SPN In-Depth

  • Deep dive: startups, contracts, cyber insurance and more

    Deep dive: startups, contracts, cyber insurance and more

    This is a guest post from Irena Ducic of Embroker, a digital insurance company.  As small businesses or startups grow, so do their needs for expanding their networks of business partners and collaborators. In order to stimulate and accelerate growth, business relationships are formed, partnerships are forged and third-parties are hired to help provide value…

  • Do remote workers benefit the economies where they live?

    Do remote workers benefit the economies where they live?

    This is part two of our series on the opportunities remote work has brought to Midwest tech workers. Read part one here. Nebraska’s workforce has an approximately 50/50 split between occupations that can easily move remote or online, and more hands-on roles, says Josie Schafer, Ph.D., director of UNO’s Center for Public Affairs.  The latter…

  • Remote work allows more Nebraskans to live local, work coastal

    Remote work allows more Nebraskans to live local, work coastal

    There’s no doubt that the COVID-19 pandemic upended the way millions of Americans work.   But how has the shift to remote work seen in some industries affected the Midwest? For three local tech workers, it’s provided the opportunity for them to work for coastal startups and tech companies while remaining in Omaha.  Researchers such as…

  • First-gen college student and entrepreneur AnhPhu Nguyen lands scholarship to Harvard

    First-gen college student and entrepreneur AnhPhu Nguyen lands scholarship to Harvard

    AnhPhu Nguyen is going to Harvard. The 2021 Papillion La Vista High School graduate and entrepreneur recently received a full-ride scholarship to the university, where he’ll study computer science and economics. (He was also offered a full scholarship from Stanford, but opted for the Cambridge institution instead.) Getting to this point has been quite a…

  • Midwest art and music turn to technology to keep making fans—and money

    Midwest art and music turn to technology to keep making fans—and money

    As it has with nearly every aspect of life over the past year, the COVID-19 pandemic has changed the way we experience art. With many galleries and performance venues closed or limiting in-person attendance, art organizations and artists across the Midwest are increasingly turning to technology to showcase their work safely and maintain relationships with…

  • UNeTech levels the playing field for high-risk, high-reward tech startups

    UNeTech levels the playing field for high-risk, high-reward tech startups

    The “valley of death” is a term used in the startup community to refer to the dreaded gap between the discovery of promising new technologies and the bringing to market of commercially viable new products based on those technologies. It is the badlands where risky and possibly disruptive tech goes to die.  Put more formally,…

  • 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…

  • Is it over yet? A look back at 2020

    Is it over yet? A look back at 2020

    We have yet to meet anyone who wishes this year would last longer.  From COVID-19 to civil unrest to political and economic turmoil, 2020 brought us a number of challenges and tragedies beyond the scope of this article. If there’s a silver lining, it’s that December is almost over.  So while it might seem premature…

  • “Like driving an aircraft carrier”: developing skilled workers in Nebraska a major challenge

    “Like driving an aircraft carrier”: developing skilled workers in Nebraska a major challenge

    The state of Nebraska needs skilled workers. Badly. University of Nebraska Provost Susan Fritz last year acknowledged that that state faces demand for 15,000 new workers in engineering and computer science alone by 2026. Speaking generally of the gap between supply and demand of skilled labor in early 2019, former NU president Hank Bounds called…

  • ‘You don’t have to be an engineer to do this:’ Local founders say ‘no code’ apps are changing the game

    ‘You don’t have to be an engineer to do this:’ Local founders say ‘no code’ apps are changing the game

    Let’s say it’s 1985, long before “no code” is a thing. You’re lacing up your Keds to hit the cineplex and watch “The Breakfast Club” again when, suddenly, a person from the year 2020 steps through your Michael Jordan poster wearing, for some reason, a surgical mask. They look tired. After terrifying you with grim…