Episode 2: From Intern to President of VolunteerLocal

From intern to president, Kaylee Williams has risen the ranks of VolunteerLocal in six years. Based in Greater Des Moines (DSM), it’s a platform used internationally to support events and nonprofits manage volunteers.

The Scars of Entrepreneurship

Williams sat down with the Greater Des Moines Partnership's Mike Colwell and shared how she never thought of herself as an entrepreneur growing up. Her first enterprise was a dog walking business aged 14, which would suggest otherwise. That one started with seed money from her parents for an ad. She still has the scars to remind her of the first lesson she learned: customer support. When a dog ran away, she jumped on it scraping her knees in the process.

Intern to President

Williams grew up in Cedar Falls, Iowa and after graduating from college, wanted to write about startups. Her first call was to Silicon Prairie News for a job. They didn’t have one, but it turned out a fledgling startup in DSM was looking for an intern. VolunteerLocal first offered her 10 hours per week. After hearing about the product and concept, Kaylee says she fell in love.

“I bought a car, got a cat and moved to Des Moines, Iowa,” Kaylee said on Startup Stories DSM.

That started her journey to working her way up to President.

VolunteerLocal is a web-based software that assists in managing the volunteer force that is so vital to events. From the Des Moines Arts Festival to the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras, the platform assists organizations around the world to manage several thousand volunteers at a time.

Small Business and Startup Stories DSM was a podcast previously produced by the Greater Des Moines Partnership. For more information on small businesses and startup resources, sign up for our Small Business Resources Newsletter, read DSM Success Stories or check out our blog posts.