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What’s next for MOVE VC & Nebraska Startup Academy
SPN recently connected with MOVE VC managing partner Charlie Cuddy to learn more about the new investment firm. In part two of this series we talk with Cuddy about what’s coming next, both for MOVE and its new nonprofit arm, Nebraska Startup Academy.
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Do Space fellows prepare to showcase their summer grant projects
This summer, Do Space awarded their first summer Innovation Fellowships to two Omaha-area educators and a non-profit innovator focused on literacy. The three fellows each received a $10,000 stipend to create groundbreaking projects in 3D printing, robotics, and software development that can eventually be implemented throughout the city of Omaha. Recipients of the stipend have…
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Don’t Panic Labs pioneers “dev-for-equity” model to help startups
Lincoln based Don’t Panic Labs doesn’t believe that building software should be a matter of uncertainty. “There’s a lot of conventional wisdom right now that says if you’re going to build software and you have all these uncertainties and changes coming for it, basically you can’t architect for it,” said Brian Zimmer, Business Director at…
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DIBS brings infinite books to children in high-poverty schools
Six years ago, David Orrick, Founder and Executive Director of DIBS, was a first grade teacher for Teach For America in New Orleans. He found himself very frustrated with the way teachers were being supported, especially when it came to improving youth literacy. “Considering 60 percent of students in poverty don’t have any age-appropriate books…
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Girls With Ideas puts young women on the path to leadership
A girl’s confidence peaks at the age of nine, but girls who are encouraged to be leaders are more likely to fill that role when they grow up. Girls With Ideas founder Dr. Allison Poss was working as a psychologist at an Iowa middle school when she noticed a culture of social media threats and…
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Better Weekdays helps college students find their perfect career pathway
St. Louis-based Better Weekdays aims to be the best option for college students and alumni searching for a career. As millennials continue to occupy the largest portion of the workforce, Better Weekdays hopes to get the hiring employer’s brand out to young students early and often to help influence their career decisions. Chris Motley, founder and…
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NewBoCo’s QuickScore simplifies grading for K-12 teachers
Despite the digital classroom revolution, many teachers still keep track of students’ grades by pencil and paper. The Cedar Rapids collaborative NewBoCo, which operates the Iowa Startup Accelerator, is looking to improve the process for schools with a new plugin, QuickScore. Six teams were chosen for the Iowa Startup Accelerator this year, but QuickScore wasn’t one of them. QuickScore…
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Fremont’s Sycamore Education serves schools worldwide
Sycamore Education’s first line of code was written in 1991. “We started really small,” said Glen Ellis, founder and CEO, Sycamore Education. “I was the coder, and my wife was the salesman.” Ellis said that originally, the small team never had a plan so they ended up just doing it, a way that Ellis seems…
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Pear Deck expands from Iowa City into Kansas City
Iowa City-based edtech startup Pear Deck is expanding its sales team into Kansas City this summer. The decision follows the hire of Nick De Buyl as VP of Sales, who was previously the Director of Sales for Netchemia, a Kansas City education startup which was acquired by PeopleAdmin out of Austin in February 2015. “I felt like…
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Omnipointment helps busy college students get organized
For the Omnipointment team, everything started during a hackathon at Northwestern University in Chicago last November. “I was in Lincoln at the time and [Vinesh] was going to the hackathon, and he called me and told me, ‘We have to build this, it’s a really cool idea,’” said Brendan Batliner, co-founder, Omnipointment. “So I worked…