Following the conclusion of last Friday's Invest Nebraska East-2-West New Venture Competition at the Old Mattress Factory, I spoke with the winner of the event, Scott Kleeb of Energy Pioneer Solutions. I asked him about the backstory of his new endeavor (if Kleeb's name rings a bell, it's because he's ran for public office twice in the last four years, most recently in 2008 for one of Nebraska's two U.S. Senate seats). "I was giving a speech in Scott's Bluff [in 2008], talking about the renewable energy responsibilities of our country," said Kleeb. "I was saying a lot of things people had heard and this old guys raises his hand and says, 'You know, you're wrong. In fact, our country's wrong. We've got to focus on conservation.' "The problem is," Kleeb said, "it's just not sexy, it's hard, it's not turn-key, and so that's our problem, that's what we need to figure out." Through Energy Pioneer Solutions Kleeb attempts to figure that problem out. According to the event program, "the aim of Energy Pioneer Solutions is to build a sustainable energy model, through its proprietary software, that explores conservation and untapped resources." The expected outcome of this will be savings on users energy bills and decreasing peak usage for utilities. Kleeb has partnered with Jane Eckert and Julie McMahn to form the company in Hastings, Nebraska. The Energy Pioneer Solutions team is currently at 12 employees in three community markets, and with the possible intake of the competition prize, $50,000 investment from Invest Nebraska (not finalized until terms are negotiated), Kleeb said they would expand into two more markets. Speaking on behalf of the judges panel, Eric Dinger of Lincoln-based Thought District shed light on their selection of Kleeb. "We ended up talking about, 'Are you buying the guy or are you buying the idea or are you buying the plan?'" Dinger said. "Ultimately, we kind of made a decision rubric based on those three things and found a good guy with a great plan and a team put together that we were pretty excited about in Mr. Scott Kleeb." Here's more from Dinger about the six contestants, the judges' decision and what he hopes to see pitched in next year's competition: Here's the list of all six contestants and the businesses they pitched (in order of appearance):

• Kristin and Michael* Johnson – Kristy’s Kitchen (Tekamah)
• Lateef Johnson* – Deckerton (Lincoln)
• Scott Kleeb* and Jane Eckert – Energy Pioneer Solutions (Hastings)
• Thomas M. Welsch, Thomas C. Welsch,* and John Welsch – Welsch’s Bale in a Bag (Mitchell)
• Cody Butler with Corn Finger (Fremont)
• Dr. Doug Morin* and Gayle Novotny-Morin – MedLetters (Omaha)

*Denotes presenter

Also, a neat note about the winner of the competition was a bit more of the backstory he shared with me. Kleeb's idea to get into the energy came from the "old man" who reacted to his speech in 2008, but Kleeb's moment of inspiration to turn the idea into a business came at this year's Big Omaha (an annual conference produced by us, Silicon Prairie News). Kleeb said:

The old man gave me the idea, but an idea is only so good as, well, the idea, you've got to make it into a business. As it was sort of running around in my head I actually came to Big Omaha and started hanging out with other investors and just sort of hoping through osmosis that some of the fantastic ideas I was hearing about as well as the conversation would allow us to hatch a business plan…so really, the genesis of the business part was with Big Omaha. 

Learn more about Invest Nebraska and the New Venture Competition winner in their press release: Invest Nebraska Names $50,000 New Venture Winner. Here's a number of photos I shot while at the event: Invest Nebraska executive director Dan Hoffman welcomes participants, judges and attendees to the third annual East-2-West New Venture Competition. A view from the back of the room at the Old Mattress Factory. Dan Hoffman provided opening remarks. Lateef Johnson of Deckerton Johnson answers judges' questions. Thomas Welsch of Welsch’s Bale in a Bag Scott Kleeb of Energy Pioneer Solutions Cody Butler of CornFinger Butler answers judges' questions. Doug Morin, PhD of MedLetters Dan Hoffman and winner Scott Kleeb