Thinc Iowa

  • Danielle Morrill is learning to block out distractions and call the shots

    Danielle Morrill has years of experience working for startups, but when she spoke at Thinc Iowa 2012 on Oct. 10, she was just six months into her first stint as a startup CEO. Earlier this year, Morrill helped found Referly, a social shopping platform that rewards users whose referrals help generate sales. And since then,…

  • Jeremie Miller sees tech taking small-town feel to global scale (Video)

    As someone born, raised and still residing among the farms of rural Cascade, Iowa but running a tech startup based in San Francisco, Jeremie Miller splits his time between very different worlds. “It sort of it feels like I’m living two lives sometimes,” Miller said during his talk on Oct. 11 at Thinc Iowa. As…

  • We’re going big!

    We have very exciting news to share with the Silicon Prairie community. But before we get into the news, I’d like to take a few moments to reflect on how we got to where we are today. If you rewind four years and five months, you arrive at the point when Silicon Prairie News went…

  • Antonio Neves shares three steps to create your own luck (Video)

    “If there’s one thing that’s been consistent in everything that I do,” Antonio Neves told the Thinc Iowa audience Oct. 11, “it’s that I am a professional question asker and I am a professional opportunity identifier.” For the next 25 minutes, Neves, who emceed the event, employed both those qualities in a motivational talk to…

  • Ron J. Williams uses perseverance, not lightning strikes (Video)

    “Being an entrepreneur can be magical,” Ron J. Williams says, “but it ain’t magic.” Williams, the co-founder and CEO of Knodes, opened with that message and proceeded to draw the distinction between magical and magic during his talk Oct. 10 at Thinc Iowa 2012. Williams said people tend to romanticize the entrepreneurial narrative of someone…

  • Gentry Underwood takes a designer’s approach to startup problems (Video)

    With the ascent of Apple, the notion that an emphasis on design can drive business success has become more commonplace in recent years, Gentry Underwood says. But Underwood, the co-founder and CEO of Orchestra, doesn’t need to look toward Cupertino to see the impact that a design-centric approach can have on a company. After all,…

  • From hustle to hiring, Ryan Graves discusses keys to scaling Uber (Video)

    Ryan Graves can trace his career at Uber back to one tweet. Well, one tweet and a whole lot of hustle. Graves, Uber’s Global GM and VP of Operations, spoke Oct. 11 at Thinc Iowa 2012 about helping build Uber, the San Francisco-based startup that provides on-demand car service through a mobile app, and he…

  • In Chicago, Brian Spaly’s building a company his way (Video)

    Silicon Valley visitors bureaus and tourism boards in the market for a spokesperson probably won’t come calling Brian Spaly any time soon, and that seems fine by Spaly. The Trunk Club CEO is perfectly happy in Chicago, building his business. That much became abundantly clear when Spaly stepped on stage Oct. 10 at Thinc Iowa…

  • Lesa Mitchell: We all must engage women in entrepreneurship (Video)

    When Lesa Mitchell stepped on stage Oct. 12 at Thinc Iowa 2012, the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation’s vice president of innovation and networks sported a shirt — green, and emblazoned with “MIT” in large, white letters — that required a disclaimer. Mitchell, who gave a talk on women in entrepreneurship, explained that MIT is not…

  • Wednesday Whimsy: Tender moments with a stuffed rodent

    The more we’ve perused photos from Thinc Iowa 2012 the past couple of weeks, the more one thing has become abundantly clear: People love to love our resident spokesrodent, Analog the Prairie Dog. Like, people don’t just like Analog. They like like him. The little guy now transcends the status of mere homedog; he’s become…