October 31, 2012 by Michael Stacy
Mountain View As Zapier wrapped up its three-month stint in seed accelerator Y Combinator earlier this year, the founders of the Columbia, Mo.-born startup fielded ample advice on how to handle funding. "We heard, 'Get fundraising done as fast as possible. Don't worry about it. You want to finish it, and … read more
August 9, 2012 by Danny Schreiber
One counts McDonald's among its account holders, another carries recognition from the SXSW Interactive Awards and another had its product featured on the PBS News Hour. Seven months ago, none of these milestones had been achieved, but we've seen quick progress and achievements. In January, I presented a list of 10 Silicon Prairie companies that I deemed "startups to watch in 2012." My reasons for choosing the 10 ranged from experienced … read more
June 20, 2012 by Danny Schreiber
Zapier, the winner of Startup Weekend Columbia in October, launched today, just weeks after moving to Silicon Valley to join Y Combinator, a program and seed fund for startups. "(It's an) easy way for non-developers to get integrations between all their SaaS applications," co-founder Wade Foster said on Monday. In other words, Zapier syncs apps, allowing them to perform actions that otherwise would require programming – development work … read more
May 4, 2012 by Guest Contributor
Columbia (This is a guest post by Wade Foster.) Few people come out of the womb, kicking and screaming, born ready to be a startup founder. Most of us take the longer more traditional route. Usually that means 12 years of primary education, 4 years of secondary education, a few more years working at a good job before finally catching the startup bug. You can't get this idea out of your head so you make the leap of faith into entrepreneurship. There is nothing wrong with a more traditional route. I took the more traditional route. … read more
January 31, 2012 by Guest Contributor
Columbia I love Columbia, Mo. It's vibrant and artsy. It's highly educated. It's full of opportunity and has the No. 4 ranked basketball team in the country (sorry … couldn't resist). A few months ago, the community inspired me to write an article, "5 Advantages Of Small Town Entrepreneurial Living," about why I choose to live in the Midwest and make Columbia … read more
January 4, 2012 by Danny Schreiber
In 2011, we did our best to keep a close eye on Silicon Prairie startups, covering entrepreneurs who dared to disrupt the established local marketplace, aimed to make the online shopping experience more social and dreamed of virtual town-halls that increased citizen participation. Among the startups we covered, there were a few in each city that popped up more and more for either hitting a milestone or progressing on their business model. These include Xuba, MindMixer and SkyVu Entertainment … 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.