Local Bunchball boss Kasey McCurdy, in a blog post, takes a moment to recap Gravitate founder Geoff Wood's role in helping save the startup scene in Des Moines after StartUp City folded. Bunchball was among those left looking for a new home at the time.
McCurdy, Bunchball's vice president of engineering, talked the San Francisco-area gamification company into setting up a wing in Des Moines after the firm courted him. McCurdy said he wouldn't leave Des Moines; the honchos told him to stay put and start hiring people.
Gamification, in case you're wondering, means finding digital ways to get you to complete online training, or perform some other task, by awarding you digital "prizes," or even real things like T-shirts, as you work your way through various levels. Much of this is done for corporate training or to motivate customers to work through a business's website.
Bunchball's Des Moines operation was originally at StartUp City. In the days leading up to StartUp City's closure, Wood asked McCurdy to take a look at the Midland Building. Eventually, Wood lined up funders and founded Gravitate -- a co-working space and nurturer of startups -- and Bunchball landed there a few days after StartUp City closed.
Now Bunchball has moved to Market One in the East Village, the same building that houses the engineers of Modus. The building is just down the street from the Iowa Tap Room, an important source of inspiration. "We really trust that moving this close to 140-plus tap handles of beer will be judged by history as a 'good move,' " McCurdy wrote in the blog.
But much of McCurdy's blog post is about how they got there, with Gravitate's help. "True to its name, and to its charter, Gravitate has pulled in some of the best and most talented people I've had the chance to meet, and there are no signs of slowing down," he wrote. "As for us, it's time to take off and escape the gravity for the next adventure. But, just as with any flight where you stare out the window, we look back to our origin with a smile, many memories, and a promise to return often."