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The 4 startup problems nobody told you about
With over 15 years of hands-on experience, Iowa Startup Accelerator mentor-in-residence Mat Winegarden reveals the real life problems of startups. We’ve all heard startups are hard, but you don’t really comprehend how mind-numbingly stressful it can be until you experience it firsthand. If you are like most startups, you’ll encounter the typical issues everyone talks about. Common ones…
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How entrepreneurs shake up the world
Entrepreneurs are childish. Children play. They pretend, experiment and build new things. Their goal isn’t to avoid mistakes but to explore what is possible. This is what it is like to work at a startup. You are building something from nothing—creating the new. Most of us lose these abilities as we become adults. School and…
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5 unlikely personalities your business needs to grow
Growing a business isn’t easy, but when you have the right people, it gets a whole lot easier. Unfortunately, many entrepreneurs pick personalities and people who look a lot like them, and that’s not always the best decision for a really dynamite team. Here at Red Branch Media, we work hard to have different personalities…
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The power of staying positive
If you read the title and you’re anything like me, you probably puked a little in your mouth. I know I did writing it. Now I need a drink. But maybe that’s not how you reacted. Maybe you saw the title and perked up. Or maybe you’re a Ned Flanders acolyte and you’ve always got…
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A Multi-Local Manifesto
I recently decided to move from Sioux Falls to Omaha. The decision was made rather quickly and executed within a month. When I announced the move to my adopted Sioux Falls community I was greeted with great support and encouragement, mingled with some disappointment. I reassured my community that this was not a goodbye, just…
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How to optimize your marketing and sales funnel
In earlier stage and rapid growth companies, managing the funnel as a holistic system is critically important. My personal experience with it started at my previous startup. In 2003 I founded Submittal Exchange in Des Moines, Iowa, a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platform for communication on commercial construction projects. I grew the business substantially, and in 2011…
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Lead Source Attribution: Don’t spend another dollar on advertising without it
Lead source attribution is the ability to match every dollar of revenue earned to dollars and time spent on advertising. At its most basic, it’s asking your customers, “How did you hear about us?” At its most sophisticated, it’s a detailed analytics system calculating your return on investment and cost per conversion at every stage of…
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The case for inclusive entrepreneurship
The views in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City or the Federal Reserve System. Last April I was invited to speak on the topic of building entrepreneurship networks at the US SourceLink national conference in Kansas City. About midway…
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Why did we join another startup accelerator?
Drive Spotter’s story began somewhere along the Interstate between Denver and Omaha in April of 2014, when my then-girlfriend and I nearly fell asleep while driving home from a conference in Colorado. After catching some rest, we spent the remainder of that near-fatal ride exploring what could be done to detect and prevent driver fatigue.…
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My Father’s Day wish
As an entrepreneur and a lover of the outdoors, I’m often struck by the way life in business mirrors the life of all things wild and free, where the starter must fail and where nature itself seems to know better than we do what lessons we need to learn for the challenges before us. Nature teaches…
Silicon Prairie Startup Week is Nov. 11-16, 2024. Learn more »