Meet Chuck Norris, Managing Director @ Nelnet

How would you describe the startup culture in Nebraska?

The startup culture in Nebraska has come a long way over the last 20 years. Organizations and entities like the Nebraska Angels, NMotion, 1 Million Cups, Pipeline and others helped build and accelerate the ecosystem. Physical locations where startups co-locate like Millwork Commons, Aksarben and Elevator in Omaha or the Haymarket and Telegraph Districts in Lincoln also really helped create and foster a great startup culture. These locations and the people who have supported the companies and fostered a sense of community in these locations have really made a difference in creating a great culture to create and innovate. 

We are not unique though. Many cities/regions across the U.S. and the world have strong and growing startup ecosystems. We will need to continue to work together to nurture the Nebraska ecosystem for the future.

How do you balance taking risks and making calculated decisions in pursuit of innovation?

This is a great question! The early stage of anything has very little information initially. This means some or all the initial assumptions will likely be wrong in the beginning. To counter this, deep customer discovery is key. This means getting out of the office (or maybe a video call) and talking with the potential customers. Founders need to be creating and building to the initial hunches and be willing to change direction as more information becomes available. 

It also helps to make lots of smaller bets versus one or two larger bets. This may or may not be practical for a startup, but as a company like Nelnet, it can make sense to try lots of different things and double down on those that get initial traction.

How do you define success and what metrics do you pay the most attention to?

Success should initially be defined as “solving the customer’s problem.” Next would be the financial metrics around the business. Dan Gilbert, the founder of Rocket Mortgage, has a list of 16 things he likes his teams to focus on (called ISMs). One of those ISMs is “numbers and money follow, they do not lead.” I really like this perspective. It hits the heart of solving the customer problem. If you indeed solve an important problem, people will be willing to pay for that product or service. 

For an early-stage company, this likely causes a dilemma. Defining how to monetize is a priority for survival. Other important metrics would be those around employee and customer satisfaction.  

What are the top one or two challenges / opportunities Nebraska startups face?

One of the benefits of the long history of East and West Coast startup ecosystems is the sheer number of people who have practical experience in starting and scaling businesses. There are lessons learned by trial and error that just must be experienced. The large number of people who have that experience on the coasts is an advantage. Nebraska will eventually gain this experience as early-stage companies build, grow and exit. It just takes time.

What is one emerging industry or technology that you believe will have a significant impact on the Nebraska startup ecosystem in the next few years?

It would be hard to answer this question without mentioning the impact of artificial intelligence. What AI is bringing and will bring to early-stage companies will likely be transformative. While startups probably won’t be creating their own large language models, they will be using LLM’s and other forms of AI in building products and services.