The inaugural Latina Business Excellence Summit, aiming to celebrate and empower Latina entrepreneurs, will be held on May 9 from 3-7 p.m. at the River Center in Des Moines. The summit’s goal is to increase access to opportunities, representation and resources. The event will include speakers, an expo to connect with other Latina-owned businesses and resource […]
Oskaloosa Schools is launching Oskaloosa Spirit Cafe, an initiative aimed at providing vocational opportunities and promoting inclusivity within the community. The cafe, which will open to the public in the summer, was originally conceived to provide essential job skills to students with disabilities, and now welcomes a range of students from diverse backgrounds to help everyone pursue […]
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 […]
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 2024 John Pappajohn Iowa Entrepreneurial Venture Competition application portal is now open. The 19th annual statewide competition will award $100,000 in cash prizes to early-stage Iowa startups and entrepreneurial ventures that intend to scale operations in Iowa. The $100,000 in seed funding includes a $50,000 contribution from the late John Pappajohn, matched by $50,000 from […]
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 […]
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 […]
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. […]
America’s SBDC Iowa has announced Melissa Fabian and Dustin Rhoades as the winners of its 2024 special entrepreneur awards. Fabian, owner of Simply Nourished Market & Mercantile in Mason City, is the winner of the 2024 Deb Dalziel Woman Entrepreneur Achievement Award. Simply Nourished offers organic, specialty and local food products as well as catering services and cooking […]
NewBoCo has announced that Jill Wilkins, who has been serving as the organization’s interim executive director since April, has now been named to the position on a permanent basis. Wilkins succeeds Aaron Horn, who stepped down in April to take a new position. Wilkins spent 10 years with the Cedar Rapids Downtown District and the Metro Economic Alliance, […]