Omaha

Flywheel founder Dusty Davidson at TechBrew

By SPN Team / October 10, 2019

Last week, Dusty Davidson visited TechBrew in Council Bluffs, Iowa.  We were in attendance and taped some of what he had to say.  In particular, we thought that his response to a question about growing up in the Midwest was poignant.  So, we thought that we would share it with you.

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Photo of Brian Ardinger with headphones doing podcast

Brian Ardinger Talks IO Summit, Nelnet, and Innovation

By Tom Chapman / October 9, 2019

Last week, SPN caught up with the Director of Innovation at Nelnet, Brian Ardinger.  Brian is also the founder of InsideOutside.io, makers of the IO Podcast and the IO Summit.  The Summit is coming to Lincoln on October 20 as part of the Startup Week festivities. The interview covered a number of topics and includes…

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Greenlight Natural Opens CBD Dispensary in Benson

By Henry Nunn / October 1, 2019

In 2005, Chris Potratz was deployed in Kuwait. The war in Iraq had already taken the lives of some 2,000 U.S. soldiers, and many of those who returned were plagued with anxiety, insomnia, and chronic pain, as Potratz was.  Upon completing his service, Potratz sought relief. He tried pharmaceuticals prescribed by the Veteran Affairs Medical…

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IO summit photos of speakers

The IO Summit Is Arriving Soon

By SPN Team / September 30, 2019

The IO Summit is in Lincoln on October 20-22.  The speakers are off-the-charts.  They include local heroes, venture capitalists, and some insightful innovators from around the country. Here’s a quick hit on three people who are coming to Lincoln to speak: Larissa Maranhao was the first employee at Fintech unicorn – BREX. She has had…

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Buildertrend: 500 Employees and Still Growing

By Tom Chapman / September 27, 2019

This week, Buildertrend announced that it had hired its 500th employee.  This is a tremendous achievement for the company.  Buildertrend provides cloud-based software to home builders, re-modelers, and other construction related companies.  It is the largest provider of this type of software in the United States.  The company currently has more than one million users…

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Pincurl Girls Calendar Image

Pincurl Girls Brings Message of Positivity to Young Lives

By Razia Aziz-Seible / September 18, 2019

Jen Landis, founder of Pincurl Girls, gains much fulfillment empowering others, especially adolescent girls who often struggle with poor self-esteem and low confidence.  Even as an accomplished adult, Landis can relate. Her perspective is shaped not only by personal experience, but also by her role as a mother to a ten year-old daughter now entering…

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Research Report Graphic

Research: State Funding Report for the Silicon Prairie

By Tom Chapman / September 16, 2019

2018 was a terrific year for the Silicon Prairie regarding venture dollars deployed.  More than $6.1B was deployed in the region.  While the number of companies receiving funds was about 8% lower (approximately 1450 companies were venture backed in the region), the amount of funding was up more than 34.5% from 2017 to 2018.  Thus,…

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New Omaha Coworking Space Populus Supports the Physical and Mental Health of Entrepreneurs

By Tom McCauley / September 12, 2019

Mental health presents a serious concern for startups. The creativity, focus, discipline and long hours required to launch a business, let alone maintain and grow it, demands superhuman efforts from entrepreneurs and their staff. Add in an unhealthy lionizing of hustle culture, a volatile economy, chronic stress, a crowded marketplace, and the quotidian demands of…

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The 2019 AIM Heartland Developers Conference Brings Tech Talent, Businesses, Bigfoot Together

By Tom McCauley / September 9, 2019

The 16th annual AIM Heartland Developers Conference drew over 700 attendees to Omaha last week and covered a range of topics relevant to the modern developer in 45 breakout sessions, 3 keynote speeches, multiple hands-on workshops and a panel discussion. Technical presentations on trending topics such as machine learning, data hierarchy and regional cloud automation…

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