What They’re Thinking: NewBoCo executive talks about growing Iowa’s startup ecosystem

Aaron Horn has a long list for what he wants to see the New Bohemian Innovation Collaborative accomplish while he's chief operating officer.

From building a local investor pool to expanding a coding school and bolstering corporate innovation, those efforts feed into NewBoCo's mission to grow start-ups in Iowa, Horn said.

'We can make that happen and if we have to bring teams in to do that, absolutely, we'll import them, and we'll show them how great it is here and we'll try to keep them here,' he said.

A former information technology manager, Horn has been around Iowa's startup community for years. He is also the founder of Beat Cancer Today, an organization that raises money for childhood cancer research.

Horn joined NewBoCo as COO in early September. He recently spoke to The Gazette about his new role and Iowa's startup ecosystem.

Q: What got you interested in the startup community?

A: I had an entrepreneurship degree from Iowa State, so it's always something I've been super interested in. I've just never had that one idea where I felt like, 'OK, I need to create a startup.' I just wanted to surround myself with start-ups.

Q: If you wanted to be around start-ups, why do that in Iowa? Why not move to Silicon Valley or New York?

A: There's this high-level desire to see (startup growth) happen here, and if you don't have people trying to make that happen here, it just won't. ... I just had this idea that why would I run off to Chicago or Silicon Valley to be a part of startup activity when people were trying to do that here.

Q: Do you think the state of Iowa is making progress in its startup community?

A: I think we have a lot of work to do. … Generally, especially here at NewBoCo, we just feel like it's not enough. We feel like we're doing a lot here at NewBoCo and it's not enough. ... We just take that on personally as we're not just going to look around and say, 'The state of Iowa is not doing enough.'' We're just going to dig our heels in and say, 'Where are the gaps and what do we need to do to fill that?' That's a really good example of where DeltaV (Code School) came from.

Q: Is there a big obstacle getting in the way of the startup community growing?

A: If there was one big obstacle then it would be very clear, we would work together to remove that obstacle and we'd see an explosion. The problem is it's a lot of little obstacles. That's why NewBoCo gets the reputation that we do so much. It's because we see a lot of gaps that need to be filled, but we see the ecosystem as this really big thing that has a lot of moving parts and if these different parts are broken, then we're not going to see that big growth.

Q: What is something that you want really want to make happen as COO?

A: I want to see Corridor Angels, the Corridor angel investor network, grow. We've got about 40 active members. ... I would like to see us grow DeltaV, but expand it both here and, if it makes sense, in Des Moines. ... We have huge potential with (a collaboration with) Code.org. We have such huge potential for growing computer science in the state of Iowa and we're really passionate about it. I think we're actually really well positioned to make a huge dent.

Q: What would your pitch be to someone who wants to start a company in Iowa?

A: My pitch is, we've got the resources here to help you grow and accelerate your business. We have the talent here. ... If you can have a really low cost of operations, if you can have a great mentor network, if you can have the investors here, what do you need to run off to New York or Boston or Silicon Valley and pay astronomical pricing for a one-bedroom apartment to live there when you can do it here?

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