The bookends of silicon sixth avenue
Unlike recent stories, this one starts with one of the OGs of the current startup community. A transplant to Des Moines, eager to inject new thought and blood into the community was readily welcomed by the downtown community. Joining the tribe and adopting Richard Florida’s 2002 hypothesis that the emergent class of workers comprising knowledge, artist and entrepreneurs would grow communities, he ultimately found himself at a recently restored 1910s building in downtown Des Moines.
The Spark
Dan Shipton moved to Des Moines in 2006 seeking creative projects with impact. Unable to find an existing home for the city’s creatives, he spearheaded the creation of a tribe and place. Impromptu Studios was born in the building at SW 5th and Martin Luther King Jr Pkwy, a stone’s throw from the city’s new science center. It had already been home to Brett Trout’s law practice and the Emerging Growth Group. In its new life, modeled after “Indy Hall”, learned its initial vibe and philosophy from Indy’s founder Alex Hilman, all via an equally new platform, Twitter. The Des Moines register described it as:
“a gathering place for geeks, entrepreneurial enablers and tech-minded cheerleaders who were happy to promote a Silicon Vally-style concept springing up in flyover country" —- Brianne Sanchez for the Des Moines Register, Dec 15, 2010
Sarah Lacy, author of “Brilliant, Crazy, Cocky”, then a writer for TechCrunch and later co-founder of Pando Daily, was traveling the US and learning about the varied ways entrepreneurship was finding a new voice across the country. She visited Impromptu and added color not only to its wall but also to its vibe. She might be one of the first to have inspired the community to own its swagger, limited as it was then, rather than look to Silicon Valley or other ecosystems for validation. That spirit and swagger continues in the community, sparked by that tiny studio that left everlasting impact.
The Fuel
No community exists without human connections and Impromptu fostered many. In addition to the coworking spaces, it hosted events including Des Moines’ first startup event, IgniteDSM. It is great to see Leann Jacobsen, then President of Technology Association of Iowa, Jason Walsmith of the Nadas, Brett Trout of his namesake law practice, Nathan Wright, Andy Brudkuhl, and other early members at that IgniteDSM in the gallery below.
It even attracted media and government….
But did they make anything…?
The members of this nascent community found their work in myriad ways as they ideated on future companies. Dan began consulting for the Great Ape Trust in Des Moines, helping with the research to try and introduce currency to Orangutangs via a custom vending machine.
He would find the inspiration for his breakout product at home. Eat Sleep, their baby tracking app for the recently launched and wildly popular iPhone just as Dan was expecting their first child. Simultaneously, his team also found use cases for push notifications, an intriguing new feature of the recently released iPhone. The BNO news app leveraging push notifications was born in a revenue sharing contract and found a massive fan base. The company leveraged the exposure to sell to MSNBC within months of first launching.
This knowledge gained from pushing news added to Bitmethod’s repertoire and the small team found new connections. Smartypig came to life as a savings-focused application for Mike Ferrari’s West Des Moines based-startup. Other customers included Kum & Go and Mars Cafe, but hunt continued for a killer app that would be fully Bitmethod’s own.
Action brewing up the street…
Though the building south of MLK was an epicenter, additional activity seemed to be brewing just a few blocks north at the corner of 6th Ave and Mulberry. A new startup was emerging in 2010 fresh from their borrowed digs at Palisade Systems. Ben Milne’s 2nd company, Dwolla, was beginning to expand and found space at the Midland Building. This move not only cemented the building’s place in the entrepreneurial ecosystem, it also became the beachhead for “Silicon Sixth Avenue”.
Silicon Prairie News (SPN), the news, media and events startup expanded from its home market in Omaha and created its Iowa footprint in the building. Amici, the coffee shop on the ground floor would become the new epicenter.
Bitmethod, by now had a duo at its helm. Igor Dobrosalvejic became a new partner and member of the management team. They shuttered Impromptu Studios at its original location and moved the community to the “Liberty Building” at 6th and Grand Ave, the other end of the 6th Avenue startup corridor. Residents included the application and web development teams (Bitmethod), Igor’s systems consulting arm Grand Consulting, writer-creative couple Scott Kubie and Cat Rocketship, game developer Josh Larsen, Jeremy Harrington and more.
Renaming the Street
As 2010 came to a close with Dwolla rising as the startup darling, SPN telling the startup and founder stories, Des Moines’ rising interest in entrepreneurship, the Greater Des Moines Partnership’s investments in Business Innovation Zone, and Iowa Economic Development Authority’s startup-friendly programs. StartupCity Des Moines, a new entity for entrepreneurial programs was brewing through community discussions and potential space had just been found.
As StartupCity’s founders, Christian Renaud and I, walked Lynn Hicks and Marco Santana from the Des Moines Register through the potential space, Lynn looked down at 6th Ave and wondered what the street could become. Consistent with communities across the country, we too adopted the “silicon” moniker as Lynn christened the three-block section of 6th Ave - Silicon Sixth Avenue.
The StartupCity Des Moines story is a later chapter yet to come. The street is quite different today in 2025 than its 2011 verison but the echoes of each of the entities listed still reverberate. The original building, once home to StartupCity Des Moines, now is home to OpenLoop, and carries the startup’s name as the building’s too!
The diaspora
The stories and outcomes from that street are a mixed set, almost as diverse as the individuals who made them. What is immutable, however, is the second, third and later order effects of many:
StartupCity Des Moines: wildly successful in 3 short years in establishing Iowa’s footprint in the entrepreneurial ecosystem. It captured attention and brought heads of state, politicians, Presidential hopefuls and Hollywood. Though its financial model was never realized, its diaspora continues as Plains Angels, Global Insurance Accelerator, and Gravitate.
Silicon Prairie News: SPN’s outsize impact in story telling was instrumental in the midwestern ecosystem’s successes. Its flagship conferences, Big Omaha and Thinc Iowa ensured inspiration for entrepreneurs of all interests and motivations. Having expanded too quickly, SPN began to withdraw from the Iowa and Missouri markets and seemingly disappeared for a while. It has only recently been resurrected in the Nebraska ecosystem and is recreating old magic. Thankfully, its original stories are archived by the generous support of the Nebraska Journalism Trust and still available to help tell this story.
Dwolla: Dwolla grew wildly in the consumer markets and expanded its reach into B2B transactions. It raised and deployed significant venture funds from venerable firms and, for a while, even expanded its footprint in the valley. The company moved through management and company changes over the years and returned to Des Moines. It operates a few blocks from the original Silicon Sixth Ave.
Plains Angels: StartupCity recognized the need for an angel ecosystem in central Iowa. A group launched in May 2012 to bring accredited angel investors together and began a monthly cycle of reviewing startups and investing in several. It made a few operational mistakes in the early years but corrected them iteratively to become the version it remains today. Almost 90 angel investors evaluate deal flow and have made 50+ individual and group investments.
Gravitate: A keen need emerged concurrently with the winding down of StartupCity in 2014. Geoff Wood, who had led the SPN Iowa team tried to ask and inspire the creation of a coworking community like Impromptu Studio and parts of StartupCity. With no emergent leader, he (thankfully!) formed Gravitate, now the premier coworking community across Central Iowa.
BitMethod: continued to develop and build its point-of-sale product seeking product market fit. It found customer acceptance amongst fans but ultimately succumbed to Square’s competitive success in the markets.
Grand Consulting: continues to grow as a systems and consulting practice. Igor and team continue to operate from downtown Des Moines, albeit from a new office closer to I235 and Keo way.
Mainframe Studios: Though technically not a member of the diaspora, Mainframe Studios, the country’s largest and unique community continues Richard Florida’s original hypothesis. This building and community is home to numerous artists and creators representing painters, photographers, game developers, illustrators, book binders, authors, glass blowers, potters, calligraphers, ceramists, poets, consultants, writers and more. Creative leaders such as Nathan Wright and Josh Larsen have studios in this facility and continue to create from Mainframe. The First Friday event hosted across the entire facility routinely attracts hundreds who engage with and buy from entrepreneur artists.
Why is any of this important?
There are two models about growing entrepreneurial ecosystems. Brad Feld published the Boulder Thesis - an Entreprenurial commandment that puts entrepreneurs at the center of the ecosystem - both in charge of it and providing it nurturing care. In a fireside chat at StartupCity in 2012, he cautioned the nascent community against appointing a “CEO of the Startup Community”. I am proud of this community to have heeded that advice.
The MIT Regional Entrepreneurial Acceleration Program’s model presents a pentagram with ecosystem building in the hands of a collective of entrepreneurs, government, universities, corporates and risk capital. Their published successful models tend to highlight persistence of communities in the hands of government and economic development.
My observation is that we seem to have landed upon a middle ground. The community has a paucity of sustained care in the hands of entrepreneurs who are naturally and rightfully focused on building their companies. Simultaneously, however, the sustained support from Debi Durham of the Iowa Economic Development Authority and all three CEOs of the Greater Des Moines Partnership over 15+ years has remained meaningful and impactful.
We may, perhaps, have found the secret sauce.
Sources:
Interview with Dan Shipton
Personal Memories of Silicon Sixth Avenue
Sparking a Tech Boom, December 2010, from the Des Moines Register archives courtesy Des Moines Public Library
Flickr archives of the Impromptu Studio
I am a proud member of the Iowa Startup Collective, a group of writers exploring entrepreneurship across Iowa. Click the link above to checkout my peers’ work
Great overview of the OGs and activities — I learned a great deal!