Leading up to South by Southwest Interactive, we interviewed Bob Weinschenk, an Austin resident and the CEO of Des Moines-based SmartyPig, about joining the company in 2009 and his current role in the startup. Inevitably, the topic of working for a Silicon Prairie-based startup versus working for a startup in the Valley became a point of discussion because he has experience with both.

“Having lived in [Silicon] Valley for 14 years, Iowa has all of the ingredients to foster successful entrepreneurship,” Weinschenk told us in our first interview.

While at SXSW, I caught up with Weinschenk following his participation on the “Bank – Innovate or Die!” panel. In addition to giving a recap of his contributions to the panel, he shared more of his thoughts concerning a startup in the Silicon Prairie. Weinschenk said:

I love the startup world, and SmartyPig has just been a natural extension of that. The thing I always found interesting is everybody always believed you always had to do a startup in one of the traditional areas – Silicon Valley, somewhat of Boston, New York and Denver – and boy, I think we’ve blown that rumor right out. Not only through the panel today, but I think we’re well-viewed upon as a leader in the industry.

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Here’s the portion of my interview with Weinschenk in which he expands on Des Moines: