January 6, 2011 by Danny Schreiber
Des Moines In our article yesterday covering the release of the SmartyPig iPhone app, SmartyPig COO Michael Ferrari gave a nice mention to BitMethod, a mobile… read more
Des Moines Articles
January 6, 2011 by Danny Schreiber
January 6, 2011 by Geoff Wood
Des Moines Over the holidays a curious new website, DesMob.com, launched with pictures of people throughout Des Moines' creative class. It's a side project from 8/7 Central, a screen printer and creative agency. The website describes itself as a "virtual rolodex" but we weren't exactly sure what to make of it. I recently had the chance to ask Ben Anderson, from the 8/7 Central team, about it: "We can't really take much credit for it, Portland did it first… read more
January 5, 2011 by Danny Schreiber
Des Moines As of this morning, the social component of the online goal-based savings startup SmartyPig just got better. Now, when on the go, users can open the SmartyPig iPhone app to update their Facebook friends and Twitter followers about their goals. This and a set of other features make up the free SmartyPig iPhone app, the company's foray into the mobile space. "As people evaluate SmartyPig for the first time, having a solid mobile app that provides a ton of functionality is a definite plus," said SmartyPig co-founder and COO Mike Ferrari in an email interview yesterday. "Mobile accessibility is key to any online financial… read more
January 3, 2011 by Geoff Wood
Des Moines The Des Moines launch, our virtual "Grand Opening" of sorts in this community, took place on January 14, 2010 to coincide with the launch of our site redesign (see "Welcome to Silicon Prairie News Version 2.0"). Our first post on a Des Moines company, however, dates back to September 2008 when Jeff Slobotski talked with Nathan T. Wright and Hillary Brown of Lava Row – "SPN interviews Nathan Wright & Hillary Brown of Lava Row – but we didn't start regular coverage until a full year later when I became the first official Des Moines contributor. Looking back at our first official year in Des Moines, here's our Top 10 Moments of 2010: 10. Official Launch of the Des Moines Edition The site redesign, which premiered in January… read more
December 29, 2010 by Danny Schreiber
Des Moines According to peHUB, Pongr, an image recognition-based mobile marketing platform, is "looking to take on new institutional and angel investors as it seeks to raise… read more
December 28, 2010 by Danny Schreiber
Des Moines In the hours following Mashable's December 22nd coverage of Dwolla – "Send & Receive Money From Twitter & Facebook Friends With Dwolla" – I sent an email to Dwolla founder and CEO Ben Milne with a few catch-up questions. Fifty-two minutes later, at 12:06 a.m., Milne replied. After a short greeting… read more
December 20, 2010 by Danny Schreiber
Des Moines Gordy, the Gordilla gorilla mascot, can now be seen in his natural habitat on Gordilla.com. The daily deal aggregator site – made by the same creators of the iPhone app with similar functionality, GeoClip.it – released a redesign of their website today which launched less than a month ago. The site is, more or less, a re-bundling of the GeoClip.it data. "The deal content that we have coming… read more
December 16, 2010 by Danny Schreiber
Des Moines Uppward, an iPhone app which rewards users for airline miles traveled and has the ability to connect users (airline travelers) with each other, released an update yesterday (Version 1.5) that aims to improve the latter of those services. Called the "Radar" feature (left, screenshot from itunes.apple.com), Uppward co-founder Nathan T. Wright says the feature shows a snapshot of the most recent activity on the Uppward platform – "who is flying and… read more
December 16, 2010 by Levi Rosol
Des Moines This week I had an opportunity to sit down and get to know one of Des Moines' most active entrepreneurs, James Eliason. A 1997 graduate of Valley High School in West Des Moines, Eliason had a decision to make: play baseball for Central College or Wartburg College, or take a shot at the University of Iowa or Iowa State. Ultimately landing at U of I, James graduated in 2001 with an economics… read more
December 15, 2010 by Danny Schreiber
Des Moines In preparation for his article on Hatchling's founder Brad Dwyer, "With Facebook app, Brad Dwyer hatches career as ISU undergrad," Geoff received a list of stats from Dwyer that could be used to show the Facebook app's popularity, which is described as "a year-round egg hunt and virtual pet game." The only stat… read more