Thanks to Silicon Prairie News, which recently posted an interview with Palisade CEO Christian Renaud about how to build an entrepreneurial ecosystem. Christian is uniquely qualified to discuss the subject, he previously worked for Cisco Systems in startup-fertile San Francisco, targeting and evaluating new markets. Now he's back home in Des Moines, working to build a startup culture there.

Christian cites the entrepreneurial potential of Des Moines as one of the community’s greatest attributes. This includes the energy that’s apparent locally, the workforce and the ideas that are being developed in fields like life sciences and agriculture through the research at Iowa State University, the University of Iowa and other schools. However, we have work to develop our startup community.

"We have very strong schools, we have a lot of very good ideas in relevant fields...there's a bunch of energy," Christian explained. " We need to cultivate that, continue to cultivate it, it isn't as much the ecology here as it is [in other cities]."

Obstacles to fostering an entrepreneurial community in Des Moines include the traditional nature of business there. Des Moines is a banking, insurance, and agricultural town, which makes it more conservative and risk-averse, Renaud told the News.

Read the interview and watch a video excerpt: Christian Renaud talks about the needs of a startup community

It's a two-part interview. Previously: Christian Renaud of Palisade Systems talks technology, raising capital

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