Des Moines Forbes revealed its annual "30 Under 30" feature today, naming Ben Milne, the co-founder and CEO of Des Moines-based Dwolla, to its list for the finance field. In all, 360 "disrupters" across 12 fields, such as media, technology and art, were given recognition for their efforts to "(make) a difference right … read more

Omaha Hello again. It's been some time since I've contributed to our blog – nearly five months, actually – but I'm looking forward to getting back into the rotation and to kick it off today I have exciting news about my involvement with Silicon Prairie News and another Omaha startup. During this time of year, when I get together with friends and family, they often ask me what it is that I actually do. It's a good question … read more

Des Moines Marco Santana, the Des Moines Register's new technology and startup reporter, is comfortable to admit he was "the journalism nerd" in college. Or as he put it: "The guy who wore his 'journalist' T-shirt to the bar and did not think twice about it." "Now, after a few years in the field," Santana said in an email interview on Monday, "that dedication has paid off and I intend on covering this community as closely as I can, highlighting its successes for Register readers." Whether or not Santana used that line in his interview wasn't confirmed, but it matches up with the answer we received when we asked Lynn Hicks, the Register's … read more

Palo Alto Pinterest's connection to Iowa was not lost on our state's leadership today as Gov. Terry Branstad made a stop by their offices in Palo Alto, Calif. Pinterest founder Ben Silbermann (left of the Pinterest "P" above) is a Des Moines native who said in an email today that the visit was exciting for the team as three of them have family ties to the state. This is the second Pinterest-Iowa connection already this week as the Pinterest blog published an interview with Chrissy Jensen, owner of Domestica … read more

Omaha Since word first leaked about a biography being written about Steve Jobs, I was interested in reading it. As a fan of Apple,* and having been inspired by Steve Jobs in a variety of ways, I looked forward to Walter Isaacson's thorough take on Steve. When Steve passed away in October, the book's release was pushed up, to October 24, to leverage the interest in him. A number of friends and people … read more

Kansas City Steven Chau, a familiar face in the region's startup community and a regular name in the "organizer" column of Kansas City events, begins a new career today with Startup Weekend, the Seattle-based nonprofit behind the 54-hour event hosted around the word. Chau joins Startup Weekend as a software engineer and will focus on developing a technical infrastructure and tool set for its website. Previously, Chau was a web developer at CremaLab, a Kansas City web development firm … read more

Omaha On Monday, we asked more than 20 founders and investors running companies based in the Silicon Prairie a short but open question: What are you thankful for this Thanksgiving holiday? We encouraged a succinct answer with a list of three things. By Wednesday evening, we had received 18 contributions, ranging from the health of loved ones to a higher Klout than a colleague. In all, they provide a bit more insight into the risks taken on by entrepreneurs … read more

In its final issue of 2011, Entrepreneur Magazine features Kansas City's Bo Fishback of Zaarly on its cover for a story on "10 trends that will define opportunity next year." Zaarly, a San Francisco-based startup that Fishback co-founded at Startup Weekend Los Angeles in April, is highlighted in the magazine's second trend, collaborative commerce. "Collaborative commerce is seriously hot stuff in startup circles," Jennifer Wang of Entrepreneur writes. "For proof, we need merely to turn to Zaarly, a San Francisco startup that went from zero to launch in three months, rallying high-profile investors and scoring bucketloads of press for its rocket-like trajectory." … read more