Des Moines Danielle Morrill has years of experience working for startups, but when she spoke at Thinc Iowa 2012 on Oct. 10, she was just six months into her first stint as a startup CEO. Earlier this year, Morrill helped found Referly, a social shopping platform that rewards users whose referrals help generate sales. And since then, she said, there have been … read more

Des Moines As someone born, raised and still residing among the farms of rural Cascade, Iowa but running a tech startup based in San Francisco, Jeremie Miller splits his time between very different worlds. "It sort of it feels like I'm living two lives sometimes,” Miller said during his talk on Oct. 11 at Thinc Iowa. As Miller tells it, his passion for technology and affinity … read more

Des Moines "If there's one thing that's been consistent in everything that I do," Antonio Neves told the Thinc Iowa audience Oct. 11, "it's that I am a professional question asker and I am a professional opportunity identifier." For the next 25 minutes, Neves, who emceed the event, employed both those qualities in a motivational talk to open the final day of Thinc Iowa 2012. He asked the audience: "Would you bet on you accomplishing what you … read more

Des Moines "Being an entrepreneur can be magical," Ron J. Williams says, "but it ain't magic." Williams, the co-founder and CEO of Knodes, opened with that message and proceeded to draw the distinction between magical and magic during his talk Oct. 10 at Thinc Iowa 2012. Williams said people tend to romanticize the entrepreneurial narrative of someone scribbling … read more

Des Moines With the ascent of Apple, the notion that an emphasis on design can drive business success has become more commonplace in recent years, Gentry Underwood says. But Underwood, the co-founder and CEO of Orchestra, doesn't need to look toward Cupertino to see the impact that a design-centric approach can have on a company. After all, Underwood's own … read more

Des Moines Ryan Graves can trace his career at Uber back to one tweet. Well, one tweet and a whole lot of hustle. Graves, Uber's Global GM and VP of Operations, spoke Oct. 11 at Thinc Iowa 2012 about helping build Uber, the San Francisco-based startup that provides on-demand car service through a mobile app, and he reflected on the lessons he's learned in … read more

Des Moines Silicon Valley visitors bureaus and tourism boards in the market for a spokesperson probably won't come calling Brian Spaly any time soon, and that seems fine by Spaly. The Trunk Club CEO is perfectly happy in Chicago, building his business. That much became abundantly clear when Spaly stepped on stage Oct. 10 at Thinc Iowa 2012. "I think sometimes it's good to … read more

Des Moines When Lesa Mitchell stepped on stage Oct. 12 at Thinc Iowa 2012, the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation's vice president of innovation and networks sported a shirt — green, and emblazoned with "MIT" in large, white letters — that required a disclaimer. Mitchell, who gave a talk on women in entrepreneurship, explained that MIT is not her alma mater … read more