Silicon Prairie News

Beginning at 1 p.m. this Friday, seven finalists will present their business plans in the East-2-West New Venture Competition in hopes of securing the $50,000 investment from Invest Nebraska Corporation, the host of the event.

The contestant lineup is solid, with an array of industries represented. In exchange for the investment, the winner is required to give a minority stake in his or her company to Invest Nebraska as well as agree to locate their business in Nebraska. With regards to the latter stipulation, it's neat to see a contestant from outside the state.

Here's Friday's schedule with the names of contestants and businesses:

12:30 -- Doors Open for Meet and Greet 1:00 -- Milestone Local Surfaces: Josh Shear, Jen Carlson, and Brendan Wamstad-Evans (Lincoln) 1:30 -- LeYef, LLC: Luke Alexander and Andrew Curran (Lincoln) 2:00 -- Hemprev: Mark Pluta & John Lupien (Omaha) 2:30 -- RockDex: Jimmy Winter (Omaha) 3:00 -- Invoice+: Brad Coughlin (Lincoln) 3:30 -- Giftance.com: Rory Berry (Los Angeles) 4:00 -- Dally Up: Kenis & Carrie Byam (Rural Deuel County) 5:00 -- Reception 5:30 -- Winner Announcement

For descriptions of the businesses, see the Lincoln Journal Star's article about the event: 3 of 7 venture contest finalists from Lincoln.

Here's the panel of judges they've assembled:

• Matt McNair -- Board Chair of Invest Nebraska and Vice President of the University of Nebraska Foundation (Lincoln)
• Paul Eurek -- CEO of Xpanxion (Loup City)
• Richard Baier -- Director of the Nebraska Department of Economic Development (Lincoln)
• Charles Hull -- Co-founder and President of Archrival (Lincoln)
• Bradley Walker -- President and CEO of Nanonation (Lincoln)
• Cheryl Beamer -- Educator and Professional Coach, member of the Nebraska Angels (Omaha)
• Gordon Whitten -- Founder and CEO of Sojern and former founder and CEO of It’s Deductible which was sold to Intuit in 2003 (Omaha)

The competition and reception is open to the public and is free of charge. Each presentation will be limited to 15 minutes and followed by 15 minutes of Q&A from the judges.

The event will be held at the Del Ray Ballroom (817 R St) in Lincoln’s Haymarket.

Here's the list of organizations involved in making this happen:

Spearheaded by Invest Nebraska Corporation, this competition is sponsored by the Nebraska Department of Economic Development; Nebraska Economic Development Association; University of Nebraska Technology Park; Scott Technology Center; Black Hills Energy; Nebraska State Chamber of Commerce; Jim Krieger and the Krieger Family Foundation; Information Analytics; Wolfe Snowden Hurd Luers & Ahl, LLP; and Cline Williams Wright Johnson & Oldfather, LLP.

For more information about Friday's competition, visit its website, nebusinessplancompetition.com, or see our announcement post about it, Invest Nebraska’s East-2-West Competition to Award $50,000 to Entrepreneur.