Last week, I spent a few days in San Francisco along with Dusty Reynolds, the Greater Omaha Chamber of Commerce‘s director of innovation and entrepreneurship.
We encountered plenty of people familiar with the work of Silicon Prairie News. We met others who had heard of SPN or our events, Big Omaha and Thinc Iowa, but weren’t completely familiar with our work and efforts to build our region’s entrepreneurial and startup community.
The trip was filled with a number of visits and conversations, and it was a great success in developing new strategic relationships for the Silicon Prairie community for the months and years to come. Below are a few photos from our trip.
Thanks to our sponsor
Immediately after landing in San Francisco, Dusty (left) and I were greeted by our friend and a former Omahan, Rahul Gupta (right). He served as our amazing host for the next few days and provided help and hospitality throughout our trip.
It was a whirlwind few days that featured stops at a number of notable startups. We checked out Pinterest’s new office and chatted with Iowa native and Thinc Iowa alumnus Ben Silbermann.
We stopped by the Zaarly office and talked with Bo Fishback and his team. Sarah Lacy visited over lunch to share her story with the staff about her journey to and rise within San Francisco’s startup media scene.
We met Thrillist founder and Big Omaha 2012 speaker Ben Lerer at a Giants game (above) and connected with some of the team from Omaha-based MindMixer, in San Francisco for the Code for America Accelerator.
Omaha native Micah Laaker gave us a tour of the Google campus, where he’s currently working.
The visit to Google HQ provided a fascinating look at one of the world’s most innovative companies.
Our friend Porter Gale organized a happy hour our behalf, which was followed by a Silicon Prairie News Meetup.
Over 60 folks from across the country attended the meetup. Special thanks to Rahul Gupta of Big Wheel Brigade and Iowa native Lindsay Crittendon of Singly for their company’s sponsorship of the meetup.
We caught up with Gumroad founder and Big Omaha veteran Sahil Lavingia, sporting some Silicon Prairie swag.
Credits: Photos courtesy of Jeff Slobotski.
