This has been my first year on the innovation and entrepreneurship beat at the Business Record and it’s been a whirlwind. I’ve met startup founders from all over the state, spoken to professors about their inventions and even spent some time on a bison prairie for a series on rural innovation. I pored through the archives this holiday season and came away with these five favorite innovation stories.
ISU gets ready to build its first 3D-printed home
This news came up just after I had written a story about 3D printing at Iowa State University. I spoke with Pete Evans, assistant professor in the ISU industrial design department at ISU, about his efforts. He said that ISU researchers are planning to build their first demonstration 3D-printed model home, with completion expected in the spring of 2026. I’ll be watching ISU’s efforts in 2026, as well as progress in Muscatine, which has ambitions to also print a structure in 2026.
Rural Innovation: Native Prairie Bison farm thrives through observation and learning
Every once in a while, I stumble upon a story that exposes me to something I’ve never seen before. I first saw Jathan Chicoine speak at the Rural Entrepreneurship Symposium at ISU and realized I had to get out to his property and see his bison herd. The result was a story filled with sights and sounds of nature, as well as Chicoine’s thoughtful comments on prairie restoration in Iowa. “It’s just observation, and that’s how I’m learning,” Chicoine said. “It’s seldom that I’m out here working and not learning something. … You get that immediate feedback from the plants so I just learned from working the land.”
Two Iowans share their Shark Tank experiences
The first time I met Billie Asmus, the founder and CEO of Repaint Studios, I interviewed her on stage for the annual innovationIOWA event on July 10. Asmus spoke about that often-quoted need for entrepreneurs: grit. She said she had many ups and downs on her entrepreneurial journey from the moment in the early stages of her company she weighed whether to put her child in day care to the time her company encountered a financial crisis. “I remember just getting to the end of all that, like, am I going to keep going and keep doing this? Like, is this seriously going to be worth it at this point? And I already had employees that I was committed to, so it was that mentality of I have no choice but to succeed. Even though this feels like the rock bottom, I have to keep going. And I’m glad I did.” Later this year, she appeared on Shark Tank and landed a deal. Asmus isn’t the only Iowan of Shark Tank fame — No Limbits founder and CEO Erica Cole was on Shark Tank in April 2022. No doubt Cole could talk about grit as well — she was in a car accident in 2018 that resulted in the amputation of one of her legs. She said she started an alterations business for people with disabilities out of a “personal need.”
Center at Sixth incubator seeks to bring small business back to Sixth Avenue corridor
Innovation and entrepreneurship is more than just a snazzy AI startup getting acquired and making big money. It’s also about small businesses, carving their way through local neighborhoods and Main Streets, breathing life in places that once struggled. That’s why I loved reporting the story on Center at Sixth. Marquas Ashworth, co-developer of a building designed to empower other entrepreneurs, said part of the inspiration for the name Center at Sixth was a harkening back to Center Street, which was a thriving hub for the city’s Black community before it was displaced by the construction of Interstate 235. “And most of that [Black and brown] community ended up in the Sixth Avenue corridor,” he said. “Center at Sixth, it’s just a reckoning back to what we lost.” Center at Sixth now provides opportunity for small businesses to grow on Sixth Avenue and spur economic development along the corridor, he said. The building also includes a Makers Market, which features artists and creators from around Central Iowa. I noticed many of the makers and artists were people I had written about before, including Jill Wells and her inclusive art, Basi Affia’s comic books, art from artists from the Momentum arts program and ArtForce Iowa.
When I started in my new role in early 2025, editors and colleagues asked what I was most looking forward to. I answered that I was in search of inspirational stories. I found that in Dream City, the nonprofit that helps families and entrepreneurs in Iowa City. The story of Frederick Newell, executive director of Dream City, is astounding. He had his first child at age 17. He enrolled at the University of Iowa and brought his child with him throughout his four years of college — no child care. He wanted to show others the significance of fathers having a strong and active role in their children’s lives, he said. “I really wanted to be able to show fathers that you could also follow in my footsteps, because it’s doable,” Newell told me during an interview at the newly renovated Iowa City headquarters of Dream City. “It wasn’t easy.” The nonprofit started in a donated home and then grew to locate at 611 Southgate Ave. in Iowa City in February. It acquired the space from the church that owned it and did a “total renovation” of the 12,000-square-foot building, funded in part by a $3 million grant from the city of Iowa City. It had its grand opening on Aug. 24.
Have a story idea? Contact Lisa Rossi at lisarossi@bpcdm.com