In conjunction with the one-year anniversary of Startup America Partnership today, the four states of the Silicon Prairie will each be “started up” by day’s end. In December, StartupIowa launched, on Friday, Startup Nebraska became official, and today, Startup Kansas and Startup Missouri will hold events to kick off their efforts.
Headquartered in Washington D.C., the Startup America Partnership is a non-profit encouraging high-growth entrepreneurship in the United States. Part of its approach is to establish Startup America Regions, which are billed as grassroots, entrepreneur-led initiatives to serve as a rallying point to bring all the elements in a state together – entrepreneurs and startups, local talent and universities, activities and mentorship, large companies and local government – in order to help startups grow.
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Also provided by the Startup America Partnership is a bundle of resources called the “Startup America Growth Kit.” Thanks to a push from the organization’s CEO, Scott Case, at our Thinc Iowa event in October, the Silicon Prairie region has undertaken a challenge to sign up more startups than California.
Here’s a roundup of the day’s activities along with links to past coverage and resources:
StartupIowa
The effort launched with an event in Des Moines in December but today is another big of day as they’ll be holding the Iowa Startup Fair, an event designed to bridge the gap between the startup and business communities.
Learn more about the Fair, which will take place in Des Moines, Cedar Rapids, Iowa City, Pella and Cedar Falls from 3-6 p.m. today, at startupia.org.
A special message from Steve Case, chair of the Startup America Partnership:
Startup Kansas
At 1 p.m., Startup Kansas will hold a launch event at the Topeka and Shawnee County Public Library that will feature remarks from Matthew Gassen of Winston/Meriwether, the individual that’s spearheaded the state effort, along with a video from Magic Johnson, a Startup America Partnership board member, and speeches from Cameron Cushman of the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation and Riley Scott from the office of U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran.
Learn more about the event at startupkansaslaunch.eventbrite.com.
A special message from Steve Case:
Startup Missouri
Kicking off at 11 a.m. at the Railway Exchange Building in St. Louis, Startup Missouri, as it cleverly says on its website, “is rallying its startups to illuminate a statewide path to make the ‘Show Me State’ into the ‘Grow Me State.’ The event’s program will feature entrepreneurs sharing what’s working and what the state could do better.
Learn more about the event at startupmo.org.
Startup Nebraska
Nebraska will be the one quiet state in the region today as it celebrated its launch on Friday with an event at the Mastercraft Building in North Downtown Omaha. For a full recap including a video of the remarks by Tom Chapman and Steve Kiene of Nebraska Global and our own Jeff Slobotski, see our post: “Startup Nebraska launches, Kiene shares ‘state of Nebraska’ (Video)“
