Ep 15: Accelerating Insurance and Agritech in Des Moines with Mike Colwell of Square One DSM

August 16, 2017 By Gary Will

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 52:22 — 48.3MB) | Embed

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Android | RSS

Mike Colwell has been mentoring startup founders for over a decade in his role with Square One DSM in Des Moines, Iowa. He’s also on the board of directors of two accelerators focused on sectors where the region is building on established strengths: one for startups in the insurance sector and the other focused on agritech.

On this week’s show, Mike talks about how the accelerators were created and structured, how they’re funded, how they operate, lessons learned from an earlier unsuccessful incubator, and the growth of the Des Moines startup ecosystem.

Press play to listen or subscribe with your favourite podcast app.

Links:

Cultivating Startups

4 months ago

NEW EPISODE: Lots of ideas for startup ecosystem builders to discuss, debate, adapt and adopt in the 2018 Startup Genome report. It’s one of the few examinations of what world-class ecosystems look like and how to get there—and something that every ecosystem organization should read and consider.

Some of the topics discussed on this episode:

Local Connectedness: New in this year’s report and a critical component of all strong ecosystems. We give a big thumbs up at the report’s contention that “collisions” and events aren’t enough to build a startup community.

Subsectors: Startup Genome looks at the growth of “deep tech”—technology subsectors that are typically more research-heavy and attract older, more experienced and educated founders. They see these subsectors as an opportunity for smaller ecosystems can become leaders. We look at what they identify as the subsector strengths of Canada’s ecosystems.

Founder Mindset: Are there attitudes and traits that are more likely to lead to strong startup founders or business builders? Startup Genome has introduced a new factor that looks at what traits help founders succeed.

And we look at why we still think the Startup Genome reports are must-reads even though we give little credence to their rankings—and why we worry that the Ontario government may be latching on to the wrong takeaways from these reports.

cultivatingstartups.com/ep-26-startup-ecosystem-success-factors-and-startup-genome/ ... See MoreSee Less

Ep 26: Startup Ecosystem Success Factors and Startup Genome - Cultivating Startups

cultivatingstartups.com

Lots of ideas for startup ecosystem builders to debate, adapt and adopt in the 2018 Startup Genome report. We look at what's new, what we like, what we're cautious about—and how you can use the repo...

View on Facebook

Cultivating Startups

5 months ago

"Ten years ago, Buffalo did not lay out the welcome mat for new startups like it does today. There were no identifiable angel investors, no “open to the public” entrepreneurial accelerator" ... See MoreSee Less

Column: How Buffalo gained national recognition as a startup ecosystem - Buffalo - Buffalo Business First

bizjournals.com

If you read Victor W. Hang’s book, “The Rainforest: The Secrets to Building the Next Silicon Valley,” you know that the ultimate entrepreneurial ecosystem is described as a system in which every...

View on Facebook

Cultivating Startups

5 months ago

From Australia: "Taken from the state’s $60 million innovation fund, which LaunchVic administers, the $2.9 million will be dished out to 16 different service providers to run education programs for over 2000 Victorian startup founders and their staff." ... See MoreSee Less

LaunchVic unveils $2.9 million in funding to further educate and upskill Victorian startup founders - SmartCompany

smartcompany.com.au

The Victorian government’s startup support body LaunchVic has announced a swathe of funding for supporting startup founders in the state, dedicating $2.9 million towards better educating founders an...

View on Facebook

View on Facebook