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  • A Thinc Iowa thanks

    What an event! It’s actually a little hard to believe all the planning, hard work and execution is over (at least for this year). First off, I want to thank everyone who made the event possible. From the speakers to the participants to the sponsors to everyone on the Silicon Prairie News team – I…

  • Thinc Iowa: Scott Case – ‘Build a network of support’

    Wearing his red, white, and blue Converse sneakers, Scott Case, took the stage Friday afternoon at the Temple for Performing Arts in Des Moines to illustrate the intersection between corporations and startups. Case started by explaining the mission and purpose of the Startup America Partnership. As Case explained, Startup America Partnership strives to offer five…

  • Thinc Iowa: Robbie Vitrano – ‘it’s possible to have a crazy idea and succeed’

    From discussion of how to approach marketing like MacGyver to stories of stripping pizza down to its “naked” essence, Robbie Vitrano of Trumpet Group packed plenty into his time on stage Friday afternoon at Thinc Iowa. Vitrano leads New Orleans-based Trumpet, a venture marketing company with a mission focused on advocacy, optimism and socially responsible…

  • Thinc Iowa: Douglas Olson – ‘It’s what you do today that matters’

    Douglas Olson brings almost two decades of lessons learned in the software business and entrepreneurial development to his current position as the partner director of development for Microsoft’s suite of creative design and media applications: Microsoft Expression Studio. Now the head of the Expression team, Olson manages development and user experience within Expression Studio. …

  • Thinc Iowa: Ben Milne – ‘Think bigger than your parents are comfortable with’

    Thinc Iowa’s afternoon session Friday began with Ben Milne, who is (or should be) a known name to Silicon Prairie News readers. Milne is the CEO and co-founder of Dwolla. He started the company based on a problem he had with his previous startup: high interchange fees. With an understanding of interchange fees, a term…

  • Thinc Iowa: That’s a wrap for Friday

    That, as they say in show business, is a wrap. The nine speakers at our inaugural Thinc Iowa conference have all said their piece, and now we’re just a closing party away from officially wrapping things up. If you couldn’t make it to the conference and didn’t catch the live stream, we have you covered;…

  • Thinc Iowa: Ben Silbermann on inspiring ‘the confidence to do things that you would never do’

    Ben Silbermann is the co-founder of a startup, Pinterest, that just closed a $27 million round and has been heralded as the “hottest startup of late in Silicon Valley.” His work led one Thinc Iowa conference-goer to suggest during a Q&A session that Silbermann’s alma matter, Des Moines’ Roosevelt High School, build a statue in…

  • Thinc Iowa: Paige Craig – ‘Pitch the massive, disruptive thing’

    As the morning moved along at the inaugural Thinc Iowa conference today at the Temple for Performing Arts in Des Moines, attendees began to think about lunch, but Paige Craig showed up to shake things up. Craig is the CEO and co-founder of BetterWorks, a company committed to finding a better way to manage employee…

  • Thinc Iowa: Luke Vandermillen – ‘You listen, you evolve and you innovate’

    With Thinc Iowa only a few hours old, a strong theme was already emerging when Luke Vandermillen, who leads marketing for retirement and investor services at the Principal Financial Group, took the stage: the importance of listening to the customer. I think it’s a stereotype that large firms don’t listen and the small ones do.…

  • Thinc Iowa: Jerri Chou on ‘passion to make the world a better place’

    Jerri Chou, co-founder of Lovely Day, All Day Buffet, The Feast and TBD, firmly believes that we can create a better world by purpose-driven social collaboration in which people “do well by doing good.” “Social enterprises are driven not by just the bottom line but by purpose and passion to make the world a better…