May 8, 2013 by Joe Stych
San Francisco Last October, Gentry Underwood took the stage at Thinc Iowa to discuss why approaching problems like a designer is crucial for entrepreneurs. He touched on tolerating uncertainty, the importance of focus, and identifying the "why" of your product. Plus, he teased his new iOS-based email client, Mailbox. A lot can happen in seven months. Since then, Underwood has launched Mailbox, filled 1 million reservations within the first … read more
March 15, 2013 by Danny Schreiber
Des Moines With today's news that Dropbox acquired Mailbox—check out the Wall Street Journal for the full story—we're re-releasing our video of the San Francisco startup's co-founder, Gentry Underwood, speaking at our Des Moines event this past October. "I think one of the best examples out there right now of a startup that focuses is Dropbox," … read more
January 19, 2013 by Geoff Wood
Des Moines In our November announcement naming our full-time Kansas City staff and new event, Big Kansas City, we casually mentioned that Thinc Iowa, our two-year-old event in Des Moines, would now be called Big Des Moines. I've heard lots of good feedback from the community, but I wanted to use our new behind-the-scenes series to share the reasons for the change. The "Big": As we first sought to name the new … read more
December 13, 2012 by Michael Stacy
Des Moines For two days in October, followers of our Thinc Iowa conference gorged on a smorgasbord of presentations about entrepreneurship and innovation. Then, throughout the month of November, people had a chance to replenish their supply of lessons through the Thinc Iowa 2012 Video Series. Now, nearing the midpoint of December, the cupboard has been bare for some time. But not any more. Today, we bring you a feast, in the form of our … read more
November 29, 2012 by Jeff Slobotski
As the Silicon Prairie startup community develops, one of the ways collaboration and connections occur is through consistent opportunities to engage with one another. A strong community, moreover, is lead by a group of actors who are passionate around building our cities and region into something greater, and they take steps to make that happen. Actions by three individuals in the wake of our Thinc Iowa 2012 event in October … read more
November 27, 2012 by Michael Stacy
Des Moines With a nod to graphs that illustrated sharply declining music industry revenues and plummeting newspaper circulation figures, Idan Cohen established what's at stake in the television industry. "We've seen what happens actually when internet takes over an industry," Cohen said Oct. 11 during his talk at Thinc Iowa 2012. "It tends to blow up … read more
November 23, 2012 by Michael Stacy
Des Moines Dane Maxwell set out Oct. 10 at Thinc Iowa to impress upon the audience how to, as he put it, "create a business out of thin air ... even if you have no idea, no money and no credibility." How, one might wonder, did Maxwell acquire that know-how? "I learned how to do this," he said, "because I had no money, no idea and no credibility." Down on his luck and … read more
November 22, 2012 by Danny Schreiber
Des Moines Neal Sales-Griffin decided in 2010 to leave one of the best jobs he said he's ever had – a founder-in-residence at a venture capital firm – to fulfill a desire to pursue three things: solve problems, make things and have fun while doing it. One year later, his pursuit led to the founding of The Starter League, a Chicago web development and design school. On Oct. 11 at Thinc Iowa 2012, Sales-Griffin shared the story … read more
November 21, 2012 by Michael Stacy
Des Moines At the conclusion of the opening day of Thinc Iowa 2012, attendees took a trip "inside the startup studio." Or so the discussion was dubbed by Antonio Neves, the THINQACTION founder and Thinc Iowa emcee, who moderated the 40-minute question-and answer session on Oct. 10. Neves was joined on stage by a quartet of entrepreneurs: Tara Hunt … read more
November 20, 2012 by Michael Stacy
Des Moines For Steve Greenwood, the idea that "relationships are complicated" is more than just a truism. Want evidence? Look no further than the spreadsheet of personal contacts that Greenwood meticulously curated for the better part of a decade. At its peak, the document had 7,000 contacts and more than 30 columns of tags. The complicated work of tending to that massive … 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.