blog.

Uncategorized Kelsey Lampe Uncategorized Kelsey Lampe

Startup Weekend Iowa 2015 Report

The first Startup Weekend event in Iowa was held in Des Moines in July 2009 (see my post here). Organized by Shane Reiser and held at Impromptu Studio, it attracted 30 participants who created four companies throughout the three day event. 6+ years later, our community staged, supported and executed simultaneous events for the first time ever in four cities across the state last weekend.

Read More
Podcast Kelsey Lampe Podcast Kelsey Lampe

Minimum Viable Podcast—Episode 4

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

Topics discussed on this episode: InnovateHER, Startup Weekend, Harrisvaccines and Merck Animal Health, community for accelerator graduate startups, media and recognition for funded startups vs bootstrapped startups

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

Read More
Kelsey Lampe Kelsey Lampe

You graduated from an accelerator, now what?

Gravitate exists explicitly to help grow the Iowa startup community. We were born from the needs identified by that community in 2014 and we continue to shape this organization around the needs of that community today.

Today those needs include a membership plan that caters specifically to the graduates of GAN programs: Free (basically).

Read More
Podcast Kelsey Lampe Podcast Kelsey Lampe

Minimum Viable Podcast—Episode 3

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

Topics discussed on this episode: Iowa Startup Accelerator Launch Day, Yahoo! Digital Democracy Conference, InnovateHER, Startup Weekend, Technology Apprenticeship programs.

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

Read More
Podcast Kelsey Lampe Podcast Kelsey Lampe

Minimum Viable Podcast—Episode 2

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

Topics discussed on this episode: Dwolla & CME Group, American Eagle acquires Tailgate clothing, SEC's new crowdfunding rules

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

Read More
Community Builder Blog Kelsey Lampe Community Builder Blog Kelsey Lampe

Builder's Blog: Who makes up a startup community?

The natural inclination is to think a startup community is first and foremost a group of entrepreneurs but, as Brad Feld points out, it's much more than that: “government, universities, investors, mentors, service providers and large companies”. You could easily add others to that list, too, like startup employees, small business entrepreneurs, Chambers of Commerce, and membership organizations.

Read More