Episode 75: The one with a point system

This week we were joined by two guests, old friend Chris Burns of West Des Moines-based Shift and PrairieCast first-timer Jimmy Winter of Omaha's VoterTide. We discussed recent news related to VoterTide as well as Fast Company's "Most Innovative" list which included two startups with Silicon Prairie ties, Dwolla and Zaarly.

Fast Four

This week on the Fast Four, we looked at AgLocal's acceptance to NewMe, What Cheer's I Love in Omaha campaign, Startup Weekend coming back to Des Moines March 2-4, and how the Silicon Prairie has figured into Pinterest's success. We also debuted a point system and declared our first Fast Four champion. 

Andy's Stat-of-the-Week

This week's stat is: 1000. What does it mean? Join us on PrairieCast to find out!

Looking for more on the show? Check out our Facebook page at facebook.com/prairiecast.

PrairieCast is a live podcast, recorded weekly, for which a group of entrepreneurs gather to discuss current issues in technology and business that relate to the startup community on the Silicon Prairie. PrairieCast is hosted by Andy Brudtkuhl of 48Web and Geoff Wood of Silicon Prairie News.

PrairieCast is brought to you by Delta Dental of Iowa

When it comes to taking care of your smile, rely on a company you can trust. Fact is … more Iowans trust their smiles to Delta Dental. Whether you are looking for a dental policy for you, your family, or the team at your Startup, visit DeltaDentalIA.com to learn more about your many plan options.

Tune in today at 2 p.m. for Episode 75 of PrairieCast streaming live from the Silicon Prairie News office in downtown Des Moines. We'll be joined by guests Jimmy Winter (far left) of VoterTide and Chris Burns (near left).

This week we'll talk with Winter about VoterTide's recent news as well as look into the Silicon Prairie companies that made Fast Company's "most innovative" list. 

Did you miss last week's show? Check out the archive "PrairieCast video: foursquare in Des Moines, fiber in the Silicon Prairie."

While you're at it, why not give us a "like" on the PrairieCast Facebook page at facebook.com/prairiecast.

PrairieCast is a live podcast, recorded weekly, for which a group of entrepreneurs gather to discuss current issues in technology and business that relate to the startup community on the Silicon Prairie. PrairieCast is hosted by Andy Brudtkuhl of 48Web and Geoff Wood of Silicon Prairie News.

Credits: Photo of Winter from votertide.com. Photo of Burns from twitter.com.

PrairieCast is brought to you by Delta Dental of Iowa

When it comes to taking care of your smile, rely on a company you can trust. Fact is … more Iowans trust their smiles to Delta Dental. Whether you are looking for a dental policy for you, your family, or the team at your Startup, visit DeltaDentalIA.com to learn more about your many plan options.

About the author: Geoff Wood is the COO and main connection point in Iowa for Silicon Prairie News, the co-founder of VolunteerLocal and founder of Eggcrates. For more on Wood, see the note that follows this post.

Our most recent Sunday Video Series post came out a bit late and you might have missed it. It's a three-minute video featuring Steve Blank (above), a noted entrepreneur, author and professor, in which he's asked, "What's a startup?" He answers the question by giving the differences between a startup and a small business.

Blank notes that while the terminology is often interchanged around the country, Silicon Valley defines "startup" around a company with a founder who wakes up each morning saying of their idea, "I want to take over the universe, I want to change the world, I want to do something important [and] this is the most exciting thing I could ever do."

I love that definition. As you might imagine, this question – "What's a startup"?" –  comes up a lot in our company. Blank's response to the question is the best I've found so far.

Coincidentally, I've read two blog posts in the past week by local entrepreneurs that also hit home.

Christian Renaud of Startup City Des Moines posted to their blog about unreasonable ideas:

Big ideas are crazy, inconceivable. People who hear big ideas have polarized reactions and either love it or roll their eyes at it, but they react strongly emotionally. It challenges them. They start to talk with others about this crazy idea they heard, and the virus spreads.

Small ideas don’t make the world go 'round. The big ones do. If you are going to be an entrepreneur and take risk, then commit yourself to a grand adventure. Be unreasonable.

Across the state in Marion, Iowa, Jack Perry of Syncbak wrote that entrepreneurs need to be visionaries:

Do people around you refer to you as visionary? The mean ones might call you an eccentric kook. But the reality is, without the ability to see and go after what others don’t, you’re not likely going to make it. The good news is that energetic employees will follow visionaries for less money than they are worth. Press will follow visionaries. Customers will follow visionaries.

All three of these individuals are hitting at the very heart of what drives our Silicon Prairie News team. We, alongside so many others in the region, are doing what we can to build this area into a true Center of Innovation. In the Silicon Prairie – thinking, again, of "Silicon" as a "metonym for the entrepreneurial spirit" that has characterized the Valley for the last half-century – one of our roles is to apply a megaphone to the companies and ideas that embody those principles.

Here's to the world-changers. The unreasonable ones. The visionaries.

Hat tip to Apple's "Think Different" campaign.

About the author: Geoff Wood is the COO and main connection point in Iowa for Silicon Prairie News, an organization working to increase the notability of the Silicon Prairie region – Des Moines, Omaha, Kansas City and surrounding area – as an innovation center and startup hub. In addition to a daily news blog, the Silicon Prairie News team also produces events like Thinc Iowa and Big Omaha. Wood helps organize Barcamp Des Moines and DSM Startup Drinks.

You can contact Geoff at geoff@siliconprairienews.com or find him on Twitter, @geoffwood.

Get it? via @murphykeith

Episode 74: The one where zombies leap for bandwidth

This week we had two PrairieCast rookies on the show, OpenAir Equity Partners' executive-in-residence Thad Langford and Drake University social media strategy instructor Chris Snider. We discussed the successful efforts of Snider's class to procure a badge for Des Moines on the popular social platform foursquare, Langford's investment in Kansas City-based mobile search browser Leap2 and the latest news on Google Fiber.

Fast Four

This week the Fast Four included the foursquare badge, the anonymous $1.2B data center coming to the region, Jack Perry's advice to entrepreneurs and the heavily skewed gender demographic of Pinterest.

Andy's Stat-of-the-Week

This week's Stat is: 169. What's does it mean? Join us on PrairieCast to find out!

Looking for more on the show? Check out our Facebook page at facebook.com/prairiecast.

PrairieCast is a live podcast, recorded weekly, for which a group of entrepreneurs gather to discuss current issues in technology and business that relate to the startup community on the Silicon Prairie. PrairieCast is hosted by Andy Brudtkuhl of 48Web and Geoff Wood of Silicon Prairie News.

PrairieCast is brought to you by Delta Dental of Iowa

When it comes to taking care of your smile, rely on a company you can trust. Fact is … more Iowans trust their smiles to Delta Dental. Whether you are looking for a dental policy for you, your family, or the team at your Startup, visit DeltaDentalIA.com to learn more about your many plan options.

Join us at 2 p.m. for Episode 74 of PrairieCast streaming live from Des Moines. Guests this week are Chris Snider (far left), a multimedia journalism instructor at Drake University, and Thad Langford (near left), the former president of Zave Networks and current executive in residence at OpenAir Equity Partners.

This week's discussion will focus on recent news from Kansas City, Kan.-based startup Leap2 (in which Langford has invested), Des Moines securing its own foursquare badge (thanks to an effort spearheaded by one of Snider's classes) and recent fiber news in Kansas City and Lincoln.

While you're at it, why not give us a "like" on the PrairieCast Facebook page at facebook.com/prairiecast.

PrairieCast is a live podcast, recorded weekly, for which a group of entrepreneurs gather to discuss current issues in technology and business that relate to the startup community on the Silicon Prairie. PrairieCast is hosted by Andy Brudtkuhl of 48Web and Geoff Wood of Silicon Prairie News.

Image credits: Photo of Chris Snider from twitter.com. Photo of Thad Langford from bizjournals.com.

PrairieCast is brought to you by Delta Dental of Iowa

When it comes to taking care of your smile, rely on a company you can trust. Fact is … more Iowans trust their smiles to Delta Dental. Whether you are looking for a dental policy for you, your family, or the team at your Startup, visit DeltaDentalIA.com to learn more about your many plan options.

Dear Family and Friends,

Welcome back to our annual holiday letter, The Year of Our Wood 2011!

Sure most people do their holiday letters for Christmas but we’ve never been conventional, typically opting for New Years. However, this year time got away from us and next thing you know it’s February. So, in that spirit - Happy Valentines Day!

Last year our holiday letter was filled with catching you up on two of the busiest years in our lives. A new baby, new jobs, law school, and a new house and more made that letter cover a lot of ground. 2011, by comparison, was a pretty slow year (and we like it that way).

About the author: Geoff Wood is the COO and main connection point in Iowa for Silicon Prairie News, the co-founder of VolunteerLocal and founder of Eggcrates. For more on Wood, see the note that follows this post.

On Thursday, I offered three reasons why I believe Dwolla chose Fred Wilson’s Union Square Ventures to lead its Series B round, which was announced on Tuesday.

In this post, I look at how the Des Moines startup community could be affected by Dwolla's milestone.

1. They'll continue to 'Dwolla in DSM'

Dwolla co-founder Ben Milne has made being a Des Moines-based startup an integral part of his company's culture from the beginning. You see it in their T-shirts (left), in the quotes Milne gives ("my beach is a cornfield") and the way they involve themselves in the local community. They've always said what we, the local community, want to hear about never planning to relocate to the coasts. However, I'm sure I'm not the only one that considered that this capital raise could come with the rider that they must move on to a more traditional startup or finance hub.

That concern is all for naught as the company has announced that they only move their making is to bigger office space around the corner. Dwolla is the darling of the Des Moines startup scene and leaving could have had a tremendous negative effect. Dwolla’s commitment Des Moines is appreciated and good news; not just for now but also for the future.

2. New angels in the future

Union Square Ventures and the others with money in this deal didn't invest because they appreciated Milne's passion or because they thought making payments through Facebook would be fun; they did it because they see real potential for a return.

Assuming that Dwolla will ultimately be successful, that return will come only after an exit. The company will either be acquired by a large institution (more likely) or go public (less likely), like Facebook, LinkedIn and other technology giants have been doing of late. If and when such an exit occurs it will be great thing for the local startup community. Fred Wilson, Marc Eckō, Paige Craig and the other investors will make their profit but so too will Milne and the others who have a local interest. I don’t know how many of Dwolla's employees own stock options in the company – that's far more common in the larger innovation centers than it is in the Silicon Prairie – but certainly Milne and the others who do will not only upgrade their own net  worth but they'll also likely look to turn that around and invest again in the next generation of new ideas. It's the network effect that we're starting to see in Kansas City after Zave Network's sale to Google – Zave's co-founder recently invested in Leap2 (above) – but have yet to see enough of in Des Moines.

3. Union Square Ventures likes to co-locate portfolio companies

In Thursday's post, I noted that in a 2010 post on Fred Wilson's blog, he shared USV’s thoughts on its portfolio companies working together. One other item mentioned in that post that's exciting for Des Moines is that they "encourage [their] portfolio companies to share space."

Dwolla is USV's only investment in the region to this point, but I think there is always the potential for this to become a catalyst for more. The total Dwolla Series B round was $5 million. That moves the needle tremendously locally but it’s not a whole lot to USV (who lead the round but didn’t provide the entire $5 million). They currently manage $450 million across their three funds.

First, I can see USV taking a long hard look at how far $5 million will go Des Moines and making sure their other portfolio companies are aware of Des Moines as an option as they look to expand or have the need for more talent. Second, I’m sure that USV will be looking closely at other area startups for dealflow, if they haven’t started already. Again, a small fraction of the fund will go a tremendous distance and they already have a vested interest in the space with Dwolla.

Image credits: Photo of Dwolla T-shirt from Dwolla on Facebook. Screenshot of Zave Networks headline from Silicon Prairie News. Screeshot of quote from A VC.

About the author: Geoff Wood is the COO and main connection point in Iowa for Silicon Prairie News, an organization working to increase the notability of the Silicon Prairie region – Des Moines, Omaha, Kansas City and surrounding area – as an innovation center and startup hub. In addition to a daily news blog, the Silicon Prairie News team also produces events like Thinc Iowa and Big Omaha. Wood helps organize Barcamp Des Moines and DSM Startup Drinks.

You can contact Geoff at geoff@siliconprairienews.com or find him on Twitter, @geoffwood.

About the author: Geoff Wood is the COO and main connection point in Iowa for Silicon Prairie News, the co-founder of VolunteerLocal and founder of Eggcrates. For more on Wood, see the note that follows this post.

As you may be aware, the anticipated and recently rumored Series B funding news broke this week for the good folks at Dwolla in Des Moines. This round totalled $5 million and was not only raised out-of-Iowa but out-of-Silicon Prairie, with money coming in from both coasts.

As rumored, the round was led by New York-based Union Square Ventures. Union Square, and its principal Fred Wilson (left), are two of the most well-known names in nation's startup community, touting a number of notable investments in hot internet startups, such as Etsy, foursquare, Kickstarter, Zynga, Tumblr, Turntable.fm, Twilio and Twitter.

As we saw with the startup's Series A round in 2010, founder Ben Milne has been very strategic in the amount of capital he takes and who he takes it from. The Veridian Group and The Members Group (the two Series A investors) provide as much value from their partnership as they do with their cash. There was no shortage of choices for this round, as Milne told me in the fall and Business Insider later reported that the company managed a spreadsheet with more than 700 investors who were interested in participating at some level.

Dwolla's leadership team chose USV to lead the round and I believe it is purposeful for three main reasons:

1. Investor name and credibility

While Wilson himself didn't join the board – his associate Albert Wenger did – he'll still lend his star investor fame to Dwolla's operation. He has around 115,000 RSS subscribers and an average of 10,000 visitors per day to his blog, "A VC," along with 200,000 Twitter followers. It didn't take long, a day after the raise was announced he was already blogging about the payments startup including this call to action:

While I don't have access to Dwolla's analytics, I'm guessing that was a fairly successful referral link.

2. Access to portfolio companies

If you follow Wilson, you likely know that USV does not require portfolio companies to work together. He wrote an informative post about his philosophy back in 2010 and in the comments on his post yesterday which was also about Etsy, he directly answered a question of when Dwolla will become a payment option on Etsy: 

Regardless, in the 2010 post he did note that he'll make introductions between portfolio companies if he sees a strategic fit. How could Dwolla not be salivating at the idea of becoming a payment option in the aforementioned Etsy (800,000 active shops as of July 2011 - Etsy), Kickstarter (over 1 million individual backers as of October 2011 - kickstarter.com) or Zynga (236 million active monthly users as of the first quarter of 2011 - Mashable)? Obtaining users in large chunks, rather than one-by-one has been part of Dwolla's growth strategy for awhile (see the FiSync product).

On a related note, Dwolla's fanatical following in Des Moines is very organic and very personal to the role they play in this community. We haven’t seen them scale that level of engagement around the country, yet, and by aligning with much beloved companies in other markets, like those in the USV portfolio, there's another tactic to push on.

3. Dwolla wants to go big

Simply put, USV is the big time, it's "the show." Dwolla is now playing with the big boys and they're doing it in a way that few others in the area are. This means that expectations are now higher and that performance and growth will all be measured differently. I think Dwolla wants that and they want to be held to the higher standard. I asked Milne (left) back in February 2010, on the second episode of PrairieCast, why he'd ever pursue such a project as Dwolla. He said simply that sometimes, "If you want to go big, you have to go big."

I think having financial backing from USV is a very visible sign of Dwolla taking the next step on the ladder of "go(ing) big."

Part 2: The second portion of this two-part opinion piece, "Dwolla's Series B: Three things it means for Des Moines (Part 2)", will appear on Silicon Prairie News this week.

Image credit: Photo of Fred Wilson courtesy of Union Square Ventures. Screenshots from avc.com. Photo of Ben Milne by Anna Jones | Art of Photography.

About the author: Geoff Wood is the COO and main connection point in Iowa for Silicon Prairie News, an organization working to increase the notability of the Silicon Prairie region – Des Moines, Omaha, Kansas City and surrounding area – as an innovation center and startup hub. In addition to a daily news blog, the Silicon Prairie News team also produces events like Thinc Iowa and Big Omaha. Wood helps organize Barcamp Des Moines and DSM Startup Drinks.

You can contact Geoff at geoff@siliconprairienews.com or find him on Twitter, @geoffwood.

Episode 73: The one with Mike and Mike in the Afternoon

Not one but two Mikes joined us this week on PrairieCast. Mike Colwell, director of the Business Innovation Zone in Des Moines and Mike Ferrari, co-founder of SmartyPig (now Social Money Systems) both sit in to discuss the big news that broke early on show day, Dwolla's $5M Series B raise, as well as the recent news from SmartyPig including a name change, new products and new leadership. 

Fast Four

This week on the Fast Four we take a look at the Kauffman Foundation's Super Bowl ad, Scott Case's comments about entrpreneurship in Iowa in the Washington Post, the Iowa Startup Fair, and an extremely played out internet meme that reached the Silicon Prairie.

Andy's Stat of the Week

This week the Stat is 3,618,115. What's does it mean? Join us on PrairieCast to find out!

Looking for more information on the show? Check out our Facebook page: facebook.com/prairiecast.

PrairieCast is a live podcast, recorded weekly, for which a group of entrepreneurs gather to discuss current issues in technology and business that relate to the startup community on the Silicon Prairie. PrairieCast is hosted by Andy Brudtkuhl of 48Web and Geoff Wood of Silicon Prairie News.

PrairieCast is brought to you by Delta Dental of Iowa

When it comes to taking care of your smile, rely on a company you can trust. Fact is … more Iowans trust their smiles to Delta Dental. Whether you are looking for a dental policy for you, your family, or the team at your Startup, visit DeltaDentalIA.com to learn more about your many plan options.

Join us live today at 2 p.m. for Episode 73 of PrairieCast. Our guests will be Mike Ferrari, co-founder of Social Money Systems, and Mike Colwell, director of the Business Innovation Zone. As you'd expect, we'll cover the news (not rumors this time) that just broke about Dwolla's investment round and also get the inside scoop from Ferrari about all the recent changes at his company.

Have you checked out PrairieCast's Facebook page? Head on over there and give a "like" at facebook.com/prairiecast.

PrairieCast is a live podcast, recorded weekly, for which a group of entrepreneurs gather to discuss current issues in technology and business that relate to the startup community on the Silicon Prairie. PrairieCast is hosted by Andy Brudtkuhl of 48Web and Geoff Wood of Silicon Prairie News.

PrairieCast is brought to you by Delta Dental of Iowa

When it comes to taking care of your smile, rely on a company you can trust. Fact is … more Iowans trust their smiles to Delta Dental. Whether you are looking for a dental policy for you, your family, or the team at your Startup, visit DeltaDentalIA.com to learn more about your many plan options.

Tune in Tuesday at 2 p.m. for Episode 73 of PrairieCast streaming live from Des Moines. Our guests this week are Social Money Systems (née SmartyPig) co-founder Mike Ferrari (far left) and BIZ director Mike Colwell (near left). The big change at SmartyPig is tops on our agenda, and of course your favorite new segments Fast Four and Andy's Stat of the Week will be well represented.

Did you catch last week's show with our own Michael Stacy and the Des Moines Register's Marco Santana? Never fear, you can watch it right here:

PrairieCast 72: Pipeline Innovator of the Year, the Gigabit Challenge

While you're at it, why not give us a "like" on the PrairieCast Facebook page at facebook.com/prairiecast.

PrairieCast is a live podcast, recorded weekly, for which a group of entrepreneurs gather to discuss current issues in technology and business that relate to the startup community on the Silicon Prairie. PrairieCast is hosted by Andy Brudtkuhl of 48Web and Geoff Wood of Silicon Prairie News.

Image credits: Photo of Michael Ferrari courtesy of Ferrari. Photo of Mike Colwell from twitter.com/mikecolwell.

PrairieCast is brought to you by Delta Dental of Iowa

When it comes to taking care of your smile, rely on a company you can trust. Fact is … more Iowans trust their smiles to Delta Dental. Whether you are looking for a dental policy for you, your family, or the team at your Startup, visit DeltaDentalIA.com to learn more about your many plan options.

heyoutasight:

“Anything is possible with a couple of drinks.” - Lush Life.

I’m still a fan of the original.

Eggcrates featured in Juice Magazine!

31 Tips For DSM In 2012: #2: Pretend You're A Tourist: My contribution to the 31 Tips for Des Moines...

Mondamin, Iowa, USA — Michele Bachmann staff member Whitney Clark holds cue cards for Bachmann at King’s Crossing Cafe in Mondamin, Iowa, Tuesday, Dec. 27, 2011. Bachmann’s campaign is producing short videos from all of the stops during her bus tour. (MPR Photo/Jeffrey Thompson)

—

Just like Aerosmith on the Simpsons:

Steven Tyler: HELLLOOOOOOO, ST LOUIIIIIS!

Joe Perry: Um, that’s Springfield, Steven.

usesthis-sp:

photo credit: Anna Jones

Brian Hemesath

CEO, Catchwind

Co-Founder, VolunteerLocal

CTO, Tikly

Minority shareholder, NotifyWorks

Who are you, and what do you do?

I’m Brian Hemesath, a self-taught developer who enjoys sales and business development. Can’t really say if I like any one thing more than the other. I love being busy and having more on my plate than I should. I’ve been called a serial entrepreneur, but I’d call myself more of an accidental entrepreneur. I see opportunities and leverage them to build cool stuff and bring people together.

What hardware are you using?

I’m overdue for new hardware. I have a 5 year old Dell XPS at home with 2x 23” monitors. My buddy was the CEO of BFG, so I got a kick-ass deal on 2 8800 GTS graphics cards, which I can run in SLI mode to play games when I procrastinate. At the office I’m on a 4 year old Dell Vostro laptop, running Windows Vista. I believe I am the only person who actually liked Vista. I have a Lenovo U400 all picked out as soon as I can convince myself I need the upgrade. I bought a Galaxy Tab 10.1 the day they came out and absolutely love it. I have a rooted Samsung Conquer on Sprint.

And what software?

I’m pretty old school about my software. I hand code in a program called EditPad Pro, which is Notepad on steriods. I use 3D-FTP for file transfers, but recently tried FileZilla. I do a lot of command line stuff for both the OS and database, so AbsoluteTelnet is an important part of my day. I don’t do much with graphics, but I use a 13-year old version of Paint Shop Pro for basic slicing and editing. It works great, but I do break out Photoshop for more serious stuff. This isn’t software, but Stack Overflow is my go-to for JQuery questions. I develop on the LAMP stack.

What would be your dream setup?

It is hard to call this a “dream” setup, but I suppose that Lenovo U400 with a device to support dual monitors. We’re talking less than $1K, here, so I realize I’m dreaming pretty small. If I had money to burn, I’d like to have a tablet that ran on 3G/4G vs. just WiFi. I like to keep things simple.

Check out this complete timeline of Doctor Who from 1963 to present, including episodes, seasons, companions, villains, and more. Scroll down to follow all the Doctor’s adventures through time. A Fantastic resource for any Doctor Who fan.

This great and not just because the original ad was so offensive.

Bad Lip Reading: Rick Perry’s “Strong” ad - watch more funny videos

Yep that pretty much covers the whole movie. I’m a big fan.

jonahray:

Captain Geech and the Shrimp Shack Shooters.

moviesinframes:

That Thing You Do!, 1996 (dir. Tom Hanks)

By billhader

“I am SO PROUD…to be on your billboard” via @istatefb

Oh, How Pinteresting!: Interview with Chrissy Jensen: Owner of Domestica: pinterest: Photo by...

Not one, not two, but three guests on this week's PrairieCast. When he heard that the "stop online piracy act" (SOPA) was on our discussion list for the week, BrownWinick's Drew Larson couldn't wait to drop his knowledge of the subject on our audience. Actually, that's not true. After learning that Larson was planning a seminar to address the topic later this week, I asked him – on way late notice – to sit in with previously scheduled guests Sam DuRegger of Charming Beard Productions and Tej Dhawan of Startup City Des Moines. The five us had a good conversation not only about SOPA but also lessons to be learned from the whiners in Silicon Valley, what to expect at this weekend's Barcamp Des Moines, updates on the Startup America Challenge (have you registered your startup, yet? Why not? It's easy) and what's next for "Silicon Sixth" in Des Moines.

For more on this episode see: http://spne.ws/BBs

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dpstyles:

I don’t think I’ve ever laughed so hard at *anything* on the internets.

(by dpstyles™)

Not terribly practical but still awesome.

Lava Row's Nathan T. Wright and Startup City's Tej Dhawan are back for this week's PrairieCast where we talk about Des Moines' Startup Job Crawl, Zaarly's Bo Fishback on the Cover of Entrepreneur magazine, tech blogger turnover, Ben Milne's national TV debut and the unfortunate state of health insurance for startup companies.

For more on this episode see: http://spne.ws/B9p

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Our guests for this episode where Emma Peterson, founder of Tikly and Adam Belz, business reporter for the Des Moines Register. Our discussion centered on the many recent events across the Silicon Praiire, such as Startup Weekend Kansas City and the winner Horsebot3k, the upcoming Barcamp Des Moines and tonight's Startup Job Crawl. We talked about Dwolla's recent national attention and made some guesses as to their announcements coming next month.

For more on this episode see: http://spne.ws/B7d

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landscapelifescape:

St. John The Baptist’s Church, Burringham, Lincolnshire, UK

John Mackail

whitneymcn:

I’m having trouble handling how heartwarming I find these pictures.

coopsmith:

Just a few of the amazing photos from the CClone 365-2011 Project.

H/T Ian Spalter

Flyover at the Iowa State v. Texas A&M football game shared by Iowa State Athletics in honor of Veterans Day via facebook.

SPIN | Justin Timberlake and Jimmy Fallon Are 53 Songs Into the 'History of Rap':...

Three firsts in this week's episode: Sam DuRegger of Charming Beard Productions joined us as a guest, we celebrated a guest's birthday on the show and the same guest made a quick exit moments later (due to what turned out to be some first-time pregnancy jitters — it happens to the best of us). It was a fun show, and we discussed Scott Case's Startup America Challenge to the Silicon Prairie (and Andy Stoll's subsequent challenge to Louisiana), the newly minted Iowa Startup Alliance and the good folks in Kansas City participating in Global Entrepreneurship Week with another Kansas City Startup Weekend.

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After two weeks off for Thinc Iowa (Geoff) and a new baby (Andy), we're back with episode 60 of your favorite weekly podcast: PrairieCast! During those two weeks of "down time," we came up with some new ideas for the show and we'll be rolling them out over the next several episodes. First and foremost, we're going with a more consistent cast of guests, and the first two people to jump to that challenge were Nathan T. Wright of Lava Row and Jordan Lampe of Dwolla.

Over the course of about 50 minutes, the four of us talked through our reflections on Thinc Iowa, Hudl's 5,000 client milestone (and more on the famous Hudl T-shirts) and Silicon Sixth Avenue.

For more on this episode see: http://spne.ws/B23

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azizisbored:

Just saw this. Pretty solid Halloween move.

bemore:

how i am treating trick-or-treaters this year

It's Thinc Iowa week! We (at Silicon Prairie News) have been working on producing what is known Thinc Iowa for over a year and it's finally here. Check out the website (put together awesomely by Performance Marketing) at thinciowa.com.

The professional sports world lost a good one today in IZOD IndyCar Driver Dan Wheldon. Dan died from unrecoverable injuries sustained in the worst crash I’ve seen since we started following IndyCar about seven years ago. In a race that was supposed to feature a dual for the championship between rivals Dario Franchitti and Will Power along with a second storyline of Wheldon with a unique chance to compete for a prize of $5M.

We recently reached out to the photographer who shot our wedding six plus years ago to see if he still had our images on file. Luckily for us he did and he offered to send them to us for a pretty decent price. We took him up on it and we're glad we did because now we get to check out all the proofs that we'd forgotten he'd shot.

Well, since I haven't blogged since July, I figured it was time

This week on PrairieCast, Erin Ginkens (left, photo from linkedin.com) from Entrepreneurial Technologies joined us in studio and Nick Seguin (photo from kauffman.org) of the Kauffman Foundation skyped in admist the fun that is Chicago Ideas Week. We talk about several serious entrepreneurial topics and I get to drop at least one of my signature "Geoff Wood's Iowa Fun Facts".

For more on this episode, see: http://spne.ws/Arm

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Fresh off his experience launching T8 Webware's new Grip product at at Finovate, the startup's CEO Wade Arnold joined us for this week's PrairieCast to talk about the growth of his company, their produt strategy, recruiting strategy (see that devs and data scientists - T8 is hiring now!) and, as always, the top current events around the Silicon Prairie.

Topics discussed: Thinc Iowa, T8 Webware, Grip, Locusic, Jeremie Miller, Singly, Startup Weekend Iowa City, Startup Weekend Columbia, Sojern, Sporting KC

For more on this episode see: http://spne.ws/Ao8

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This week on PrairieCast we turn the model on it's side! Andy and our guest Tej Dwahan of Startup City Des Moines are live in our studio in the Midland Building and I join via skype from the Kauffman Foundation's headquarters in Kansas City. Dwahan's incubator project is close to launching and he shared lots of details on what they have in store.

Additionally, we're giving away two tickets to Startup Weekend Iowa City this weekend! The person who won the live show giveaway can't make so two are still up for grabs. The first two people to leave a comment on this post will get the tickets.

For more on this episode see: http://spne.ws/An7

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This week our guest on PrairieCast was Brian Hemesath the Des Moines-based serial entrepreneur who has founded five companies, including Catchwind, VolunteerLocal and Notifyworks. Hemesath previewed his BIZ Luncheon Series presentation on lessons learned while bootstrapping his startups.

For more on this week's epsiode see: http://spne.ws/Ahx

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This week on PrairieCast our guest is David Graff, CEO and co-founder of Hudl, the Lincoln-based sports technology venture that now provides video software to more than one third of all high school sports teams in the US. Graff is one of our most anticipated guests for the show and we took advantage of his time with us to discuss everything from financing to scalability to standing on the sidelines in the 2011 NCAA National Championship football game.

We had some fun, too, discussing the size of Graff's Hudl t-shirt collection and doing our first "PrairieCast look-alike" with Graff and a certain movie star from 15 years ago. Check it all this week on PrairieCast.

For more on this week's episode see: http://spne.ws/AdE

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This week on PrairieCast our guest was Ben Milne, CEO and co-founder of Dwolla, who made his way down the stairs of the Midland Building to join us for the third time on the show. We talked about Dwolla's latest technology releases and Milne's upcoming travels to conference in Europe before launching into the news of the week. We also debuted a new segment "Looking Forward" at the best events in the region over the week ahead.

For more on this episode see: http://spne.ws/AaT

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We're looking for feedback on PrairieCast! What do you like about the show? What would you like to see changed? Send an email to geoff@siliconprairienews.com or leave a comment on the post. Just hours after the announcement that Brittany Mascio was joining the Silicon Prairie News team full time, she joined me, Andy and Justin Schoen of eComegy for this week's PrairieCast.

For more on this episode see http://spne.ws/AYb

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Always planning ahead, Andy prepared our 52nd episode since I was scheduled to spend the week across the street as a dutiful juror at the Polk County Courthouse. However, the trial wrapped a good 20 minutes before showtime, so I jumped in the second chair to join guests Norah Carroll of Lava Row and Mike Colwell of the BIZCI and StartupModels.com.

For more on this episode see: http://spne.ws/AWI

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This week West Des Moines attorney Rush Nigut, founder of NotifyWorks joined us in studio and Michael Stacy, Silicon Prairie News editor, skyped in from Omaha. We also put out an offer to startups far and wide to drop off their swag for the PrairieCast set. If you have something fun or funky (nothing with real value, please) that represents your startup and you're willing to donate the show let us know or drop it by the Midland Building.

For more on this episode see: http://spne.ws/ATM

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For our 50th birthday episode we decided to push the envelope and try two guests in studio for the first time. Jake Kerber, CEO of Locusic, and Chris Conetzkey, editor of the Des Moines Business Record, both joined us as PrairieCast newbies for a great discussion.

For more on this episode see: http://spne.ws/APg

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We had a few technical issues getting the podcast running this week, and the first few minutes are missing from the archive above. We pressed on undeterred and had a great conversation with Josh Fleming of Lessing-Flynn and VineMe as well as old favorite Danny Schreiber, managing editor of Silicon Prairie News.

For more on this episode see: http://spne.ws/AND

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Our guest this week on PrairieCast was Willis Jackson, the other part of SPN's contributer team in Kansas City. We talk with Willis about his new startup, ShownHome, his role as contributor Silicon Prairie Startup Digest, and the other current news out of the Kansas City community.

For more on this episode see: http://spne.ws/AKC

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This week on PrairieCast, we had Nate Becker from SHift and Uppward – in town for the week from Brooklyn, New York – as our first in-studio guest in the new configuration for the show. Additionally, Danny Schreiber, Silicon Prairie News's managing editor Skyped in from Omaha.

For more on this episode see: http://spne.ws/AHz

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This week on PrairieCast we were joined remotely by first time guest Josh Cramer founder of Cramer Dev of Iowa City and in-studio by returning guest Jordan Lampe, communications director for Dwolla.

For more on this episode see: http://spne.ws/A4Y

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This week on PrairieCast we were joined remotely by first time guest Josh Cramer founder of Cramer Dev of Iowa City and in-studio by returning guest Jordan Lampe, communications director for Dwolla.

For more on this episode see: http://spne.ws/A4Y

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ScottyHendo gets it. He was once a Hoosier, too.

Yes, the holiday is Independence Day not "the 4th of July"; that's simply the date. Just a guess but it may be an unexpected consequence of the popularization of Cinco de Mayo in this country.

An odd mention showed up in my Twitter stream this afternoon (above). What's even more odd is that the aforementioned boyfriend lives two hours from me in Iowa City.

I was pretty jazzed last week when Bill Simmons and Chuck Klosterman finally launched Grantland.com, a sports and pop-culture media play that's been in the works for awhile. Simmons, the "Sports Guy" columnist from ESPN's Page 2 and former Jimmy Kimmel writer, is one of my favorite podcasters. I don't read his columns, mainly because ESPN sucks at RSS feeds, but really enjoy the aforementioned podcast. His topics cover the full range of entertainment and pop culture, with special emphasis on TV & movies, comedy and, obviously, sports. 

Sent from my iPhone

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Sent from my iPhone

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Sent from my iPhone

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Anna Jones was out doing her awesome networking photos at the Dwolla meetup this week and she caught me. Very cool to be included.

Sent from my iPhone

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...they gave me a Coke that was canned in Algeria.

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Sent from my iPhone

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Sent from my iPhone

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Sent from my iPhone

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Sent from my iPhone

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Sent from my iPhone

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Sent from my iPhone

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Sent from my iPhone

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We've spent some money with Timbuk2 over the years. In the passenger seat of the car this morning is my wife's purse, her law school books, & my laptop; each in their own Timbuk2 bag. Ps. We own others.

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Adorable (and way more expensive then I would have thought).

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Sent from my iPhone

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Sent from my iPhone

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Hanging out, sitting on the dinosaur mat, reading his favorite book with Brown Bear within reach.

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Not my best work but new head coach Fred Hoiberg is on stage.

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Sent from my iPhone

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