New Dashboard for Iowa's Entrepreneurial Ecosystem
The Greater Des Moines Partnership and Clay & Milk are partnering to develop the Iowa Innovation Dashboard, a comprehensive indicator of entrepreneurial activity in the state of Iowa.
The dashboard will compile several key metrics of entrepreneurial information into one location to capture the pulse of Iowa's entrepreneurial and startup climate.The dashboard will track several different metrics including startup growth, external funding, success of accelerator programs, patents filed, team diversity, perceptions of Iowa's startup community, and more. The Partnership and Clay & Milk will update the dashboard annually, with plans to add new metrics in future years.
“By providing statewide data and metrics, the dashboard will allow community leaders and organizations throughout Iowa to make more informed decisions about how to best champion local entrepreneurs, and the ecosystem as a whole,” said Jake Slobe, Managing Editor of Clay & Milk.
“When people ask how Iowa's startup climate is doing, we typically go to the latest piece of news we’ve consumed. While it’s important to tell the stories of startups through journalism, we want to add another layer of information by creating a snapshot of the Iowa entrepreneurial community through data visualization and metrics. By capturing data around emerging technology startups, champions and entrepreneurs within our communities will be able to tell a more powerful story together. As a result, we can invite people to come together to solve for any current gaps that exist in the entrepreneurial ecosystem and set goals for the long-term,” shares Diana Wright, Startup Community Builder at the Greater Des Moines Partnership.
Along with the dashboard, Clay & Milk and the Partnership are conducting an in-depth survey of Iowa founders. The Iowa Founder Survey will dive into questions on the fundraising climate, working environment, future outlook, and the challenges of operating a startup. The information given in the survey will remain strictly confidential and all data will only be analyzed and reported in aggregate.
All participants of the survey will be entered to win a $500 cash prize. The survey will open on Tuesday, Jan. 4 and will close on Friday, Feb. 18. The dashboard will launch in Spring 2022.
About Clay & Milk
Clay & Milk is a digital publication that covers Iowa’s tech, startup and entrepreneurial communities. Since founding in 2016, our mission has remained the same: to cover and connect the Iowa entrepreneurial ecosystem, producing stories about the entrepreneurs, startups and trends that are shaping the present and future of the state’s economy.
About the Greater Des Moines Partnership
The Greater Des Moines Partnership is the economic and community development organization that serves Greater Des Moines (DSM), Iowa. Through innovation, strategic planning and global collaboration, The Partnership grows opportunity, helps create jobs and promotes Des Moines as the best place to build a business, a career and a future.