Silicon Prairie News

Washington, D.C. A group of government officials, academics and non-profit leaders convened today in Washington, D.C. to call for the reduction of legislation and regulation that they believe is impeding the progress of the country's high-growth startups. Benno Schmidt, the interim president and CEO of the Kansas City, Mo.-based Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, and Govs. Dave Heineman of Nebraska and Jack Markell of Delaware, who both attended on behalf of the National Governors … read more

Washington, D.C. Benno Schmidt, the interim president and CEO of the Kansas City, Mo.-based Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, and Gov. Dave Heineman of Nebraska headline a group of speakers slated to talk today at the Kauffman Foundation's third annual State of Entrepreneurship Address in Washington, D.C. The event is scheduled to begin at 11 a.m. Central Time and continue for 90 minutes … read more

Under usual circumstances, taking a class through Stanford University from a professor who is one of the top 10 "Influencers of Silicon Valley" would first involve getting accepted into the university, finding a way to get there and lastly, paying a high tuition or per class fee. Thanks to Coursera, an online learning startup founded by two Stanford professors, you can now take a class taught by serial entrepreneur Steve Blank without ever leaving … read more

Des Moines As we reported in a story published Thursday, more than 400 people attended Iowa’s first Startup Fair, held Wednesday evening in six venues across the state. Designed to create valuable connections between the startup and broader business communities, the free event included exhibits from more than 100 … read more

Des Moines Given the record temperatures on the last day of January, Tuesday evening's Iowa Startup Fair could probably have been held outdoors at the state fairgrounds. But since meteorologists' predictive powers are still far short of Nostradamus, the crowd at StartupCity Des Moines, Amici and other area locations would have to just crack some windows to approximate that fairground feeling. As it was, six locations between Des Moines, Pella and Cedar Rapids opened as public, free exhibition … read more

In conjunction with the one-year anniversary of Startup America Partnership today, the four states of the Silicon Prairie will each be "started up" by day's end. In December, StartupIowa launched, on Friday, Startup Nebraska became official, and today, Startup Kansas and Startup Missouri will hold events to kick off their efforts. Headquartered in Washington D.C., the Startup America Partnership is a non-profit encouraging high-growth entrepreneurship in the United States. … read more

Des Moines Business Innovation Zone in Des Moines, led by Mike Colwell, holds a monthly educational luncheon for entrepreneurs in Central Iowa. Titled "Business Insights and Networking Luncheon Series," each event features a speaker from the Des Moines community with either expertise or thought leadership in an area that's applicable to people working on building high growth and scalable businesses. … read more

Overland Park From interludes for performance art to an auction of high-dollar paintings and sculptures, Pipeline's Innovator of the Year (IOTY) celebration oozed artistic expression. But there was no tableau more telling nor sound more significant than the site of the dozen people that took center stage at night's end and the label Pipeline CEO Joni Cobb assigned to those 12: Pipeline's first regional class. Pipeline, the Kansas-based entrepreneurship immersion program … read more