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Mike Templeton is an experienced marketer with a history in building community on the web.

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Still No One Playing Foursquare in Des Moines

October 15, 2009 in Local, Social Media | No Comments »

Today Foursquare announced the launch of their service in 15 new cities. Among them were Des Moines neighbors to the south and west – Omaha, NE and Kansas City, MO. Foursquare is a place-based social networking game that allows users to check in at locations, post to-do items for friends and earn points for visiting places.

foursquare_logo_boy

To recommend a city (like Des Moines!) to be added to the Foursquare service, add your request here.

From the Foursquare post on Tumblr, the team confirms that the additional cities were driven by fans:

Just so you know, we choose which cities to launch based on the feedback we get from users. [I]f your hometown didn’t make the list this time, stay tuned… we’re just getting warmed up over here.

For now Des Moines area users are still marooned among several surrounding cities, including Minneapolis, MN and Chicago, IL (in addition to Omaha and Kansas City).

When do you think the online userbase of Des Moines will grow large enough that we get included in initial launches of sites like this? What does that number look like?

Also, Silicon Prairie News grabbed a video interview with Foursquare founder Dennis Crowley.

Risk-takers are Inspiring

April 6, 2009 in Local, Opinion | 4 Comments »

While big corporations are laying people off and America experiences the highest unemployment rates in a long time, there are still those who are willing to take risks. In fact, Iowa State University economist Liesl Eathington said the Midwest tends to see an increase in business start-ups during tough economic times as people laid off from jobs are forced to find ways to make money (Business Record).

A recent Business Record article by Sarah Bzdega profiles three Des Moines area business owners who are taking risks and have started their own businesses, and quite frankly, I’m inspired by them. I’ve been running a marketing and web strategy consultancy of my own on the side since March 2007, but never had the guts to take it full-time. And now I’ve just started a new job, which puts plans for Dosovo (and all of my other projects) even farther behind. However, these business owners (and many others like them) have given it all up for a chance to live the dream. They’re hustling. They’re making it happen.

I hope everything works out for these business owners and the hundreds/thousands of others trying to make a go of it right now. It’s these small businesses that are probably going to pull us out of this thing we’re worked ourselves into.