Prairie Portrait: Danyelle Crowell of StartupCity Des Moines

Des Moines would be better if… more people were willing to pave their way, versus settling for the 9-to-5. Des Moines creatives should stop settling and not be afraid of their genius. “We want you on that wall! We need you on that wall…

Name: Danyelle Crowell
Title/Occupation: City manager for StartupCity Des Moines
Age: 34
Hometown: Greely, Colorado
Current city: Des Moines, Iowa
Twitter: canydrow

Personal

Title of my autobiography: “Tales of a Communist Cavegirl: A Fictional Autobiography”
Thing I can’t live without: Air
Drink of choice: I like scotch that’s old enough to drink its own scotch
Last book I read: “The Book of Mormon”
Ultimate road trip snack: Beef jerky
Celebrity doppelgänger: Alanis Morissette & Martin Short
Guilty pleasure band and/or film: The Talented Mr. Ripley
Entrance song if I was a wrestler: “Mama” by Exo-K
Chosen career in an alternate reality: Prima ballerina
Worst OCD tendency: Reminding people to remind me to do things
Quote I might have said: “And that is why I had to fist fight Gregory Hines.”
Which actor or actress, and why: Ryan Gosling, cause duh
Favorite YouTube video: “Dragon Baby”

Local

Best place in Des Moines no one knows about: Flying Mango—every time I ask someone if they’ve eaten there they say, “no.” I just don’t get it. 
Des Moines’ obligatory tourist stop: RAYGUN 
One thing Des Moines has that other Silicon Prairie cities don’t: Me
Best thing going for Des Moines’ startup community: The people who work hard every day to make it stronger. I watch them every day and it’s very inspiring. 
Last local restaurant I ate at: Tacopocalypse 
Best meal I’ve had in Des Moines: Oh man… There’s been so many. I couldn’t possibly choose just one.
Des Moines would be better if… more people were willing to pave their way, versus settling for the 9-to-5. Des Moines creatives should stop settling and not be afraid of their genius. “We want you on that wall! We need you on that wall!”

The Startup Scene

Social media pet peeve: People who give every single detail of their lives. Why?
App I’m obsessed with: It’s a tie between Lost It! and Tone It Up. The first one helps me keep track of everything I eat. I love that I can scan barcodes and get the nutritional information. The second one allows me to have my workouts in the palm of my hand, and they have some really delicious recipes.
Silicon Prairie startup crush: Bunchball, Hatchlings, VolunteerLocal, Emploi.us, Rocket Referrals and Posterzen … to name a few. *wink*
Most comfortable startup T-shirt I own: Dwolla’s John Wayne T-shirt
Something most people don’t know about me: I can wish you a happy birthday and insult you in Bosnian.
Entrepreneur I most want to grab a drink with: Jon Taffer
I do what I do because… I’m good at it, the people are amazing and it makes me happy. 
Before I was in startups… I was an apathetic cube rat for a major financial institution. 
If money wasn’t an object, my next company would be… a nonprofit that would kick all sorts of ass.
The Silicon Prairie startup scene is missing… large local companies buying smaller local companies.
In five years, I’ll… be running my own company and making a difference in every way I possibly can.
In five years, the Silicon Prairie… 
scene will be more cohesive, supportive, larger and more awesome than it is now.

 

Credits: Photos courtesy of Danyelle Crowell. Video from YouTube

This story is part of the AIM Archive

This story is part of the AIM Institute Archive on Silicon Prairie News. AIM gifted SPN to the Nebraska Journalism Trust in January 2023. Learn more about SPN’s origin »

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