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Follow up to Archrival’s ‘FLYOVER’ – Is Minnesota doing it right?
Earlier this month I was moved by the “FLYOVER” presentation Archrival co-founders Charlie Hull and Clint! Runge delivered at this year’s Nebraska Summit on Entrepreneurship. In short, they made the case that as they’ve established a successful company in Nebraska with a serious cool factor (it really does have one), it’s been tough for them…
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Startup Weekend Des Moines: Reflections of a past participant
As someone who participated in the first Startup Weekend Des Moines (see my Silicon Prairie News guest post at the time: “Startup Weekend Des Moines is a success”) back in July 2009 and had the chance to spend several hours at this past weekend’s event…
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Storenvy founder shares story of seed round, Y Combinator rejection
Being an entrepreneur is pretty awesome, right? We love being our own boss and seeing our ideas come to life. But being an entrepreneur is not so easy either. There are many days you wake up and ask yourself what the hell were you thinking quitting that day job and bootstrapping it? Thankfully, we have…
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Guest Post: The Internet is F@$king Amazing
(This is a guest post by Joe Olsen, CEO, Director of Strategy & Innovation at Phenomblue) The internet is f@$king amazing. I know most of us know that already but like any belief, it’s good to have reaffirmation from time to time. Thanks to Ted Williams and the Columbus Dispatch over the past 24 hours…
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Guest Post: Don’t just watch TED, ‘do’ TED: Making Learning Better
As the founder of Learning Innovations, I work with learners and leaders to dream about the way things should be and then figure out how to get there. Since coming to Omaha in 2008 from Palo Alto, California, the main project I have been working on is the Omaha Science Media Project, a collaboration between…
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Must Read Post from CS Professor: ‘I just need a programmer.’
(Left: Me fiddling around on the internet and not learning how to program. Photo by Tony Noecker.) Since gaining a serious interest in the tech industry just over four years ago and having lamely remained just an “ideas guy” since, my appreciation for those who either know how to code or pick it up as…
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How does the Silicon Prairie become more attractive for venture capital?
(Left: Sarah Lacy of TechCrunch interviews David Hornik of August Capital.) After reading a post by our friends at Silicon Florist looking at the same issue in Portland – “How does Portland become more attractive for venture capital investment?” – it inspired me to ask the same question of the Silicon Prairie community. Silicon Florist…
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How to create a sustainable entrepreneurial community
The following is a guest post by Brad Feld of the Foundry Group (left). Originally published on his blog, FeldThoughts, he’s given us permission to re-publish it here. We’ve followed Brad’s writings for a few years now since learning about him through the TechStars community. In looking at the successes that he and the Boulder…
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Guest Post: Silicon Prairie’s road map hiccup
(The following is a guest post by Ben Milne of Dwolla.) A road map is kind of like a runway. You need a runway to get things off the ground. You need a clear road map to get companies off the ground. Until our culture is so ingrained in us we see the road map…
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Our thoughts on the 2010 Kauffman Index of Entrepreneurial Activity
This past Friday, June 25, the Omaha World-Herald published an article focusing on Nebraska’s second to last ranking in a recently released report from the Kauffman Foundation: the Kauffman Index of Entrepreneurial Activity, 1996-2009. Titled Business startups lag, business reporter Ross Boettcher interviewed the author of the report, economics and finance professor Robert Fairli, as…