By Steve Dinnen
Meet Eli Christiansen, serial entrepreneur. Not yet 40, he’s already launched three businesses and is working on his fourth, Donevia, an AI-powered lending and deposit platform for banks and credit unions.
Christiansen has already raised $270,000 to fund Donevia. Since he’d like more — the figure $1 million came up during our conversation — he’s making a pitch this week at Iowa Startup Week, a gathering of entrepreneurs who want to explain their business models and connect with investors. It’s billed as “the Midwest’s biggest stage” for business builders, business backers and business innovators.
Lots of great business ideas are bubbling up from entrepreneurs. Startup Week zeroes in on some of their areas of expertise with presentations on manufacturing, biotech, “solving for water” (especially here in Iowa) and the future of agriculture.
Christiansen spent a few years at a credit union in Des Moines before the entrepreneurial bug bit him again in the form of Donevia. In a nutshell, it helps credit unions connect with their customers.
Another Startup Week participant is Russell Karim, who’s pitching SourceEazy.com as the first operating system designed to streamline every aspect of the promotional merchandise industry’s supply chain. He already has 230 customers, but he’d like more.
A third entrepreneur in the mix is Maggie Koos of Ankeny, who’s looking for seed money to bolster Koos Medical Innovations, which makes a new kind of medical gown. The difference? “My gowns stay up,” she said, noting a propensity of existing products to fail in their most critical moments.
The three entrepreneurs are at different points in their businesses, but they have the same basic need: They want to grow. That means developing more capabilities, finding more customers and, in the process, finding money to help make it happen.
And that’s why they’re at Startup Week. The entrepreneurs make their case in a short pitch to judges, with angel investors hopefully sitting on the sideline. They explain what they’re building, who needs it and why they think it can grow.
The basic question: Is this a product or service that can be brought to market and scaled to a national audience?
A pitch that lasts a few minutes won’t typically get an investor to open his wallet on the spot. But if done correctly, it will pique the interest of investors in the audience.
More than two dozen business owners will make their pitch. That group will be whittled down to three, then one, who will land a $25,000 award.
The winner will be announced later today at IowaStartupWeek.com.
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