January 10, 2012 by Michael Stacy
Ames My Online Camp started in 2006 with a single client and a single goal: helping coaches and camp operators promote and manage camps more successfully. Today, the Ames-based startup has 1,100 clients and counting scattered across the country. But the story of the company's growth starts with a King Kong-sized … read more
September 8, 2011 by Michael Stacy
Ames If the team at Shoplr has its way, people won't venture anywhere without scanning their radar — not for ominous storm fronts or looming low-pressure systems, but for deals. Shoplr, which derives its name from "shopping" and "Doppler" (as in the weather-tracking radar) is a mobile application for discovering real-time offers from local businesses. … read more
September 1, 2011 by Guest Contributor
Ames Many computer science and software engineering majors start looking for internships during their sophomore and junior years. They go to career fairs, usually dressed in a suit and tie, or whatever the female equivalent is, shake hands with and smile at people from large companies and talk about how their coursework is somewhat related to their prospective job or internship with that company. During this process, there are usually awkward moments when the student will realize that he/she has absolutely no knowledge of, or interest in, the product of that prospective labor. I know this because I’ve done it, besides the suit and tie get-up. … read more
August 30, 2011 by Michael Stacy
Ames For attorneys at the heart of mergers and acquisitions or other financing transactions, paper is plentiful and tends to pile up in a hurry — hundreds of documents over the course of a deal, hundreds more emails per day in the run-up to closing. Finalize It is a cloud-based software service that aims to turn that potential mountain of documents into a more manageable molehill. Finalize It is one of seven entries in the Dream Big Des Moines contest, which seeks the top tech-based business ideas … read more
August 12, 2011 by Michael Stacy
Ames With the 2011 Ames Straw Poll set for Saturday and the 2012 presidential election drawing ever closer, a couple of Des Moines-area companies have teamed up to launch a social media communication portal … read more
August 10, 2011 by Michael Stacy
Ames To categorize Sam Schill’s immersion into the world of tech startups using the lexicon of that land, the Ames businessman has quickly gone from just checking in to becoming a veritable super mayor. A little more than a year removed from making his first foray into the landscape of tech entrepreneurship — when he helped his firm, Sigler Companies, forge a relationship with Foursquare — Schill can’t seem to shake the startup scene, whether it’s in his role at Sigler or with his nascent side project … read more
May 9, 2011 by Geoff Wood
Ames Harry Potter. That was the first name called out when Google's PJ Anderson and Drew Rowny asked a room full of elementary school students to name a children's character. Anderson and Rowny traveled from Silicon Valley to Ames last week to honor Nathan Hidajat for being chosen as a regional prize winner in the Doodle 4 Google contest. They kicked off the ceremony with a demonstration of Google … read more
May 4, 2011 by Geoff Wood
Ames Once again, young Nathan Hidajat has made the local technology news, this time as a regional finalist in the "Doodle 4 Google" competition. In March, the internet giant invited students in grades K-12 to submit a drawing along the theme of "What I'd like to do someday..." Hidajat's entry, which related directly to the charity: water campaign that we've covered on this site, was originally published on his site March 11 with this description: "What I’d like to do someday … read more
April 29, 2011 by Geoff Wood
Ames Back in February, we shared the story of Nathan Hidajat, who decided before he turned 8 that he wanted to give up his birthday for charity: water after watching the video of Scott Harrison on stage at Big Omaha 2010 (see our post Ames 2nd Grader, Nathan Hidajat, raises $1k for charity: water in 7 days). Nathan met his original goal — raising $1,000 — in a mere seven days. Not content to stop there, he's raised and met new goals several times since. … read more
February 10, 2011 by Geoff Wood
Ames Yesterday, we posted about Nathan Hidajat, a second grader in Ames, Iowa who gave up his 8th birthday in a fundraising effort to help charity: water, a charity that works to provide clean drinking water to people around the world who don't have access to it. Nathan decided to give up his birthday after seeing a video of Scott Harrison, charity: water's founder, presenting at last May's Big Omaha. Nathan's father, Robert, answered a few questions for us by email yesterday about how… 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.