May 10, 2013 by Joe Stych
Omaha To end the first full-day of Big Omaha on Thursday, four speakers stuck around for an audience Q&A. Megan Casey of Pack, Anil Dash of ThinkUp, Tony Conrad of about.me, and Ben Milne of Dwolla. The group used their personal experiences to respond to questions on their failures in the workplace, personality traits they're forced to fight and the pains of public speaking. Making mistakes … read more
May 9, 2013 by Megan Bannister
Omaha According to Ben Milne, one of the biggest mistakes a founder can make is to abandon the Silicon Prairie and its Midwestern roots. And he should know. Without the community surrounding his Des Moines-based company, Milne said Dwolla probably wouldn't be thriving today. "Had we not stayed here, we would not have made the friendships with people in this room," he said. "Had we not stayed here … read more
May 2, 2013 by Fred Bauters
Kansas City Numbers, analytics and reports can statically tick away on an entrepreneur's computer with the hope that they will provide insight on a startup's growth and trajectory. But what if the milestones motivating startups were dynamic? Rodrigo Neri, co-founder of Kansas City education app-maker Instin, recounted … read more
April 30, 2013 by Danny Schreiber
Des Moines Des Moines-based Dwolla today announced it closed a $16.5 million Series C round led by Andreessen Horowitz, the Menlo Park, Calif.-based venture capital firm whose portfolio includes Airbnb, Pinterest and Stripe, another payments startup. Three of Dwolla's previous investors, Village Ventures, Thrive Capital and Union Square Ventures, also participated … read more
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
November 30, 2012 by Danny Schreiber
Des Moines During an interview Thursday with Ben Milne, I posed a question that drew a smile from the Dwolla CEO: Is it fair to say Dwolla's upcoming meetup will be like the classic Dwolla meetups of the early days?" "That's totally fair," said Milne, the founder of the four-year-old, Des Moines-based payments startup. "This is us recognizing that we kind of want to go hang out with our friends … it's as much … read more
July 17, 2012 by Michael Stacy
Kansas City To complement our previous coverage of GO - The Future of Mobile Payments, we present video from the event, which was hosted July 9 in Kansas City, Mo. by KCnext- The Technology Council of Greater Kansas City. At the event, Chirpify founder and CEO Chris Teso, Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City senior vice president Barb Pacheco and … read more
July 13, 2012 by Michael Stacy
Kansas City The Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City is on the verge of its 100th year of operation, having first opened its doors for business in 1914. Chirpify, by contrast, checks in well shy of the century mark. The Portland-based Twitter commerce platform launched just four months ago. But on Monday at the Kauffman Center for Performing Arts in Kansas City, Mo., organizations' disparate pasts were of less consequence than their shared future. What lies ahead … read more
July 9, 2012 by Danny Schreiber
Kansas City Tune in at 2 p.m. for the live stream of KCnext's "Future of Mobile Payments" event, showcasing the CEOs of startups Dwolla and Chirpify along with a senior vice president at the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City. The event begins with individual presentations, and around 3 p.m., journalist Ben Paynter will join the speakers for a panel discussion and audience question and answer. Partial biographies … read more
July 2, 2012 by Danny Schreiber
Des Moines Inc. has named Dwolla founder and CEO Ben Milne to its "30 Under 30" list, an annual feature showcasing 30 entrepreneurs and co-founding teams under 30 years of age who are "solving big problems." "Dwolla isn't just taking on PayPal," Inc.'s spotlight says about the Des Moines-based online payments startup. "Ben Milne's start-up is disrupting the whole … 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.