Silicon Prairie Spooky: Companies across the region celebrate Halloween

Two years ago we shared some of the Silicon Prairie’s spookiest Halloween costumes. Now we’re back for a second round of Halloween hijinx and startup shenanigans. Check out some of the best parties, pumpkins and punny costumes the Silicon Prairie had to offer this year …

The Lincoln-based Bulu Box team celebrates Halloween with startup suave costumes. Photo from Twitter

Two years ago we shared some of the Silicon Prairie’s spookiest Halloween costumes. Now we’re back for a second round of Halloween hijinx and startup shenanigans. Check out some of the best parties, pumpkins and punny costumes the Silicon Prairie had to offer this year:

9Clouds & Lemon.ly

We spy Leslie Knope, Carmen Sandiago and a Magic 8 Ball—what clever costumes do you spot among these Sioux Falls entrepreneurs? Photo courtesy of Lemon.ly. 

Sioux Falls, S.D., companies 9Clouds and Lemon.ly teamed up to celebrate Halloween this year with quite the array of creative costumes. 

Bulu Box

 

The Bulu Box team gives a quick preview of their 2013 Halloween costumes. Video from Vine

Last year the Bulu Box team impersonated their co-founder Paul Jarrett. But this year the Lincoln-based Bulu team mixed things up a bit with the likes of Amy Poehler, Tina Fey and two of Lichtenstein’s masterpieces. 

Live from Nebraska, it’s Weekend Update with Tina Fey and Amy Poehler. Photo from Instagram.

Bulu Box co-founders Paul and Stephanie Jarrett went one step further when it came to getting into character and took inspiration from pop artist Roy Lichtenstein. Photo from Instagram

Don’t Panic Labs

Abe Lincoln poses with John Wilkes Booth (disguised as a Red Sox player). Photo from Twitter

Don’t Panic Labs, a software development company is based in Lincoln, got into character for the workday this Halloween with costumes that were both historical and topical. 

Dwolla

Fathers Gordan and Michael ready to evangelize the Dwolla API. Photo from Instagram

The Dwolla team took advantage of an internal hackathon to go all out on Halloween costumes. The wardrobe choices ranged from punny to pet-related as team members gathered in the startup’s Des Moines offices. 

Even Dwolla team members’ pets stopped by the office to get in on the Halloween fun. Photo from Instagram

Red Nova Labs


Penguin 2.1 and Rand Fishkin pretending to get along at Red Nova Lab’s Halloween party. Photo courtesy of Red Nova Labs.


Red Nova Labs’ local search specialist can even find Waldo. Photo courtesy of Red Nova Labs. 

Westwood, Kan.-based startup Red Nova Labs celebrated Halloween with a party at Kansas City’s Boulevard Brewing Company. We always condone dressing up as your entrepreneurial hero—we’re looking at you, Rand Fishkin—but Google Maps just might take the cake this year. 

The Doctor went back in time and visited Rosie the Riveter. Photo courtesy of Red Nova Labs.

Richard Simmons and Jane Fonda working up a sweat at Boulevard Brewing Company. Photo courtesy of Red Nova Labs. 

Silicon Prairie News

Introducing BatAnalog the Prairie Dog—defender of evil, lover of orange and mascot of the Silicon Prairie. 

Even SPN’s trusty prairie dog mascot Analog got into the Halloween spirit with a festive costume. Unfortunately he didn’t make it trick-or-treating this year. 

Social Assurance

Meet Jack the Developripper. Amber Pankonin shared this creative carving with us after Jack “drank too much Mountain Dew and turned into a pumpkin.” Photo courtesy of Amber Pankonin. 

Social Assurance, a Lincoln-based startup, shared the inventive pumpkins a few members of its team carved this year to celebrate Halloween. From Jack the Developripper to a jack-o’-lantern using the startup’s logo as inspiration, Social Assurance has its bases covered when it comes to holiday decor. 

The Social Assurance logo shines brightly through the October night. Photo courtesy of Trent Allen.

Sporting Innovations

The Sporting Innovations team knows that great costumes are instrumental to a fun Halloween around the office. Photo from Twitter

Sporting Innovations, a Kansas City company that help sports teams better utilize technology, got in the seasonal spirit with some creative costumes. 

StartupCity Des Moines

StartupCity co-workers and residents showed up on Halloween to find that Christian Renaud had an identical twin. Photo from Facebook

This year StartupCity Des Moines hosted a Halloween costume contest through its Facebook page. The winner—Jay Olsen (pictured below)—received a $50 gift card to Amici Espresso in Des Moines. Abby Rowling and Mike Naughton tied for second and Kasey McCurdy took third place, receiving $30 and $20 gift cards respectively. 

Jesus stopped by StartupCity for the day to do some co-working and rock flip-flops in October. Photo from Facebook

Spotted: the walking dead spending Halloween at StartupCity Des Moines. Photo from Facebook

VGM Forbin

VGM Forbin’s team dressed as classic childhood toys, both new and old. Photo courtesy of VGM Forbin. 

Content creation and web development company VGM Forbin‘s Halloween festivities were toy box themed this year. With a wide range of toys new and old we give this Waterloo, Iowa-based team major points for creativity. 

A little green army man found his way out of the toy box and into VGM Forbin’s Waterloo offices. Photo courtesy of VGM Forbin. 

Lifesize LEGO people fit right in on Halloween with this Iowa team. Photo courtesy of VGM Forbin. 

Did we miss one?

Shoot us an email at editor@siliconprairienews.com or leave a link in the comments below to be included.

This story is part of the AIM Archive

This story is part of the AIM Institute Archive on Silicon Prairie News. AIM gifted SPN to the Nebraska Journalism Trust in January 2023. Learn more about SPN’s origin »

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One response to “Silicon Prairie Spooky: Companies across the region celebrate Halloween”

  1. […] 2013, we featured some stellar startup costumes from across the region as a way to celebrate Halloween. This year we’re taking things up a […]