Tominsky joins Iowa Startup Accelerator as program manager

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The Iowa Startup Accelerator, the first intensive, time-boxed accelerator in Iowa, announced today that David Tominsky will join the team as program manager.

"It's so far beyond the most exciting thing I've ever been a part of," Tominsky said. "For people around me to feel like I'm good at it is really humbling. It's a little surreal at times."

Tominsky is a 15-year veteran of the recruiting industry, and has been active in the Corridor's startup community by organizing Open Coffees, Barcamps, CoderDojo and the first Startup Weekend Cedar Rapids.

"He's really passionate about this community," said Eric Engelmann, co-founder and managing director of the ISA. "He's a great leader, and wants to engage more deeply with the ecosystem."

Tominsky founded his own recruiting business, CoreTCS, in 2010, but didn't find an entrepreneurial support network in Eastern Iowa until he joined a coworking space.

"I was so purely focused on what I was doing," he said. "The whole idea of a community and an ecosystem was foreign to me before I joined the Vault."

Startup Weekend Cedar Rapids was another turning point in his understanding of entrepreneurial communities.

"When you looked around, there were all these different stories that were running in parallel," he said. "People just had a real hope that they could make a freaking difference."

Engelmann said the program manager and managing director will play very similar roles as the accelerator launches. Currently the emphasis is on recruiting teams before the June 22 application deadline, and then narrowing the field to 10 startups.

The program manager will also build relationships with mentors, help teams plan and execute product launches and develop programming for the accelerator.

"For this year, it's going to be a tag team effort," he said.

Tominsky sees overlaps with his recruiting background and his new role.

"Some of these companies will have no idea where Iowa is, let alone Cedar Rapids," he said. "I have to convince them, and believe it. If I didn't believe it myself, it wouldn't work."

Tominsky joins a founding team comprised of prominent startup and community leaders, including: Andy Stoll and Amanda Styron-West of Seed Here Studio, Lydia Brown of Ascent Iowa, Ben Dillon and Engelmann of Geonetric, Bruce Lehrman of Involta, Michael Ott of Nidus Investment Partners and Barry and Gilda Boyer, formerly of Van Meter and Shuttleworth & Ingersoll, respectively.

"We started with the people who were already part of the community," Engelmann said. "I felt for the first year, that was important. These are the people who have been doing the work for free, essentially."

The accelerator will also bring in more than 100 mentors from around the country to work with the 10 young companies.

The Iowa Startup Accelerator will be just one part of a startup cluster being built at 415 12th Ave. SE. The new building will also house Geonetric, the 65-person software company Engelmann founded in 1999, Vault Coworking and Collaboration Space, events including Startup Weekends and 1 Million Cups, and possibly a few other organizations.

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We Create Here is a media partner of the Iowa Startup Accelerator.

Exploring the stories and personalities of Iowa's future economy.

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