This is a continuing series reporting on fundraising activity by companies in the Iowa startup community. The information is refined from publicly-available SEC filings as available online at sites like formds.com. It's not intended to be a perfect dataset but something to be measured over time to help in measuring changes in the ecosystem.

I've spent the past few weeks looking through SEC filings to try and get a handle on the total amount of money invested in Iowa startup-ish companies over the past few years. If you'd like to see the results check out 2010-2015 Iowa Fundraising Roundup over on the Gravitate blog.

Raising capital for a new or growing company can be a challenging process, not only because it involves convincing people and investors that the company is worth investing money  into and its growth potential, but also because it can involve a myriad of complicated legal issues. Most capital raises involve the use of an attorney, ideally one that is knowledgeable in the area of the private offering of securities and understands the complexities of private offerings at the federal and state levels. This blog post will spend a few paragraphs setting the background for private offerings and the “exemptions” used and then go to describing the Form D that is filed with the Regulation D exemptions and what info, if any, parties interested in obtaining information on “deals” in Iowa can take from those Form Ds that are filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”).

One person who has been consistently able to find capital in this market is Derian Baugh, Founder & CEO of Men’s Style Lab. When he mentioned the other day that they had recently closed a round of funding I asked him, “what’s it like to raise money in Iowa right now?”

Matt Patane, technology and innovation reporter for the Des Moines Register and Geoff Wood, community builder at Gravitate, sit down for an in-depth discussion of the companies, events and ideas making news in the Iowa innovation community.

Topics discussed on this episode: Uber regulations, Iowa Coworking Day, SXSW, Drive Spotter raises a seed round and the current fundraising climate

Feedback, thoughts or suggestions? Hit us up on Twitter or email the show at mvp@gravitatedsm.com

Matt Patane, technology and innovation reporter for the Des Moines Register and Geoff Wood, community builder at Gravitate, sit down for an in-depth discussion of the companies, events and ideas making news in the Iowa innovation community.

Topics discussed on this episode: Uber regulations, AgriSync's funding and our state's best industries, Apple's privacy stand and DMACC Celebrate Innovation Week

Feedback, thoughts or suggestions? Hit us up on Twitter or email the show at mvp@gravitatedsm.com