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Zaarly raises $14.1M Series A, adds former eBay exec Whitman to board
Zaarly, the peer-to-peer marketplace that lets users offer to buy goods and services around them, has closed a $14.1 million Series A funding round, bringing its total funding raised to $15.1 million. Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers’ iFund and Sands Capital Ventures led the round. Also contributing were CMEA, Venture51, CrunchFund (founded by early Zaarly…
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A Thinc Iowa thanks
What an event! It’s actually a little hard to believe all the planning, hard work and execution is over (at least for this year). First off, I want to thank everyone who made the event possible. From the speakers to the participants to the sponsors to everyone on the Silicon Prairie News team – I…
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Thinc Iowa: Scott Case – ‘Build a network of support’
Wearing his red, white, and blue Converse sneakers, Scott Case, took the stage Friday afternoon at the Temple for Performing Arts in Des Moines to illustrate the intersection between corporations and startups. Case started by explaining the mission and purpose of the Startup America Partnership. As Case explained, Startup America Partnership strives to offer five…
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Thinc Iowa: Robbie Vitrano – ‘it’s possible to have a crazy idea and succeed’
From discussion of how to approach marketing like MacGyver to stories of stripping pizza down to its “naked” essence, Robbie Vitrano of Trumpet Group packed plenty into his time on stage Friday afternoon at Thinc Iowa. Vitrano leads New Orleans-based Trumpet, a venture marketing company with a mission focused on advocacy, optimism and socially responsible…
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Thinc Iowa: Douglas Olson – ‘It’s what you do today that matters’
Douglas Olson brings almost two decades of lessons learned in the software business and entrepreneurial development to his current position as the partner director of development for Microsoft’s suite of creative design and media applications: Microsoft Expression Studio. Now the head of the Expression team, Olson manages development and user experience within Expression Studio. …
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Thinc Iowa: Ben Milne – ‘Think bigger than your parents are comfortable with’
Thinc Iowa’s afternoon session Friday began with Ben Milne, who is (or should be) a known name to Silicon Prairie News readers. Milne is the CEO and co-founder of Dwolla. He started the company based on a problem he had with his previous startup: high interchange fees. With an understanding of interchange fees, a term…