Des Moines Torsion Mobile today divulged new details on a project it has kept under wraps for months, most notably that the project will benefit from $50,000 in state funding. Torsion, a Des Moines-based mobile solutions provider co-founded by Christian Gurney and Richard Kirsner, received $50,000 from the Iowa Department of Economic Development (IDED) … read more

Lincoln As even the most avid navigator of golf links can attest, getting out and swinging the sticks can, at times, be an up-and-down adventure. It's with that in mind that Ryan Cooper has created GolfStatus, a location-based mobile platform that rewards golfers for their on-course achievements, brand and course loyalty and influence within golf circles. Cooper recognizes there are plenty of mobile golf apps … read more

Des Moines Five weeks ago, Dwolla announced a momentous milestone: $1 million a week in transactions. Today, the peer-to-peer payments network is at it again, announcing in a blog post that they've hit $1 million a day. Visually plotting this growth for the fist time, they've posted the above infographic, showing the use of their network since its December launch, most notable, the hockey stick-like growth … read more

Drop me off in Seattle, Boulder, Minneapolis, Austin — any city with widely-used public transportation, really — and there's high potential for this traveler to be confused. Luckily, these cities and more than 443 others have welcomed the trip planning tool, Google Transit … read more

Kansas City In May, I wrote an article about Vicinity Games, a game development company located in Kansas City. In that article, co-founders Nate Allen and Mike Koporc introduced Paper Craft, a multi-player shooting game for XBox, and shared a sneak preview of the game. Paper Craft launched in late May and since then has accrued over 1,300 paid downloads on the XBox marketplace. Allen said that even though Paper Craft could use minor enhancements … read more

Days after releasing findings from a study that showed lagging job creation from new businesses, the Kansas City, Mo.-based Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation today outlined a new initiative aimed at jump-starting startups and, in turn, the economy as a whole. (Image, left, from kauffman.org.) Kauffman president and CEO Carl Schramm and vice president of research and policy Robert Litan presented a proposal to spur the ailing U.S. economy and increase job creation … read more

Des Moines Zach Cox seems about as even-keeled as they come, a man not prone to hyperbole. So last month when I interviewed Cox … read more

Omaha In preparation for this week's Cowtown to Boomtown event in Cedar Rapids, Seed Here, the organization that runs the event, asked Tom Chapman, director of entrepreneurship and innovation at the Greater Omaha Chamber of Commerce, to write a paper digesting what he and other individuals, companies, organization and institutions have done to build up the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Omaha. From presenting Omaha's strengths and … read more