If the Kauffman Foundation’s 1 Million Cups initiative is “church for entrepreneurs,” Des Moines entrepreneur Ben McDougal is preaching the gospel – and his congregation is getting bigger. After leading the Des Moines chapter for five years – the second 1MC chapter in the country after Kansas City – McDougal is stepping back locally in […]
At-home DNA test kits have transformed lives – just ask Sigrid Johnson, a 63-year-old black woman who grappled with identity when a DNA ancestry kit delivered unexpected results. The New York Times piece wrangles with questions of family, statistical accuracy, consumer privacy and company transparency. Has any direct-to-consumer product challenged identities so directly? IN OTHER NEWS: More on Amazon’s […]
NewBoCo’s DeltaV Code School is announcing four new financing options to attract adult Iowans seeking a mid-career switch into coding. NewBoCo and IowaWORKS are partnering on a Quality Pre-Apprenticeship Program, which allows NewBoCo to sponsor an apprenticeship for any company interested in hiring a software developer apprentice. DeltaV is now GI Bill-eligible, and qualifying veterans […]
Parasitic worms pose a major global health threat to humans and animals, but a major study that sequenced the genomes of scores of worms could lead to new and more efficient ways to treat illness, reports Iowa State University. ISU Professor of biomedical sciences Tim Day co-authored the study recently published in Nature Genetics. An […]
Smart Ag founder/CEO Colin Hurd joined this year’s Forbes 30 Under 30 entrepreneurs in manufacturing and industry across the U.S. and Canada. Hurd, who is 28, graduated from Iowa State University with a degree in Agriculture and Business in 2013 and went on to develop AutoCart, an automated grain cart system that allows farmers to […]
The Iowa Economic Development Authority approved a $250,000 grant for a Digital Manufacturing Deployment Facility project at Iowa State University. The funding will help ISU/CIRAS address the current gap in small- and medium-sized manufacturing companies adopting new automation technology. The flexible facility ISU plans to build and staff will offer Iowa manufacturing companies the opportunity […]
“Herman” comes back from vacation over Veteran’s Day weekend to a mess. Herman, who leads the HR department at his company, doesn’t know that a salesperson opened an infected Excel document from an email claiming to be a client over the weekend; on this day, all he knows is that $100,000 of payroll has been […]
The Dallas Morning News released what Jeff Bezos probably would have written to the losing cities in the saga of choosing Amazon’s H2Q (“initials+numbers = very hip/very now”) location, had he not been busy doing, uh, something else. “We can’t attest to its provenance. We doubt Amazon would confirm it. Nor will we even deny […]
Bravo Greater Des Moines and the Des Moines Arts Festival are launching the Creative Economy Initiative, an action plan for professional development and the building of businesses for regional artists. Artist and business strategist Chris Dahlquist will work on a feasibility study and action plan for how to advance creative economy objectives in the region […]
The Iowa Innovation Corp. has hired Jim Register as president and CEO to lead IICorp as the entity transitions into a new Iowa biosciences development center, reports the Iowa Economic Development Authority. Register will bring together partners from research institutions, global companies, entrepreneurs, investors and government to accelerate growth in the bioscience industries in Iowa, the […]