Hiya folks, Lev here.

Last week on Tuesday, my SPN co-conspirator Ben Goeser got to see downtown Lincoln enveloped by roughly 1,300 “Hudlies” — employees of the sportstech giant Hudl. They were in town for a company retreat that also celebrated Hudl’s 20th anniversary.

Over those two decades, Hudl went from three co-founders to being a juggernaut of Nebraska’s startup ecosystem with a global business. And despite having employees all around the world, Hudl has proudly maintained its headquarters in Lincoln.

“We’ve had a bunch of people move here after visiting from Barcelona, from London, from other international locations — moved to Lincoln because they like this place,” said Hudl Co-founder and CTO Brian Kaiser. 

Kaiser credits a welcoming Midwest culture, engaged local investors and community support from the city as being part of the draw. “It’s not just me kind of making this up. The proof is actually in the results, and we see it,” he said.

We wanted the inside scoop on what Hudl has learned in 20 years, how its leaders think about the journey so far and how Hudl sees its future. Maybe the takeaways can help guide other startups, including those in the Nebraska sportstech space.

Naturally, Ben is on it as our resident 20th anniversary startup story guy (he also profiled Buildertrend for the same milestone back in February).

Check out the story on SPN.