Power Rankings Month #3! This month the rankings are more of "startup community" rankings as two support organizations that do a lot for entrepreneurs in Iowa make the list for the first time and in the top two positions. They're followed on the list by three startups, two of which return to the rankings for their second straight month.

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: GoFundMe stats, Power Rankings, Men's Style Lab guideshop, Cognizant expansion and state funding awards and the Accelerate DSM event

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

Welcome back to the Iowa Startup Power Rankings! We kicked things off with a bang last month as Tourney Machine was a clear number one after their big news of being acquired by Sports Illustrated Play. They are absent from the list this month (sorry folks—an acquisition or IPO means you're ineligible moving forward) and we welcome three new companies to their first ever power rankings.

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?”

It’s on me to have a list of most-interesting startups to share and promote and I realized that I’ve never done that publicly. So, I sat down this week and put together my own current top five “most interesting” list.

I've had accelerators on the mind for several reasons lately and that had me thinking about the Iowa-based startups that have participated in these programs. Our state's first accelerator program, the Iowa Startup Accelerator (Cedar Rapids), will launch it's first class this Fall and is accepting applications now. This post is a quick run down of the startups who have participated (and one who will participate this summer), the relevant details and a few thoughts from the founders on their experience.