At the very beginning of 2023, I saw a LinkedIn post about Silicon Prairie News coming under the Nebraska Journalism Trust umbrella. I’d heard of NJT’s flagship publication, Flatwater Free Press. In fact, NJT Co-founder and Executive Director Matt Wynn had reached out to me when Flatwater was just an idea. He described his vision for what he and Co-founder Matthew Hansen wanted to build right here in Nebraska. I was intrigued. And I was incredibly suspect that he could make it happen.

Fast forward to January 2023, and as I checked out what Flatwater was becoming, I got more curious about what an SPN revival might look like under NJT. So I had coffee with Matt to talk it over. At this point, I was not in the job market. I was happily producing retreats and team-building experiences for corporate teams around the country. I was certain that I would never work for anyone else again.

Exactly one coffee meeting changed all of that.

Something I’ve grappled with throughout my career is the concept of making an impact at scale. I absolutely believe that storytelling can do that. I was a 20-something business reporter at the Omaha World-Herald when Silicon Prairie News was originally founded. As a business reporter in 2008, there was a plethora to cover related to millennials entering the workforce, the Great Recession and housing crisis.

And then there were these young guys — only a couple of years older than me, trying to build a community of makers and creatives and tech nerds right here in Nebraska. I was hooked on that storyline. And I’ve been hooked ever since.

In the mid- to late aughts, getting a good job in Nebraska looked like going to work for a place like Union Pacific, Mutual of Omaha or ConAgra. It looked like becoming a doctor or a lawyer. Entrepreneurship was not included on this list. The idea of building something that wasn’t quite a small business and was based on technology was tough to grasp for some. The climate of risk aversion didn’t lend itself to the Silicon Valley culture of “move fast and break stuff.”

The Silicon Prairie identity began to emerge and has continued to evolve ever since.

My passion for telling stories about founders and creatives and those taking less conventional paths in their career stems from a desire to showcase all the possibilities and pathways to making a living, and maybe even making an impact.

I took the helm of SPN at a time when I really had no idea what was happening in the innovation and entrepreneurship community in Nebraska. I was immediately thrilled to realize there were so many stories going untold — more than we could ever cover. I’m proud of the stories we’ve told and the ways we’ve helped innovative Nebraskans connect to resources and one another.

Now the time has come to pass the baton. This is my last week at SPN. Thank you for supporting and following along! I look forward to cheering on the team from the sidelines as I return to my own entrepreneurial roots after taking some time off to relax this summer.

Cheers to the next chapter!