Prairie Portraits is a weekly set of questions intended to help the community get to know someone from the Silicon Prairie startup scene a little bit better. Prairie Portraits feature a fixed set of questions ranging from career background and personal perferences to, perhaps, off-the-wall questions on YouTube videos and entrance music.

Name: Shawn Harrington
Title/Occupation: GM at Regus & co-founder of Bloomsnap
Age: 31
Hometown: Clarence, New York
Current city: Norwalk, Iowa 
Twitter: @ShawnPatrickH

Personal

Title of my autobiography: “Sometimes Professional, Always Moving Forward”
Thing I can’t live without: My fiance Carrie. I respect any spouse (or future spouse) of someone who builds startups while having other full-time commitments. It takes a great degree of risk, patience and strength on their part to provide the support we need.  
Drink of choice: Irish Whiskey, neat.
Last book I read: “Startup Communities” by Brad Feld. It’s pretty much a blueprint to what we’ve been building in the Silicon Prairie.  
Ultimate road trip snack: Cheese & Cheddar Sandwich Crackers made by Keebler Elves
Entrance song if I was a wrestler: “Money City Maniacs” by Sloan
Celebrity doppelgänger: Taylor Lautner, but I’m still open to suggestions…
Guilty pleasure band and/or film: Eric Church, as an indie rock guy I’ve recently been coaxed into more country.
Chosen career in an alternate reality: Fantasy football analyst
Worst OCD tendency: Backing into parking spots
Quote I might have said: “Entrepreneurs don’t think of ideas, entrepreneurs build ideas.”
Which actor or actress, and why: It was De Niro before all those Little Focker movies.  
Favorite YouTube video: It’s a Bill Burr bit on overpopulation, but for the sake of less profanity “The Chase” by Kids In The Hall is also at the top.

Local

Best place in Des Moines no one knows about: The off-road trails in Water Works Park.
Des Moines’ obligatory tourist stop: It will soon be the Des Moines Social Club!
One thing Des Moines has that other Silicon Prairie cities don’t: The skywalks. I can walk four miles through downtown in January without a coat.    
Best thing going for Des Moines’ startup community:  We’re surrounded by untapped resources including supporting businesses, investors and entrepreneurs who have not become engaged yet. They all represent future growth as we get them involved.
Last local restaurant I ate at: Gramercy Tap
Best meal I’ve had in Des Moines: Last summer, I helped coordinate a pigroast at my friend Bryan’s acreage in West Des Moines. Jason Kapela from Louie’s Wine Dive Restaurant was our chef, Goldie’s Ice Cream Shoppe catered the sides and Confluence Brewery provided the beer. The only problem was that we didn’t have many leftovers.  
Des Moines would be better if… we extended the skywalks from Waukee to Altoona. 

The Startup Scene

Social media pet peeve: Tagging someone in a “Daily” on twitter only because they tweeted out someone else’s news story or blog. 
App I’m obsessed with: WGR Radio, I still need my Buffalo sports.
Silicon Prairie startup crush: Collective Labor. Watching Dave and his team attack a problem in a niche industry and launch it with minimal PR and marketing last year was pretty cool.
Most comfortable startup T-shirt I own: Bawte, from their launch party at Big City Burger.  
Something most people don’t know about me: Eight years ago, my brother’s friend asked if I would join him on a hunting trip to Iowa. If I didn’t say yes, I would have never considered moving here.
Entrepreneur I most want to grab a drink with: Seth Godin
I do what I do because… Whether I’m managing my center for Regus or working with my team at Bloomsnap, I’m constantly around passionate business people. It’s easy for their energy to rub off on others. 
Before I was in startups… I was helping Pete Jones build a blog community around DesMoinesIsNotBoring.com, serving on the Board of the Young Professionals Connection and as a founding member of the Des Moines Social Club.    
If money wasn’t an object, my next company would be… health and wellness related, helping people who are missing critical steps to living better.
The Silicon Prairie startup scene is missing… more collaboration between the established companies and our budding startups. There are great minds and resources on both sides that usually are not utilized to each other’s advantage.  
In five years, I’ll… be someone who helps bring that collaboration closer. 
In five years, the Silicon Prairie… will be much more polished with first-hand examples of successes and failures that we will not be afraid to share with each other. New leadership will emerge that adds to the environment created by the mentors and advocates we have today.  

Credits: Photos courtesy of Shawn Harrington.