April 10, 2013 by Megan Bannister
Des Moines Historically, the month leading up to Easter has been the busiest time of year for the Des Moines-based staff of Facebook game Hatchlings. March 2013 proved to be no different as the game's popularity reached an all-time high since its relaunch last year, surpassing 250,000 users. The team of 10 worked to release new collections totaling 70 new eggs, while the game was featured on … read more
March 30, 2013 by Megan Bannister
Des Moines Though the Hatchlings team has no set office hours, its team of 10 has been putting in a lot of extra time in preparation for the holiday that served as an inspiration for the game. "It's been pretty hectic," creator Brad Dwyer said earlier this week. "I mean, I kind of enjoy it. It's like a month-long hackathon." Historically, the month leading up to Easter has been the game's "big time for growth," said Dwyer … read more
January 31, 2013 by Megan Bannister
Des Moines In honor of the company's fifth birthday Friday, Hatchlings is dropping its beta classification and releasing a bevy of new features, including expanded privileges for premium users, additional levels and a redesigned site, to its loyal fans. Billed as the "world's largest virtual Easter egg hunt," the … read more
November 8, 2012 by Michael Stacy
Des Moines When Brad Dwyer created Hatchlings in 2008, he was a college sophomore who viewed the game as little more than an entertaining way to pass a weekend in the dorms. "At the time," Dwyer said, "I just thought it was going to be another fun project that I did." Far from it. Hatchlings, a game in which users hunt for virtual Easter eggs, was profitable … read more
October 5, 2012 by Guest Contributor
Des Moines (Guest post by Brad Dwyer.) Hiring your first employees is one of the scariest propositions a startup founder will face. It's often tempting to go it alone and make do with the superhuman efforts of a startup's founders for much longer than is healthy. The decision to build out your team is a huge responsibility and one not to be taken lightly, but it's probably the most essential thing you can do to lead to your startup's success. On the other hand, hiring the wrong people can be the kiss of death for any business. The team at Hatchlings: Being the sole driving force behind Hatchlings was a rut that I languished … read more
September 24, 2012 by Michael Stacy
Des Moines Silicon Prairie News: What led you to Des Moines and Hatchlings? George Jurgens: Eight years ago I was invited to a friend originally from Iowa’s lake house on Lake Panorama. Ever since then I’ve been visiting every year and got to know Brad through mutual friends. | After graduating from university this year in England, I started looking for jobs with startups in the U.S. Brad was an ideal contact and offered me a position with Hatchlings, a business I've seen grow over the last few years. I didn’t realize until I started work at Hatchlings how huge the startup scene in the Midwest is, and I am excited to see where it will be in 10 years. Depending on how the visa situation goes, I’d love to stick around and be a part of that … read more
July 13, 2012 by Paige Yowell
In March, Krista Vogel's bosses at Hurrdat Social Media told her to pack three bags: One for cold weather, one for the beach, and one with the essentials. They then told her to bring her bags to dinner with her coworkers, where they all were surprised with a vacation. The destination? The Black Hills in South Dakota, for a weekend of skiing, bar-hopping and most importantly, no work. “It was a really good bonding experience for all of us,” said Vogel, who noted that the lack of Internet connection was welcomed … read more
July 12, 2012 by Christopher New
Des Moines With the recent retirement of Version 1 of Hatchlings, we turn our attention to Version 2 of the online social egg-gathering game. Brad Dwyer, the Panora, Iowa-based founder and CEO of Hatchlings, sat down with us at Big Omaha in May during beta testing for Version 2 to demo Hatchlings' new user interface, which is HTML5-based, is more graphically … read more
July 12, 2012 by Geoff Wood
Des Moines Last December, I wrote a post asking “Who’s the No. 2 startup in Des Moines?” In that post, I shared the results of an informal (and unscientific) poll that I conducted around the community to seek out which companies were the "top startups." While Dwolla was a unanimous selection at No. 1, there was no consensus on No. 2 or even what makes for a "top startup." The folks I talked to clearly felt like Dwolla was doing the correct things to be at the top even though most people didn't necessarily have a concrete opinion on what those "things" were. It seemed it was Dwolla and then everyone else. Fast forward to today, and progress within the local startup scene has helped bring greater clarity to the question I posed in December. Rather than defaulting to one company to characterize the startup … read more
April 25, 2012 by Danny Schreiber
Des Moines After nearly a year of unreturned phone calls and emails from its Google AdSense account manager, it took a tell-all blog post and an appearance on the front page of Hacker News for Des Moines startup Hatchlings to get Google on the phone. "The (Google employee) who called me made a comment on the Hacker News post," Hatchlings CEO Brad Dwyer … read more
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