Bear with me on this. I have a point, it just takes a second to explain it.

About a half dozen years ago, I had the honor to work periodically with Geoffrey West, then President of the Santa Fe Institute, an oasis of interdisciplinary complexity thinkers in New Mexico.  At a workshop we co-sponsored in Silicon Valley, he announced preliminary results of research he and his team had done based on early-1900s Swiss researcher Max Kleiber’s work on negative quarter-power scaling in metabolic rates of different species.  Kleiber’s scaling theory can essentially be broken down as ‘the smaller a species, the higher its metabolism, and the shorter its lifespan’.  If you map the metabolic rates of a hummingbird and an elephant, you’ll draw a nearly straight line between them re: lifespan.  You can plot other species metabolic rates (humans, cats, dogs, etc.) and it amazingly sticks to the same line.

What made Geoff’s research so interesting was that they studied these same implications in the dynamics in populations of humans.  Studying small cities all the way to large urban centers, they found the same scaling effects present in externally obvious artifacts of civilization such as gasoline sales, length of electrical cables, etc..

What they also uncovered, and the reason for the paragraph-and-a-half of runway on this, is that creativity and innovation did not adhere to this line the larger a population grew, but actually grew much much faster.  To quote a passage on this in Stephen Johnson’s excellent book ‘Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation‘: “A city that was ten times larger than its neighbor wasn’t ten times more innovative; it was seventeen times more innovative.  A metropolis fifty times bigger than a town was 130 times more innovative.”  This they called ‘superlinear scaling’.

When you are proximate to a larger number of people, the interchange of ideas grows larger as the ideas are refined and tumbled from mind to mind.

When you live in a state of three million people, like Iowa, this doesn’t happen organically at enough scale except at periodic trade shows, networking events, etc..

So, we need to build spaces for these idea exchanges to occur in person all-the-time, and also create virtual spaces for statewide collaboration.  We have excellent pockets of innovation around the state that operate more or less autonomously.  To channel Phillip of Macedon, we need to create a Hellenic league of these City-States, or more recently, Benjamin Franklin and his  “We must all hang together, or else we will all hang separately.”  Alone, none of these city-states have the population density to trigger the superlinear scaling benefits, however by operating as a single state of three million people, we can.

It’s going to take some work to make this happen, and to break down some of the legacy barriers to collaboration and communication.  The Iowa Startup Alliance is only the first step on the path to this collaboration.

We have a number of ideas here on what else can be done, like “StartupIowa”, but what else do you think we need to do Statewide to trigger this exponential exchange of ideas?

The third-annual Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW) kicks off today, with an expected 10 million participants in 123 countries. StartupCity Des Moines is proud to join the celebration, which drives awareness of entrepreneurship, by participating in several local events.

We kick things off tomorrow at 11:30 am when StartupCity principal and long-time entrepreneur Tej Dhawan speaks at the Business Innovation Zone. He’ll share with aspiring entrepreneurs secrets on how to manage expectations within a business partnership. The event is $12 (including lunch) and open to anyone.

On Wednesday, StartupCity is doing its part to educate local entrepreneurs by offering a free lunch-and-learn on the topic of intellectual property. Emily Harris of Davis Brown Law will discuss what patent reform (American Invents) means for startups, what IP a startup has, and how to protect IP early to survive due diligence with an investor. This free event is a unique opportunity to ask an IP attorney anything. Register on ShareWhere by Wednesday at 9 am.

Wednesday also marks the first-ever Startup Job Crawl, hosted by Silicon Prairie News, which will tour “Silicon Sixth Avenue.” Students and recent graduates will have the opportunity to meet the people behind local startups and learn about the culture of working in this innovative community. StartupCity Des Moines, and its six member businesses, are excited to be a included on the crawl and can’t wait to meet the next generation of Iowa entrepreneurs.

GEW wraps up for us on Thursday evening when Emma Peterson, CEO of Tikly (a StartupCity member), will participate in a showcase Pitch & Grow at the fourth annual Women of Innovation conference. The event encourages girls to consider careers in science, technology, engineering and math, and celebrates the achievements of extraordinary women technology leaders, innovators and educators in our state.

Can’t participate in any of the above events this week? No worries. There are many other virtual and face-to-face gatherings this week that are open to anyone to attend. For a guide to GEW events across the Silicon Prairie, check this guide, organized by city and, within each city, by date.

Today we are pleased to announce our participation in the Iowa Startup Alliance.

The Iowa Startup Alliance (ISA) is an agreement between incubators and co-working spaces throughout Iowa that allows residents/members of one organization to have reciprocal privileges in another organization.  Now, if a startup from Cedar Rapids, Cedar Falls, Pella, Ames or Des Moines needs to travel across the state, they know they have a welcoming home on the other end of their journey.  Need to meet with investors or customers in downtown Des Moines?  No problem there, StartupCity and Foundry have you covered.

Below is the formal announcement with detail on the incubators and co-working spaces, as well as contacts at each.  We are excited to be part of the Alliance, and hope this helps strengthen the statewide collaboration between entrepreneurial resources.

Becky, Tej and Christian

Iowa Startup Alliance of technology startup incubators and co-working spaces to provide statewide reciprocal network of resources for budding entrepreneurs
Iowa (Nov. 4, 2011) Six Iowa coworking and incubator organizations supporting startups and entrepreneurs today announced the Iowa Startup Alliance, a statewide cooperative agreement that allows residents of the incubators and coworking spaces within Iowa the ability to share the facilities and resources of peer organizations within the state.  This provides entrepreneurs with a network of locations that they can use when they travel within Iowa for customer or investor meetings, networking events, etc.

Participating entrepreneurs and startups of one of the organizations need only to reach out to the receiving organization in advance of their visit to arrange for space and resources.  As each organization is different, the duration, resources and space will vary from location to location, however startups can depend on a warm welcome and the infrastructure they need to hit the ground running.

About the Organizations

Foundry Coworking

Foundry Coworking is a collaborative office space for startups, freelancers, and creatives in downtown Des Moines. While you can rent a desk anywhere, they strive to build community and collaboration to better all of their members.  Contact: Alexander Grgurich, alexander.grgurich@gmail.com, on the web at www.foundrycoworking.com, or by phone at 515- 321-9073

StartupCity Des Moines

StartupCity Des Moines is a technology startup incubator located on Silicon Sixth Avenue in downtown Des Moines.  They provide active mentoring, educational curriculum, services, and a workspace conducive to peer sharing for their resident startups. Contact: Becky Mollenkamp, City Manager, becky@startupcitydsm.com, on the web at www.startupcitydsm.com, or by phone at 800-834-0717.

Veel Hoeden

Veel Hoeden is Iowa’s first rural coworking space located in downtown Pella, serving the needs of startups, small businesses, and entrepreneurs.  They provide a space where collaboration, community, and  idea achievement can flourish.  Contact: Joel Bennett, Chief Dreamchaser, veelhoeden@gmail.com, or by phone 641-780-7858. posterous.veelhoeden.com

Iowa State University Research Park

Iowa State University Research Park has provided space and business development services to start up and growth focused technology companies for 25 years.  The result is an entrepreneurial support infrastructure composed of numerous peer businesses, professional services and University resources.  Co-working facilities are provided at the Park’s incubator and consist of small private offices and Internet access.  Additional resources may be available.  Contact Mike Upah at 515.296.7828 for more information.  Learn more about the Park by visiting http://isupark.org/.

UNI Innovation Incubator/Purple Cat Cowork

The Innovation Incubator at the University of Northern Iowa allows new companies the ability to develop linkages and a synergistic relationship with the university. With a convenient campus location, you and your firm will have an easy avenue to access the resources of UNI in a way that many start ups cannot.  Our mission is to help start up firms in the Cedar Valley reduce their risks and accelerate their growth via technical assistance and the creation of a supportive entrepreneurial ecosystem. Contact Dan Beenken at dan.beenken@uni.edu or 319-273-4322

Vault Coworking & Collaboration Space

A joint venture of Corridor Coworks and Seed Here, Vault Coworking & Collaborations Space in Downtown Cedar Rapids is a brand-new flexible and affordable professional office space for entrepreneurs, creatives, freelancers and startup companies, all wrapped in a collaborative, friendly and supportive community of like-minded people.  More info at www.crvault.com.  Contact Andy Stoll at andy@seedhere.org or 424-888-2434.

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This Thursday, we welcomed award-winning Chef and restauranteur Enosh Kelley from Bistro Montage to StartupCity to kick off our Industry Insights series.

The Industry Insights series is a new concept. In traditional product development, you constantly engage in ‘requirements elicitation’, meeting with a cross section of target customers to determine what you need to build (or change in what you’re already building). This helps you avoid the “If you build it, and they don’t come” problem.

In our Industry Insights series, we gather multiple interested startups building technology targeted at these industries, and have key representatives from these industries come in and share what it’s like to actually operate their business. There is ample opportunity for give and take with the visitors, and it turns out to be very time efficient for both the visitor AND the startups.  Call it ‘group requirements elicitation’.

This first Insight was for Restaurants, and Enosh delivered the goods in his easy-going and very informative style. The eighteen participants who joined us for lunch discussed point-of-sale, reservations, daily-deal sites, and back-of-office functions like time-clocks and inventory management. All in all, he contributed nearly three hours of his time to helping educate the assembled startups in what it’s like to ‘walk a mile in his shoes’.

In the future, we will be inviting representatives from other industries, including retail, healthcare, enterprise, and more. We also plan to begin recording and archiving them as soon as practicable, and making them available freely on our site.

Please watch our Twitter, Facebook, or this blog feeds for announcements of future Industry Insights.

Most of us learned email etiquette the hard way, by hitting ‘send’ and then immediately regretting what we wrote. Luckily, the next generation doesn’t have to repeat our mistakes. Children can learn modern communication skills using pikuzone, parent-managed email for children, and the sixth member of StartupCity’s inaugural class.

“Email is a critical element of conversation and pikuzone gives parents an opportunity to teach appropriate behavior,” says Principal Tej Dhawan, who is also a principal at StartupCity Des Moines.

This “email on training wheels” is designed for children ages 6-12 whose parents are concerned about security. Unlike traditional email, such as gmail or an ISP-provided account, pikuzone gives parents control of the address book, allowing children to send and receive email only to those on an approved white list.

Pikuzone.com is live and signing up users for $1 per child, per month. Dhawan’s team is actively looking for channels to market the product, including groups like PTOs, church organizations, and homeschool associations. The site will soon be adding additional features, including chat and self-blogging.

StartupCity Des Moines is excited to announce the start of its Industry Insights program, a series of lunch-and-learns designed to offer tech startups valuable information about the world around them. The events will feature leaders from a variety of industries, who will discuss their technology needs and answer questions.

Our first visitor is Enosh Kelley, owner of Bistro Montage in Des Moines. Kelley studied at the Culinary Institute of America and was a semifinalist for the James Beard Foundation award in 2009. He will share the realities of the restaurant business, including point-of-sale and reservation systems.

Kelley will be at StartupCity Des Moines this Thursday, Oct. 27, at noon. To RSVP for this free event, visit the ShareWhere event page. Feel free to bring your own lunch. Or, for Jimmy John’s, email your order to becky@startupcitydsm.com by 9 am Oct. 27 and bring $7 day of or send it to StartupCity via Dwolla, account #812-513-6890.

It is such an obvious idea that it’s hard to believe it doesn’t exist already. Use a simple capture appliance to automatically record and archive meetings. That’s the cool solution offered by Present.io, which joins the inaugural class at StartupCity Des Moines.

Place the unobtrusive Present.io box in any conference room and it will record slides and audio, synchronize them, and tag relevant topics. “It’s like TiVo for live meetings,” says CEO Christian Renaud, who is also a principal and mentor at StartupCity.

Can’t make a meeting? Present.io allows you to watch it live on your desktop or mobile device. Don’t want note-taking to disrupt focus? No problem. Attendees can replay the meeting anytime, anywhere. Subscribe to topics, projects, or recurring meetings (inside your organization or outside) to stay current. Make meetings available to only those people you specify or accessible to the public for a fee or free.

Present.io is nearing launch and first customer shipping. To learn more about the product, visit the website or follow Present.io on Twitter.

As the owner of a real estate investment company for 8 years, Matthew Smith learned something invaluable about real estate agents. “Most of them spend an inordinate amount of time marketing on Facebook, and most of them aren’t using it very well.” That discovery was the genesis of Smith’s new venture (and StartupCity’s newest member), RealEstateFanPages.com.

Instead of trying to drive traffic from Facebook to an agent’s website, Smith’s startup will, in effect, take their site to Facebook. Built with agents’ input, the easy-to-navigate site will offer a fan-page builder that allows agents to display listings, virtual tours, client feedback, and more. In less than 30 minutes, an agent can have a custom and professional Facebook fan page.

In the next month, the site’s templates will be finished and the beta site will be live by December. After some testing with Des Moines agents, RealEstateFanPages.com should launch nationally in early 2012.

Within a day of moving in to the StartupCity offices, Smith was busy bouncing around ideas for his company with other startups around him. That’s exactly why he wanted to be part of the Des Moines incubator.

“I’ve always thought that the quickest way to avoid mistakes and to increase the speed of implementation of an idea is to surround yourself with the best and brightest you can find and leverage the collaborative brain trust. StartupCity is the best example of that that I can find.”

Learn more about Smith’s startup at RealEstateFanPages.com, or find them on Twitter and Facebook.

You’re stoked to see a band you love and even happier when you hear tickets are only $25. So you jump online, buy two tickets and—bam—your total is $64.60. What happened? You’ve been the victim of convenience, processing, and other fees that typically add up to 15-50% of the ticket price. Yikes.

Clearly, it’s time for change in ticketing and it is coming thanks to Tikly, StartupCity’s newest member. In the same scenario above using Tikly, which charges a flat 10% fee per ticket, your total would be just $55. That’s more money in your pocket and more money going directly to the band you love.

Emma Peterson launched Tikly earlier this year on what would have been her college graduation date (she finished school a year early and devoted herself to starting a business). She wants to put the ticketing process back into the hands of artists by allowing them to sell their own shows, music, and merchandise.

Tikly has already sold tickets for Des Moines Oktoberfest, Cityview’s Brew Fest at Principal Park, Nitefall on the River: The Nadas, and was the sole ticket provider for the Acoustic Alley Concert Series in Golden, Colo. It was also the first ticketing service to allow Dwolla as a payment option.

Early next year, Tikly will launch a new ticketing utility (built by CTO Brian Hemesath) with a unique backend that allows users to add events, personalize their shopping experience, cross-promote with other bands, venues, and organizations. A mobile app is also coming in early 2012. “We will be a ticketing company built with the technology of the last five years, not of the 1990s,” Peterson says.

See Tikly in action at Tikly.co and follow their latest event announcements at Twitter.com/tiklyco.

Plenty of sites and apps let you broadcast your location to friends, but just how “social” is that? Wouldn’t it be better to let them know in advance so they can join the fun? That’s the idea behind StartupCity’s newest member, ShareWhere.

ShareWhere takes evites to the next level, adding elements of social networking and location-based marketing. Want to have drinks with friends after work next Tuesday? Log in, create an event, see deals offered by area bars, and then invite your friends. Need to find something to do between meetings? ShareWhere allows you to find events happening in your area.

“It’s like telling your friends in advance where you’re planning to check in on Foursquare,” says co-founder Dylan Hamilton, who came up with the idea for ShareWhere two years ago after getting frustrated planning an event with his friends. With the help of co-founder Trent Ohannessian and three other part-time employees, Dylan has launched a beta site, with users registering all around the globe.

In the next month, ShareWhere will add a merchant center to allow businesses to post deals and interact with users. The site will start with Des Moines merchants before expanding its reach worldwide. A mobile app is in the works as is a point system that will allow users to earn nifty rewards.

StartupCity is excited to have Dylan and the ShareWhere team join our inaugural class and we’re proud to say the feeling is mutual.

“I want to be surrounded by like-minded people I can learn from,” Dylan said. “I’m happy to help others here and I know they are willing to do the same for me. That makes us all stronger.”