Thinc Iowa

  • Mailbox co-founder calls past seven months “an absolute whirlwind”

    Last October, Gentry Underwood took the stage at Thinc Iowa to discuss why approaching problems like a designer is crucial for entrepreneurs. He touched on tolerating uncertainty, the importance of focus, and identifying the “why” of your product. Plus, he teased his new iOS-based email client, Mailbox. A lot can happen in seven months. Since…

  • Watch the Mailbox founder share his affection for Dropbox in 2012 (Video)

    With today’s news that Dropbox acquired Mailbox—check out the Wall Street Journal for the full story—we’re re-releasing our video of the San Francisco startup’s co-founder, Gentry Underwood, speaking at our Des Moines event this past October. “I think one of the best examples out there right now of a startup that focuses is Dropbox,” …

  • Inside SPN: Why Big Des Moines?

    In our November announcement naming our full-time Kansas City staff and new event, Big Kansas City, we casually mentioned that Thinc Iowa, our two-year-old event in Des Moines, would now be called Big Des Moines. I’ve heard lots of good feedback from the community, but I wanted to use our new behind-the-scenes series to share…

  • Fill up on entrepreneurial insight with the Thinc Iowa 2012 playlist

    For two days in October, followers of our Thinc Iowa conference gorged on a smorgasbord of presentations about entrepreneurship and innovation. Then, throughout the month of November, people had a chance to replenish their supply of lessons through the Thinc Iowa 2012 Video Series. Now, nearing the midpoint of December, the cupboard has been bare…

  • With inspiration from Brad Feld, meetups emerge in Omaha, Iowa City

    As the Silicon Prairie startup community develops, one of the ways collaboration and connections occur is through consistent opportunities to engage with one another. A strong community, moreover, is lead by a group of actors who are passionate around building our cities and region into something greater, and they take steps to make that happen.…

  • Idan Cohen’s looking to push the pace of television innovation (Video)

    With a nod to graphs that illustrated sharply declining music industry revenues and plummeting newspaper circulation figures, Idan Cohen established what’s at stake in the television industry. “We’ve seen what happens actually when internet takes over an industry,” Cohen said Oct. 11 during his talk at Thinc Iowa 2012. “It tends to blow up …

  • Dane Maxwell shares tips for creating a business “out of thin air” (Video)

    Dane Maxwell set out Oct. 10 at Thinc Iowa to impress upon the audience how to, as he put it, “create a business out of thin air … even if you have no idea, no money and no credibility.” How, one might wonder, did Maxwell acquire that know-how? “I learned how to do this,” he…

  • Neal Sales-Griffin shares story behind The Starter League (Video)

    Neal Sales-Griffin decided in 2010 to leave one of the best jobs he said he’s ever had – a founder-in-residence at a venture capital firm – to fulfill a desire to pursue three things: solve problems, make things and have fun while doing it. One year later, his pursuit led to the founding of The…

  • Take a trip “inside the startup studio” with Thinc Iowa Q&A (Video)

    At the conclusion of the opening day of Thinc Iowa 2012, attendees took a trip “inside the startup studio.” Or so the discussion was dubbed by Antonio Neves, the THINQACTION founder and Thinc Iowa emcee, who moderated the 40-minute question-and answer session on Oct. 10. Neves was joined on stage by a quartet of entrepreneurs:…

  • Steve Greenwood aims for an address book with understanding (Video)

    For Steve Greenwood, the idea that “relationships are complicated” is more than just a truism. Want evidence? Look no further than the spreadsheet of personal contacts that Greenwood meticulously curated for the better part of a decade. At its peak, the document had 7,000 contacts and more than 30 columns of tags. The complicated work…