Only I didn’t know that at the time. All that I knew was I’d received a ton of emails/pitches to attend this event in the past few weeks and a few friends of mine were slated to be on the panel discussing such change here in Des Moines, so why not go?

As we waited in the Olmsted lobby, I asked some of the other folks in the room if they knew what was in store this morning—no one did but we were all in agreement that it seemed important because of the national media (and unusual amount of direct promotion for it).

It was at that point it hit me: the week leading up to the Iowa Caucuses is basically a less coordinated, politics-themed SXSW—just without the whole conference thing.

I’ve been to Austin for SXSW Interactive five times and one of the story lines about that festival is always that there is so many ancillary events and activities (each with its own barrage of inbox-filling promotion) that you don’t even need a badge to have fun (for the record, I’ve bought the badge three times and gone without twice).

That idea—all the activities going on that aren’t the festival itself—is what it feels like in Des Moines right now. The Renewal Awards being one such activity which was obviously scheduled here today to harness some of the Caucus attention.

Its more than just ancillary activity though. Satellite news trucks are everywhere, a national morning news show keeps taking over a coffee shop and there a lot of posts circulating the internet telling you “what to do while in Des Moines”.

Random celebrities are showing up, too. Jamie Lee Curtis was at my favorite screen print shop yesterday, Tim Meadows filmed some sort of skit with Triumph the Insult Comic Dog (voiced/puppeteered by Robert Smigel) at the Iowa State-KU game last night and a lot of people were excited to meet the fictional President from Scandal. Senator Cory Booker threw a house party and premium ice cream magnates Ben & Jerry came into town this morning to debut a new Bernie campaign-themed flavor. [1]

We even have our own version of Hilton Austin Downtown, the place at SXSW to casually run into industry-types, the Des Moines Downtown Marriott (the unofficial embassy for the national press who converge on Iowa to cover the whole affair)[2].

Update 1/28:

More examples of ancillary events and random celebrities since I first wrote this post.

Message sent to Gravitate:

Kal Penn and Justin Long at an event at Drake last night:

Hey @justinlong @kalpenn pic.twitter.com/WKveX3Olcw

— RebeccaChristopoulos (@Rebecca_ch22) January 28, 2016

[1] Similar random celebrities that I’ve run into in Austin at SXSW: Jake Johnson from Fox’s “New Girl” at a party promoting Canada (he’s not Canadian … and neither am I), Justine Bateman at a panel presentation discussing the “Old Spice Guy” (Isiah Mustafa) ad campaign, John Hodgman while waiting for a hotel elevator, John Oliver and Chris Hardwick after a live taping of The Nerdist podcast, etc.

[2] Or so I've read, I’ve never been to the Marriott during Caucus Week

Photo Credit: Phil Roeder on Flickr

Geoff Wood is a connector, community builder and entrepreneur based in Des Moines. He works to grow the Iowa tech/startup community via Gravitate—the entrepreneurial center of gravity in downtown Des Moines.

Nothing signals that you don’t actually want to hear feedback like challenging it immediately and acting defensive when you receive it. Remember, the person providing you feedback is doing you a favor (not the other way around). They’re helping you understand how you’re doing in a way that you can’t since you’re on the inside.

The other day someone asked me to coffee and wanted feedback about how their business was doing (I would be considered a user of their service or perhaps a constituent — not a paying customer). It happened to be a business that I had a lot of thoughts about so I obliged. I tried to be honest and direct and talked about what I thought they were doing well and also where they were really missing the boat. I felt like I was giving her the answers — really the solution she was seeking — but she didn’t want to hear them. The feedback was met only with challenges and defensiveness. I walked away thinking it was an awkward meeting and probably a waste of my time. I’m guessing she felt the same way. I actually felt bad about it, at least at first. Then I realized that while I probably wasted my time, she definitely wasted an opportunity to get perspective that could help grow her business. 

I think a good rule of thumb with receiving feedback is to always remember:

Side note — I first heard this quote in a Disney Institute training seminar ~2008 and it has always stuck with me. Rap Genius, of all things, tells me that it may be originally sourced (in a slightly different form) from Stephen M. R. Covey in his 2006 book “The Speed of Trust” (which I’ve never read).

In this particular instance, I think its very possible that she was defensive because she was hearing my feedback on her business’ behaviors and was interpreting it as feedback on her business’ intentions.

That’s a pretty natural thing to do and I can see why you’d be defensive if you’re in that mindset.

It’s also a pretty dangerous thing to do for your business since your customers will always judge you on your behaviors.

Geoff Wood has been helping tell the story of the Iowa startup community since 2009. In addition to writing for the Welch Avenue Daily, he hosts a weekly podcast, speaks at conferences and organizes several events in the community.

To that end, it’s been a failure. That third year kicked off in October and to date they’ve had only 11 total companies in the incubator. While eight of these are operating in some capacity today none have had an exit and only four are attached to the incubator currently.

To the Des Moines startup community, however, StartupCity is a tremendous success and vital component of what many of us are trying to build.

StartupCity is Des Moines’ entrepreneurial center of gravity. It’s the place where the weight of our community is concentrated and the axis it rotates on. While it doesn’t encompass the whole of the community, it’s one floor of one tall building downtown where you can plug into the things that make more established ecosystems flourish: close proximity and a high density of people working on startups.

Capital Factory in Austin, Texas is one of my favorite examples of this (they also coined the term). Joshua Baer, the founder of that space recently described it, “Everywhere you go, people are working on tech startups. They're thinking about tech startups. There are investors and press and government officials and other people coming through to meet with the startups, and it's a community center where there are meet ups and events and classes and all kinds of other things going on to support that.”

In its life thus far, StartupCity has hosted over 100 educational and networking events and more than 4000 visitors. They’ve hosted local politicians, dignitaries from 18 countries, the CIO of the United States, economic development and university staff from around the country and one time Ashton Kutcher recorded a podcast there [3]. It’s our equivalent to Capital Factory.

While those statistics cover 27 operating months, one chief component was missing until recently: critical mass. Nearly a year before StartupCity’s launch, when Christian Renaud announced that he was working on the idea he said, “a key to the success of any incubator is critical mass. The startups need to learn from one another as they go, and take the best pieces from other's experience.” With the number of companies in the incubator perpetually below expectations, critical mass wasn’t something that was able to be achieved in the day-to-day work environment.

To their credit, Christian and Tej Dhawan recognized this and a year ago added coworking to StartupCity. Companies and individuals who want to take part in that environment but weren’t interested in or eligible for the incubator itself could join the space. While some people took to it right away, I didn’t start hanging out there until July. It was a great option for me at the right time but there were many days through the late summer/early fall when it was pretty much a ghost town.

Things changed in a big way in October. At the suggestion of people like Brad Dwyer and Kaylee Williams, the I/OWA Conference hosted a pre-conference day of coworking and workshops at StartupCity that demonstrated the potential of StartupCity to more than a hundred people. Workshops each hour, every coworking spot claimed and even a ping-pong tournament during lunch. Shortly thereafter, Brad and others moved their companies into the space full-time creating new energy, momentum and putting StartupCity on an exciting trajectory that continues today.

Between the incubator companies and the coworkers, there are 32 people who work from StartupCity on some sort of regular basis and that number continues to grow (there’s room to double that before things get uncomfortable).

The initial three years of funding will end in September of this year and Christian and Tej have been preparing the community for the past few months for the likelihood that StartupCity will go away—for sure in its current form and maybe all together—at that time. Regardless of that result and the failure of the incubator model, I’m sure of two things: a new entrepreneurial center of gravity for Greater Des Moines will emerge and every dollar our community has invested in StartupCity has been worth it.

[1] They’ve been frugal and only spent what they need (approximately half of this) [2] Original idea detailed here [3] Statistics were shared this week by Christian via email and are also here

Photo Credit: startupcitydsm.com

What does it take for startups to begin building around Des Moines' strongest industries of insurance, finance, bio-ag in Ames etc.? 

Committed individuals who are willing to go after it. It could be middle manager-level folks at the big companies in those industries who know they can do it better/faster/more efficiently/more profitably being willing to take the risk and do it.

Financial tech is the closest thing to a cluster we have in Central Iowa (Dwolla, SmartyPig/Social Money, WebFilings, LendTrade, etc). coOportunity Health is a health insurance startup - one with a lot of press - that was started to take advantage of a new opportunity created by the Affordable Health Care Act. 

Startups are often known for their ability to move quickly using various strategies. How can these same concepts be used for teams in larger companies? 

I’ve never worked in a “large” company (~300 is the biggest so far) but I think it boils down to company culture that allows for bureaucracy and sacred cows. Those aren’t necessarily bad things and they accumulate over time with any organization. But, startups don’t have to deal with it up front do their (lack of) age. Finding ways to minimize those things in large companies will certainly help (though that can’t be easy if your organization is 20, 50, 100 years old). 

Staff at startups also have a dedication to the organization that you might not find in larger companies. They’re probably not getting paid very much, they probably don’t have benefits, they hopefully have equity so their future compensation is tied into the company’s success and the team is small/nimble enough that they can see and feel their influence on that chance for success daily. 

The founder of a startup actually told me that one of the problems he wrestles with is that new employees who join after the company has grown up a bit see working there as a “job” and not “joining a startup” and its a culture change.

What are the biggest issues facing the creation of startups in Iowa?

I’ve said several times that the biggest issue is lack of investment. Most high net worth-individuals in our state don’t see the business model of risky-investment as worthwhile. There’s more infrastructure to support this now (see Plains Angels) but still not enough investing. Those who do it also don’t make themselves knows. We don’t have guardian angels, yet. Daniel Reed, University of Iowa’s vice president for research and economic development called for the Eastern Iowa community to take more risks, collectively, at last weeks Iowa City Area Chamber banquet. 

We need more successes. We need society to accept that starting a company is an appropriate lifestyle after college (or even during or before).

Are there any off-the-radar startup companies around the state that this group should be aware of?

Most likely all of them. Who here can name a startup?

Rocket Referrals, LendTrade, TourneyMachine, Men’s Style Lab, Offspring, are just a few of the Des Moines/Ames ones that I think are interesting (off the top of my head). Similarly, ClusterFlunk, NextStep, Blend Card, Threads, GoodBlogs, etc in Eastern Iowa. 

How important is it that Iowa have ties to the coasts? To other cities in the Midwest like Omaha, KC, Chicago?

Very. Connections to capital and global press (Dwolla needs to write a case study on both) comes from those places. Also, people from Iowa leave the state (-3,618 estimated domestic migration in 2012). Why wouldn’t we maintain those connections? Keep former Iowans interested and part of the Iowa tech story. They may or may not ever move back. It would be great if they did but what is more important is for them to evangelize their time in Iowa, the community that is here, to raise its profile and (hopefully) invest and otherwise support in the companies that are here. See IowaExpats.co for a project I’m working on to identify/track/connect with these people.

By the way, we may have had more than 3,500 people leave domestically last year but we had 4,265 who moved here internationally (immigrants are important to our survival). 

A lot of media hype was placed around the creation of data centers in the Des Moines area, do you think this will actually benefit the growth of the tech community? 

No. Facebook, Google and Microsoft aren’t putting engineers into the community, they’re putting HVAC people into the community. A few good jobs but nothing that’s going to cause ripples. I am excited that you’ll be able to see a big “Facebook” logo from I-80 in Altoona because it will surprise people driving through and hopefully make them interested in checking us out. 

The big beneficial “get” would be engineering teams from these companies. Those jobs would involve greater employment numbers and would help grow the community. Those are also the type of people who would be interested and empowered to split off and create new companies. 

How can corporations and startups work closer together?

Corporations can start by buying from startups, buying (acquiring) startups, and in general supporting this section of the creative class like the do with cultural initiatives like 80/35, the Des Moines Art Festival or the River Walk. A robust startup community will raise the profile of Iowa as a place that young people want to be which will attract workers, trailing spouses, etc for corporations and startups. 

Startups should not eschew big corporations simply because they’re “suits”. There is a lot of collective knowledge in the big buildings downtown that they can benefit from. Those corporations also make for great judges, mentors and sponsors for startup events. For fun additional reading, see my post on the Startup Genome blog: "Established companies are part of your startup community, too".

It looks like the first law school established west of the Mississippi River was founded in Des Moines in 1865 by two Iowa Supreme Court Justices, George Grover Wright and Chester Cicero Cole. It was called the “Iowa Law School” and was independent of Drake University (which didn’t yet exist), the University of Iowa or any other institution.

In 1868 the Iowa Law School moved to Iowa City and joined the University of Iowa becoming its law department [3]. Cole, Wright and other faculty continued to teach in the program. It seems this move was prompted by the State’s Board of Regents and never sat quite right with the school’s founders who had existing law practices and believed the law school should have a connection with the Capitol and the state Supreme Court, all of which were in Des Moines. 

It came to a head in 1875 when Cole left the University of Iowa and founded a separate institution in Des Moines called the “Iowa College of Law”. That law school was also independent but has a special affiliation to grant its degrees through Simpson College in Indianola [4].

The Drake University we know today was founded in Des Moines in 1881 and at that time the Iowa College of Law became a part of the institution.

So, if you're paying attention Chester C. Cole, himself a Harvard Law School graduate, is the founder of both of Iowa's law schools.

Back to the original question, who gets the credit? 

It depends on how the question is phrased. Who would’ve thought the early years of both of Iowa’s law schools were so intertwined? It’s almost an inverted Cleveland Browns/Baltimore Ravens relationship. 

Neither University should be able to claim they established the first law school since the founding work was done independently by the rather industrious Justice Cole and his buddy Justice Wright. 

I do think that it’s fair for the University of Iowa claim its the oldest. They retain the legacy and records of the original law school. 

I’m fine with Drake claiming that history, too. David Walker, former Drake Law Dean, once wrote that it “traces its roots and purposes to 1865 and the vision and continuing work of two Justices of the Iowa Supreme Court” [5]. So, they retain the spirit of the original law schools founders.

School vs. College: Odd naming trivia note.

The evolution of the names of these two institutions makes tracking the history rather confusing. The one founded as the “Iowa Law School” is now known as the “University of Iowa College of Law” whereas the one founded as the “Iowa College of Law” is now known as the “Drake University Law School”. Flip-floppers.

References

All links accessed on 1/8/2014

[1] “From the oldest law school west of the Mississippi to one of only four business schools in the state” - drake.edu

[2] “We are the oldest law school west of the Mississippi River” - law.uiowa.edu

[3]  “1868 – Law school moves to the University of Iowa.” - law.uiowa.edu

[4] Bulletin, Volume 7, Issue 1 by Drake University [1903] via Google Books

[5] THE UNIVERSITY OF TOLEDO LAW REVIEW - Volume 40

Photo Credit: uiowa on Flickr

Hey there family, friends, colleagues and random people who find this online,

Welcome back to our mostly-annual holiday letter, The Year of Our Wood 2013 (for reference here are the past letters: 2011, 2010, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005).

We say “mostly-annual” since we didn’t write a letter last year and that’s because it was kind of a rough year for the Wood Family and honestly it was tough to get motivated to put fingers-to-keyboard and rehash it (we also didn’t write one in 2009 but that was because of the whole new parents-moving back to Iowa-Hope starting law school-Geoff working on several random projects thing was going on and we just never found time). We’re not going to rehash 2012 now, either, but we did want to point out two major life highlights: Hope wrapping up her formal education with law school in May and Graham starting his with pre-school in August.

That brings us to 2013 which was a much better year.

We’ll start with Graham since he is the youngest and has the shortest pinky (the two ways we determine who takes the first turn in board & card games - which is one of his favorite pastimes).

The not-so-little guy is now “4 and a half” and is in his second year of a pre-school at a Montessori School that is part of the Des Moines Public Schools. He’ll continue in this classroom one more year (Kindergarten) before transitioning to a new class for 1st, 2nd and 3rd Grade. He has three best friends at school that he tends to get into a bit of trouble with but overall school seems to be a positive challenge for him and an experience that he enjoys. Montessori education is rather unique in the public school system and he’ll be able to stay with this program until high school.

Outside of school, Graham enjoys participating in an extracurricular drama club and has asked enough times to play basketball and football for “our team” (the Iowa State University Cyclones) that we’re starting to look into little league sports (we tell him it’s better to play with other kids his size for now). He also joined the Science Center of Iowa’s pre-school for the summer months and enjoys access to their exhibits.

Hope had a tremendous year and is now a fully licensed attorney in the State of Iowa! She opened her solo practice - Hope Wood, JD - in May and works with private clients of all types as well as in-sourcing work for other attorneys around the state.  

Hope enjoys the challenges that practicing law brings and parenting it with starting a new business.  Among the greatest reward is the flexibility that owning a business brings and being a part of Graham’s activities like her parents did for her growing up.  Hope stands out from the traditional attorney by using technology solutions (and Geoff’s expertise).  She started her business as a paperless office and can work from anywhere using cloud-based services and a Google Voice number.  Her license is limited to Iowa, but will go to the state line to help.  

It was a year of change for Geoff as in July he decided to leave the company he helped build for the last several years and then started a new venture that month around supporting the Iowa startup community called “Welch Avenue”. He now curates and sends out a weekly newsletter of the top stories related to the Iowa startup community - for current Iowans, former Iowans or anyone with an affection for Iowa (you should sign up for it right here) - and also hosts an interview web show/podcast each Wednesday. In September he joined the team at Startup Genome where they’re building the most accurate global map/database of startup activity. It’s really neat, check out your community’s map and if you’re part of the startup ecosystem be sure and join. He also grew an inspiring amount of facial hair.

As we look towards 2014, I think our family is most excited about just experiencing our “new normal”. For the first time since all aforementioned life changes of 2009, not one of the three of us are in transition and that alone is pretty exciting. Of course, we thrive on change so look for something to be completely different by this time next year.

Love,

Hope, Geoff and Graham Wood

Media - we need more of you.

Undoubtedly you’ve figured out the overarching theme to the wish list at this point (the Iowa startup community needs to grow).

The Des Moines Register (DMR) and Silicon Prairie News (SPN)* are the only two publications that cover technology and startup news in our state on a weekly basis. We Create Here (a blog affiliated with The Cedar Rapids Gazette) that debuted in September looks to be on that path, too. Not coincidentally, these three are also the only publications in the state that have a writer specifically focused on tech/startup/entrepreneur stories. While it may not be feasible for other publications to put resources into a full-time writer, I’d love to see them add this industry as a focus (at least part-time). The Business Record does have a writer assigned to entrepreneurship/technology part-time (he has several beats and this is one of them). Unsurprisingly, they publish on the topic the next most often of any of the publications in the state.

In my first post in this series, I wished for cities other than Des Moines and Iowa City to become energetic “startup communities” and some people pushed back on that idea that their city wasn’t already in that group. A good first step in proving me wrong would be to get your local community news source to regularly report on startup activity.

Note: checkout the Welch Avenue Weekly's Iowa startup publication leaderboard for what outlets are writing the most and best content about our community.

The consistent coverage we’ve seen from outlets like SPN and DMR over the last few years has been important in facilitating the growth of our startup community to this point. Much of that coverage has been in the form of introductions to community members, introductions to new companies or stories prompted by press releases. In addition to continuing that work, I want to see those publications take a step forward and write more stories about real issues in the community, analysis of activity and more about Iowa’s connection to the global startup community.

Speaking of that connection (and this last point is on the startups themselves), it’s time for more Iowa startups to get coverage in the national publications. Dwolla is masterful at this, of course, as is Social Money/SmartyPig. In 2014 I’d like to read about other Iowa startups alongside them on blogs like TechCrunch, AllThingsD and PandoDaily. While that may be easier said than done it's certainly not impossible with the right hustle and connections.

*Disclosure: I joined SPN (then a hobby blog covering entrepreneurs in Omaha) as a volunteer contributor in 2009 to extend their coverage into Iowa. Several months later I came on board full-time to lead the business aspects of the company and continued to write for them on a variety of subjects until I left this past July.

Photo credit: Thinc Iowa / Anna Jones & Ikonix on Flickr

Investors - we need more of you.

Based on the conversations that I’ve had with founders in our state, it easy to say that “lack of access to capital” is the single biggest issue holding back our startup community. It was the biggest issue when I moved home to Iowa in 2009 and its still the biggest issue in 2013. My wish is that we can do something about it in 2014. Here’s a few ideas:

First, we need more investors to self-identify so that startups can find them more easily. The formation of the Plains Angels group in mid-2012 was a start and at least there is now a defined path to get an audience with them. However, by design, that group doesn’t release any identifiable information on its members or their investments so it’s more mysterious than it could be (should be?). 

AngelList is a great way to identify investors globally but the current (admittedly incomplete) list for our state only shows ten or so Iowa-based investors who have backed local startups. The fact there are ten in their directory is a good first step but realistically we need to see that number grow tenfold. 

Second, we need venture capitalists from the established markets on the coasts to invest in Iowa companies and raise the profile of our community. I was so hopeful that Union Square’s 2012 investment in Dwolla (Des Moines) would kickstart this behavior that I publicly predicted it. While Dwolla did it again this past year we haven’t, yet, seen it consistently from others. I doubt that it has anything to do with the quality or viability of the startups here (I’ve heard several people say of one local startup “if they were building that company in San Francisco they’d already be funded”) and I wonder if we’re not doing enough to maintain our connections to those communities. Dwolla founder Ben Milne’s travel ahead of those capital raises was well known and maybe that’s what’s missing. To borrow/paraphrase the advice of 5by founder (and I/OWA conference keynote speaker) Greg Isenberg:

Finally, we need startups here to exit and create wealth that can (and needs to be) reinvested in the startup community. This is the the Holy Grail of startup community building: the moment that people who understand technology startups in Iowa and are committed to technology startups in Iowa have significant money in their pocket because of technology startups in Iowa is the moment that we’ll see investment speed up considerably.

Look for the last post in this series (Media) on Monday.

Photo Credit: nicolopaternoster on Flickr

Startups - we need more of you.

While I don’t subscribe to the “Des Moines startup scene is over” school of thought for an instant (Kyle Oppenhuizen takes a good look at this in a recent piece*) that doesn’t mean that I believe we’re at critical mass, yet. We need more people to take the risk and start companies - not just in Des Moines but all over the state - if the Iowa startup community is ever going realize the potential that we all see in it.

Speaking of all over the state, it seems like the bulk of startup activity to this point has been in Des Moines and Iowa City. I’d like to see other cities join their ranks in 2014 and I’m specifically thinking of those with relatively significant population like Cedar Rapids and Sioux City and those with all the benefits of a big state university like Ames and Cedar Falls. While startups do exist in those cities right now, there doesn't seem to be enough of them, yet, to reach the level of energy and momentum I’ve observed in the other two.

I love meeting with entrepreneurs who are taking the risk to make their startup work (especially in Iowa) and I wanted to end with just a quick shout out to some of those that I've gotten to know this past year: BlendCard, ClusterFlunk, Men’s Style Lab, LendTrade, Offspring, and Rocket Referrals.

Look for the next post in this series (Investors) on Friday.

Photo Credit: Lewicki on Flickr

*Edit: 12/30/13. Text originally said "as explained here" but it was confusing so I changed the text that to more clearly indicate why I linked to Kyle's piece. 

So you’ve arrived in Des Moines for a short stay or you’ve unpacked your moving van for the long haul, and now you want to engage or join our growing startup community. You ask yourself, “Where do I start?” but you’re not sure. This post is for you.

1. Grab coffee at Amici Espresso

The very first thing you should do is get coffee at Amici Espresso at the corner of 6th Street and Mulberry Avenue. Amici is on the ground floor of the Midland Building (206 6th Avenue), home to several startups and its the lone coffee shop along the "Silicon Sixth" startup district downtown. Although activity has waned slightly in recent months as activity has spread out across the city, it's still the easiest place in the area to serendipitously run into others working on the innovative ideas.

For more on Amici and its role in the startup community, see this post I wrote for Silicon Prairie News back in the day.

2. Add “1 Million Cups” to your calendar, Wednesday at 9 a.m.

“What would happen if the entrepreneurs in a community gathered for one million (more) cups a coffee?” The Kauffman Foundation uses this question as the inspiration for this popular event. Each week a different entrepreneur pitches their company for 6 minutes followed by 20 minutes of feedback and questions from the audience. For the entrepreneur it serves as an ad hoc board meeting where every assumption is challenged and the business is analyzed from several new and different perspectives. For the audience, it serves as an introduction to new startups in the community and as a chance to support your fellow entrepreneurs. In some ways, it’s the modern startup community’s take on the traditional “coffee groups” and breakfast clubs that are popular in small-town America. Join us at Green Grounds Cafe in Valley Junction (117 5th St, West Des Moines).

3. Check out a monthly meetup group or two

From agenda-free gatherings like TechBrew and Startup Drinks to very focused sessions like Design+Tech and the Iowa Ruby Brigade, every week features multiple opportunities to meet and get to know the startup and tech community. Almost all groups are open to newcomers and don't have fees.

To get a handle on what’s available, check out the “Welcome to Des Moines” launch page. 

4.  Need a place to work? Saddle up at Startup City

Ever since it opened its doors in October 2011, Startup City Des Moines (317 6th Avenue, 5th Floor) has cemented itself as major factor in the Des Moines startup scene. In addition to its official billing as an incubator, Startup City serves the role of event space and “town commons” for the startup community.

They recently added a low-cost coworking option and it’s free to cowork each Thursday. 

5. Tune in for the Welch Avenue Show

Either online or in person, you’re officially invited to check out our weekly web show, The Welch Avenue Show. I co-host with Chris New of Quadrant5.tv and we're joined by a diverse group of entrepreneurs and other members of the Iowa startup community. The live show features a running chat where everyone can interact with us as well as others enjoying the show. We record each week following 1 Million Cups so stick around join others the in-studio audience.

Bonus: Get involved online

Join the Startup Iowa Facebook group, follow Iowa startups on Twitter, subscribe to the Welch Avenue Weekly, read and comment on the local tech press: Des Moines Business Record, the Des Moines Register and Silicon Prairie News.

Photo via BarbaraLN on Flickr

When he arrived, we grabbed coffee at Amici downtown and talked through my take on the Des Moines tech community. Afterwards, I gave him a tour of the startups along Sixth Avenue and did my best to connect him with the community that he was looking to meet.

Fast forward a few weeks and I was on a call with Andy Keil, a producer for the ATX Web Show in Austin. We were talking about his podcast and the Welch Avenue Show that I was just starting to put together (now live at welchavenue.com/show) and he pointed me to the “Welcome to Austin” page that they had built specifically to provide new or visiting people in Austin a launch pad for their web community. It features industry-specific things like user groups and software meetups but also the best places to grab coffee and drinks and general “must-do’s” for those new to Austin.

It hit me immediately that this is what I should have had handy for Matthew and people like him who want to know more about the Des Moines tech and startup community.

So, I built it: welchavenue.com/welcome

It’s modeled after the ATX Web Show’s page and heavily leans towards the things that I enjoy about Des Moines. I’d love feedback and suggestions so feel free to let me know what’s right, what’s wrong and what’s missing. Also, I’d love to see pages like this for other locations around the state (like this one put together by our friends in Ames).  And if you have a visitor in town, please pass along the page. Their feedback is welcome anytime. 

Speaking of the ATX Web Show, thanks to them for talking about the page on their podcast. Give it a listen and then weigh in on whether you think Des Moines is the Austin of Iowa (or is it the Dallas of Iowa?).

Startup Genome is a worldwide network of volunteer curators creating the most up-to-date and accurate maps of the startup communities in which they live and work. Check out the Startup Genome dataset at startupgenome.com. The company is built on a vision of providing tools and information to startup community builders to better understand their communities and that is really exciting. I’ve been advocating on behalf of and connecting people within Des Moines’ startup community and around the country in one form or another since I moved back to Iowa in 2009.

Startup Genome has been a side project lead by Shane Reiser and Dave Lerner for the last few years. Shane took the leap to work full time on the project this summer and I’m his first hire. I met Shane at the first Startup Weekend Des Moines (July 2009) and our careers have bumped into each other several times since (we even shared an office as remote employees for different companies back in 2011!). I’ve been giving him feedback on Startup Genome regularly this summer and now its great to play a more active role on the team. Plus, the first ten years of my career were in Geographic Information Systems so it will be fun to apply that knowledge and experience to this project.

It’s also a great fit because I’ll be able to continue working locally in the Des Moines startup community through Welch Avenue. Startup Genome and Welch Avenue compliment each other quite well - the former being global tools to support local efforts like the latter - and Shane has encouraged me to keep it going. Two peas, one pod. 

If you haven’t yet, please check out the project at startupgenome.com. We’re looking to bring on additional volunteer curators all over the world so if you’re up for it, let us know. And, be sure to claim your profile! 

With our Kickstarter campaign to fund a “weekly podcast for the Iowa Startup Community” now complete (yeah!), I wanted to share a few thoughts on the experience.

Original goal (and iterative goals)

The campaign’s original goal was to validate that a market existed for our idea, specifically that the people who would ask me about bringing back a podcast were serious enough about their request to put some skin in the game. The goal was intentionally low - only $1,000 - for that reason. $1,000 would cover the minimal costs for a 10-episode run and we’d work on getting sponsors to extend it from there.

I felt like we had a good shot at reaching the goal when the first backer came in at $100 a few minutes after we went live. I never imagined that we’d tip $1,000 just a couple hours later.

At that point Chris New, my partner in the project, and I decided to brainstorm a few stretch goals and iterate on the idea of simply validating our market. The new goal was to see how many shows we can do - 20, 30, or more?

We promised that if we reached the $5,000 mark we’d not only do 30 episodes but we’d live stream them and we’d do three trips to other parts of Iowa to do live shows.

The final tally was $5,481 and we’re on it.

How we’re going to use the money

Here’s the basic plan for the funds raised:

• Producer/Technical Director Stipend: $3,750 - (compensation to Chris & Frank Merchlewitz (our technical director) or the use of their equipment.)
• Software: $500 - (mostly used for Vimeo and SquareSpace with a bit of a reserve.)
• Travel: $500 - (three trips to take the show around the state)
• Kickstarter fees: $274.05 - (5% of the total funds raised)
• Credit Card fees: $175.99 - (users who backed using their credit card)
• Reserve: $280.96 - (mostly used for printing related to the “backer rewards” (stickers, signage, etc.)

How we’re not going to use the money

I do want to point out that we’re not taking any money for ourselves from the campaign. I wanted to keep this campaign about the community and it made the most sense to use the funds for production-related elements.

Also, none of the campaign went to buy my sweet hosting jacket - my mother-in-law gets the credit for that one.

A note on fees

As you setup your campaign, Kickstarter is very explicit on their fees. They take 5% and any credit card transaction costs will be deducted as well. However, during the campaign the fees aren’t readily apparent. You see a tally with your total amount raised but it would be handy if it also showed the expected net amount from the campaign.

Further, this is an absolute use case for Dwolla. I’m the type of person who struggles to use Dwolla in a retail environment - it’s just so much easier to swipe my card at the counter in the coffee shop and my experience isn’t benefited by saving the merchant on fees. However, in a Kickstarter campaign you’re literally giving money to someone because you believe in them or what they’re doing. The chances are you’d rather they get to take the highest percentage of your donation possible, right?

Here’s the math:

Credit Card fees for our campaign: $175.99

Dwolla fees (same transactions using Dwolla’s model): $11.50

Not just Iowa

In addition to Iowa, donations came in from seven states (MN, IL, CO, NE, TX, SD, UT) which is pretty cool. I know that many of these people are Iowa Expats - people who were born, raised or otherwise spent significant time here - and it’s awesome to see that they are interested in keeping a connection to the state.

What’s next?

Since we decided to kick off the show early, we’re already 3 episodes in (check them out at welchavenue.com/show). We’re continuing to refine our process and procedures and incorporate the feedback that comes in from our viewers. We’ve also scheduled our first road trip for the show. Cedar Rapids folks, we’ll be recording live in your city on September 25. Finally, we’re delivering on the rewards promised to our backers, there’s signage being made, stickers being designed and of course “shout outs” being given (thanks to our friend, Professor Hans von Puppet).

“So, have you landed anywhere, yet?” 

That’s the question I’ve heard most often since I announced late last month that I was moving on from Silicon Prairie News. The answer is “no” but that doesn’t mean I’ve been idle.

In recent conversations with various people inside and outside the Iowa startup community, people kept pointing out that through my experience the past few years I’ve accumulated two things that I didn’t have when my family moved here in 2009:

1. A knowledge base of startups and technology in Iowa
2. A network of people across the state (and beyond) with an interest in Iowa startups

I’m really excited about finding different ways to utilize and provide benefit to these two resources moving forward. To that end, I’m launching a couple initiatives and I’m housing them in a new umbrella entity called “Welch Avenue.”*

Welch Avenue Weekly

First up is a weekly newsletter of the top news for the Iowa startup community. It’s called the Welch Avenue Weekly and you can subscribe right here. I’ve had this idea for a few months after I had a conversation with a local entrepreneur who told me he just didn’t have time to stay caught up on all the news in the community day-to-day. Rather, he just trusted that his Twitter stream would surface the best news each week. That’s a great strategy if you’re following the right people (and use Twitter) but it doesn’t work for everyone. The Welch Avenue Weekly will also surface those stories as well as add some interesting context and side notes.

Starting up a new podcast

The other initiative that I’m working on is starting up a new weekly podcast. I’m a huge podcast consumer and had so much fun co-hosting a weekly startup community-focused podcast called “PrairieCast” with my friend Andy from 2010-2012. Ever since our last show in April 2012, every few weeks I’m asked, “When is the podcast coming back?” Until now, I’ve never had a good answer.

I’ve teamed up with my friend Chris New from Quadrant5.tv and after a few planning sessions, we already have some really exciting things in the works. We can’t do this without the help and support of the community. We’re looking to validate the idea with a modest Kickstarter campaign to fund the initial run of shows.

“How can I help?” - you

Right after “So, have you landed anywhere, yet?”, the immediate next question I get from almost everyone is “How can I help?” It’s always awesome to hear, so here a few quick ways:

1. Sign up for the Welch Avenue Weekly (free!)
2. Back the podcast on Kickstarter (not free but very inexpensive)
3. I’m also working ad hoc on a few project-based engagements with organizations looking for operational help. I have a lot of experience and in several areas and always up to meet new folks and learn about what they’re working on. Feel free to refer me.

*About the unconventional name: I’ve always believed in the importance of place and how that ties a person to a community. As a proud Iowan, I named the company after one of my favorite places - the Welch Avenue in Ames. Welch Avenue is at the heart of the Campustown district (adjacent to Iowa State University) and is symbolic of the time in my life when I launched my first startup, CampusAuthority. 

UPDATE:

July 30 (post edited to reflect that the Kickstarter campaign has launched).

For more background on why, of all things, I’m putting together a list post, see Moving on from Silicon Prairie News.

Since my time at Silicon Prairie News has (almost) come to an end I thought it would be fun to think back and identify the best memories and favorite moments of the last four years. They were not determined via a complex algorithm and I cite no sources so please give them the all the weight and attention they deserve (probably not much). 

1. Dwolla, Ben Milne (and meeting Ashton Kutcher)

I met Ben Milne in a coffee shop in Windsor Heights in September 2009, a few weeks after I started writing for SPN. Dwolla was just two people at the time but his enthusiasm for the problem he was attempting to solve was evident. I wrote the first coverage ever for Dwolla and now they’re routinely covered by everyone from the New York Times to Fast Company magazine. The ability to tell the Dwolla story has been fundamental to achievements of SPN thus far and I’m glad I was a part of it.

SPN Trivia: 7 of SPN’s top 12 highest viewed posts are about or related to Dwolla. 

Also, getting to meet Ashton Kutcher when he came on PrairieCast to announce his investment in Dwolla was pretty awesome.

More, SPN Trivia: this is SPN’s highest viewed post of all time.

2. The meeting at Mars Cafe where we decided to go “all in” on SPN

Throughout 2010, while SPN was a still a passion project with only Danny Schreiber in a paid role, the four of us (Danny, Dusty Davidson, Jeff Slobotski and myself) met regularly to strategize about where this company could go and what it could achieve. It was late in that year at a meeting at Mars Cafe here in Des Moines where the four of us decided to go “all in” and see if we could turn the hobby blog about startups into a startup itself. I was ready to make the commitment, pushed for it, and Jeff joined, too. That’s an exciting and memorable day in the life of any company.

3. SXSW 2012 with the SPN team

I had the opportunity to attend SXSW as part of the SPN team three times but my favorite memory was 2012. The first two years we’d been spread across two or more hotel rooms but that last year I found a house to rent allowing most of the team to stay together. Brittany Mascio, Michael Stacy, Danny and I had a blast staying there together. It was also those three that pushed us to get tickets as a team to see Jay-Z during the festival which wouldn’t have been my choice but turned out to be amazing. Dusty and I had a bet on which of the two us would know the most songs (I’m pretty sure that I won). That whole trip was just a great team experience.

4. Big Omaha 2010 & Thinc Iowa 2012

All of the The Big Series events have been great memories one way or another but the two that I’ll remember most fondly are Big Omaha 2010 and Thinc Iowa 2012. 2010 was my first Big Omaha and instantly became the measuring stick for all conference and events that I’ve attended or helped to produce since. I split a room with Ben Milne and I live blogged the session where Melody McCloskey told everyone they needed to leave the Midwest to be successful. I’ll also always remember 500+ people tearing up together as Scott Harrison introduced us all to charity: water and the water crisis.

Thinc Iowa 2012 is SPN’s best produced Big Series event to date. It was one of the highest quality speaker slates and the production elements were above and beyond anything we’ve done before or since. While The KANEKO in Omaha is my favorite host venue, this event in Des Moines was where it all has best come together (credit Brittany for making most of that happen). 

5. Getting mentioned in a book and featured in a documentary

In the last year I had two special and unique opportunities related to my work at SPN. First, I had the chance to talk with Mike Draper about the book he was writing “THE MIDWEST: GOD'S GIFT TO PLANET EARTH” and point him towards some of the technology and entrepreneurial facts that he should consider including. The book is awesome and I was tremendously honored to get a “thank you” in the appendix. 

The other opportunity was when Nadeem Mazem, the director of “Silicon Prairie: America’s New Internet Economy”, asked to interview me as part of his documentary cover reddit’s “Internet 2012 Bus Tour”. See the documentary at siliconprairiefilm.com (heads up: I’m at the very beginning).

After nearly 4 years, 7 Big Series events and 476 blog posts, my time with Silicon Prairie News will be coming to an end July 5.

It’s a sad day and one that I didn’t think would come anytime soon. However, after the company announced a new CEO on June 14 it wasn’t unexpected. When a new leader takes over an organization it’s natural to change some things up, and in this case my role as the company’s COO is one of them. To be clear, SPN isn’t forcing me to leave. Rather, my box on the new org chart just isn’t something that I can be passionate about in the way that I‘ve been passionate about building the company the last several years. I am disappointed that I won’t be part of the team as my community hosts the Silicon Prairie Awards and Big Des Moines this year (I did offer to stay on through the fall but I understand the company’s desire to move on right now). So, it’s time for both of us to look towards whatever is next.

The last four years have been some of the most fun, stressful, fulfilling, educational and rewarding of my life. SPN was the exact situation I was looking for when I moved back to Des Moines in 2009, at which time I was completing an MBA and leaving a more traditional corporate job. I wanted to find a founder who had a bold and exciting vision but needed operational help and expertise to make the most of it. SPN was a great match and I loved that the company rewarded those who took initiative and provided opportunities to grow along side of it. I had the opportunity to do pretty much everything—finance, community building, HR, sales, sales support, ad & sponsor ops, process definition company-wide, daily management of the business and more. 

I’ve learned much, worked with some pretty impressive people and made so many friends through it all. Also, I think — as a team — Silicon Prairie News has been able to accomplish some really important things for and with the startup communities in Des Moines, Omaha and Kansas City.

I want to thank SPN for the opportunity to be involved these last four years and I also want to thank my fellow Iowans who embraced both me and the company along the way. Without your sponsorship of SPN, donations of time and resources, ticket purchases, and readership of the blog we wouldn’t have been able to accomplish anything.

While I’ve never considered myself a journalist, I’ve always enjoyed writing and SPN has given me the largest platform to share my work. SPN’s editors have also improved that work tremendously and for that I’m really grateful:

If you've ever blogged w/an editor, you know how much they improve your work. Here's a shout out to ours: @dannyaway & @jmichaelstacy

— Geoff Wood (@geoffwood) December 21, 2012

So the big question is “what’s next?” and honestly I’m still trying to figure it out. My wife, Hope, recently launched a law practice in Des Moines and I’m excited to help her build it (if you need legal services in Iowa - she’s pretty awesome) and a few friends have reached out with projects that they’re working on so I’ll probably start there. Long term, I’d love to find someone else who has a bold and exciting vision and needs operational help and expertise to make the most of it. If that’s you, give me a shout and let’s have coffee.

All the best,

Geoff Wood

PS. 

There’s a joke in SPN’s newsroom related to my disgust with publications that use criteria-less list posts to generate page views. It’s in that spirit I couldn’t go out without writing one of my own. See my “My Top 5 favorite SPN moments”.

*hat tip to Andrew Mason

Last weekend was Graham's fourth birthday party (organized completely by Hope). This is the first time where he's really had the chance to have his friends at the party as opposed to just family and friends of ours.

It was a lot of fun. We took over the school playground (without any sort of permission*), served fruit and kettle corn, and - best of all - had a flippin' magic show.

I don't know the last time I took in a magic show but this one was awesome. The kids were absolutely captivated even though they had to be reminded once or twice that we don't throw pebbles on the stage (pretty hard to resist). It turns out 3-5 years old is the perfect age for this. Awesome idea from my wife.

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*at one point a vehicle labeled "Des Moines Public Schools Patrol" stopped in the parking and scowled at us for 5 or so minutes but we escaped unscathed.

This Week's Top 3:

1. Zach Braff's Kickstarter Project

Zach Braff is crowdfunding a new movie project called "Wish I Was Here" on Kickstarter. Scrubs is my all-time favorite comedy series and I love the interaction between Zach (JD on the show) and Donald Faison (Turk). Wish I Was Here promises that Donald gets at least a cameo. Watch the fundraising video above then contribute.

Eagle!

2. Raygun's ill-fated Des Moines RAGBRAI Shirt

RAGBRAI (which is an acronym standing for the Register's Annual Great Bike Ride Across Iowa) is stopping in Des Moines this year and the local host city organizers turned to everyone's favorite witty t-shirt shop to develop a t-shirt for the event. This is a smart move, as about 2/3rds of all locally produced RAGBRAI shirts are horrendous and Raygun (said favorite witty t-shirt shop) makes some awesome shirts. The design they chose is above on the left and the Des Moines Register, the 'R' in RAGBRAI, reported on the theme last week. Then the Des Moines Register realized the rules the Des Moines Register created for the Des Moines Register's Annual Great Bike Ride Across Iowa don't allow local host communities to use the acronym RAGBRAI on things they sell commercially to fund ... well, RAGBRAI (read more at dmregister.com) 

While the meta-ness of this whole thing (RAGs on RAGs on RAGs) makes me happy in it's own right I'm more excited about whatever Raygun comes up with next. Getting told "you can't do this" tends to be a catalyst for the creativity of those guys whether it's from Iowa State, the Secret Service, or even the Des Moines Register (such as the images above).

Follow along on the facebook.

3. The Sorority Girl Email

Last week, Gawker published "The Most Deranged Sorority Girl Email You Will Ever Read" (warning: crude, inappropriate and hilarious language is used) which thusly began to make it's way 'round the internet. The gist is that a woman in leadership of a local chapter of her sorority is mad at her sisters for not participating in Greek Week at the level or in a manner that they should be and send them a scathing email to try and motivate them to do so. I'm not sure if it worked (no reports on how they faired in Greek Week) but it's so off-the-wall that it was further distributed to the point that Gawker saw it and ran with it. 

This is obviously a bad thing for those of us that value collegiate Greek experience (like me). It let's folks like Gawker cast stones between the language in the email and the ideals of the organization and it obviously is going to hurt that chapter in recruitment and probably fraternities and sororities as a whole - at least as long as the late night hosts continue to use it in their jokes.

Looking at it from the inside - as someone who has been in leadership in a fraternity and heavily involved on campus - I totally get where the girl was coming from. I've been so frustrated with the others in the organization that I've wanted to write and send that email [note: I never did - thank God]. It's because of that ability to empathize with her that it's making me happy to see that someone (again, not me) did it. I don't condone it and it doesn't work (for motivation) but I get it and I find it hilarious especially as done in this dramatic reading by Alison Haislip (Dang, it's like Alison wrote the email! So good).

Tweet of the Week:

#VEISHEATUNDE! #howtobeblack (at @dsmairport) — path.com/p/3vrCGv

— Baratunde (@baratunde) April 17, 2013

Baratunde Thurston was in Ames last week to do a talk at Iowa State about his book, How To Be Black. I saw him to a #KEYNOTEATUNDE on this topic at SXSW a year or two ago and really enjoyed it. I didn't make it but really enjoyed the #VEISHEATUNDE hashtag making this my Tweet of the Week. Related: I need to figure out a universal yet transformable hashtag for my own name.

BONUS ITEM - Nick Offerman in a chicken suit.

I'm really looking forward to seeing "Ain't In It For My Health" the new Levon Helm documentary covering the last few years of his life. 

Early reviews are certainly favorable:

• NPR: 'For My Health': The Latter Days Of Levon Helm
• Rolling Stone: Levon Helm's Last Years Captured in 'Ain't in It for My Health'
• Village Voice: Ain't in It for My Health Stars the True Life of Levon Helm

And, there's fun testimonials like this:

Ain't In It for My Health - See the trailer trailers.apple.com/trailers/indep…. I love this movie! twitter.com/JuddApatow/sta…

— Judd Apatow (@JuddApatow) April 11, 2013

(Apatow included "The Weight" in his movie This is 40)

Now, it make sure that some theater is Des Moines picks it up. 

Someone so unbelievably effective and inspirational that their energy infects you by osmosis, and you just want to punch them in the face/hold them close and never let go out of unbridled emotional overload? Well, the wonderful people at Silicon Prairie News give me that feeling.

They are creating and supporting some of the long term connections and events (not to mention press exposure opportunities) that allow burgeoning startup hubs to survive and thrive in any economy. On one hand, cities like Boston and New York are mature startup hubs. And they’re nearby. But they don’t necessarily depend on each other – in the way that certain cities in the Silicon Prairie are beginning to – in terms of regional events, fundraising, cooperative planning and community building. The implications for the American economy as a whole are clear, given the potential these Midwestern startup scenes have to evolve simultaneously into a kind of “continuous Megalopolis” of interconnected growth.

- Nadeem Mazen of Nimblebot writing for StartupWeekend.org