Have we finally made it? According to the calendar, spring is finally here. I’m holding my breath, waiting for one more nasty winter storm to finish out the harshest winter that we’ve had in a few years. I’m sure that if I put the snowblower away this early, I’ll have to get the stupid thing out one more time. So, it’s best to just leave it ready to go with half a tank of gas from the last time I used it. It doesn’t mean that I can’t clean out and organize the garage around it.
I think that I swept a beach’s worth of sand and a tree’s worth of leaves out of the garage this past weekend. All of the Christmas decorations finally made it back into storage, and I’ve started to unearth a number of summer toys that all need to be re-inflated. I took three truckloads of recyclables to the collection center, and the garbage can is full of debris that had just been sitting in the garage all winter, waiting for a decision to be made about its fate. Getting everything cleaned out and put away makes it feel like we actually managed to survive this horrible winter, and that spring might finally be here.
Let “entrepreneurial season” commence!
Entrepreneurial season is that wonderful time of year when startup leaders emerge from their cocoons and start interacting with one another at events and activities throughout the region. It’s still too cold to spend a great deal of time outside comfortably, but it’s warm enough to move around the Midwest again without fear of hitting a patch of ice and sliding into a ditch. (Granted, most of the ditches in the Midwest right now are filled with water.) I look forward to these few weeks each year between the start of the thaw and the start of summer vacations, even though the calendar is completely full. It’s the time of year to make new connections and rekindle old connections that may have been forgotten.
The beginning of entrepreneurial season is marked by the spring edition of Iowa Startup Games. I’ve now helped mentor student teams at Iowa Startup Games half a dozen times, and each time has been a fantastic experience. This year’s games were no exception. However, unlike previous events, there was no clear-cut breakout team prior to the pitches. At past events, there was always one or two teams who I thought were the clear winners prior to the Sunday afternoon pitches. This time around, there were five or six teams that easily could place in the top three – it would just come down to how well the teams performed at the final pitches.
It was a bit refreshing to see some parity in the teams this time around. Not having one or two breakout teams makes the final pitch event more fun to watch, because you don’t know which direction the judges will go with their discussion. I hope that future Iowa Startup Games events wind up having multiple viable top teams leading into the final pitches, and I’m hoping that we can achieve this at Startup Weekend Iowa City as well.
The main thrust of entrepreneurial season happens late April through late May, as a number of events occur throughout the state of Iowa. I’ll be able to go to most of them – only EntreFEST overlaps with my trip to the Great Lakes International Cider and Perry Competition, or GLINTCAP. I’ll be starting off the big month-long push with a trip over to central Iowa to attend the Des Moines Tech Crawl on the evening of April 25. It looks like the Des Moines startup and tech scene are going to be pretty well represented that evening, and I’m looking forward to better connecting with a lot of the companies over there, to promote cross-pollination between Des Moines’ and Iowa City’s startup communities. Also, talking to tech CEOs in person usually leads to better connections than random cold emails from afar.
I’ll then head about the road to Ames for the Young Entrepreneur Convention on April 26 and 27. The organizers held this convention in Des Moines the previous three years, but decided to move things closer to home this year. I’m really interested in seeing how they shake up the program this year, with the focus now solely on tech and entrepreneurship topics. I haven’t decided whether or not to participate in the elevator pitch competition this year – Cider Finder has evolved over the last year, but we still don’t yet have the traction that we need to win over the judges. Maybe I’ll flip a coin closer to April 1, when pitch competition registration opens, to decide my fate.
After traveling to Michigan in mid-May for GLINTCAP, I’ll be heading to Des Moines once again for Monetery, a conference designed for tech startups to collide with investors and thought leaders. The organizers of Monetery have drastically expanded this year’s event – last year was a free half-day affair, but this year is a paid two-day event with a bigger keynote, more sessions, and the opportunity to meet one-on-one with investors on the second day of the event. I’m assuming that there is going to be some overlap in population with the people who will attend the Des Moines Tech Crawl, but I’m hoping to make some solid new connections as well with people from outside the area.
I’m not meaning to gloss over GLINTCAP – it’s just not officially part of entrepreneurial season. I sent in my application to volunteer at GLINTCAP, either as a steward or in another capacity. I’m hoping to hear back relatively soon to see how they are going to utilize my presence during the event. GLINTCAP also coincides with Grand Rapids Cider Week, which should be a great experience itself. I’m a bit upset that EntreFEST is the same week as GLINTCAP, so I can’t attend both events. Some of the speakers look interesting, and the parties are usually the best part of the EntreFEST experience. Hopefully, friends will take notes during the speakers and fill me in on what I miss.
Usually, entrepreneurial season takes a bit of a hiatus over the summer, with the exception of Startup Weekend Iowa City. I’ve started to put together an amazing group of sponsors for the event, many of whom were involved during last year’s event. Tickets are selling at about the same pace as they did last year, even though I haven’t done much of a marketing push to get attendees to sign up. Marketing will be ramping up as the spring events start happening throughout the state. In a couple of weeks, I’ll also be starting to reach out to potential mentors and judges, starting with the mentor list from last year. I have several people in mind who would be great judges this year, and I’ll be reaching out to them soon as well. I don’t want to give any names away here – you’ll just have to wait and see if you get the call.
There’s a great deal to anticipate over the next couple of months. I’m so glad winter – especially this horrible winter – is finally nearing an end. Here’s to a successful entrepreneurial season for all!