The West Des Moines Chamber of Commerce has announced seven finalists for the 2024 pitch competition at the fourth annual Athene Black & Brown Business Summit. An eighth finalist will be randomly selected on the day of the event on April 18. The finalists were chosen from a pool of over 100 applicants from across […]
The Greater Des Moines Partnership has announced the next cohort of the tuition-free Scale DSM Business Accelerator will start in June and run through December. Participants attend sessions on topics such as business and strategic assessment, financial management, sales and marketing and talent and capital resources. Applicants must meet these following four requirements: Have between $150,000 – $4 […]
Vice President Jack Chimbetete shares about the organization’s third African Business Fair When Jack Chimbetete first came to Iowa in 2018 as a participant in the Mandela Washington Fellowship for Young African Leaders, the then-newly formed nonprofit One Voice DSM welcomed him and the other fellows with a ceremony and a reminder of home. “Because we had been […]
Several events this spring will focus on helping startups learn what they need to raise capital for their business. The Greater Des Moines Partnership is holding the one-day Raising Capital for Startups event on April 4, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. The event is designed to help startup founders learn about what options they have when looking […]
WOI-TV: Like the old saying goes: to whom much is given, much is expected. For two well-known entrepreneurs in Des Moines, Rod Johnson and Pernell Cezar, they haven’t shied away from that. Since 2018, when they founded BLK & Bold, the company has grown into the largest Black-owned coffee brand in America. But the heart […]
GW Nutrition, led by President Anita Norian and Research and Development Director Laura Wonderling, received $10,000 for placing first in the Iowa Biotech Showcase, a pitch competition held during the Iowa Biotechnology Association’s Iowa Biotech Showcase and Conference in February. GW Nutrition will use the funding to advance its CleanSense technology, which uses a propriety […]
Five North High School students, under the name Team Frostbyte, have been selected as one of five finalists in the NASA App Development Challenge. The team will travel to the Johnson Space Center in Houston in April to give their presentation in person. The members of Team Frostbyte are Champ-Pacifique Mukiza, Sujal Pokhrel, Jefrey Allen, Moss […]
The Iowa Biotechnology Association (IowaBio) has announced Dr. Frances Johnson, chief innovation officer of Perspective Therapeutics, and Anthony Kinney, research director at Corteva Agriscience, as the recipients of the 2024 Iowa Biotech Leader Award. The awards were presented to Johnson and Kinney during IowaBio’s Iowa Biotech Showcase and Conference on Feb. 28. Johnson, a physician, […]
The Iowa Board of Regents approved a new undergraduate major in entrepreneurship at the University of Iowa Tippie College of Business during its Feb. 28 meeting. The major will be offered starting in the fall 2024 semester. The program will be interdisciplinary and offer tracks in entrepreneurial finance, technology entrepreneurship, entrepreneurial leadership and new ventures. […]
Gravitate Coworking founder Geoff Wood reflects on a decade in business Many in Des Moines and Iowa’s entrepreneurial ecosystem will know of Gravitate Coworking and its founder Geoff Wood. But to understand how it started 10 years ago requires stepping back to some key developments in the early days of Des Moines’ startup community. Although short-lived, StartupCity […]