Siouxland and the Dakotas

Silicon Prairie News covers the tech startup scene across Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas and Missouri. Here are our most popular stories from Iowa this year: 1. Why Dwolla made its transactions free (and what happened next) (Des Moines) In June we sat down with Jordan Lampe, Director of Communications and Policy at Dwolla, to discuss the company’s move away from…
Read MoreCandy canes, cotton candy and gumballs lined the walls of the Ho-Chunk Centre in Sioux City, Iowa as a crowd of entrepreneurs, business owners and other community members gathered for the sixth annual Base 3 event Thursday. After a candy-themed Biz Brew happy hour filled with craft cocktails and snacks, three speakers took the stage…
Read MoreSioux City’s premiere startup event Base 3 will be returning on November 10th at the Ho Chunk Centre. The speakers include Iowa filmmaker Scott Siepker, Caleb Ullfers of Flywheel and Brian C. Waller from the Technology Association of Iowa. SPN caught with the event’s organizers, Ryan Martinez and Sean Richardson of Flyover Technology, over email. SPN: How…
Read MoreDriveOff was the winning team at this year’s Startup Weekend Omaha, held last weekend Sept. 23-25. The startup competition included around 70 participants, mostly college students from University of Nebraska Omaha, Creighton University and University of South Dakota. The event was held at UNO’s College of Business Administration in Mammel Hall. The event’s signature sponsor…
Read MoreI recently decided to move from Sioux Falls to Omaha. The decision was made rather quickly and executed within a month. When I announced the move to my adopted Sioux Falls community I was greeted with great support and encouragement, mingled with some disappointment. I reassured my community that this was not a goodbye, just…
Read MoreThe Omaha-based company gives high school and small college sports fans the Jumbotron experience. But it’s their cloud platform that’s really exciting. Veteran entrepreneurs Gordon Whitten, David Sutter, and Chad Bokowski founded ScoreVision in 2015 when they decided to tackle the problem of outdated scoreboards in high schools and colleges. “As an entrepreneur, you go where there’s an…
Read MoreFor Josh Holt, Zach Calmus, and Ross Vaneck, the founders of MyRacePass, the go-to social network for all things racing, you won’t find any family ties to Lincoln, Nebraska. There wasn’t a friendly couch in town to sleep on until they found their feet. Yet the group decided to pick up their company from South…
Read MoreOn January 28th Sioux City’s premiere startup event Base 3 will return to showcase 3 new speakers, 5 local startups and 2 craft breweries. SPN caught up with Base 3’s organizers, Ryan Martinez and Sean Richardson of Flyover Technology, over Skype. SPN: What was the response like to Base 3 last July? RM: It was good all around.…
Read MoreA startup company built from collaborative research efforts at two University of Nebraska campuses has announced it has secured $11.2 million in equity financing. Virtual Incision Corporation received the investment, led by Bluestem Capital of Sioux Falls, South Dakota, with support from existing investors including PrairieGold Venture Partners, also of Sioux Falls. Virtual Incision has…
Read MoreThe working class city on the Missouri River has a history with tech innovation—a history it hopes to transcend. At Base 3, Sioux City’s annual entrepreneurship event, a microbrewer passes out samples of hibiscus beer while live local musicians play in the background. Sioux City’s young, creative and ambitious mingle around the century-old, exposed red brick…
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