Innovation Index: Updates from Venture School, the Iowa Startup Accelerator, and 1 Million Cups

We Create Here was an initiative within the Gazette Company to develop evolving narratives and authentic conversations throughout Iowa's Creative Corridor. read more

Welcome to the Innovation Index. This is our weekly(ish) spot to round up links and news items from around the web relating to startups, innovation and entrepreneurship in Iowa's Creative Corridor and beyond, so you never miss a thing. You can help! Email me news and notes. 

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News and notes:

• Congrats to the 11 teams that completed Venture School's student accelerator yesterday! Final pitches and demonstrations happened at hotelVetro, with question and answer from a panel of judges and several prizes awarded. Laugh out loud moment from video game blog Bosscaster (pictured): "We got out of the building, we went to do our customer discovery. The first thing we learned is, our customers are not outside."
  • Prizes: $500 for business continuity to Flourish and Post Grad Nation
  • $500 for best customer discovery to Baby Brusher
  • $1,000 for best pitch to Bosscaster
  • $1,000 for best pivot to inVisible
  • $1,000 for best opportunity to SwineGuard
  • $1,000 for most improved to Podmi Hydroponics

• More from Venture School: Read about the new program just for university faculty, that is being developed with a grant from the National Science Foundation. Applications are open. (Iowa Now)
• (Hopefully) exciting announcement from 1 Million Cups, the weekly event for education and inspiration (that I help organize): On August 5, we're testing out a new location! We're going to FilmScene, in hopes that a setting in the heart of the Iowa City ped mall can make the event that much more engaging. Please attend (RSVP and info on meetup) and help us spread the word.

• Nate Matherson, co-founder of Iowa Startup Accelerator portfolio company LendEDU, wrote a great blog post on 'how to launch a startup from your college dorm room.' Students, there's less holding you back than you imagine. (business2community.com)

• Read an update from the Iowa Startup Accelerator on how they chose their 2015 class, with the help of a new pre-accelerator program. (ISA)
• Jordan Kauffman has been named Director of Startups at the University of Iowa, in the office of research and economic development. (Research.uiowa.edu)
• Max Farrell, the Des Moinesian who has facilitated Startup Weekends and other events in the Corridor, includes loads of practical advice in his weekly dispatches about building new startup WorkHound from Omaha's Straight Shot accelerator. Check out week 5 for examples of how to ask the right to get better results. (medium.com/maxonthetrack)

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Mark your calendar:

• July 27: Health 2.0 meetup. Information on meetup.com.
• July 28: Agile Lunch and Learn by Iowa Tech Chicks. Information on meetup.com.
• July 30: DrupalCorn Camp 2015. Three-day conference. Information on meetup.com.
• August 5: Special edition of 1 Million Cups, with the Iowa Fashion Project and Sift. Information on meetup.com.
• August 18: WordPress meetup. Information on meetup.com.
• September 21-23: WorldBlu Freedom at Work Bootcamp, hosted at Geonetric. Information on worldblu.com.
• October 21: Innovation Expo 2015. Information on eventbrite.com.
• November 5: Iowa Startup Accelerator launch day 2015. Information on iowastartupaccelerator.com
• Send any startup and creative community events I missed to sarah.binder@sourcemedia.net.