Business in Iowa

I met up with 2 bankers this past week while I was home in Iowa for Thanksgiving break. The first was Adam Claypool, and investment banker for BDFS. I didn't even know there were I-bankers in Iowa until I spoke with my mom about a company she had invested in through him. His bank works with small to medium sized companies ($5 - 500 million). They specialize in providing very hands-on service, and work only 12-15 deals a year (though they turn down a few hundred a year). I really have no idea how this compares to other midwest investment banks (say Chicago), but I assume they are much smaller. One very interesting thing I learned is that Acuity Ventures, a venture capital firm in San Jose, has worked with BDFS to move a few of their startups to Des Moines. One of the companies they have moved is Gcommerce, a provider of supply chain management software. Basically they have created a web-based software program to connect contractors with distributors, and distributors with suppliers, to reduce lag times and implement just-in-time manufacturing (think MIT's beer game). A couple of observations:
1. I thought this already existed, so I'm wondering how much competition they have (Adam said they are currently only a few million dollar company so they are just getting started) .
2. The move to Des Moines has it obvious benefits (cheap rent, cheap labor, closer locale to many manufacturing plants), but one major problem with Iowa is the amount of brain drain it is going through--the best engineers and scientists born in Iowa are moving away, so there is a lack of technically skilled people for Gcommerce to hire.

My second meeting was with a commercial banker in Ankeny. He is one of the founders of the bank, which is obviously much smaller than Wells Fargo or Principal, but is still one of the largest banks in Ankeny with over $100 million in deposits. Some of the items we discussed:
1. Can't compete with Wells Fargo on price (loan interest rates), so instead focuses on speed--he can authorize a million dollar loan same day, where other banks may take a few weeks for processing to go through.
2. While they have internet banking, they focus on their brick and mortar service, which he acknowledged is not efficient. However, for a bank in Iowa, the personal touch of a bank is very valuable.
3. He was amazed how easily it was for me to get student loans online--that it did not really even matter to me what bank I got them from, and that I never had to physically sign a document.
4. Basically this very profitable bank is afraid of innovation--they did not implement online services until a competitor did, they did not offer ACH transacting until one of their major clients forced them to, and the banker I talked to still used an adding machine!