Question: What does it take for startups to begin building around Des Moines' strongest industries of insurance, finance, bio-ag in Ames etc.? 

It’s hard to believe it’s been more than a year and a half since I had my first brush with the startup community in Des Moines. I was a journalism student in my last year of undergrad who was wholly unsure of what I wanted to do when I graduated.

I had just started freelancing for this startup-y tech blog—Silicon Prairie News—and found myself covering the final pitches of Startup Weekend Des Moines. I had no idea how to spell “start-up” (sorry, Geoff) much less what a Startup Weekend was. But looking back to those first few events (Dwolla’s Old MacDonald Hackathon being another), I can say with a fair amount of certainty they’re what sold me on this community of ours.  

The round up of tech jobs in this state on our radar this week. Go get hired!

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.