Chris Hegarty

  • SPN Funny Page: “The Startup Race” by Growthology Lab

    SPN Funny Page: “The Startup Race” by Growthology Lab

    Remember that story where the tortoise outruns the hare because the hare sprints off and burns itself out and the tortoise sets a steady pace and wins the race? Seriously, in the story of the tortoise and the hare, how can the hare not be the #hustle? Read more

  • Top 10 Vacation Reads From Travefy

    Top 10 Vacation Reads From Travefy

    Lincoln-based Travefy specializes in providing travel itineraries to travel professionals. The Travefy team are the experts on travel, so who better to ask about the potential top reads of summer? Silicon Prairie News talked with David Chait, Travefy’s CEO, and he graciously asked for book recommendations from their team. Here are their top ten books…

  • ExplORer Surgical announces financing

    ExplORer Surgical announces financing

    Here is where you put the excerpt text. Ideally a couple of intro sentences, like: Chicago-based ExplORer Surgical announced April 18 that it raised a $5 million round in a deal led by Aphelion Capital and other undisclosed investors.

  • Zuckerburg-led philanthropic initiative invests in KC’s LEANLAB

    Zuckerburg-led philanthropic initiative invests in KC’s LEANLAB

    The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, the primary philanthropic vehicle for Facebook founder, Mark Zuckerberg, has made its first investment in Kansas City to improve public education. LEANLAB Education partners with communities and entrepreneurs in co-creating solutions to improve local education. LEANLAB Education will now partner with CZI to research the complex processes that schools undertake to…

  • Ames startup PollUp simplifies HR employee polls

    Ames startup PollUp simplifies HR employee polls

    According to Gallup, only 32.5 percent of employees are engaged at work. If an employee doesn’t feel like their concerns are taken seriously, they might start focusing more on updating LinkedIn and searching Indeed than their current job. Many employers use polling and surveys to gauge the mood of their employees, but they may only…

  • Igor efficiently powers buildings using ethernet

    Igor efficiently powers buildings using ethernet

      When considering a physical location for a company, there’s more to think about than just the cost per square foot. Heating and cooling that space and even just keeping the lights on are big expenses to consider. The Johnston-based company Igor hopes to reduce operating costs for businesses by reducing their energy consumption using…

  • Higher Learning Technologies is putting textbooks into apps

    Textbooks are big, expensive, and in some cases go out of date almost as fast as they’re published. The Coralville company Higher Learning Technologies is looking to make textbooks into more effective tools for education by converting them into mobile learning apps. How Higher Learning Technology works HLT’s Alec Whitters doesn’t seem like your typical…

  • BREWD software makes business decisions less filling for breweries

    BREWD software makes business decisions less filling for breweries

    As of 2015, there are more than 4,200 breweries in the United States, up from about 1,400 10 years ago. That’s a lot of new businesses in a highly competitive field, and just because someone is good at brewing beer doesn’t mean they have experience overseeing other aspects of a business. Des Moines startup BREWD…

  • FanFood offers a concession app for sports fans

    FanFood offers a concession app for sports fans

    No matter how riveting a game is or legendary a concert might be, there’s one thing that can pull fans out of the experience: waiting in concession lines. You could be stuck waiting for a hot dog when Alex Rodriguez hits a home run or missing out on a Bruce Springsteen song for want of…

  • Iowa startup Terva wants to be Zillow for farmland

    Iowa startup Terva wants to be Zillow for farmland

    When you’re looking to buy residential property, it’s easy to use a site like Zillow to find out almost everything you would want to know about a home. If you’re a farmer looking to expand your acreage, the process isn’t quite as simple. The Ames startup Terva is hoping to simplify the process and to…