What is Prairie Moves?

Published Tuesdays and Thursdays (two days late this week), Prairie Moves keeps our readers informed about career moves, media coverage, product development and more from the companies and individuals we cover on Silicon Prairie News.

If you or your company would like to submit one of the items below for our next Prairie Moves post, please email editor@siliconprairienews.com. And if you have suggestions on how we could improve these posts or any of our coverage, please contact danny@siliconprairienews.com.

Fundings

• VoterTide (Omaha) closed a “significant seed round,” according to its co-founder – SPN
• Nebraska Angels (Lincoln, Neb.) participated in the final $700,000 of a $2.5 million Series A Round of Nitride Solutions (Wichita, Kan.) – Nitride Solutions, SPN and LEDs Magazine
• ActiveGrade (Iowa City, Iowa) raised $200,000, according to its co-founder – SPN

Career Moves

• Macy Koch, formerly marketing director at Syncbak (Marion, Iowa), joined RecBob (Cedar Rapids, Iowa) as a Social Playmaker
• Blake Pinneke, formerly a buyer with General Novelty, and Allen Brown joined QA Graphics as a senior account executive and graphic outsourcing specialist, respectively

New Tech

• What Cheer (Omaha) created I love in Omaha, launching the site on Valentine’s Day – iloveinomaha.com, SPN and Nebraska Creative

New Creative

• 87central launched a new site for Phenomenon Concerts; the site features responsive design – phenomenonconcerts.com
• Lake Surf Co. (Pella, Iowa) launched a new stand up paddle boarding store – lakesurf.co

Product/Business Development

• OneLouder (Kansas City) hit 1 million active app users per day across its apps on Android, iOS and other mobile and tablet devices – Press Release
• Shoplr (Ames, Iowa) moved into a new office at the Iowa State University Research Park – Shoplr blog
• Torsion Mobile (Des Moines) rolled out an update to its recently launched product, Mojaba – Torsion Mobile blog
• Sporting Innovations (Kansas City) has plans to renovate and move into the soon vacant Hanna Rubber Co. building in Kansas City – Kansas City Business Journal
• Dwolla (Des Moines) updated its hub pages – Dwolla blog – and was embedded in InspirePay (Boulder, Colo.), a payments aggregator – Press Release
• Leap2 (Kansas City), a “Search Browser,” released its updated iOS app – Apple App Store
• BettrLife (Des Moines), an app billed to empower consumers to live a healthier lifestyle while saving money and shopping more efficiently, launched its iOS app – Apple App Store

Mentions

• Nebraska Global (Lincoln, Neb.) – Points of Light blog: “News Flash: A Billion + Change Sweeps Nebraska“
• MindMixer (Omaha) – Cape Cod Times: “Air ideas on Barnstable’s iForum“
• The MeNetwork (Denver-based, Omaha office) – Austin Stateman: “Austin Convention and Visitors Bureau rolls out mobile app featuring deals“, Austin Business Journal: “Mobile Austin Launched“, “The Flat Hat: “Mobile App Connects Merchants And Students“, William & Mary News & Events: “MeNetwork app delivers merchant deals to W&M community“
• AgilX (Lincoln, Neb.) – Nebraska Entrepreneur: “AgilX utilizes client relationships, lean startup model to bootstrap GratisLite“
• Dwolla (Des Moines) – Des Moines Business Record: “What it means… Dwolla’s decision to stay in Des Moines“

Gig Bits

See SPN’s latest Gig Bits post, an occasional feature keeping you up to speed on Google Fiber

• Kansas City Star: “Google’s ‘antenna farm’ plans hint at TV service“
• Michael’s Insights: “Google applies for satellite downlink license near Kansas City“
• Business Insider: “This Googler Is Trying To Make The Internet 2 Times Faster Than The Blink Of An Eye“
• KSHB: “Google entry into Kansas City area prompts neighborhood query“
• Health Care Foundation of Greater Kansas City: “The Impact of Google Fiber to Health in Kansas City“

Blogged

• Brand Rockhill (Kansas City): “Creating America’s Most Entrepreneurial City“
• Nebraska Angels (Lincoln, Neb.): “Meet the Angels: Frank Hilsabeck” (Video)
• Hudl (Lincoln, Neb.): “Hudl Support Surveys Explained“
• Startup Models (Des Moines): “Go ahead, plan on failing. I dare you!“
• Jack Perry of Syncbak (Marion, Iowa): “Start-up Ingredient #1: People“
• StartupCity Des Moines: “The Power of Partnership“
• Leap2 (Kansas City): “Leap2 2.0: Search + Browsing A revolution in mobile search? You Decide.“
• Iowa Creativity Summit (Des Moines): “Iowa Creativity Summit 2012” (Video)

Awards & Recognition

• Rachel Hack and Matt Madsen of Google and Ryan Weber of KCnext were named to KC Business’ “Rising Stars” list

Misc.

• Five juniors from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s Jeffrey S. Raikes School of Computer Science and Management won $58,000 for their entry in the TradeKing $100K API Campus Challenge – Journal Star, SPN, Programmable Web and Omaha World-Herald
• Maker Faire: Kansas City put a call out for speakers – Maker Faire: Kansas City blog
• On Quora, Zaalry (San Francisco-based, Kansas City office) co-founder Bo Fishback answered the question “How did Zaarly get started?” – Quora
• Tikly (Des Moines) announced its launch party will be on February 22 – Facebook event
• Think Big Partners (Kansas City) and Microsoft BizSpark collaborated to begin offering startups $60,000 in cloud services on Windows Azure – Press Release
• Van Osdol & Magruder, P.C. (Kansas City) created an internal entrepreneurial group aimed at supporting local entrepreneurs and startup businesses – Press Release and Legal Sonar blog
• The Silicon Prairie is No. 4 – Forbes: “10 Reasons Pinterest Booked 10 Million Visitors a Month So Fast“
• Hackers deface Missouri’s official website – Kansas City Business Journal
• Hudl Partners with the Nebraska Coaches Association, becoming the title sponsor of the Nebraska Coaches Association – Hudl Coach of the Year award in each sport – Press Release

 

Credits: Photo by Ken Owen via Flickr