ISU Startup Factory Helps Entrepreneurs Bring New Solutions to Market

Kyle McMahon didn’t set out to build one of the country’s fastest‑growing ag‑tech companies. He just wanted to buy a tractor. 

But when the 2013 Iowa State University graduate realized there was no reliable way to know what farm equipment was actually worth, he saw a gap big enough to build a business around.

“There was no Kelley Blue Book for tractors,” he said. “I didn’t know what I should be paying.”

That problem — a lack of transparent, trustworthy pricing — would eventually grow into Tractor Zoom, McMahon’s West Des Moines-based company that now helps value and advertise more than $20 billion in farm equipment each year.

A turning point, McMahon says, came in 2017 when he joined the third cohort of the Iowa State University Startup Factory, an 18-week incubator program at Iowa State designed to help faculty, staff, students and community members transform their breakthrough ideas into scalable businesses.

Since its launch in 2016, the ISU Startup Factory has supported 165 startups across 18 cohorts, helping founders raise more than $108 million in outside funding and achieve five successful exits, which is when founders convert their ownership into financial gains, typically through an acquisition or an initial public offering (IPO).