Profiles

  • Rural Nebraska family winery’s cozy virtual wine tastings a hit with cabin-fevered connoisseurs and casual fans alike

    Rural Nebraska family winery’s cozy virtual wine tastings a hit with cabin-fevered connoisseurs and casual fans alike

    The pandemic may have stopped many in their tracks, but the wine and beer continue to flow. Or at least that’s true of Mac’s Creek Winery and Brewery in Lexington, Nebraska. Faced with the challenge of their shuttered tasting room due to the COVID-19 global pandemic and subsequent lockdown, the family-owned winery and vineyard decided…

  • Payment tech company CardFlight gives businesses a break

    Payment tech company CardFlight gives businesses a break

    With no fewer than 32,000 business closures in the restaurant industry through the end of August—nearly 20,000 of them permanent, according to Yelp’s latest Economic Impact Report—the fragility of restaurateurs and similar walk-in businesses has been laid bare by the COVID-19 pandemic. Even for establishments that sought to pivot to curbside pick-up and deliveries, the…

  • Startup studio Beeso embraces do-or-die approach

    Startup studio Beeso embraces do-or-die approach

    Early on a Thursday, Beeso Studio founder John Bunting is typing a quick email while apologizing for not having his webcam on. This interview, by his estimate, is already his fourth or fifth meeting of the day. Bunting has been busy working out a deal that involves hiring a new team by the following Monday,…

  • ‘You don’t have to be an engineer to do this:’ Local founders say ‘no code’ apps are changing the game

    ‘You don’t have to be an engineer to do this:’ Local founders say ‘no code’ apps are changing the game

    Let’s say it’s 1985, long before “no code” is a thing. You’re lacing up your Keds to hit the cineplex and watch “The Breakfast Club” again when, suddenly, a person from the year 2020 steps through your Michael Jordan poster wearing, for some reason, a surgical mask. They look tired. After terrifying you with grim…

  • Filling the gap: Nebraska Dev Lab provides comprehensive pipeline program to meet demand for tech talent

    Filling the gap: Nebraska Dev Lab provides comprehensive pipeline program to meet demand for tech talent

    Lincoln-based software development company Don’t Panic Labs and Doane University have teamed up to turn non-tech employees at sponsor organizations into fully fledged software engineers. The comprehensive initiative, called the Nebraska Dev Lab Pipeline Program, aims to strengthen Nebraska’s tech workforce and grow a larger, more diverse talent pool for employers to choose from when…

  • Local programming instructor champions the life-changing power of coding

    Local programming instructor champions the life-changing power of coding

    Vanessa Kasun is debugging some code, finalizing her presentation for the upcoming Heartland Developers Conference on Sept. 24. The topic? How to build a React app from the ground up. Kasun, an instructor at AIM Code School, will take HDC attendees from installation of the Node.js open-source cross-platform Javascript runtime environment to launching a simple…

  • Not just for teens — TikTok means business for Kenney Property Services

    Not just for teens — TikTok means business for Kenney Property Services

    Glitter. Red wine. Acrylic paint. Glue.  Jake Kenney’s seen it all when it comes to carpet stains. And, thanks to a strategic video content marketing strategy, so have millions of viewers on TikTok.  Under the handle @OmahaCarpetCleaning, Kenney’s demonstrations on how to remove various stains out of carpet have gone viral dozens of times, building…

  • Advent, LLP invents the future of intellectual property law

    Advent, LLP invents the future of intellectual property law

    From his father, Ryan Grace inherited more than a love of fishing. He caught the invention gene as well. In 2007, Grace, the founding partner of Omaha-based Advent, LLP—an intellectual property, innovation and technology law firm with clients around the globe—teamed up with his father, Ted Grace, to come up with an invention that would…

  • Ground-to-cloud sharing: Lincoln AgTech startup RealmFive revolutionizes wireless connectivity in agriculture

    Ground-to-cloud sharing: Lincoln AgTech startup RealmFive revolutionizes wireless connectivity in agriculture

    It’s all about connecting the dots for Lincoln agriculture tech startup RealmFive.  Through a series of products, sensors and cloud technologies, RealmFive is bringing the latest in tech to farms around the world. “Our goal as a company is to connect and control all the things that our customers care about on the farm and…

  • Bay Area AI engineer turned VC joins retired Nebraska STEM educator to strengthen local tech, startup ecosystems

    Bay Area AI engineer turned VC joins retired Nebraska STEM educator to strengthen local tech, startup ecosystems

    Joshua Armah, president of Wiase Research Institute and managing partner of Wiase Capital, got hit in the head with a baseball bat when he was 14 years old. A former Boy Scout turned teenage runaway on the streets of Atlantic City, New Jersey, he was trying to save his friend from a beatdown. Stepping up…