Entrepreneur Field Days: Hummingbirds, Powering Businesses With Hyperlocal Creators
Join us for the 2024 Entrepreneur Field Days series hosted across Greater Des Moines
It all started with the idea that entrepreneurs learn best from entrepreneurs. Take someone's hard-earned lessons and shared skills to jump-start business success. Seed the next generation of entrepreneurs. Cover a broad range of industries and subject knowledge expertise. Grow your perspective and see new areas across the community.
Powering Businesses With Hyperlocal Creators
Speakers: Emily Steele and Charise Flynn, co-founders of Hummingbirds; Nola Morris, Chief Marketing Officer at Thelma's
Hummingbirds is a platform that connects brands to hyperlocal content creators & social media enthusiasts. Brands looking to drive local awareness and sales rely on the Hummingbirds platform to facilitate word of mouth marketing at scale. Creators (who they call "hummingbirds") sign up, view campaigns they can do in their own backyard, and post about their experience on social media to local friends and followers.
From large brands like Olipop and Goodles to multi-location franchise brands to DMOs to beloved local organizations like performing arts orgs, museums, and amusement parks, Hummingbirds solves the problem of helping brands create local behavior by giving local people a chance to experience and share them to their trusted network.
Emily Steele started the company in 2018 as part of her marketing agency in Des Moines and launched the standalone SaaS product in 2023 shortly after Charise Flynn joined as cofounder. To date, the company has raised over $4M and has grown across 16 cities, bringing local influence to communities across the US.
Learn & Discuss:
- How to tap into the power of word of mouth
- Building a tech-enabled platform for a two-sided marketplace
- Company culture and creating a top workforce community
- Creating multi-city marketing campaigns to reach customers
- The process of raising capital to scale and grow a team
Special thanks to our field day sponsor: Iowa Economic Development Authority!
Open to Everyone! All Entrepreneur Field Days are free and open to the public, with registration required. Not an entrepreneur? No problem – you're invited too! If you’re a creative, mentor, educator, corporate leader, economic developer, investor, or simply curious about how things work – all play a role in building a strong community of support for entrepreneurs across Iowa.
Champion a Spirit of Curiosity! Entrepreneur Field Days is a space to learn from each other first and foremost! Bring a spirit of curiosity, shared respect, a notepad to capture your next idea, and the mindset to make new connections.
