Hi there,
I had the
fun opportunity to sit in on Michael Libbie's Insight on Business radio show last week to talk about
Gravitate and the Iowa startup community. If you'd like to listen, check out the podcast version
here.
The startup community was listed as one of the reasons why Fortune.com highlighted Des Moines as one of five cities with an "up-and-coming" downtown. Lists like these are always fun but
something seemed odd with this one. I wrote about that
here.
Big shout out to Craig Jackman from Paragon IT who joined Gravitate as our 30th social member this week! Social memberships are a great way to personally support the project, particularly for individuals who don't have coworking needs day-to-day. Click
here for details on the social member program.
Best,
Geoff
Top News This Week
1. Using Dwolla, TMG makes first Google Glass app to move hard currency — Silicon Prairie News (Megan Bannister, July 15)
The Members Group or TMG (Clive), a processing and payments solution services company and one of the first investors in
Dwolla (Des Moines), debuted "See2Pay" an app that allows users to pay for things with Dwolla from Google Glass. The app was built from within TMG's "Innovation Lab" program. "We can cultivate and develop different ideas because we don't have the same product development lifecycle attached, so we can move a little swifter," Ryan Anderson, the company's vice president of product told
SPN in reference to the program. "The whole idea is to push ideas out that help the broader developer landscape as well." Iowa State student Brett Neese, who had
previously built a Dwolla payments app, assisted in the development of See2Pay. Dwolla and TMG has shared the code for the app on
Github.
My take: I think the important story here is seeing members of the established tech community, like TMG, investing internally in programs like the Innovation Lab, the fact they're willing to share the ideas/results that come from it with the public and that they're working in conjunction with technology developed by an Iowa startup (admittedly one they've invested in). The fact they have open-sourced the code is even better. TMG is a subsidiary of the Iowa Credit Union League.
See also: Des Moines Register and
Dwolla's Blog
2. UI, M.C. Ginsberg team up to offer prototyping services to aspiring inventors — We Create Here (Sarah Binder, July 17)
The University of Iowa and M.C. Ginsberg (Iowa City), a custom jeweler, unveiled a new service program to help inventors with rapid prototyping called
UI ProtoLabs. The new initiative brings together experience and machine shop technologies at the university with M.C. Ginsberg's Advanced Design and Manufacturing service. It's open to the general public as well as university staff and students. If the idea is based at UI and a committee believes it has economic potential, they'll cover the labor costs of creating it. “There are other places that do prototyping – but I think the difference is, there’s a lot of expertise that exists beyond the prototype lab that can be tapped at the university,” Richard Hichwa, UI's senior associate vice president for research told
WCH. “Prototyping is about the design, the materials, the functionality of it.”
3.
BOARD ACTION: Economic Development Board Approves Awards to Support the Creation of 200+ Jobs —
iowaeconomicdevelopment.com (July 18)
The Iowa Economic Development Authority or IEDA (Des Moines) awarded state grants and loans to five Iowa-based companies this week.
- Athena GTX (Des Moines), who "manufactures wireless, mobile, patient-worn, miniature medical monitors" received a $150,000 loan from the Iowa Innovation Acceleration Fund.
- Bawte (Des Moines), the company that makes it easier to own and get support on the things you buy received a $25,000 grant from the Proof of Commercial Relevance Fund.
- Krato (Keokuk), a developer of non-toxic pest control products, received a $75,000 loan from the Demonstration Fund.
- Kyoger (Waterloo), a "content strategy firm that offers products and services including website, digital media, video and marketing development" received $25,000 from the Proof of Commercial Relevance Fund.
- Pear Deck (Iowa City), the creators of Google Drive-based interactive education software, received a $100,000 loan from the Iowa Innovation Acceleration Fund.
This Week on the Welch Avenue Show
Join us Thursday at 4 p.m. CDT at StartupCity Des Moines (317 6th Ave, 5th Floor in Des Moines) in person for the live show or jump on the
interactive chat. You can always catch up last week's episode at
welchavenue.com/show.
After the show, be sure and head to Sully's Irish Pub (110 Grand Ave in West Des Moines) for the July edition of
Startup Drinks.
The Welch Avenue Weekly is perfect for busy founders and Iowa expats who don't have time to keep up on all the local news. Do you know someone who fits that description? Please share.