Category: Iowa Startup Accelerator

We’re Halfway There: ISA Week 7

[vc_row padding_top=”0px” padding_bottom=”0px”][vc_column fade_animation_offset=”45px” width=”1/1″][text_output]Saturday marks the official midpoint for the ISA 2016 Cohort. We’re halfway to Launch Day! This week kicked off with a FOCUS work session led by Keevin O’Rourke and Wes Merrill of Streamweaver. During this session, they shared tips from what they learned on how to

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Hatchlings, 1MC Takeover, and Financial Modeling: ISA Week 6

[vc_row padding_top=”0px” padding_bottom=”0px”][vc_column fade_animation_offset=”45px” width=”1/1″][text_output]After Labor Day weekend, this week began with a Founder Fireside with Brad Dwyer, CEO of Hatchlings, a Facebook integrated gaming company. Brad shared insight on viral loops, investing, and the startup ecosystem in Iowa. AssetRover and Hang kicked off a month of presentations by the

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5 Ways to Get Involved This Fall

[vc_row padding_top=”0px” padding_bottom=”0px”][vc_column fade_animation_offset=”45px” width=”1/1″][text_output]There are plethora of events for the Creative Corridor’s entrepreneurial ecosystem. We chose our top 5 can’t miss events for the fall.[/text_output][gap size=”1.313em” id=”” class=”” style=””][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row padding_top=”0px” padding_bottom=”0px”][vc_column fade_animation_offset=”45px” width=”2/3″][text_output] Power Ladies Lunch Wednesday, September 14, from 11:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. at Cedar Ridge Winery &

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Sales Strategy and the End of Coffee with the Cohort: ISA Week 5

[vc_row padding_top=”0px” padding_bottom=”0px”][vc_column fade_animation_offset=”45px” width=”1/1″][text_output]This week, the ISA 2016 cohort focused on currency testing – finding out if customers will pay for the solution teams created to solve their problems. To help with this, the week began with a workshop on sales strategy led by Ben Anderson, Trace Steffen, and

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Mentor Perspectives: Bootstrapping to Success

[vc_row padding_top=”0px” padding_bottom=”0px”][vc_column fade_animation_offset=”45px” width=”1/1″][text_output]Outside investment isn’t the only path to startup success. Many of Iowa’s best known startup success stories began by bootstrapping. ISA Mentor-in-Residence Cammie Greif and the other co-founders of TaxACT started out in February 1998 on the second floor of an old mortuary with coffins in

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Offer Testing, Social Media Skills, and Partnerpalooza: ISA Week 4

The ISA 2016 Cohort is only a few days away from finishing their first month of the program. As the first month comes to a close, the cohort prepares to shift their focus from finding early adopters to sales strategy, financial models, and marketing. The next month will have workshops,

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Founder Firesides, Acting Drills, and Sprint Demos: ISA Weeks 2 and 3

As the days till Launch Day decrease, the energy in the ISA 2016 Cohort keeps increasing. Weeks 2 and 3 introduced new elements to the cohort that will be part of their regular cadence including Founder Firesides, Workshop Wednesdays, and Sprint Demo Days. Each week, starting in Week 2, the Cohort is

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Agile 101, FOCUS Framework, and Coffee with the Cohort: ISA Weeks 1 and 2

[vc_row padding_top=”0px” padding_bottom=”0px”][vc_column fade_animation_offset=”45px”][text_output]With the countdown clock ticking down the seconds until Launch Day, the ISA 2016 Cohort is acutely aware of just how fast the 90 days fly. The first week of the ISA was filled with intense training sessions to teach teams how to maximize the brief time.

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Preparing for ISA 2016 Lift Off

[vc_row padding_top=”0px” padding_bottom=”0px”][vc_column fade_animation_offset=”45px”][text_output]Locked in an office on calls from dawn until dusk for 25 days, Iowa Startup Accelerator Managing Director David Tominsky worked to whittle down 200 applicants to the top startups to put in front of investors. Thousands of emails, hundreds of hours on the phone, and one

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