Des Moines Dwolla founder and CEO Ben Milne on Sunday published a personal blog post that shared his latest perspective on Bitcoin, a virtual currency that's once again hit the headlines and public interest. His company is involved in the Bitcoin ecosystem as it's used to … read more
April 5, 2013 by Megan Bannister
Des Moines For the second year, the Technology Association of Iowa (TAI) is hosting its "TriTECHta," a trifecta of events that kicks off Tuesday with its i2iowa Investors and Innovators Forum and Prometheus Awards and closes Wednesday with Pitch & Grow. To learn more about what's in store for next week's three TAI events, Silicon Prairie News conducted an email interview today with the organization's president, Leann Jacobsen. | Silicon Prairie News: This is the second year for i2iowa Investors and Innovators Forum. What's changed since 2012 and what can attendees look forward to this year? … read more
Des Moines Two-year-old online ticketing service Tikly has lost its chief technology officer and chief marketing officer, the Des Moines Register reported today. Brian Hemesath, who developed the current version of the site, left Tikly to focus on VolunteerLocal, another tech company in which he has … read more
March 30, 2013 by Megan Bannister
Des Moines Though the Hatchlings team has no set office hours, its team of 10 has been putting in a lot of extra time in preparation for the holiday that served as an inspiration for the game. "It's been pretty hectic," creator Brad Dwyer said earlier this week. "I mean, I kind of enjoy it. It's like a month-long hackathon." Historically, the month leading up to Easter has been the game's "big time for growth," said Dwyer … read more
Des Moines Plains Angels, a Des Moines-based consortium of angel investors established last June, has invested about $750,000 in three Iowa businesses, the group's co-founder Mike Colwell told the Des Moines Register. Carroll-based Agren, a 17-year-old agriculture consulting company ... read more
March 15, 2013 by Danny Schreiber
Des Moines With today's news that Dropbox acquired Mailbox—check out the Wall Street Journal for the full story—we're re-releasing our video of the San Francisco startup's co-founder, Gentry Underwood, speaking at our Des Moines event this past October. "I think one of the best examples out there right now of a startup that focuses is Dropbox," … read more
March 9, 2013 by Guest Contributor
Des Moines If you are like me when you read something or talk to someone you immediately add a phrase or word to a song, title, proper noun or really anything. Things pop into my head that are loosely correlated to what I am reading or hearing. For example when I first met Ben Milne and he said the name of his company was called Dwolla I immediately thought of the city Kuala Lumpur the capital of Malaysia … read more
March 5, 2013 by Danny Schreiber
Des Moines Cloud computing infrastructure provider Appcore, which earned the top spot last year on Five Elms Capital's list of "fastest-growing companies in the middle of the country," announced today in a press release that it closed a $6 million Series B round. The new capital comes from private investors and existing investor Telephone Acquisition Company, an investment company owned by a group of Midwest-based telephone companies. The five-year-old … read more
February 26, 2013 by Danny Schreiber
Des Moines The Des Moines Register on Sunday published six stories to kick off its new "Starting Up Iowa" series that focuses on startup communities throughout the state of Iowa. The first package of stories took a close look at a northeast Iowa startup community defined by Waterloo and Cedar Falls. "The Cedar Valley has some key ingredients for a vibrant technology and startup scene: UNI's incubator programs; new and advanced-stage … read more
February 22, 2013 by Geoff Wood
Des Moines Iowans are everywhere; at least that's how it feels to me. I'm the type of person that loves to catalog and share random knowledge, and when I learn that someone has a connection to this state I make a mental note of it. Those connections – people born, raised, educated or who otherwise lived here for a significant amount of time but have now moved elsewhere – are what we're calling "expats." As I wrote … 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.