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Upcraft Club wants to change the way you think about sewing
Sewing is no longer just for your grandma or artisanal hipster friend. With Upcraft Club, thousands are enjoying the new technology that is revolutionizing the sewing industry. Upcraft Club, based in Des Moines, Iowa, is an ecommerce marketplace that sells digital sewing patterns. They also sell their patterns through a patent-pending process which allows brick and…
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Zinnia expands delivery into Kansas City
Zinnia’s affordable online flowers are now available in Kansas City starting today. Zinnia, an Omaha-based ecommerce site for high quality affordable bouquets, was in the middle of the Straight Shot accelerator when they received the call from Kansas City. It was from a new florist in town, Kansas City Flower Company, who had plans to open…
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Powderhook’s “Yik Yak for the outdoors” marks a major pivot [Updated]
After trying out a web-based marketplace for hunting and fishing on private land, Powderhook is trying a whole new approach to their mission–a “Yik Yak for the outdoors.” Until now, Powderhook has been developing a web-based platform that helps people find places to hunt and fish on private lands. What the company discovered is that young people who use…
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MultiMechanics announces new partnership with Dassault Systèmes
The partnership will connect MultiMechanics to a massive global user base of engineers. MultiMechanics, an Omaha-based advanced materials engineering software company, has announced a new partnership with one of the largest companies in their industry, France-based Dassault Systèmes. The partnership will integrate MultiMech tools with the Dassault Systèmes platform, SIMULIA Abaqus, and provide a new user base for MultiMechanics.…
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Northstar Campaign Systems brings tech power to the election ground game
The Omaha-based company has been an innovative force behind past campaigns of Chris Christie, Ted Cruz and Lindsey Graham. In 2008 Andrew Northwall was working in the field for the McCain campaign in Iowa, when he noticed something odd about the Obama volunteers. He saw a transplant from California approach a potential voter and start talking about her…
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Nature Hills brings e-commerce 2.0 to the gardening industry
With over 1,800 products offered on its website, Nature Hills is the largest online nursery in the US. The collapse of Garden.com is one of the legendary downfalls of the Dot.com bust in the early 2000s. After a $42.9 million IPO in 1999, the online nursery retailer quickly fell apart. By September of 2000, they announced a restructuring,…
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Rentping Media CEO saved his company–because the Bible
With a floundering website and staff layoffs, David Watson turned to his faith–and it changed his whole approach to business. Rentping Media CEO David Watson and his wife moved into their first apartment in Omaha sight unseen. “We both had full-time jobs and didn’t have time to look around at places to live,” Watson said. “I thought…
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Dusty Davidson on Flywheel: “Culture is about more than trips to Vegas”
Dusty Davidson co-founded Flywheel in 2012 with Tony Noecker and Rick Knudtson to provide WordPress hosting and support for web designers. Since then Flywheel has grown to a team of 28 in downtown Omaha. Flywheel was the winner of two Golden Analogs this year for Best Culture and Best Startup of the Year. SPN caught up with Davidson over…
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Udder Panic sucks you into playing for charity
Beam up cows in your UFO and make a kid’s wish come true. Udder Panic is the latest free-to-play mobile game from Omaha-based JB Gaming, in which you play an alien in a UFO, attempting to suck up cows while avoiding bombs and secret agents (Men In Black?). The game is very easy to play and hard…