October 24, 2011 by Dan Beenken
Des Moines From discussion of how to approach marketing like MacGyver to stories of stripping pizza down to its "naked" essence, Robbie Vitrano of Trumpet Group packed plenty into his time on stage Friday afternoon at Thinc Iowa. Vitrano leads New Orleans-based Trumpet, a venture marketing company with a mission focused on advocacy, optimism and socially responsible capitalism. That work shaped his talk Friday. … read more
October 21, 2011 by Dan Beenken
Des Moines With Thinc Iowa only a few hours old, a strong theme was already emerging when Luke Vandermillen, who leads marketing for retirement and investor services at the Principal Financial Group, took the stage: the importance of listening to the customer. I think it’s a stereotype that large firms don’t listen and the small ones do. Vandermillen did a great job of dispelling that myth by focusing his … read more
August 3, 2011 by Dan Beenken
Hudson It’s pretty safe to say that Cohesive Creative and Code is “movin' on up” à la The Jeffersons, although the move in this case is to the south rather than to the east side. Cohesive's new space is actually the former home of a Cedar Valley bank branch in Hudson, Iowa. For a sweet take on the company's move, check out this tribute to “The Office” they put together with Hudson playing the role of Scranton, Pa. Pay special attention to their new beer delivery service — gotta love the special perks … read more
July 14, 2011 by Dan Beenken
Omaha The folks at Deal Garden are putting out a bumper crop this summer (sorry, couldn't resist the horticulture joke) with a recent expansion into travel via Midwest Getaways. They launched it earlier this week and, as of Thursday afternoon, already had more than 500 buyers on their first deal, a two-day getaway to Omaha. There are more deals in the works … read more
June 9, 2011 by Dan Beenken
Cedar Rapids The Corridor Business Journal held its annual awards last month to recognize business success stories across eastern Iowa. Clickstop received recognition twice, including Tim Guenther, Clickstop’s founder, being named as Entrepreneur of the Year for 2011. Said Guenther about taking home the big prize: “Winning the Entrepreneur of the Year award is a great honor. When you focus on building a business based on your passions … read more
May 16, 2011 by Dan Beenken
Omaha Philip Kaplan’s presentation was a nice mix of “this is how I became awesome” and “this is how you can be awesome, too.” His story started with a little backdrop on his move from W-2 employee land, where he was building sites for another firm, to running his own show. It was one of those common epiphanies in which the employee discovers what the employer is making off of his back and realizes the disparity between that what he’s taking home. … read more
May 13, 2011 by Dan Beenken
Omaha The list of firms, foundations and other partners pulling together for the Startup America Partnership is impressive stuff, with Google, American Express, Microsoft, Cisco and others getting involved to help push forward job creation in the United States. The basis for the partnership is to serve as a linkage for start ups, ramp ups and speed ups – as they coin them – with mentors, capital, talent, services, expertise and customers. The partnership … read more
May 3, 2011 by Dan Beenken
Cedar Falls I remember from "The Republic" that Plato once said “Necessity is the Mother of invention”. Sure, I didn’t really read it, but my 10th grade English teacher still thinks so. Those words are a perfect description of how the Book Hatchery was started. Its founder, Nick Cash, was looking for a way to publish his ebook on computer programming. Cash, currently a junior in computer science and economics at the University of Northern Iowa, had worked … read more
April 22, 2011 by Dan Beenken
Urbana Clickstop founders Tim Guenther and Shaun Linderbaum were a couple of typical Iowa college kids back in the late 90s, at a time when Wade Arnold of T8 was also bumming around the hallowed entrepreneurial grounds of the University of Northern Iowa. Incidentally, yours truly was also a “typical college kid” at that time. Sadly, the extent of my entrepreneurial talents was charging $3 for keg beer to pay our heating bill. What was I thinking? Anyway, things all started for Clickstop, which is now based… read more
March 9, 2011 by Dan Beenken
Waterloo With appreciation to my loyal following (thanks, family) and Silicon Prairie News' inability to recruit a decent writer from the Cedar Valley, I’m back for another go-round of what’s happening in eastern Iowa. Much of my focus will be on bringing awareness to some of the firms that make up the growing tech scene that is springing up around me. As manager of University of Northern Iowa’s Innovation Incubator, I have a front-row seat from… read more
Through August 22, help us decide the winners of our inaugural Silicon Prairie Awards, which will recognize 12
companies and individuals. You can vote once per day per category.
Winners will be announced live on stage at
our August 30 event.