Diana Wright has always been surrounded by entrepreneurs: In her hometown of Clear Lake, both her parents were business owners and community leaders. 

Wright began her new role as startup community builder at the Greater Des Moines Partnership in April, bringing years of program-building experience at Iowa State University centered on student, faculty and alumni entrepreneurs. 

“You do have to be a connector. [Entrepreneurs] are at a critical time — they need a lot of different resources, they don’t have a lot of time, they also typically don’t have a lot of funding,” Wright said. “Trying to bridge those gaps quickly is part of building or being a community builder.”

Previously, Wright worked at the John Pappajohn Center for Entrepreneurship at Iowa State University for six years as the marketing and programs coordinator, where she developed CYstarters, Women Who Create, the ISU Innovation Prize and other initiatives. Wright served as “community builder” at Dwolla from 2013 to 2015, leading customer experience operations.

How do you describe your new role at the Partnership? 

My role is to create access and direct entrepreneurs and startups. Starting and growing a business can be pretty lonely. Entrepreneurs may or may not know what the valuable resources are in the community, so I see it as twofold: being a connector … and refining the entrepreneurial map. That is, how can the startup community in Des Moines improve? I see that in matters of capital, networking and events, education, storytelling, marketing, and diversity — that’s a big one. 

What does it mean to be a community builder for entrepreneurs? 

First, I think everyone is a community builder … but connection is a huge piece for me. It’s one of my strengths and unique abilities. I love creating that community. When I was at Iowa State, I happened to really focus on Cystarters and developing its own little community [so that] whether it’s the entrepreneur, the mentor or the industry professional — they could all play a role and be part of that goal. 

What are some of the challenges in that mission for the state of Iowa right now? 

Diversity is definitely a challenge, and it’s something I know the Partnership is really getting behind and trying to figure out: What’s the plan? What’s the vision? 

That’s one of the bigger challenges we have here. That goes back to, if I’m creating initiatives and programs, how do we get these people who would never show up because of the naming, or because they think it represents this [other] community and it doesn’t feel like it represents them. There’s a really big opportunity there, particularly in the startup community. 

What drew you to this role? 

There’s this resurgence of people now that want to just create and build and just literally solve problems together. I see that specifically in Des Moines. Des Moines is growing, and I would hope that the startup community can grow with it. 

For the role itself as a startup community builder — as a creative I’m really drawn to what’s like an open canvas. That’s really what I see as far as new opportunities. When I started at Iowa State it was also an open canvas to create and design programs, so it’s kind of a second return to that. I do believe with the Partnership that they have a vested interest in the long-term success of the startup community, so that was just very optimal timing. 

What are your goals? 

First, making Des Moines a vibrant startup community to both outsiders and insiders. Recognizing that we do have a lot of great people, we have spaces like Gravitate [Coworking], we have accelerators, programs and funds — but I believe in general we need to amplify it all up a notch. 

After the pandemic is over I do believe there’s going to be a whole resurgence of events and activities, and really a surge of entrepreneurs who are buying existing businesses, but also creating new ones. So tied to this goal, I’m starting to have what I call “Curious Conversations” with a lot of stakeholders in this startup community to informally assess where the current state is. I would invite anyone who’s interested in seeing where the startup community goes to reach out to me and have a conversation. 

I’m looking at where we can improve — I see it as the low-hanging opportunities that we can quickly achieve, and then I think there’s going to be some really big opportunities. So trying to nail down what those areas are. They might show up as challenges that people are having. 

What have you been reading/watching/listening to lately? 

I read a lot of books, and I usually read three or four at a time. One of the books that’s stuck out is Bill Gates’ “How to Avoid a Climate Disaster.” Because of my new job, I revisited “The Startup Community Way” [Brad Feld and Ian Hathaway]. Adam Grant’s book “Think Again” is about how to think freely about everything. For fun, I read poetry, so I’m a fan of Mary Oliver and am currently going through her collection “Devotions.” Those are the books that are keeping me interested right now.