What is Prairie Moves?
Published Tuesdays and Fridays, 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 editor@siliconprairienews.com. And if you have suggestions on how we could improve these posts or any of our coverage, please contact danny@siliconprairienews.com.
In memoriam…
Our thoughts are with the team at the Des Moines Business Record on the passing of Jim Pollock, managing editor. Read about Pollock and his impact: “Letter from the editor: Business Record’s Jim Pollock passes away“
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Fundings
- Crop Ventures (Omaha), an agriculture technology startup, raised a $1 million seed round – SPN
Career Moves
- Rick Knudtson joined Layerdi (Omaha) as Lead UI/UX Designer – SPN
New Tech
- MyGeoTrex (Kansas City), a GPS-powered social application, launched at DEMO 2012 in Santa Clara, Calif. – Press Release, Venture Beat and SPN
- Handmark launched POWOW Messenger for Android, “the only text messenger that lets the user include anyone on any mobile phone in their circle of friends or family, teams, coworkers, and neighbors” – Press Release, powowmessaging.com and Google Play
New Creative
- Front Flip (Kansas City, Mo.) rolled out a website redesign – frontflip.com
- Swanson Russell (Omaha) redesigned FMC Agriculture Products website – fmcrop.com and Nebraska Creative
Product/Business Development and Milestones
- Dwolla (Des Moines) rolled out its “Pay Now” button – Dwolla blog, Dwolla dev blog, Mashable and Mobile Payments Today
- iApps24 (Des Moines) released its BarFly Des Moines app – iTunes App Store
Mentions
- Ova Ova (Omaha) – Fast Company’s Co.Design: “Ova Ova: The Easiest Way To Track And Visualize Fertility“
- AgLocal (Overland Park, Kan.) – Fast Company: “AgLocal Connects Meat Eaters With Meat Producers“
- DomiKnow (Des Moines) – Des Moines Register: “DomiKnow provides email marketing to small businesses“
- OneLouder (Kansas City, Mo.) – Kansas City Business Journal: “A Twitter behemoth shares four tips to success” and FierceDeveloper: “Making money in mobile apps isn’t easy: Majority of app developers are moonlighters“
- Syncbak (Marion, Iowa) – SNL Financial: “A legal way to bring over-the-air signals over the top“
- Ben Milne of Dwolla (Des Moines) – V3 Integrated Marketing: “Dwolla’s Ben Milne Shares Entrepreneurial Journey, Lessons“
- Nebraska Entrepreneur: “Self-Taught Programmers Nab First Place at Software Challenge“
- Nebraska Entrepreneur: ” ‘Pursuit of Success’ broadcasting the good news“
- Des Moines Register: “Obradovich: Iowans need app for transparent government“
Gig Bits
Gig Bits is an occasional feature keeping our readers up to speed on Google Fiber. Read Gig Bits.
- Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation (Kansas City, Mo.): “Paul Kedrosky – Google Fiber Speaker Series 4/18/12” (Video)
- Kansas City Business Journal: “KC, KCK should search for the will to push Google for answers“
Recognition
- James Armstead of Dwolla (Des Moines) was named to Pando Daily’s Pando List: “Top 5 Android Magicians“
- Proxibid (Omaha), Ben Vu of SkyVu Entertainment (Omaha) among AIM Institute award recipients – SPN
- Daily Tekk included Weiv (Des Moines) in its list “75+ Music Industry Tech Tools for Artists, Bands, Managers, and Execs“
Blogged
- Christian Renaud of StartupCity Des Moines: “Contain the Crazy“
- Rockupied (Columbia, Mo.): “Rockupied is competing in an Entrepreneurial Pitch competition.“
- Grain & Mortar (Omaha, Neb.): “Handmade Studio“
- Blue Compass Interactive (Des Moines): “i2iowa“
- Phenomblue (Omaha): “Bonus Day Project: Customize Your Entrance“
Misc.
- Omaha World-Herald: “Google to expand in the Bluffs?” and “Google gets OK to grow in the Bluffs“
- The Iowa Economic Development Authority Board awarded tax benefits through the High Quality Jobs program to Google Inc. for a potential expansion of its current operations in the Council Bluffs area – Iowa Economic Development Authority
- Weiv (Des Moines) is looking for beta testers for its latest version – Weiv blog
- Hudl (Lincoln, Neb.) is now offering a $10,000 hiring bonus for developers and designers – Hudl blog
- eVents (Kansas City) director to speak at Campaign Tech 2012 conference – Press Release
- Technology Association of Iowa (Des Moines) posted photos of i2iowa – facebook.com
- Bawte (Des Moines) is set to host a launch party on May 23 – facebook.com
- Slouch Couch (Omaha) announced its upcoming game, Drugrunner – twitter.com
Credits: Photo by Nedra via Flickr