Some Fun In Des Moines
It’s been an extremely productive week for Dwolla.
Internally, we’ve been doing performance testing, mobile, API, web, and security development. It can be frustrating to describe things so quickly when we’ve been putting massive amounts of time into them. Hopefully when we finish them, you can enjoy them! Check out some of our work:
We’ve been working quietly on a project with the guys from Shift that we are excited to start talking about. You can see some of the fruits of that project above. There is a lot more to come!
T-Shirts
The T-Shirts have been a big hit. Here are some of the most recent shots.
Please send us your Dwolla T-Shirt shots 
You can see some more here.
Interview with Michael Libby @ WebCastLive
Dwolla… it’s a creation from the ever active mind of Ben Milne in studio today to tell us about it. What is it? A way to pay for stuff you buy online, a way to transfer money to nearly anybody, and…not have it cost your business a bunch of processing fees. How does Dwolla work? Why do Dwolla? Is it too good to be true?
We have been named part of one of the 25 Hottest Things in Des Moines!!!
25. DM’s startup scene: Silicon Valley better watch its overpriced back. Des Moines own brand of down-to-earth developers (BitMethod, Dwolla, and the like) are creating cool, tech-savvy businesses and bolstering Iowa’s entrepreneurial spirit with their endeavors.
We are honored to be mentioned. Considering I have facial hair and chest hair (#14) obviously, I’m very Des Moines. I also felt in very good company becuase I just bought the Christopher the Conquered album (#24), I drink good beer (#23), I use Four Square frequently (#17), I just went to my first roller derby (#19), we are avid twitter users (#8), I’m an obnoxious 80/35 supporter (#13), and you can get Dwolla T-Shirts at Raygun (#7)…
All joking aside, I’m glad they put this in this in there and I’m excstatic we were included. Des Moines does have a tech scene. It has talent and it’s exciting to see what is happening here. Dozens of companies aren’t founded here every day, but one of the things near and dear to my heart is the Silicon Prairie. I love being a part of it.
Here are some other companies in the Des Moines Startup Scene you should know and why. They could easily fill an entire Juice Publication with the small but active startup scene in Des Moines Iowa.
Palisade Systems
In a growing market sector, they offer extremely slick solutions based on a 14 year history of security knowledge. They make something exceptionally complicated appear very easy to the end user, and they made it cheap. Their CEO ( Christian Renaud) is a walking mentor to darn near everyone in Des Moines starting a tech company and has been a driving force behind the “tech scene” that does exist here. He has a way of simply reminding people… GO BUILD IT!
Bitmethod
When you’ve got guys on staff with a background in virtual reality or being flown out to teach guys at NASA how to program, do you really need an introduction? The guys behind Bitmethod are Daniel Shipton, Neil Roberts, Igor Dobrosavljevic, and Josh Dreyer.
Volunteer Local
Non-Profit events like 80/35, Hy-Vee triathlon, and even the Des Moines Social Club thrives on Volunteers. Managing volunteers can be difficult. From taking the time to notify them and schedule everyone and even knowing what information they have already gotten is a full time job. Volunteer Local makes it easy for those looking for volunteers to find, and manage the volunteers. It’s low cost and pretty slick.
Geosync Global
If your in Des Moines, you may have just read about these guys in The Des Moines Business Record. Their unique technology allows you to take pictures of things and have it matched against their database to tell you what you just took a picture of. Their platform is very new and has gotten great traction locally.
Fresk
Fresk built their own back end framework for interacting with objects.Watching it work is like poetry and my favorite part is that they do all of this from an apartment. WATCH THIS!!!
fresk interactive – mall directory from fresk on Vimeo.
Smarty Pig
An online savings tool that allows you to securely deposit money, earn a great interest rate, and share your goals with friends. It’s easy to use and it’s everywhere. New to Smarty Pig? Check out the video:
Smarty Pig helped start this whole deal in my mind. Knowingly or unknowingly, we all need a success story to build from. Showing all of us that it is possible to gain national attention from Iowa is what we’d all love to show. Everytime Smarty Pig gets another mention in a major media outlet there is a handful of people thinking “Hell Yes” everytime.
Pongr Media
A recent poster boy in the Des Moines Register, Zach Cox w/ Pongr, recently relocated to Des Moines. It’s a rewards based platform which ties in the ability to take pictures of advertisement and claim rewards. With a nice list of advertisers/publishers already on board, Pongr is certainly a company to watch.
Uppward
You can check in all over the world with foursquare, GoWalla, and even facebook now. Uppward allows you to check in on your airplane. It allows you to track miles to earn rewards and harneses outside API’s to recognize who else is on the flight with you. We love it. Uppward is driven by the bright minds of Nathan Wright, Ben Sinclair, Nate Becker, and James Elliason.
Catchwind
Text messaging experts with a custom built API anyone? Imagine being able to tie your company into a platform that automatically dispatched text messages to your clients much like an e-mail list. The possibilities are vast and their API is extremely expandable.
Scoreyard
A new web based software company in Des Moines is ScoreYard. It aims to assist the organization of sports teams/leagues. If you’ve ever been a part of a youth athletic program, your likely aware of the amount of work that goes into organizing, informing, and collecting dues for your league. Scoreyard aims to help with all of that in a simple to understand and cost effective solution.
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