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Business Record innovationIOWA Weekly | July 25, 2019
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Gravitate Coworking celebrates new downtown home
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Gravitate Coworking's new location downtown, at 500 Locust St. Photo contributed
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Since founding Gravitate Coworking in 2014, Geoff Wood has never held the giant novelty ribbon-cutting scissors. Tonight, at Gravitate Downtown’s grand reopening in a new office, he should have his chance.
"I’m kind of excited about that," he noted on Tuesday.
Gravitate’s new downtown location at 500 Locust Street is just a hop-skip away from the former offices on Locust. Construction finished on the new digs in April. The new location offers reserved and flexible seating options, a "stairitorium," three phone booths, reservable conference rooms, lockers and 14 office spaces -- including longtime office renters such as Hatchlings and Gravitate newcomer the Des Moines Downtown Chamber of Commerce.
Today's open house from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. features two ribbon-cuttings for both Gravitate downtown and the Des Moines Downtown Chamber, which has never had an office before.
Gravitate 2.0, as Wood calls it online, is actually the company’s third location. At its launch, Gravitate was based out of the Midland Building on Sixth Avenue and had about 30 coworking members.
"I would say that the
original space was kind of a proof of concept, like a minimum viable coworking space," Wood said. "But that really took hold and grew. … I think we offer a lot better product today than we did in 2014."
Now, Gravitate Coworking hosts about 70 individuals month-to-month downtown, representing about 50 companies, at various membership levels from daily passes to reserved dedicated desks or offices. Gravitate also has a Valley Junction location at the West Des Moines Business Incubator on Fifth Street, which they joined in 2017.
"It is definitely meant to be kind of a
celebration, because this has been a long, long process for us to get here. Now we’re excited that we’re here; we want everybody to see it," Wood said. "This is kind of our forever home, the flagship location … [but] we’re looking at other things further out in different parts of the metro right now."
That includes fielding a few phone calls from property owners in the Des Moines metro, who have expressed interest in bringing the Gravitate model to their lots, Wood said.
"It’s given us a path for the future of the company. We’re seeing different places that we could
go besides just downtown Des Moines," he added. "I think we’re really visible here at this corner at Fifth and Locust, and we have all these windows. It’s an attractive place to be."
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IN THE NEWS
innovationIOWA awarded silver for Best Specialty Newsletter at national conference
innovationIOWA, the Des Moines Business Record’s weekly e-newsletter covering technology news statewide, received recognition of editorial excellence at the 2019 Alliance of Area Business Publishers’ Summer Conference in Atlanta. The recognition was one of 116 Editorial Excellence awards presented by AABP to publications from the U.S., Canada and Australia. innovationIOWA received the silver recognition in the Best Specialty e-Newsletter category. The award was one of three earned by the Business Record, including silver recognition of Business Record Daily in the Best Daily Email category and bronze recognition of its Greater project for Best Use of Multimedia. The innovationIOWA e-newsletter launched in 2018 as a weekly expansion of the annual innovationIOWA Magazine, and covers the innovative people, products and processes helping Iowa businesses do
business better.
2019 CYstarters Demo Day to take place Aug. 1
The 2019 CYstarters Demo Day, which showcases Iowa State University student teams in the CYstarters Accelerator, will host members of the public on Aug. 1 from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at the Iowa State Economic Development Core Facility in the ISU Research Park. RSVPs are recommended. The 11-week CYstarters program is hosted by the ISU Pappajohn Center for Entrepreneurship and offers student founders between $6,500 and $13,000 in grants to launch their businesses, along with mentorship, accountability and educational sessions on building a business. Fifteen startups will present their product or service to the public.
Iowa
Workers' Comp launches web-based filing system
The Iowa Division of Workers’ Compensation has launched a web-based filing system for attorneys, workers, employers and insurers. The new Workers’ Compensation Electronic System will allow the division to transition from paper filing to electronic filing, the agency said in a release. "WCES will bring the Iowa work comp system into the 21st century," said Joseph Cortese II, Iowa Workers’ Compensation commissioner. "The new system will be easier to access for Iowans. Electronic filing will also help the agency operate more efficiently." Key features of the new system include web-based access for users, individual user accounts and 24-hour e-filing capability, as well as email notifications of agency decisions and filings. Users must
request an account on the WCES website to eFile. There is no cost to register. For a video on how to request an account, click here.
Economic Development Board approves innovation funding to five startups
The Iowa
Economic Development Authority (IEDA) Board approved innovation funding to support five Iowa startups located in Des Moines, Le Claire, West Des Moines and Iowa City.
- HomePainter, based in Des Moines, has developed an online estimating tool that provides homeowners with an accurate paint estimate in less than five minutes, then subcontracts booked jobs to local vetted and registered painters. The company was awarded a $25,000 Proof of Commercial Relevance (POCR) loan for product refinement, market planning and key personnel.
- Le Claire-based Trigger Interactive LLC is currently under development of A.I.M.S.S. (Attachable Interactive Modular Shooting System). A.I.M.S.S. is a wireless and expandable system of smart target attachments that mount to steel firearm targets and give the targets the ability to interact with the user. Trigger Interactive
was awarded a $25,000 POCR loan for market analysis, proof of concept work, product refinement, market planning, key personnel and equipment.
- MakuSafe Corp. in West Des Moines produces proprietary wearable technology and gathers real-time environmental and motion data from workers to identify high-risk trends in a facility. The company was awarded a $100,000 loan from the Demonstration Fund for market planning and key personnel.
- Based in Iowa City, Rantizo Inc. is developing an integrated drone-based platform for the identification of in-field anomalies and targeted aerial application of agricultural chemicals via its electrostatic spray technology. Rantizo was awarded a $100,000 loan from the Demonstration Fund for product development and evaluation, field trials, product refinement, market planning, key personnel, equipment, initial production costs and regulatory advancement.
- Lender Close Inc., based in West Des Moines, is a web-based application/software built to provide credit unions and community lenders the latest mortgage lending technology products. The company was awarded a $250,000 Propel loan from the Iowa Innovation Acceleration Fund for compliance and risk management.
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FROM THE BUSINESS RECORD:
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
These stories originally appeared in the Business Record's e-newsletters and weekly publication.
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ONE GOOD TECH READ
Social media companies are outsourcing their dirty work to the Philippines. A generation of workers is paying the price.
WASHINGTON POST: A year after quitting his job reviewing some of the most gruesome content the internet has to offer, Lester
prays every week that the images he saw can be erased from his mind. First as a contractor for YouTube and then for Twitter, he worked on a high-up floor of a mall in Manila, where he spent up to nine hours each day weighing questions about the details in those images. He made decisions about whether a child’s genitals were being touched accidentally or on purpose, or whether a knife slashing someone’s neck depicted a real-life killing — and if such content should be allowed online. The moderators worked for Facebook, Facebook-owned Instagram, Google-owned YouTube, Twitter and the Twitter-owned video-streaming platform Periscope, as well as other such apps, all through
intermediaries such as Accenture and Cognizant.
IN OTHER NEWS: Doctors wary of contact lens startups (NEW YORK TIMES); Before failing, Mic tried to run a millennial news website on a startup’s mindset (HUFFPOST).
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MEMBERSHIP EXCLUSIVE CONTENT
The art of the new festival
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Back in 2008, on the first night of the first 80/35 Music Festival, Des Moines Music Coalition cofounder Justin Schoen was learning about Twitter. "There wasn’t near the kind of reach that there is now," Schoen recalled. "[A friend] had told me about this new thing, Twitter, and I was like, ‘I’ll try it out and send a tweet at 80/35.’" As 80/35 grew up, organizers with a range in years of experience were rapidly adjusting to advertise and promote the event on social media. It was one of the most visible changes for audiences watching the festival scene in Des Moines explode over the last few years. Yet behind the scenes at the region’s festivals, organizers have been working to implement new technologies to change the event management -- from applications and event ticketing, to staff coordination and payment systems -- in an effort to develop a smoother experience for everyone. Read more
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BUSINESS RECORD CALENDAR
UPCOMING EVENTS
Aug. 8: From Diapers to Dogs: How disruption transforms businessesFrom the "Today Show" to the National Academy of Sciences, people are interested in what makes the culture of Girl Scouts of Greater Iowa so unique. Beth Shelton, CEO, will share how they make disruptive decisions, support their 120 staff members and the incredible business outcomes they've experienced. WHERE: Des Moines Golf and Country Club, 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Read more
Aug. 9: TAI's TechBrew AM
At TechBrew AM, TAI President Brian Waller conducts a casual interview with an Iowa technology executive, who shares their favorite music for vinyl Friday, discusses their career path, and talks about what’s most important for Iowa's technology community moving forward.
WHERE:
West End Architectural Salvage, 8-9 a.m.
Read more
View our full calendar to see the latest curated business and community events, or suggest an
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