Chicago and Illinois

  • Omaha’s Retail Aware partners with Chicago’s Home Chef to deploy network of sensors to better measure consumer behavior

    Omaha’s Retail Aware partners with Chicago’s Home Chef to deploy network of sensors to better measure consumer behavior

    Omaha ad-tech company Retail Aware has announced a new venture in partnership with Home Chef—the Chicago-based meal kit and food delivery business—to deploy its network of sensor devices in up to 2,000 Kroger stores nationwide.  The move should allow Kroger – which owns the Home Chef brand – more granular control over its in-store shopper…

  • Hunger-fighting app GiftAMeal raises $500,000 in latest investment round

    Hunger-fighting app GiftAMeal raises $500,000 in latest investment round

    A mobile app allowing users to turn photos of their food into meals for those in need announced yesterday that it had raised $500,000 in a recent investment round. GiftAMeal, founded in 2015 by then-college student Andrew Glantz, is a St. Louis-based startup with a mission to feed the hungry through technology that gamifies social…

  • Infotec 2021 virtual conference to feature keynote speaker Mike Smith, co-executive director of Rabble Mill

    Infotec 2021 virtual conference to feature keynote speaker Mike Smith, co-executive director of Rabble Mill

    Life as a tech professional can be hard. Not at Infotec 2021, conference organizers say, previewing a robust virtual digital event experience aimed at helping attendees grow professionally while connecting with other IT and web professionals in the heartland.  After successfully hosting Infotec 2020 in a virtual format due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the AIM…

  • Omaha’s FNTS named to list of North America’s top tech providers

    Omaha’s FNTS named to list of North America’s top tech providers

    An Omaha-based managed service provider and data center has been named to a list honoring North America’s top 250 tech companies, according to a statement released yesterday. The company, FNTS, has joined the CRN Tech Elite 250 List, an annual register of IT solution providers of all sizes in North America that have earned cutting-edge…

  • Sioux Falls B2B software integration developer Prismatic launches today

    Sioux Falls B2B software integration developer Prismatic launches today

    A Sioux Falls-based embedded integration platform developer for B2B software companies announced its general availability launch today. The company, Prismatic, strives to provide an easy-to-use integration platform in an era of increasingly specialized business software usage. A few years ago, Prismatic CEO and co-founder Michael Zuercher noticed a need for B2B software companies to have…

  • Free three-day virtual summit to be held by gener8tor

    Free three-day virtual summit to be held by gener8tor

    The 2021 gener8tor CommUNITY Growth Summit will be held virtually from March 30 to April 1 and features keynote speakers, fireside chats and panel discussions involving representatives from startups, the arts and workforce development. The event will be hosted by gener8tor, a Silicon Prairie-based entrepreneurship cultivation platform that includes startup accelerators, corporate programming and conferences. …

  • GiftAMeal continues to expand reach of hunger-fighting app with new chain restaurant partnership

    GiftAMeal continues to expand reach of hunger-fighting app with new chain restaurant partnership

    GiftAMeal, a mobile app that helps people discover new restaurants and provide meals to the food-insecure, announced today that it has teamed up with Lion’s Choice, a St. Louis-based regional chain (with locations throughout Missouri, Illinois, and Kansas City) that has been serving roast beef sandwiches since 1967. Beginning today, Lion’s Choice customers are eligible…

  • HTI Labs fights human trafficking through research, technology, policy

    HTI Labs fights human trafficking through research, technology, policy

    An Omaha-based company using a data-driven approach to combat human trafficking recently raised funding to expand its crucially needed work to support law enforcement, victims and survivors of the practice.  HTI Labs,  a social enterprise corporation combating human trafficking, domestic violence and sexual assault through data-driven research and tech, has grown far larger than CEO…

  • IO2020: the New Innovators’ Summit connects entrepreneurial community (and tickets are free this year)

    IO2020: the New Innovators’ Summit connects entrepreneurial community (and tickets are free this year)

    Great ideas start with curiosity. Bringing those ideas to life is its own challenge.  That’s what longtime entrepreneur Brian Ardinger believes, and that’s why he’s made it his mission to help Nebraska startup founders, business leaders and innovators solve those challenges.  Ardinger is cofounder of InsideOutside.io, an innovation-focused resource network for startups, entrepreneurs, investors, enterprises,…

  • Developing Leadership When Things Are Not Good

    Developing Leadership When Things Are Not Good

    Originally posted on the AIM Institute blog No one knows how the coronavirus pandemic will evolve, how long the economy will stay underwater, or even what recovery looks like.  But the radical workplace upheaval and sudden ad hoc shift to remote technology over the past month suggest two truths:  We need more tech talent.   We…