Small Business and Startup Stories DSM

A Greater Des Moines (DSM) startup says they’ve developed a process to cross-pollinate corn that not only eliminates the need for manual labor but also can increase yields by up to 80 percent.

A Greater Des Moines (DSM) mom's mission to help parents across the world, one catch at a time.

Crème Cupcake + Dessert owner Christina Moffatt was turned down by seven banks but her business still succeeded.

Megan Vollstedt became the Executive Director of the Iowa AgriTech Accelerator in 2017 after rising up through the ranks at Workiva in Ames, Iowa.

Founder and CEO Ben Milne launched Dwolla in 2010. Its customer-facing technology meant it soon got a high public profile as it worked from its Downtown Des Moines (DSM) location moving millions of dollars a day.

Kaylee Williams is the president of VolunteerLocal, a volunteer scheduling and registration platform. Williams joined the founding team at VolunteerLocal and led the strategic growth of the business into national and international markets. Customers include Lululemon, the United States Marine Corps, Ironman, Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival and the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras in Australia, the largest LGBTQ event in the world. Williams is passionate about community service and diversity in tech. She is a triathlete, bass guitar player and volunteer coach for Girls on the Run.

FarrPro is focused on eliminating premature death of piglets. Amos Petersen, CEO of FarrPro, is the son and grandson of Iowa farmers and a serial entrepreneur, and is an impressive mixture of theorist, economist and determined doer.

Hear in his own words about the amazing, sometimes brutally fast growth of his hardware company. Learn how he is leveraging existing research and technology in entirely new ways to solve long-standing problems with tremendous financial upside.