Abby Rowling
The Human Moment: Coworking for your health

When it comes to leading a healthy and fulfilling life, it's not just about hitting the gym and eating your veggies. Studies have shown that community and connection play a vital role in our overall well-being, both mentally and physically.

Joining a coworking community can do wonders for your mental well-being by providing a space that fosters and strengthens social connections. It's not just about the physical amenities like a desk, coffee, and Wi-Fi, but rather the built-in network of individuals who can become your friends, support system, or even your future partner (we've seen it happen!).

The Human Moment: Coworking for your health

UpCraft Club

The top Iowa innovation community news for 2016

The following is a look back at the things that really stood out in the Iowa innovation community in 2016. To create it, I combed through the past 51 issues of The Pull and grouped the highlights into three pretty handy categories: Acquisitions, Accelerators and Investment. Of course, there were several other items that I wanted to include that didn't fit as neatly into one of the categories so you'll find them at the end in the "The Year in Other Stuff" section.

Putting together a post like this really makes one appreciate how much ground we cover as a community in the course of a year. You're all pretty great. 

Iowa Startup Power Rankings—July/August

We're now four months into doing the monthly Iowa Startup Power Rankings and I'm tweaking things just a bit. Rather than posting towards the end of the month with a floating time frame for recognition, I've decided to push the publish date until after the first of the month. That means that we'll be able to consistently recognize the efforts of the people and companies in our community from the calendar month prior. Also, it means that this post isn't technically late even though today is August 3rd and the post is about July (when all else fails, change the rules).

The APEC "Women and the Economy" forum in Peru

In March UpCraft Club was part of the Small Business Administration's InnovateHER competition...and we WON! Since that competition, the SBA has been incredibly helpful in connecting us with opportunities to continue moving UpCraft Club forward and a month ago they asked if I'd like to travel to the APEC 'Women and the Economy' forum in Lima, Peru as part of the US State Department delegation. During the forum, Russia held a pitch competition, co-sponsored by the US and Chinese Taipei and UpCraft Club was asked to represent the United States!

Iowa Startup Power Rankings—May

Welcome back to the Iowa Startup Power Rankings! We kicked things off with a bang last month as Tourney Machine was a clear number one after their big news of being acquired by Sports Illustrated Play. They are absent from the list this month (sorry folks—an acquisition or IPO means you're ineligible moving forward) and we welcome three new companies to their first ever power rankings.

Iowa Startup Power Rankings—April

Welcome to the first ever Iowa Startup Community Power Rankings! The idea is to highlight the most interesting things being done within our statewide community at any given time. The plan is to publish around mid-month and recognize companies for the things they've accomplished in the 30 (or so) days prior.

The five most interesting startups in Des Moines

It’s on me to have a list of most-interesting startups to share and promote and I realized that I’ve never done that publicly. So, I sat down this week and put together my own current top five “most interesting” list.

Minimum Viable Podcast—Episode 17

Matt Patane, technology and innovation reporter for the Des Moines Register and Geoff Wood, community builder at Gravitate, sit down for an in-depth discussion of the companies, events and ideas making news in the Iowa innovation community.

Topics discussed on this episode: NCAA tourney in Des Moines, follow up from SXSW, calling Matt out on Twitter, UpCraft wins national InnovateHER, CYstarters at ISU and Mediacom announced gigabit service for all

Feedback, thoughts or suggestions? Hit us up on Twitter or email the show at mvp@gravitatedsm.com

Minimum Viable Podcast—Episode 11

Matt Patane, technology and innovation reporter for the Des Moines Register and Geoff Wood, community builder at Gravitate, sit down for an indepth discussion of the companies, events and ideas making news in the Iowa innovation community.

Topics discussed on this episode: Global Insurance Accelerator announces new class, UpCraft Club finalist for InnovateHER and the St. Martin Land Company.

Feedback, thoughts or suggestions? Hit us up on Twitter or email the show at mvp@gravitatedsm.com