With Deep Des Moines Roots, WorkHound is Ready to Grow

This article was previously published on DSMPartnership.com and written by WorkHound Co-founder and Chief Technical Officer, Andrew Kirpalani.

Venture Capital Fundraise
Last month, WorkHound announced a successful $1.5 million venture capital fundraise. This is how Des Moines helped make that happen, and what the community can expect from us.

WorkHound, a feedback platform that helps minimize employee turnover, was born in Greater Des Moines (DSM)as we simply grew where we were planted. We founded the company in a supportive community of friends, family, and entrepreneurial peers that has provided a comforting and helpful foundation. The personal cost of uprooting one’s personal life pulls energy and drive from the founding team and by avoiding that drain, we were able to give 100% to the company in its infancy.

New Location
We are now anchored in two locations. Our second office is located in Chattanooga, Tenn., to take advantage of that city’s focus on supply chain and logistics. This is similar to the thesis Des Moines has developed on insurance and agriculture. We believe strongly in the model of vertical focus and tapping into the resources of multiple communities for companies that choose to grow outside of major tech hubs like Silicon Valley.

Advantage Found in DSM Community
In addition, we think that the “give first” mentality that defines the Des Moines community gives us an advantage over companies founded elsewhere. The Greater Des Moines Partnership, Gravitate Coworking, Dwolla, Iowa Economic Development Authority, and so many others have given resources and guidance to WorkHound without asking for anything in return. In turn, my co-founder Max Farrell and I, have embraced the “give first” mentality embodied by Des Moines as a core tenet of WorkHound.

Finding partners that also embrace this mentality has been key to our growth at WorkHound. The investors that have joined us in this latest round see vast opportunity in communities like Des Moines that are growing focused businesses in supportive cultures. These investors are part of a small but expanding movement in the Venture Capital community that believes funding doesn’t have to be local. We’ve combined partners from Des Moines, like 1219 Ventures, with investors from the coasts to create the ideal group of backers for WorkHound. They are unified by the belief that trusting entrepreneurs and providing them resources will allow them to create outsized value supported by nurturing communities like Des Moines.

Continued Growth
And we will continue to grow in Des Moines. Much of this $1.5 million Seed Round will be used to expand our engineering headcount here. Our current team is small but mighty and we’re excited to give them the tools they need to really show the world what we can do. Our customer base is mushrooming and we’ve identified the technology that will be truly transformative for their businesses. We’re thrilled to have the resources to build that technology for them — from Des Moines.

We are moving into the next phase of WorkHound, and we will continue to grow in the supportive community where we were planted.

Discover more about The Partnership’s tools to help Greater Des Moines (DSM) entrepreneurs and startups develop and grow their ventures in the Small Business Resources Hub.