup.

And, until next time, keep donning those startup duds. 

This story is part of the AIM Archive

This story is part of the AIM Institute Archive on Silicon Prairie News. AIM gifted SPN to the Nebraska Journalism Trust in January 2023. Learn more about SPN’s origin »

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