Two Iowa-based companies, Nebullam and LEAH Laboratories, were selected into Y Combinator’s winter cohort accelerator program.
Their acceptance into the program comes with a seed investment of $150,000 along with mentorship throughout the 90-day program that culminates this week with a demo day in San Francisco.
"One of the biggest takeaways that we've had from…
Monetery 2019, Dwolla’s second regional summit for founders investors, announced last month the second day of this year's summit will be devoted to one-on-one meetings between selected startups and venture capital firms traveling to Des Moines to participate in the conference.
Since the announcement, Monetery has added eight more venture capital firms, bringing the total…
Yesterday was a great day for fans of math. And pies.
Companies across the state of Iowa celebrated Pi Day yesterday.
In addition to Pi Day, it was also Iowa Coworking Day. In 2016, then-Governor Branstad signed a proclamation declaring March 14th to be Iowa Coworking Day as a way to recognize…
Over the last month, the University of Iowa (UI) held two different pitch competions—the Spring 2019 IdeaStorm and the Iowa Startup Games.
Spring 2019 IdeaStorm
The competition was open to all UI students and hosted over 250 students from across all areas of study on campus. Students pitched their business ideas in under two minutes…
After working closely with startups and founders for two years as the Managing Director of NMotion, a startup accelerator in Lincoln, Beth McKeon came to the conclusion that the entire startup support industry needed to evolve.
So in 2018, she founded Fluent.
Fluent is self-described as an "entrepreneurial training R&D lab for community-based startup programs."…
The third annual ISU Innovation Prize competition at Iowa State University will take place the weekend of April 5-6, 2019.
The theme for this year's competition is 'Innovation at Iowa State.' The competition will have three different focus areas for participants to solve—AgTech, EdTech and Global Impact.
Over the course of the competition, participants will…
Google will be offering free workshops at libraries in three cities in Iowa next month: Des Moines, Council Bluffs and Davenport.
The company announced last Friday it will host three separate one-day events in Iowa from April 15-17 as part of the company's Grow with Google initiative.
The workshops are designed to help teachers,…
This summer RAYGUN will be expanding its operations to a new, 4,800-square-foot store in Andersonville, Illinois. The new store will be similar in design to other RAYGUN locations with merchandise being sold in a two-floor space.
Mike Draper, founder and owner of RAYGUN, recently sold off 20% of the company for $582,000 in order to…
The Technology Association of Iowa released the finalists for the 2019 Prometheus Awards.
The winner in each of the 14 award categories will be announced during the Prometheus Awards celebration on Thursday, April 11, 2019, at the Community Choice Credit Union Convention Center in Des Moines.
This year features several new award categories including Fintech…
Venture funds only make money when they place bets. Investors who seek a well-diversified portfolio will add a venture allocation as part of a capital appreciation strategy to achieve “alpha” (exceptional, non-correlated returns). It's the VC’s job to find opportunities that will hit it big and to be capable of taking the risk. In…
Jason Feifer, Editor and Chief of Entrepreneur Magazine, was in Des Moines today sharing his thoughts on what makes a successful entrepreneur.
Feifer spoke about what the most important qualities are for today's entrepreneurs. Here's what he had to say:
Overcome your resistance to change
Being constantly open to new ideas is an important trait…
Nathan T. Wright is an illustrator and artist based in Des Moines. He is a regular contributor to Clay & Milk.
Find out more about him in his Q&A here and how his first year was as a full-time illustrator here. Wright also just completed a six-week artist-in-residence program for Ballet Des Moines, where he created a comic.
His previous…