Is Google Fiber Fostering a New "Research Triangle"?

Photo: Lucie Debelkova, Business Insider

In the 1950s, three cities distinguished themselves as the Research Triangle—Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill, North Carolina became a hub for numerous high-tech companies and enterprises. The Triangle was also born from North Carolina State University, Duke University and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Companies within The Triangle include American Airlines, Cisco Systems, General Electric, IBM, Toyota, Verizon and many others, making it one of the most high-tech areas of the country.


On the other side of the country lies Silicon Valley—an obvious hub for tech startups, investors, entrepreneurs, coworking spaces and technology. The East and West coasts seem to be covered. The same goes for the North and South with booming hubs such as Boston and Austin.

But what about the middle of the country? What does the Midwest bring to the technology table?

Kansas City may be the answer.  After being selected as the city that Google Fiber is to build its 1 Gigabit Fiber network on, the city seems to be exploding with entrepreneurship, startups, innovation, new business and technology.

But the city doesn’t have to go at it alone. Silicon Valley is made up of multiple locations, as is Research Triangle. But what cities will help Kansas City become a hub for tech startups? Could we build a Triangle of our own?

Could the next city be Council Bluffs? According to the Des Moines Register, Council Bluffs, Iowa is undergoing a major Google Fiber makeover. Google is currently seeking federal permission to put a satellite antenna farm near the Council Bluffs data center, a move that experts speculate would enable the company to receive movies and TV shows that could be bundled with the super-fast Internet services in Kansas City.

Could it be Omaha? With major entrepreneurial initiatives such as Big Omaha, Silicon Prairie News and many others, Omaha seems to be taking the startup world by storm. It wouldn’t be too surprising if Kansas City’s next-door-neighbor, Omaha, continued to make major Midwest moves when it comes to entrepreneurship—especially being so close to Google Fiber.

Could it be Chicago? There are so many entrepreneurial initiatives going on in Chicago, it’s hard to keep up. And Kansas City already has made great ties to the Windy City’s initiatives—OfficePort CHI, Entrepreneurs Unpluggd and Kauzu (winner of the Born Global Award of Think Big Partners’ Gigabit Challenge). Chicago would greatly benefit from the Google Fiber network and could help to strengthen the Midwest with its big-city approach.

What do you think? Are there other cities in the Midwest that should strive for entrepreneurial success like Kansas City? Could the Midwest become a hub of entrepreneurship, innovation and technology? We can’t help but say yes—after all, anything seems possible with Google Fiber!

Follow me! @AllisonThinkBig
Follow Google Fiber! @GoogleinKC

Dwolla: The Midwest Startup with 700 Interested Investors and a Billion Dollar Idea

How the startup that attracted 700 investors out of Des Moines, Iowa is impacting the world with a unique approach and creative culture.  

WRITTEN BY ALLISON WAY, SENIOR COPYWRITER & CHIEF EDITOR

It’s a pretty big deal to be named a Top 10 Startup of 2011.  But it’s an even bigger deal to be named a Top 10 Startup of 2011 and be from Des Moines, Iowa. 

A few days ago, ReadWriteWeb counted down the Top 10 Startups of 2011, which included a list of some of the most popular new businesses of the year like Zaarly, Fab.com, Pinterest, Dropbox and Evernote.  And among these well-known names was one company that was launched out of Des Moines, Iowa:  Dwolla.  

Dwolla is a mobile payment platform that sends and receives payments to bypass credit card fees.  With Dwolla, a user can sign up, load their accounts and head over to a retailer that uses Dwolla for mobile payments.  Dwolla offers a cheaper, safer and overall better payment experience.  

But in founder Ben Milne’s mind, Dwolla is much, much more than “a different and better way to access money.” 

Instead, Dwolla has become Milne’s haven for creation, innovation and collaboration.  The company has allowed Milne to build a culture unlike any that PayPal or Visa contribute to the user experience.  

“My favorite part of this venture has been the ability to create,” says Milne of launching the Dwolla startup.  “It’s empowering to come into the office with an idea and at the end of the day, it’s built.  At Dwolla, creation is just a part of everyday life.  Solving problems is part of our culture.”

And these problems are not ones that can be shooed away.  Dwolla has been known to be a product that solves “million dollar issues”.  According to Milne, the creation of Dwolla has positively affected people, small business and even large corporations. 

Although Dwolla is extremely successful (with over 700 interested investors and with moves between $30 and $50 million per month), Ben still believes that the company is just at the beginning on the startup journey.

“We have a long way to go,” he says.  “But these successes have truly validated our efforts.” 

But what’s it like building a successful startup out of the Midwest?  Obviously, Ben has not received the same resources or support that he would if he moved the company to Silicon Valley.  So how has the Des Moines startup gotten by? 

“The truth of the matter is, startups are hard everywhere,” says Milne.  “We actually had an advantage because we have a strong team and great community members.  If we had the opportunity to move, I would say no.  It’s good that it’s here.  We want it to be here.” 

How does Ben Milne of Dwolla Think Big?  “I don’t just want to pay the bills.  I want to do something that makes an impact.  I want to solve a problem that impacts the world.” 

We believe that Dwolla does just that. 

Follow me! @AllisonThinkBig

Thinc Iowa Amplifies Midwestern Entrepreneurship

It's no secret that there are a lot of entrepreneurial initiatives going on in Kansas City: Google Fiber, the Kauffman Foundation, The Gigabit Challenge (just to name a few).  Sometimes, we can't seem to keep up with it all.  But even when things seem to get so hectic, so busy and so exciting, we still have to take the time to look beyond the Kansas City community to glance at the booming entrepreneurial movement that's happening throughout the Midwest.  From Chicago to Omaha, St. Louis to Indianapolis. 

But you didn't think we'd be talking about Des Moines, Iowa, did you? 

This month, Des Moines will be a city hard to ignore.  Not only is entrepreneurship making leaps and bounds in this growing Midwestern city, but Des Moines also has an upcoming event sure to blow the socks off of any Midwestern entrepreneur.  It's called Thinc Iowa.

Thinc Iowa (October 20-21) will gather individuals from startups and established corporations across the U.S. for a day and a half of inspiration, idea generation and collaboration.  It's a whole new perspective for the entrepreneurial community from the people behind other knock-out Midwestern events like Big Omaha.

For those of you who can't help but believe that Thinc Iowa may be just a podunk conference in the middle of nowhere...think again.  With powerhouse speakers like Ben Silbermann (Pinterest), Scott Case (Startup America Partnership), Ben Milne (Dwolla), Douglas Olson (Microsoft) and many others, Thinc Iowa is changing the face of Midwestern entrepreneurship.  According to the Des Moines Register, Thinc Iowa's goal is to unite startups and corporations--something that the Midwest needs.

Ready to start thinking big at Thinc Iowa?  Register today!  Tickets start at $199.00...and it will be well worth the investment.  Take one day out of your busy startup week and get connected with some of the coolest entrepreneurs in the Midwest.

Written by Allison Way
@AllisonThinkBig

New bizperc Tenant LightEdge Solutions Raises $16M for Des Moines and KC Expansion

LightEdge Solutions, a hosted service provider focused on the needs of small and medium-sized businesses, may have moved into the bizperc coworking space a few short weeks ago, but it seems as if the company was always meant to call Kansas City its second home. 

"We are an entrepreneurial company," said TJ Bangs, Regional Vice President of LightEdge.  "We are growing and cutting-edge.  That is the same feeling that we got when we toured bizperc."

I met with TJ and one of his LightEdge colleagues for coffee one summer morning.  The meeting was based around LightEdge's agenda to expand to Kansas City (in addition to its current Des Moines location) and find the right connections in the KC area in order to make an impact in the industry.  The short 30-minute coffee meeting quickly turned into a tour of bizperc, a collaborative discussion with Think Big Partners' co-founder Herb Sih, and the signing of some tenant papers: LightEdge Solutions was joining bizperc.

And in perfect timing.  Just a few months before LightEdge opened its Kansas City office within the walls of bizperc, the company announced that it had secured $16M of private equity from The Anshutz Investment Company and debt financing from US Bank to double the capacity of its data center operations and launch in Kansas City.  Read more from the LightEdge press release. 

"LightEdge's ability to provide best in class collocation and cage space in addition to our fullly managed cloud services business makes us unique in Iowa and the Midwest," said Jeff Springborn, president and COO of LightEdge in the July 27th release.  "This expansion will enable the businesses of Iowa and other Midwestern states to continue to transform their daily IT delivery models to reduce costs and ensure high-availability IT operations."

bizperc and the Kansas City IT industries in general are growing exponentially.  LightEdge's $16M capital raise is just one testament to that. 

"When you look at what we do, we are 1 of 10 in the nation that provides cloud service.  Kansas City is underserved in that area.  This is a technology need in Kansas City." 

Thanks for joining the bizperc (and Kansas City) community, LightEdge!  Happy to have you on board for further coworking, networking and collaborating. 

Written by Allison Way
@AllisonThinkBig