Siouxland Magazine - Volume 3 Issue 2

As he served on the Iowa Economic Development
Authority Board (IDEA), Bernstein saw a lot of earlystage
development happening across the state.
He came to understand the support and resources
Iowa has to help new businesses. He saw most of
the resources for start-ups going to Des Moines and
university cities, not Western Iowa. One of his goals
with SVI and Springboard is to bring more of that to
Siouxland. His vision means an intentional focus on
what is already here and helping to nurture it.
“We are a bit asleep in some ways in this community
when it comes to economic development in my
opinion. We are primarily stuck in the old mindset
of economic development focusing on bringing an
established business from outside of town, often
through a site selector. What I saw a lot of when on
IEDA, is lots of business growth and development
in Iowa comes from businesses already here and
startups. Existing businesses wanting to grow and
entrepreneurs spinning off of existing businesses
or starting something new. We need to convey the
opportunities and programs available to help them
keep growing,” said Bernstein.
Technology Commercialization Committee is
a subcommittee of IEDA, focused on helping
technology related concepts come to fruition.
“There’s so much happening with technology.
Especially in agriculture and food processing.”
Says Bernstein who recently joined the TCC
board.
An advantage in Siouxland is the tri-state area. There
are different structural advantages in each of those
states depending on what you are doing. Some focused
collaborations like The Siouxland Initiative, Iowa West
Coast, and contests like Swimming with the Sharks
and Entrepreneur-Fest are evidence that growing our
own new business is valuable to our community, but
they are somewhat siloed and not holistic.
In discussing contests for entrepreneurs, Bernstein
explained a key difference in perspective.
“We should not be looking for the best ideas, we
should be looking for all viable ideas. There can be
1,000 ideas that could produce something great.
Instead of making it a contest only rewarding the top
few, I want to see us help all of the viable ones move
forward. The programs are there, we need to harness
the resources in this community to nurture this activity.
There’s nothing wrong with the contests, but let’s not
limit ourselves,” suggested Bernstein.
SVI will tap into existing resources including the Iowa
Technology Commercialization Committee (TCC),
Sioux City Economic Development personnel, the
Common space at Springboard.
Iowa West Coast Initiative, and the Career Academy to
help advance the ecosystem. Bernstein joined the TCC
board in January.
“We need to be catalytic here. I don’t want credit
and I don’t want SVI to get credit, it’s a collaborative
effort. We just want to create the space that provides
an opportunity to learn from others in the community,
bring in speakers, networking events, mentoring, etc.,
etc. I don’t care where these activities are held but want
to offer spaces that are inspiring if needed. I just want
to encourage and support those starting up. We have
good things going on in this community, we need to
be sure we are doing what we can to nurture them as
well. When you are starting out with an idea and don’t
know what resources (financial and other) are around
in the community, it can be daunting. There are a lot
of resources. People here are friendly and willing to
help,” said Bernstein.
“It’s really one of our greatest strengths. Helping
others is enjoyable . . . or maybe rewarding. Actually,
yes, enjoyable and rewarding,” concluded Bernstein.
Springboard Co-working space has day passes,
monthly rentals of open or dedicated desk spaces.
Learn more at www.springboardcoworking.com
Photos Contributed by Springboard.
Siouxland Magazine | inspire/27