Omaha Ever wished you had a directory of all the startups in your city? All the investors who were interested in technology? Or just the right person to join your team? Startup Genome, an effort by Shane Reiser of Omaha (far left) and Dave Lerner of New York (near left), aims to put all that information on a map, for every startup hub in the world. Of course, this isn't a new idea. … read more

Ames Within four days, Mike Boxleiter and Greg Wohlwend saw their latest iPad game downloaded 200,000 times. Then they were forced to give up their homes. Boxleiter and Wohlwend form Ames-based Mikengreg Games Company. They put two years into the development of Gasketball, and even though the game has found popular success — it was in the top five free iPad games for the better part of a week, and has been downloaded around 450,000 times since its release on Aug. 9 — that hasn't translated to financial security for the developers. The Penny Arcade ….  read more

Des Moines Jeffrey Short, a recent University of Northern Iowa graduate and the founder of Vookbag, is hoping students add his software to their back-to-school checklists. About a dozen professors at UNI, Iowa State, Drake University and a couple of community colleges will begin using the web-based program with … read more

West Des Moines Amid a crowd of friends, fellow founders and startup enthusiasts of all stripes Wednesday night, Goodsmiths announced the arrival of its group buying option and milestone of $1 million in inventory. "Now we can finally say, hey, we're different than the others that are out there," co-founder Levi Rosol said in the startup's West Des Moines office. Group buying has been in Goodsmiths' DNA since its inception but it didn't become a reality … read more

Des Moines Receipts are a hassle. Sometimes it's important to save them, but other times it just feels that way as consumers hoard them out of habit. After watching … read more

Cedar Falls Nadira Shadeed and Joe Rouw are a husband-wife team of optometrists who run a vision therapy-exclusive practice in Georgia. When the two discovered no software on the market suited their unique needs, they decided to build their own. They teamed up with Far Reach, a Cedar Falls-based web design company where Joe's brother Chris Rouw is a partner, to build NU Squared. "We're really trying to make it an all-in-one software for an office that provides these services," Joe Rouw said. Vision therapy typically … read more

Coralville With a $250,000 loan awarded from the Iowa Economic Development Authority last week, Coralville, Iowa-based Green Team Technologies is looking to expand the national footprint of its Fuse5 product. "We see explosive growth over the next 6 to 12 months," said John Bunting, COO of Green Team Technologies. Based on new … read more

Iowa City If crowdfunding sites weren't already on the rise, the passage of the JOBS Act earlier this year propelled more to jump into the sphere dominated by platforms like Kickstarter and Indiegogo. Seedlauncher, which went live from its Iowa City offices July 8, hopes to bring a homegrown crowdfunding choice to Iowa's small businesses. "We're hyperlocal. …  read more