Omaha’s Watts co-working space focuses on community and powering innovation

“We’re searching for the outliers––the people who think outside the box,” said Brandon Peterson, co-founder of co-working space Watts. Peterson and co-founder Dallas Polivka are both Lincoln natives, but they’ve invested themselves in their futures in growing Omaha’s community. Both entrepreneurs and founders, the pair launched Watts earlier in 2019 with a vision to create…

“We’re searching for the outliers––the people who think outside the box,” said Brandon Peterson, co-founder of co-working space Watts.

Peterson and co-founder Dallas Polivka are both Lincoln natives, but they’ve invested themselves in their futures in growing Omaha’s community.

Both entrepreneurs and founders, the pair launched Watts earlier in 2019 with a vision to create a collaborative tribe of innovators who want to test new limits and solve existing problems through ideas and technology. Their philosophy is that each person’s skills and attributes should be used alongside other people and their complimenting talents.

They also feel that Omaha has all of the things needed to build a thriving ecosystem including capital, start ups and population. Watts is a place where those elements can come together, joined by a variety of IT pros and developers, real estate agents, security experts, writers, creatives and more.

“If you can all combine those things, strides happen,” said Peterson. “We’ve already seen relationships form.”

Watts features a wide range of amenities, membership plans and additional features including a full kitchen, private meeting rooms and basement bar to hang out during events and happy hours.

Peterson and Polivka referenced their experience as startup founders when designing and planning Watts.

“We understand how the startup world works,” said Peterson. “We looked at it like, ‘What if our business moved here?’”

They set out to create an environment that helped ease certain strains like managing relationships with other vendors and collaborators, avoiding the dreaded work burnout, and finding work/life balance.

“The life of an entrepreneur is not glamorous,” said Peterson. “It’s tiresome for you and the people around you. At Watts, I’m working but I feel like I’m at home. It keeps me motivated and keeps me going.”

Peterson said that Watt’s members are single, married, parents, dog parents, etc. That blend of people and interests, as well as the wide range of industries that are finding value in Watts, is what has led to the space’s success so far.

“We’re Nebraskans,” proclaimed Peterson. “We’re family oriented, fun-focused, hard-working people. The atmosphere here shows that.”

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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