Prairie Portraits is a weekly set of questions intended to help the community get to know someone from the Silicon Prairie startup scene a little bit better. Prairie Portraits feature a fixed set of questions ranging from career background and personal preferences to, perhaps, off-the-wall questions on YouTube videos and entrance music.

Name: T-Rave
Title/Occupation: Happiness Engineer at Flywheel
Age: 27
Hometown: Kansas City, Mo.
Current city: Omaha (I moved in May from KC)
Twitter: @T_Rave

Personal

Title of my autobiography: “T-Rave — That Wasn’t His Real Name?”
Thing I can’t live without: My computer
Drink of choice: Sierra Nevada Pale Ale
Last book I read: What is this thing called a book you speak of?
Ultimate road trip snack: Beef jerky
Entrance song if I was a wrestler: Kid Rock – Bawitdaba
Celebrity doppelgänger: Zach Galifianakis
Guilty pleasure band and/or film: Hackers – the 1995 film about hacker youth in New York trying to prove innocence against big oil corp.
Chosen career in an alternate reality: Treasure Hunter
Worst OCD tendency: Having to clear all notifications even if I haven’t read them
Quote I might have said: “Well that’s silly sauce” or “Son of a monkey.”
Which actor or actress, and why: Mark Wahlberg. Dude can do no wrong on the silver screen.
Favorite YouTube video: This:

Local

How do you compare Omaha to KC? Though not much smaller, Omaha feels like a faster-moving KC in terms of redevelopment of the downtown area. Same Midwest hustle but in different pockets of the city. Also, for me travel is very efficient since Omaha is a straight line rather than a center out metropolitan city.   

What’s the best place in Omaha you’ve been to? Berry and Rye or Benson Brewery

One thing Omaha has that other Silicon Prairie cities don’t: A death trap speedway on Dodge Street.

One thing you wish Omaha had that KC does: Google Fiber

Best thing going for Omaha’s startup community: A city that has rich success in business and the Midwest hustle. Don’t under value the slower pace, family-based work/life ratio. It helps keep the sanity in startup lives.

Last local restaurant I ate at: Omaha Tap House

Best meal I’ve had in Omaha: Any meal I have had from Block 16

Omaha would be better if… they had more Chipotles downtown so I didn’t have to trek to the far off land of 72nd Street.

The Startup Scene

Social media pet peeve: Twitter accounts that have followed me multiple times to gain a follower. I won’t name names 😀
App I’m obsessed with: Foursquare. I’ve fallen madly in love with it again for tips and places to venture to.
Silicon Prairie startup crush:  Flywheel. I know I currently work for them but it was the major factor for moving to Omaha over a month ago. It’s a great team with awesome leadership. Doesn’t hurt that we get to share an office with SPN.
Most comfortable startup T-shirt I own: Any of my startup shirts that are a 50/50 or tri-blend.
Something most people don’t know about me: I’m an Eagle Scout.
Entrepreneur I most want to grab a drink with: Joel from Buffer. Him and his team run a great product backed by a lot of great content and transparency that you don’t find often in the startup world.
I do what I do because… There are problems to be solved in this world and I like to help people’s lives suck less.
Before I was in startups… Freelance video production
If money wasn’t an object, my next company would be… some sort of technology alternative education for students or an adult version of the Ice Cream Truck. Booze bomb-pops!
The Silicon Prairie startup scene is missing…  Remembering that we are different from other startup hub cities. There is a Midwest pride that carries a small amount of entitlement which isn’t only a trait found in the Midwest but for the sake of it, we need to remember that we are building companies in our own way. Very few companies have grown to billion-dollar status and have had $20 million series A. Work on building something great, that solves a problem, that generates revenue to be sustainable and scalable and that people need which will benefit the future. Stop asking how we can be like Silicon Valley or Alley and shape something entirely new.
In five years, I’ll…  still be wandering around finding the things that make me happy so I can help others be happy.
In five years, the Silicon Prairie…  will have some really solid companies that are helping shape the future of better living and technology.