The Business of Building Iowa
Iowa's future is ours to build.
From first-time founders to Fortune 500 companies and investors, everyone has a seat at the table.
Made in Iowa · Built together
We bring 
founders, companies and investors together → to turn ideas into businesses and build a stronger Iowa.
Start here / What’s here for you
Pick who you are. See what’s open and your next step.
I run a business
Find customers, capital and people who’ve done it.
Your next step: Tell us what you needI lead a company
Meet Iowa's newest founders and talent first.
Your next step: See partnership optionsI'm a student or school
A paid route to a great career, starting in high school.
Your next step: Bring it to your school01 / The big idea
Better things happen when we build together.
The next great Iowa business could start at a kitchen table, in a classroom, on a factory floor or inside a Fortune 500 company. Iowa has plenty of ideas and capable people. What it needs is more ways to bring them together.
About us →02 / Why it matters
Every business we build shapes the Iowa we live in.
Clean water, good food, better education and stronger communities. No one can solve these alone, so each cohort takes one on and builds businesses behind the answer.
Build what Iowa needs →
03 / Women Build Iowa
When women build businesses, all of Iowa gains.
Women are building companies and creating jobs across Iowa, and access to capital and connections still lags. We put women founders at the center of our work. Keep her. Back her. Hire her. Invest in her.
Get involved →04 / For companies
Help build what's next.
Meet Iowa's newest founders and talent first, bring your toughest problems to a hackathon and show up where Iowa's future is being built.
Partner with us →05 / What we do
From first idea to what's next.
Five areas of work and one purpose: connecting the people, resources and opportunities that make Iowa businesses possible.
001 / Ideas
Good ideas deserve a chance.
Hackathons, challenges and events where different people take on real problems together.
002 / Innovation
The next big thing could come from anywhere.
Established companies meet founders, startups, universities and independent thinkers.
003 / Startups
Turn an idea into a business.
Formation, setup, first customers and first hires, with people beside you the whole way.
004 / Investment
Put resources behind possibility.
Investors, partners, customers and mentors who keep capital and talent in Iowa.
005 / Impact
Make progress visible.
We measure what we build, publish the results every year and celebrate the people moving Iowa forward.
06 / Your first year
We'll build your business for free.
Startology is our accelerator for your first year. We file your LLC, build your brand and website, put your idea in front of 100 real customers and hand you a week-by-week plan to your first sale. Banks, insurers and software companies cover the cost, and you own 100% of your business.
07 / How we're different
Others celebrate Iowa businesses. We start them.
These groups do important work for Iowa. Here’s the gap we fill.
Only we find businesses the week they file with the state, build them for free through Startology, put founders, companies and investors at one table, and publish the results every year.
08 / Build What Iowa Needs
Three Iowa problems. Three founder cohorts in 2027.
Each cohort starts with a hackathon on one problem and ends with new Iowa businesses working on it.
Cohort · Clean water
600,000
people in central Iowa were put under the first lawn watering ban in Des Moines history in June 2025, after nitrates spiked in the Des Moines and Raccoon rivers.
Source: Iowa Public Radio ↗Cohort · Good food
Half
of Iowa’s rural grocery stores closed in a decade, from about 1,400 in 1995 to just over 700 in 2005.
Source: Center for Rural Affairs, via Iowa Farm Bureau ↗Cohort · Child care and early learning
Up to 35%
of Iowans live in a child care desert, a gap that costs Iowa about $1.1 billion a year in lost earnings and tax revenue.
Source: Center for American Progress and Annie E. Casey Foundation, via Creston News Advertiser ↗09 / The table
Everyone has something to bring. Everyone has a seat.
A strong economy is built when different people bring what they know, what they have and what they can do to the same table.
Seat 01
Entrepreneurs
The ideas, ambition and grit to build something new.
Seat 02
Established businesses
Experience, customers, resources and room to collaborate.
Seat 03
Investors
The capital and relationships that help good businesses grow.
Seat 04
Universities and educators
Research, talent and the next generation of builders.
Seat 05
Students
Paid routes into apprenticeships, startup jobs or a business of their own.
Seat 06
Creatives and problem-solvers
Fresh eyes and the knack for seeing what others miss.
Seat 07
Communities and organizations
Local knowledge, connections and a stake in what happens next.
You don't need a company or all the answers. Just something to contribute.
Find your seat →10 / Initiatives
Pull up a chair.
Women Build IowaKeep her. Back her. Hire her.
Grades 9 to 12Apprenticeship→Startup job→Own business→Iowa Career Routes
Published every yearIowa Innovation Economy Report
11 / The scoreboard
Iowa businesses built in 2027.
Every business we help start shows up here the week it opens: what it is, where it is and which Iowa problem it takes on.
0/100
The first businesses open with the 2027 cohorts
12 / Our big goal
Make Iowa the best state in America to build a business.
Then a model for all 50 states Measured in public