Collaboration Powers Iowa’s Entrepreneurial Ecosystem
Iowa may be best known for its agricultural and livestock production, but the state has steadily built a reputation as one of the most collaborative environments for agricultural and bioscience entrepreneurs. With world-class research institutions, a growing network of mentors and investors and a culture that prizes partnership, Iowa is positioning itself as a launch pad for the next generation of ag innovation.
The collaborative spirit came through clearly during the first session of the Grow in Iowa webinar series, hosted by America’s Cultivation Corridor. The webinar featured perspectives from a panel of leaders, including Alison Doyle, associate director, Iowa State University Research Park; Adrienne Greenwald, managing principal, VentureNet Iowa; and Joel Harris, CEO, Genvax Technologies, and executive director, Ag Startup Engine. Billi Hunt, executive director of America’s Cultivation Corridor, facilitated the conversation.
Contact us for the recordings of the first two sessions of the Grow in Iowa series. Register today for the third episode, scheduled for 11:30 a.m. central on October 8.
A platform for growth
Located on 550 acres just south of Iowa State’s campus in Ames, Iowa State University Research Park is home to about 145 companies with 2,500 employees. It features an intentional mix of multinational companies along with startups, scaleups and service providers to support companies of all sizes.
“Everyone who supports our accelerator programs, innovation programming and all of the services that serve entrepreneurs and established companies are located in one building and they’re one phone call away,” said Doyle. “We see ourselves as a concierge service to access those assets.”
The benefits to businesses include incubation spaces in nearly every building, shared conference rooms, business counseling services, and accelerator programs open to all. Startups can gain full tenant access for as little as $150 a month. International firms can even establish an Iowa address and payroll support for hiring Iowa State students through the park. Doyle noted that many global companies stationed there not only scout for ideas but also become mentors, first investors, or customer partners.
“This is also a community,” she said. “We have lots of events to connect individuals.”
The park also provides access to specialized facilities that support scale-up of technologies. Bench-scale equipment at Iowa State can help companies transition from lab concepts to pilot production, while the BioCentury Research Farm offers unique scale-up equipment for developing biofuels and biobased products. Recently, the Department of Defense selected Iowa State as one of three sites nationally to host a fermentation scale-up facility, designed to accelerate commercialization.
Funding meets education
Securing financing is one of the most significant challenges for early-stage ventures, but Iowa has developed programs that combine capital with mentorship. Adrienne Greenwald, managing partner of VentureNet Iowa, outlined the state’s public innovation funds, which provide low-interest loans of $50,000 to $1 million for startups commercializing scalable technologies in IT, advanced manufacturing, or bioscience.
A key part of VentureNet’s programs are educational and support components for founders as they develop and scale technologies and prepare for financing.
“A lot of people haven’t commercialized technology before. They haven’t raised money before—they don’t know what they don’t know,” Greenwald said. The application process is designed to give founders opportunities to refine their pitch and receive candid feedback from evaluators. In some cases, evaluators later become mentors, consultants, or even investors.
VentureNet also works to connect startups across the state.
“If we see somebody in northeastern Iowa doing something similar to someone in the southeastern part of the state, and if we can connect them and get them to work together, we consider that a success,” Greenwald said.
This approach is reinforced by the state’s $96 million award from the U.S. Treasury’s State Small Business Credit Initiative. Unlike many states, Iowa has directed much of this funding toward very early-stage companies.
The resources available today are far more robust than a decade ago.
“There are a number of programs specifically targeted at helping people with ideas and early-stage founders better tell their story,” she said. That includes refining presentations, building pitch decks, developing business plans, and identifying gaps in management teams.
Hunt echoed that point, noting that mentors in the state often balance support with realism.
“I like to say that Iowa is known for Iowa nice, but we’re also Iowa honest. We’ll walk alongside you, but we’ll also redirect you a lot, and that honesty helps you get to larger rounds of funding faster,” Hunt said.
Entrepreneurs driving innovation
For entrepreneurs like Joel Harris at Genvax Technologies, Iowa provides both strategic location and ecosystem support. Genvax is developing next generation mRNA + nanoparticle vaccines to protect food animals and the workers who handle them. With Iowa leading the nation in pork and egg production, the company’s choice of a 10,000-square-foot retrofitted facility at the Research Park was a natural fit.
Harris also serves as executive director of the Ag Startup Engine which has invested in more than 40 ag tech companies across three funds. The fund leverages a network of farmers and executives to validate technologies, and has already seen successful exits, including Smart Ag’s acquisition by Raven Industries and Performance Livestock Analytics’ sale to Zoetis.
Harris sees Iowa’s entrepreneurial infrastructure as result of steady growth and focus, drawing on his experience with Harrisvaccines, which was acquired by Merck
Animal Health in 2015.
“When Harrisvaccines was at the Research Park, it was a tenant relationship. But the ecosystem has exploded into different groups, state funding, angel groups, and more programming,” he said. “It’s really been a 20-year evolution and we are continuing to improve.”
He also highlighted Iowa’s unique concentration of academic, private and public research expertise. Several U.S. Department of Agriculture research centers, including the Center for Veterinary Biologics, and global pharmaceutical firms like Merck and Boehringer Ingelheim, are located in Ames, and there is a steady pipeline of students from Iowa State University, the University of Iowa, and community colleges.
“Talent attracts talent,” Harris said. “We try to collaborate with universities through sponsored research or internships to give young scientists their first exposure to industry.”
Collaboration as a competitive edge
While resources and funding are important, speakers agreed that Iowa’s true differentiator is its culture of collaboration.
“The Iowa ecosystem is highly collaborative,” Greenwald said. “You are literally a phone call or email away from just about anybody in the state. If you need expertise, if you’re looking to fundraise, it is very, very easy to get connected here.”
For entrepreneurs looking to scale bold ideas in food, agriculture, or biosciences, Iowa’s message is clear: here, collaboration is not just a value, it’s the competitive edge.
To learn more, join the final session of Grow In Iowa webinar series.
Published September 2025