Access to investment capital is something that every startup community is trying desperately to improve and we all know the old axiom that you only improve the things you measure. With that in mind, I've done some research and created a baseline of investments raised by Iowa companies over the last five years.

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: #IowaHour at SXSW, River Glen Venture Partners bringing a new investment fund to Iowa, Banno/Jack Henry expanded in Cedar Falls & Des Moines and Prometheus Award finalists

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

It’s only mid-April but details around four new programs to help fund very early stage startups in Iowa have emerged. One of the programs, NestMint describes this stage as "idea-level". All combined, the four programs are planning to deploy $1.33MM in capital in this state.

In technology we may call this a circular reference or perhaps an infinite loop, but the chicken and the egg is the proverbial causality dilemma. In Iowa (and likely in other similar states) we face our own causality dilemma in the startup community. Which comes first, startups or investors?

A guest post by John Jackovin, founder of Bawte.