Iowa entrepreneurs often feel isolated, underequipped, and overlooked. Enter Entrepreneurs of Iowa— an organization built by entrepreneurs for entrepreneurs — our goal is to crush these barriers. Read this article to learn more about what drives us and where we are headed.
After working with 100s of Iowa entrepreneurs over 5+ years as an Agency Owner, Business Consultant, and Startup Founder, I frequently encountered the same 3 issues regardless of industry, age, and even level of success.
You may even relate.
OR in business terms:
This isn't everyone, but it is too many.
Some have attempted to solve these issues, even on a local level, through government.
But while government efforts can help, they're often slower and less aligned with entrepreneurial needs.
Just look at your DMV or most other government departments…
Their service continues to degrade into oblivion because they have no economic and hardly any social incentive to improve.
Our expectation is poor service.
You and I both know that people, not government, are best for value creation.
We could call them “value creators,” but these people are more commonly known as “Entrepreneurs.”
They are our investors, creatives and business owners.
They are responsible for our jobs, our products, and the backbone of every economy.
Our organization, “Entrepreneurs of Iowa” was created to support these “value creators.”
We are an association of entrepreneurs, built by entrepreneurs, for the sole benefit of the Iowa Entrepreneur.
We held our launch event on April 10th, 2025 in rural Iowa.
Our mission is to do whatever it takes to put you (the Iowa Entrepreneur) ahead. Our vision is that we are supporting 20,000 entrepreneurs in the state of Iowa.
We are not a non-profit.
We will never be free.
And we aren’t interested in the perception of value.
We want to create real value.
Heck, we've built an organization where we need to.
You, the Entrepreneur is our customer.
We fail to provide you enough value… you leave. We are out of business.
We continue to make good on our promises… you stay. We grow and achieve our vision.
Our team is made of people willing to go to war to put you ahead.
Like me.
We are new, but after 5 months we can proudly celebrate a 0% churn rate.
Nobody who’s joined has left – not a single person.
We’ve given $50,000+ in value to our members.
We’ve helped launch 4 new companies. We’re working on more.
We’ve tracked THOUSANDS in referrals between our members.
This is just the beginning.
Remember those problems I talked about earlier?
Our members won’t be alienated, uninformed, or underacknowledged.
They will be supported, equipped, and celebrated.
Recently, we created something we call “The Hive.” It is a digital community private to members to interact with each other, create deals, and put each other ahead.
We also just announced to do our best to bring our members 1 exclusive networking event each month.
These are 11 of the BEST Networking Events you’ll attend in Iowa and we’re continuing to make them better. Ask anyone who's gone!
At the end of the year, we have 1 highly anticipated Winter Gala Event planned for December 13th in Osage, Iowa.
Loneliness = not likely!
Next, we are working on building out a “Business Playbook.” This will be a comprehensive guide of available opportunities, tools, and resources our members can find within their local county or area.
Never again do we want our members to miss out on things that could transform their business locally because of lack of communication!
Total, we've put together $14,000+ in member benefits ourselves for Founding Members: Free website design, complete SEO (no cost), consultations, digital ad strategy and more.
Why? The numbers make us all stronger & the first 100 members will be much harder to get then the next 1000.
On August 3rd we announced a special NFT gift for our first 100 Founding Members.
Underequipped = Never again.
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Lastly, we are going to work hand in hand with our members to make sure they are actually SEEN. Not just empty promises and ineffective directory listings. Real eyes that convert into real customers OR $$$.
Our team is made up of digital experts in SEO, Digital Ads, and more.
Depending on an Entrepreneurs goals we have multiple PR opportunities ranging from Backlinks to Podcast Guest Slot. We are going above and beyond for our Founding group.
Attention = Absolutely.
For our member’s success is our success.
Complete alignment.
The Matthew Effect which comes from the biblical phrase “to those who have, more will be given” (Matthew 25:29), describes how initial advantages compound over time, leading to greater inequality.
Hundreds of small towns struggle to match the economic vitality of just a single large city…
Small initial differences in skill or luck amplify over time...
This is Entrepreneurs of Iowa.
If we can remove barriers to:
· Relationships.
· Capital.
· Data.
· Attention.
And do that at scale?
Then we are effectively creating a digital economy within the confines of a physical one.
Accumulating power through connections, data, and attention.
That benefits everyone involved.
I’ll end with this, without individual effort and high levels of competence, things never improve by themselves.
That’s true for the State of Iowa as much as it is your business and mine.
We don’t make our members successful. We will never claim that.
They make themselves successful.
If you decide to spend valuable resources: time & capital to join Entrepreneurs of Iowa, and if that leads to your success, then YOU were the person competent enough to recognize a good decision, you took it and made your business better because of it.
That’s all you. 👏
Best,
Elijah | Founder of Entrepreneurs of Iowa
Elijah is a 7th Generation Iowan with deep roots to the state's history, politics, and growth. He is a Serial Entrepreneur and Founder of Entrepreneurs of Iowa. He's worked with 100s of SMBs throughout the United States and even Globally as an advisor, consultant or marketer.
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