Nominations will be accepted until Friday, December 9 at 11:59 pm. The top three nominees from each category will be recognized in December and winners of the Startup Iowa Awards Presented by Kingland will be announced in early January. All winners will be decided on by an independent panel of judges. All finalists will receive a Startup Iowa Awards trophy and a feature story in Clay & Milk!

Yes! We strongly encourage all interested organizations/individuals to nominate themselves.

Yes, you can still submit a nomination for an organization or person that was a finalist/winner last year.

Depending on the award you’re applying for, nominations will be judged according to the following criteria. Please do your best to address these criteria when filling out your nomination form:

-Quality of business idea and plan

-Strength of the founding team and their ability to fund initial operations

-Company’s overall impact on Iowa’s startup ecosystem

-Level of support and mentorship provided to startups and early-stage companies

-Success of portfolio companies

-Scope of individual’s work and effort

Yes. All nominees must be based in and active in Iowa.

In order to make sure everyone gets a fair shot, we’ve waived the submission fee for 2022! So send in those nominations!