May 1, 2013

  • Meet the region’s Doodle 4 Google 2013 winners

    An eighth grader from the Des Moines suburb of Urandale was named the Iowa winner of the 2013 Doodle 4 Google competition. The design made by Marissa Frost, a student at Urbandale Middle School, will be displayed in the American Museum of Natural History. Her doodle will compete for a chance…

  • Everything is good until someone decides to run a photo of some pigs

    Here we go again with the ag stuff. As most of my friends will tell you, it peeves me when the national media stereotypes Iowa based on its agricultural history. By almost any account, Dwolla’s announcement Tuesday of its $16.5 million Series C round led by Andreessen Horowitz was a great thing for Des Moines’…

  • “Shark Tank” to serve up latest eCreamery scoop Friday

    Omaha-based eCreamery, an online custom ice cream and gelato shop, will appear on ABC’s pitch show “Shark Tank,” once again. At 8 p.m. Friday, the company’s co-founders Abby Jordan and Becky App are set to dish up their ice cream shop’s progress since its appearance last September. Though eCreamery was unable to close a deal…

  • How Handprint landed in KC and won free rent in Feld’s Fiberhouse

    Handprint, a 3D printing software startup, recently put down roots in Brad Feld’s Fiberhouse in Kansas City Startup Village, but how did the four-person team land here and why did the Boulder, Colo.-based investor choose them? The team—Mike Demarais, Alexa Nguyen, Jack Franzen and Derek Caneja—initially met in Boston. Its presence in Kansas City began…

  • CenturyLink to make Omaha the latest gigabit city on Monday

    CenturyLink today announced it will begin offering gigabit Internet on Monday to parts of west Omaha. With the installation—the company said 48,000 customers will have access to the new speeds by October—Omaha will become one of less than a dozen U.S. cities to offer the high-speed network, according to the Omaha World-Herald. “We’re trying to create…

  • MindMixer nabs $4 million from Nelnet, Dundee, Optimas and others

    MindMixer nabs $4 million from Nelnet, Dundee, Optimas and others

    It’s shaping up to be quite the year for MindMixer. Last month, the Omaha startup revealed it acquired a social media analytics company. Today, it announced it closed a $4 million Series B round led by Lincoln, Neb.-based Nelnet, a publicly traded company. Omaha-based …