-
11 questions with PopBookings co-founder Erika Klotz
PopBookings is a startup based in Kansas City, Missouri, who recently received a $50K LaunchKC grant by winning the People’s Choice at Techweek KC. SPN caught up with Co-founder Erika Klotz over the phone. SPN: Can you tell us a little bit about PopBookings? EK: We’re basically Uber for event staffing. PopBookings is a platform designed to help…
-
Goquets joins Iowa accelerator to gain national traction
Goquets co-founders Shawn Harrington and Lyndsay Horgan want to improve the experience of purchasing flowers online. The company, founded during Ames Startup Weekend in 2013, exists to remove “guesswork” from the process by allowing purchasers to share their preferences, instead of pointing to a static photo, when placing their orders via the web or mobile devices.…
-
Why Viirt left Omaha
On September 7th, the up and coming roofing startup Viirt said goodbye to Omaha and moved their team of three to the Pacific Northwest. Viirt graduated from the Omaha based Straight Shot accelerator program in 2014 and has been growing in leaps and bounds ever since. In March 2015 they announced a raise of $900,000 with…
-
Discontent with the industry, StoryHook aims to tell unique stories for startups
Announcing on September 4th the launch of their new Lincoln based “nontraditional marketing and advertising startup”, StoryHook, Erik Miller and his team are planning to do what he believes many agencies are claiming to do but are failing miserably at, telling stories. “A lot of groups say that their focus is on stories, but they…
-
9 questions with the intrapreneurs of ES&S
One of the most unique teams in this year’s Straight Shot accelerator began as a nagging idea in an established company that couldn’t quite get off the starting line. Election management company ES&S partnered with the Omaha accelerator this summer to validate if this idea was worth investing company time and resources. ES&S identified Shari Little…
-
7 questions with Paige Technologies’ Jonathan Mills on APIs
Jonathan Mills is Director of Research and Development at Paige Technologies in Overland Park, Kansas. He will be giving a workshop at AIM HDC on AngularJS and a presentation on Node.js. SPN spoke with Mills over the phone. SPN: Tell us a bit about Paige Technologies and what you do there. JM: I work in…
-
ClusterFlunk co-founders start new service geared for professors
Getting an entire college class on the same page is often an arduous task. Some people prefer communication through email, others prefer text. Some people set up Facebook groups, and others use Dropbox and Google Drive. It would be easier to get everyone using the same service, wouldn’t it? Enter Pi, based in Chicago. Pi…
-
Grasshorse Studios finds its groove with character animation and local talent
Grasshorse Studios founder and director Steve Jennings said carving out a niche in the field of character animation is driving the Winfield-based company forward as it draws artistic talent from Southeastern Community College in West Burlington, Iowa. The Great Recession and September 2009 freeze on Iowa’s film tax-credit program helped Grasshorse Studios to refocus its…
-
The ultimate urban e-scooter started as a conversation in Nebraska
A chance meeting in California connected a Holdrege, Nebraska, entrepreneur with an innovator from China. The result is a battery-powered, portable adult electric scooter that is catching on among urban commuters worldwide. Two of the partners in Probity Cell, LLC, are Robert McCormick of Holdrege, Nebraska, and Jeff Kong, who now lives in Chicago but…
-
10 questions with WorkHound’s Andrew Kirpalani and Max Farrell
WorkHound is a software platform attacking the alarming 97 percent turnover rate within the trucking industry. Using WorkHound, trucking companies can retain their drivers by improving driver experience. The mobile application enables truck drivers to share feedback—praise, problems and ideas—directly with carriers in real-time. That feedback is turned into actionable insights truck carriers can use to enact…
A week-long celebration of the startup and entrepreneurial community in Nebraska with events in Omaha, Lincoln, Ashland and Council Bluffs Learn more »