Iowa Startup Collective Roundup
Entrepreneurship through the lens of Iowa writers and creatives
Entrepreneurship Roots Run Deep
Straight from an ISU classroom, Kevin Kimle lets us in on a secret: the next generation coming up is more inclined to start a business or go back to the family farm.
He explores the cultural DNA of entrepreneurship from Founding Fathers to places today in rural Iowa. Follow along and get immersed inside the businesses from a recent ag entrepreneurship bus tour, including stops at Deal’s Orchard (Jefferson), Lonely Oak Distillery (Earling), Milk & Honey (Harlan), Five Oaks Farm Wagyu (Griswold), and Trader’s Basket (Jesup).
Story link: Startup Nation
Mikayla Mooney’s latest Ag Startup Engine article is spot on. As agtech was added much later to venture capitalists’ interests and investments, she outlines how agriculture is ultimately a different beast when it comes to investor expectations.
“It's cyclical, capital-intensive, slow to adopt, and deeply fragmented. It’s not a space where ‘move fast and break things’ works—because people’s livelihoods (and food systems) are on the line. Farmers don’t chase shiny objects—they look for proven ROI, reliability, and solutions that work within a complex and highly variable system. None of that lines up with the blitz scale mindset or a 10-year fund horizon.”
Dive into ASE’s investor thesis in this read!
Story link: The $1B Lie: Why AgTech Doesn’t Fit the VC Fantasy
Jay Cooper writes about the need to bring back startup job crawls, made popular before the pandemic. He shares how there is a need for this based on new founders entering the ecosystem and returning ones starting something new to get their name out there, specifically as they hire key roles in the early days of a startup.
I don’t disagree with Jay —it was through the DSM startup job crawl I first met Dwolla and found my first job out of college! The “startup” WebFilings was also there passing out pizza cutters to us college kids. They’re known today as Workiva, a publicly traded company.
Story link: Bring Back Startup Crawls
Offering helpful tools and systems all startups should consider, Adam Viet dives into the practical. For instance, he nudges startups to get away from the chaos and stresses why ‘finances deserve more than a spreadsheet and a prayer’ (any advisor reading this is nodding)!
The importance of building efficient operational systems to support a startup growth is something a lot of entrepreneurs and owners may delay, usually due to the significant amount of other hats they wear. In a nutshell, this read is a good one to send to a business owner with its message to help save them stress later!
Story link: Startups Run on Chaos - But They Scale on Systems
In Clayton Mooney’s latest you’ll find a reflection about focusing on goals and compounding effort to achieve great things. Through his journey starting Clayton Farms, he highlights key milestones, like reaching 100,000 customers, and shifting from home delivery to a physical location in Ames. He didn’t start running till age 30, and shares how he’s gotten smarter through eliminating bad habits and surrounding himself with others that have the will to win.
Story link: Compounding Towards Greatness
Story link: The Mighty Set-Top Box
Behind today’s ZapperBox, created in West Des Moines, Tej Dhawan dives further back to the early days of what was a common accessory to the TV—the set-top box. He introduces us to the engineers, Gopal Miglani and Dr. Paul Freeman, and their latest product, a piece of hardware that translates the highest-definition broadcast signals for modern TVs.
In the era of The Rise of the Creative Class, Dan Shipton, among many startup leaders in the early 2000s, landed in a three-block section of downtown Des Moines—soon to be named Silicon Sixth Avenue. It’s worth taking a break out of your day to read this gem of a short history from Tej, with the stories and outcomes twenty years later!
Story link: The Bookends of Silicon Sixth Avenue
PODCAST CORNER
Unlocking the Future of Real Estate: How Emigrait’s AI is Revolutionizing Home Buying Predictions (The Iowa Podcast, Kaylee Williams)
A new coworking space hits Des Moines with Levi Cermak at Elevator (The Iowa Podcast, Kaylee Williams)
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Proud to be a partner of the Iowa Writer’s Collaborative
Jay Cooper: We Are All EntrePartners
Tej Dhawan: A cultural record of Central Iowa’s technology
Kevin Kimle
Mikayla Mooney: Ag Startup Engine
Clayton Mooney: Open Clayton
Sree Nilakanta
Adam Viet: Iowa’s Startup Silo
Kaylee Williams
Diana Wright: Startup Iowa Hot List and Iowa Startup Collective
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this Substack are my own and those of each writer. The views do not reflect my employer or place of work.