Hopefully this blog entry isn’t misconstrued as a personal entry. I’m  jazzed about this event and being able to speak at it is an honor.

It’s not because I love to talk either. It’s because I get to share a new aspect of the Dwolla story, one that I’ve never had a stage to go in-depth about and elaborate on. The SPN crew is giving me a platform to do just that: rant.

Dwolla’s story isn’t unique in the start-up world. Build something unique that solves a huge problem, work hard, get some funding, work harder, expand. Rinse, repeat. What actually does make us unique is that:

• We now work with bigger companies that initially wouldn’t let us in the door.
• We were able to get a foot inside the door with visionaries in the corporate banking world and credit union space. This is what set Dwolla in real motion.
• We’re tapping into a national brain trust in the financial industry on a local level within the Silicon Prairie. I plan to spend a lot of time talking about it.
• I’ve gotten into a lot of rooms by telling the truth and just laying it out there. Most of the interesting places I’ve been I can’t check into on Foursquare, because I’m afraid of someone seeing it. I’ll probably talk about those instances.
• We have incredible mentors. Most of the things I’ve learned over the past 12 months are the results of individuals that I can’t believe pick up the phone when I call. I plan to spend a lot of time on discussing how I did that, and how you can too.
• We’re not building a feature and calling it disruptive to get press. We’re building something that is changing everything in the space and it’s the people in that space, running companies inside of it, helping us do it.
• We are based in Iowa. I’ll talk about where we really sit in comparison to San Francisco / Palo Alto / New York.
• We swing for the fences. As we get ready to take the next big step at Dwolla, I’ll elaborate on where I think we’ll land.

We now provide you the option to integrate your Foursquare profile into Dwolla to automate check-ins at your favorite merchants.

Opening several apps to check-in can be a bit obnoxious. That’s why in the new iOS app, which has been submitted to Apple, we’re letting Dwolla users connect to the location-based platform to create one check-out/check-in experience.

The simple process allows you to accrue points, gain rewards, earn badges, and maintain/pursue mayorships without ever opening the Foursquare app.

Here’s how it works.

1. Buy/check-in
2. … Really no other steps

How to connect to your Foursquare profile:

1. Sign in at dwolla.com
2. Head to “Settings” on the left-hand side panel
3. Under “Settings,” select “Social Networks”
4. Hit “Connect to Foursquare”

Here is what it looks like while logged in:

The same rules apply with Dwolla check-ins as they do Foursquare check-ins. If you mark private (aka “off the grid”), these check-ins count towards the Mayorship tally but will not unlock the Mayorship.

Now go have some fun!