Des Moines For two days in October, followers of our Thinc Iowa conference gorged on a smorgasbord of presentations about entrepreneurship and innovation. Then, throughout the month of November, people had a chance to replenish their supply of lessons through the Thinc Iowa 2012 Video Series. Now, nearing the midpoint of December, the cupboard has been bare for some time. But not any more. Today, we bring you a feast, in the form of our … read more

Des Moines With a nod to graphs that illustrated sharply declining music industry revenues and plummeting newspaper circulation figures, Idan Cohen established what's at stake in the television industry. "We've seen what happens actually when internet takes over an industry," Cohen said Oct. 11 during his talk at Thinc Iowa 2012. "It tends to blow up … read more

Des Moines Dane Maxwell set out Oct. 10 at Thinc Iowa to impress upon the audience how to, as he put it, "create a business out of thin air ... even if you have no idea, no money and no credibility." How, one might wonder, did Maxwell acquire that know-how? "I learned how to do this," he said, "because I had no money, no idea and no credibility." Down on his luck and … read more

Des Moines Neal Sales-Griffin decided in 2010 to leave one of the best jobs he said he's ever had – a founder-in-residence at a venture capital firm – to fulfill a desire to pursue three things: solve problems, make things and have fun while doing it. One year later, his pursuit led to the founding of The Starter League, a Chicago web development and design school. On Oct. 11 at Thinc Iowa 2012, Sales-Griffin shared the story … read more

Des Moines At the conclusion of the opening day of Thinc Iowa 2012, attendees took a trip "inside the startup studio." Or so the discussion was dubbed by Antonio Neves, the THINQACTION founder and Thinc Iowa emcee, who moderated the 40-minute question-and answer session on Oct. 10. Neves was joined on stage by a quartet of entrepreneurs: Tara Hunt … read more

Des Moines For Steve Greenwood, the idea that "relationships are complicated" is more than just a truism. Want evidence? Look no further than the spreadsheet of personal contacts that Greenwood meticulously curated for the better part of a decade. At its peak, the document had 7,000 contacts and more than 30 columns of tags. The complicated work of tending to that massive … read more

Des Moines Danielle Morrill has years of experience working for startups, but when she spoke at Thinc Iowa 2012 on Oct. 10, she was just six months into her first stint as a startup CEO. Earlier this year, Morrill helped found Referly, a social shopping platform that rewards users whose referrals help generate sales. And since then, she said, there have been … read more

Des Moines As someone born, raised and still residing among the farms of rural Cascade, Iowa but running a tech startup based in San Francisco, Jeremie Miller splits his time between very different worlds. "It sort of it feels like I'm living two lives sometimes,” Miller said during his talk on Oct. 11 at Thinc Iowa. As Miller tells it, his passion for technology and affinity … read more