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Gig Bits: Connecting dots between Google moves in Council Bluffs, KC
For a project that’s expected to enable uploads and downloads at ultra-fast speeds, Google Fiber has come into focus at a plodding pace. But thanks to reports that surfaced over the weekend and early this week, people are beginning to connect the dots between recent Google activity in two Silicon Prairie hubs. First, several outlets…
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T8, ActiveGrade, Ben Milne among TAI 2012 Prometheus Award finalists
The Technology Association of Iowa (TAI), a nonprofit dedicated to growing Iowa’s tech industry, and its event co-sponsor, LWBJ Financial, announced today the finalists for the 2012 Prometheus Awards, an event billed as “the technology industry’s premier celebration of extraordinary achievements among high-tech businesses and individuals.” More than 40 companies and individuals are …
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Bo Fishback on Zaarly anniversary: ‘It’s been a pretty incredible year’
One year ago, Bo Fishback, then president of Kauffman Labs in Kansas City, returned home from a weekend trip to Los Angeles with one thing on his mind: Zaarly. Today, that one thing is his full-time job. Over the past 365 days, Fishback took a frustration – at 6 feet 8 inches tall, he longed…
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PrairieCast video: VoterTide and the Fast Company ‘Most Innovative’
This week we were joined by two guests, old friend Chris Burns of West Des Moines-based Shift and PrairieCast first-timer Jimmy Winter of Omaha’s VoterTide. We discussed recent news related to VoterTide as well as Fast Company’s “Most Innovative” list which included two startups with Silicon Prairie ties, Dwolla and Zaarly. This week on the…
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Unconference ‘Awesome Camp’ set for March 2-3 in Lincoln
Awesome Camp, Lincoln’s answer to the unconference, will take place March 2-3 at downtown nightclub Red9 (322 S. 9th St.). Awesome Camp is described on its website as “a participant-driven unconference” at which “anyone and …
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Its ‘concept proved,’ Tikly rolls out new version with controls for users
Tikly, an online ticketing service in Des Moines, today is rolling out its custom web and ecommerce system, a new version that allows users to create ticketing events on their own. “The first chapter of Tikly was a ticketing service that we built out using a third party ecommerce system,” Emma Peterson, the 22-year-old founder…
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Kansas City startup EyeVerify sees opportunity in the whites of your eyes
You know how the adage goes: identity is in the eye of the phone holder. All right, maybe that’s not the exact turn of phrase. But Toby Rush hopes that becomes conventional wisdom in the near future. Rush is the founder and CEO of the startup EyeVerify, and his vision for the future of identity…
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PeggyBank raises $500k with plans for tech upgrades, more marketing
PeggyBank has closed a $500,000 Series A round, company founder and CEO Jim Simon said in a phone interview. Although Simon declined to divulge specifics about the first outside funding his startup has taken …