Silicon Prairie News

Tagged Iowa State University
OPINION

Business Record finds increased interest in entrepreneurial education

2762_13cb79f3f1_small August 24, 2011 by Geoff Wood

Des Moines I love that our friends in the larger publications in Des Moines are writing more and more about the startup community in the area (did you see Juice just highlighted "The Startup Scene" as part of their "Hot in Des Moines" issue?), and I was especially excited to see that the Business Record ran a story on entrepreneurial education in Iowa's largest universities, "Students see benefits to entrepreneurial studies." Writer Kyle Oppenhuizen interviewed … read more

FEATURES

Prairie Moves: RockDex, Smelly Puppy, Uppward & more

1688_9942143481_small January 25, 2011 by Danny Schreiber

(Photo by Mark Michaelis via Flickr) Published every Tuesday, Prairie Moves keeps our readers informed about career moves, media coverage, product development, and more from the companies and individuals we cover on Silicon Prairie News. If you or your company would like to submit one of the items below for our next Prairie Moves post, please email info@siliconprairienews.com. And if you have suggestions on how we… read more

FEATURES

PrairieCast: Aayush Phumbhra of textbook rental website Chegg

1107_eecca3f381_small July 22, 2010 by Geoff Wood

Des Moines This week on PrairieCast our guest is Aayush Phumbhra, co-founder and senior vice president of Chegg, a Santa Clara, California-based company often described as the "Netflix of textbook rentals." Aayush earned his MBA at Iowa State University in Ames and joined forces with the founders of Cheggpost.com, a local website focused on saving students money. Several iterations and years later, Chegg now boasts more than 120 employees, a headquarters in Santa Clara and a shipping operation across the street from Zappos in Louisville, Kentucky. According to a TechCrunch post last month, Chegg has raised more than 140 million dollars… read more

NEWS

TechCrunch goes in-depth on Chegg

987_85ff5a0405_small June 18, 2010 by Geoff Wood

Last week TechCrunch published an in-depth review of Chegg as part of their TC Teardown series. This series, which analyzes a company's business model and estimates their revenues, has previously looked at Zynga and Groupon. In this analysis the researcher estimates that Chegg will generate $130 million in revenue this year from their textbook rental service. Chegg, now based in Santa Clara, California… read more

FEATURES

PrairieCast: Brad Dwyer of the Facebook app company Hatchlings

866_84f1fbd804_small April 30, 2010 by Geoff Wood

Des Moines Our guest on PrairieCast this week was Brad Dwyer, the founder of Hatchlings, an online social game built utilizing the Facebook platform. Brad, a senior at Iowa State University majoring in computer science, is making a lot of waves in Central Iowa's entrepreneur community. Most recently, he took home the award for the Student Innovation of the Year at Technology Association of Iowa's Prometheus Awards. Andy and I talk with Brad about technical aspects of his company and its product… read more

INTERVIEWS

McClanahan Studio owners tell their story, discuss photography style

790_b2050c7407_small April 19, 2010 by Geoff Wood

Ames One positive of a recessing economy is that it enables some would-be entrepreneurs to take the risk and launch out on their own. That was the case for Dan and Alex McClanahan, who in 2009 were recent graduates of Iowa State University in journalism and graphic design, respectively. The pair, who are married, thought they had secured post-graduation jobs in Denver, Colorado within their fields, but due to the economic… read more

NEWS

TAI’s Prometheus Awards highlight innovation throughout Iowa

814_fda4767553_small April 7, 2010 by Geoff Wood

Des Moines Playing on its reputation as the "Academy Awards of Iowa's high tech industry," the fifth annual Prometheus Awards took place last night with a Hollywood-style theme, complete with a celebrity photo booth, award statues, plenty of tuxedos, and even a red carpet. The awards are a production of the Technology Association of Iowa (TAI) meant to highlight innovation throughout the state. "This showcase honors companies and individuals who represent the best and brightest in technology and business and have… read more

INTERVIEWS

Hatchlings founder talks about the success of his Facebook app company

720_70d23c1446_small March 11, 2010 by Geoff Wood

Ames When you put together a list of the fastest growing technology companies in Iowa, you probably don’t include Hatchlings, Inc., but you should. I recently had the chance to sit down with Brad Dwyer the company’s founder, who is also a senior in Computer Science and Entrepreneurial Studies at Iowa State University, to learn about his Ames-based startup. Hatchlings started as a Facebook application… read more

INTERVIEWS

Christian Renaud talks about the needs of a startup community

693_2923aeef7f_small March 10, 2010 by Geoff Wood

Des Moines In the second part of my interview with Christian Renaud, CEO of Palisade Systems, we discussed the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Des Moines. Christian’s broad experience in the entrepreneurial space, including nearly eight years targeting and vetting new markets for Cisco Systems at the company’s San Francisco headquarters, gives him the unique perspective to benchmark the evolution of his… read more

NEWS

TAI announces Prometheus Award finalists

677_ca4f327b2d_small February 26, 2010 by Geoff Wood

Des Moines The 2010 Prometheus Award finalists were announced Thursday, honoring the best technology companies and professionals throughout Iowa. This year's awards are co-sponsored by LWBJ Financial and are the fifth annual recognition by the Technology Association of Iowa. Winners will be announced in a ceremony at The Meadows Convention Center in Altoona on April 6th. read more