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SXSnippets: Keeping people of the Prairie from feeling home alone
Last year around this time, I felt an awful lot like Kevin McCallister. When South By Southwest Interactive rolled around, my fate mirrored that of the precocious protagonist from “Home Alone.” Silicon Prairie News team leaves town. Michael stays in town. Michael is home alone. And, once the novelty of using dad’s aftershave and eating…
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Five Silicon Prairie startups that could get rowdy at SXSW 2012
As South by Southwest Interactive kicks off today, predictions for the influential event are coming to a close. What app will break out? What startup will be the one to meet? What panel will prove to be most interesting? Though these predictions are on the minds of major tech blogs, we’re taking a different look…
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Take the next step: Stay connected after the SPN Startup Job Crawl
One week has passed since Silicon Prairie News held Omaha’s first Startup Job Crawl, and if you were one of the more than 200 students to join our tour de startups, you probably walked away seeing where the potential lies in the local community for mentors, connections and potential employment. Now, it’s time to sift…
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Here’s to the world-changers. The unreasonable ones. The visionaries.
Our most recent Sunday Video Series post came out a bit late and you might have missed it. It’s a three-minute video featuring Steve Blank, a noted entrepreneur, author and professor, in which he’s asked, “What’s a startup?” He answers the question by giving the differences between a startup and a small business. Blank notes…
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SPN’s headquarters are moving!
In a few months, we’ll be moving the Silicon Prairie News headquarters into a new space in North Downtown Omaha’s Mastercraft Building! The Mastercraft (left), a 140,000 square-foot building situated just north of the new TD Ameritrade Park and Hot Shops Art Center, is a former furniture warehouse that’s now home to a number of…
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Dwolla’s Series B: Three things it means for Des Moines (Part 2)
On Thursday, I offered three reasons why I believe Dwolla chose Fred Wilson’s Union Square Ventures to lead its Series B round, which was announced on Tuesday. In this post, I look at how the Des Moines startup community could be affected by Dwolla’s milestone. 1. They’ll continue to ‘Dwolla in DSM’ Dwolla co-founder Ben…
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Dwolla’s Series B: Three things it means for Dwolla (Part 1)
As you may be aware, the anticipated and recently rumored Series B funding news broke this week for the good folks at Dwolla in Des Moines. This round totalled $5 million and was not only raised out-of-Iowa but out-of-Silicon Prairie, with money coming in from both coasts. As rumored, the round was led by New…
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‘Stay Focused & Keep Shipping’
It had me thinking that though we’re not all looking towards $5 billion IPOs for our startups, we may have something in common with the soon-to-be-über-rich Californian: the need to keep from being distracted. The startup community in the Silicon Prairie is growing. It’s starting to mature but it’s still early – one founder referred…
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SPN in 2011: Reflecting on a year of growth and great events
2011 was an amazing year for us at Silicon Prairie News. With the addition of four new full-time team members, more than 1,000 blog posts and a healthy number of meetups, parties and other events, it’s safe to say it was a year of tremendous growth and positive change for our company and the greater…
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Silicon Prairie: The makings of a new startup scene – Part 2
You, the Silicon Prairie News community, know the stories behind Dwolla, Hudl and Zave Networks, which I shared in the Part 1 of this post. You also know that Scott Harrison of New York-based charity: water gave one of the most memorable presentations to the world in Omaha and that Ben Silbermann of Palo Alto’s…