A Year in Review: Tech & Innovation
StartupCity provides new avenue for technology start-ups
Christian Renaud and Tej Dhawan saw the need for a space that entrepreneurs could use to grow and cultivate their tech ideas. The two opened up shop at StartupCity Des Moines in October to provide a haven for some tech-related start-ups in Des Moines. “The need for this chatter was obviously there,” Dhawan said. StartupCity’s goal is to help tech companies grow, succeed and collaborate. Renaud and Dhawan are the principals, and they rely on a team of outside mentors to work with the space’s entrepreneurs. The incubator is designed to allow for a high level of collaboration between its tenants and the principals, and is open to businesses that aren’t members to contribute and learn as well. “The idea is to accelerate the (start-up) community,” Renaud said. StartupCity also partnered with six other incubators around the state, including Foundry Coworking and the West Des Moines Business Incubator, to form the Iowa Startup Alliance.
A report released this year by Cisco Systems Inc. projected that Internet usage is expected to grow fourfold by 2015. That staggering number could cause unforeseen problems in keeping up with the Internet’s infrastructure, some experts say. Consider that the process of adequately freeing up spectrum – or wireless Internet capacity – can take the government upward of 10 years, and the problem becomes very real, said former Federal Communications Commission chief of staff Brian Fontes. To keep up with innovation allowed by the Internet, the key will be private investment and policies that encourage efficient use of spectrum, he said.
Ben Milne’s Dwolla Corp., which operates a mobile-phone-based payment system, has provided a model for others to follow when it comes to building a successful start-up company. Dwolla this year passed the $1 million per week threshold in transactions, and has made national news. Milne’s success shows that people in Des Moines can be successful by taking a chance and starting a tech company, local experts say. The start-up culture in Des Moines is changing, they say, but maximizing the potential to come up with new ideas is still a work in progress, said Christian Renaud, principal at StartupCity Des Moines. By nature, insurance- and banking-heavy Des Moines is risk-averse and doesn’t necessarily like to take chances funding start-ups that might fail. Still, things such as Dwolla, StartupCity Des Moines and even networking events run by the Technology Association of Iowa and others are making a positive difference.
Having the technology start-up world come together with the more traditional corporate world was the goal of ThincIowa, a conference hosted by Silicon Prairie News (SPN) on Oct. 21. The conference was based somewhat on a similar event the group runs called Big Omaha, with a day of in-state and out-of-state speakers combined with networking. The event attracted speakers such as Pinterest founder Ben Silbermann, Dwolla Corp. founder Ben Milne and others from the corporate and start-up worlds. It drew more than 300 people into The Temple for Performing Arts, leading SPN to consider it a success.
IT specialists in demand
Alliance Technologies Inc. released a report about the condition of Des Moines’ information technology scene in April that outlined a major challenge for the industry. Using feedback from its network of 100 employees serving about 800 customers, Alliance’s report was designed to give a “conceptual” look at the industry. The report came to the conclusion that people don’t think of Greater Des Moines as having a hot IT scene. The consensus was that Des Moines should be considered an attractive place for IT specialists, but a lack of large IT employer and an outdated understanding of the nature of an IT job might dissuade people from getting into the field.
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