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Ryan Downs: scaling Proxibid started with culture, right people, process
(Guest post by Ryan Downs) A strong culture is arguably the most important element for a business to have sustained success. Scaling a business is not easy. The demands on employees are heavy. There are surprises and setbacks along the way. Things don’t always go as planned.
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Prairie Portrait: Scott Rutz of Travefy
Prairie Portraits is a weekly set of questions intended to help the community get to know someone from the Silicon Prairie startup scene a little bit better. Prairie Portraits feature a fixed set of questions ranging from career background and personal preferences to, perhaps, off-the-wall questions on YouTube videos and entrance music. Name: Scott Rutz Title/Occupation: Marketing…
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Prairie Portrait: Greg Pugh of Tethon 3D ceramic printing
Prairie Portraits is a weekly set of questions intended to help the community get to know someone from the Silicon Prairie startup scene a little bit better. Prairie Portraits feature a fixed set of questions ranging from career background and personal preferences to, perhaps, off-the-wall questions on YouTube videos and entrance music. Name: Gregory Clark Pugh Title/Occupation: Director…
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Code School project Unfound Sounds is a treasure hunt for local vinyl
On July 6, Omaha, Lincoln and Sioux Falls residents will be unleashed on a respective citywide scavenger hunt for local vinyl music. Their only ally? A series of hints on the Internet. Unfound Sounds is one of Michael Todd’s Omaha Code School projects, one he created with Ruby and jQuery. “I needed to build a…
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TAI begins search for president to replace Leann Jacobsen
In April, the Technology Association of Iowa’s president Leann Jacobsen announced she would be stepping down come the end of August. Now the organization, which has only ever seen one president, has begun the search for Jacobsen’s replacement…
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What David Graff learned scaling the Hudl team from 3 to 170
(Guest post by David Graff) “As the company grows, this change can be hard for some of your early associates. The company that person first signed up for may not the company they work for now and may not be the type of company they want to work for. As a result, you’ll lose people…
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Prairie Portrait: Kelsey Scofield of FUSE Coworking
Something most people don’t know about me: I’ve face painted for seven years. I still do it occasionally and I still love it. The best part is when you see a kid absolutely glowing after transforming their dreams of being Spider-Man into a reality.
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Luis Lopez: Drive, focus, homework, play are all needed in the accelerator
(Guest post by Luis Lopez) I’ve lived in a few countries, but the one that has marked my entrepreneurial spirit the most is Belize. At age seven, along with my family, I relocated to Belize for four years of missionary work in some of the poorest areas of the country, aiding the less fortunate with…
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Prairie Portrait: Katie Robbins of Sculpt
One thing Iowa City has that other Silicon Prairie cities don’t: World class literature, progressive thinking about ecology, an enclave of highly educated artists of all kinds, great bike trails and the Hawkeyes. Oh, plus great events like the Iowa Soul Festival and Creative Week. Other than all of that, nothing. We’re just another tasty…
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NextStep CEO shares why accelerators are about going slow to grow fast
(Guest post by John Schnipkoweit) So, first off, we did not “win” the accelerator. No one did. We all “won,” but that doesn’t mean it’s over, it means it’s just begun. You don’t “finish” in three months. Accelerators guide you in your business, because they know that after those three months, it’s not them running…