Silicon Prairie News

Posts by Guest Contributor
SERIES

When you know it’s time to quit your day job and launch a startup

4170_226f3501c3_small May 16, 2012 by Guest Contributor

Kansas City (This is a guest post by Bo Fishback.) I get questions about this a lot. It seems that just about everyone wants to "do a startup," and that just about that same number of people (read: everyone) "has an idea." But if that's the case, why isn't everyone working for themselves? Setting aside for the moment that the dream and the reality of running a startup are very different things and that many of those "ideas" are likely terrible, there is clearly … read more

EVENTS

Confessions of a Big Omaha emcee

4165_4c84692641_small May 16, 2012 by Guest Contributor

Omaha Let's get this out of the way. Big Omaha isn't just a conference. It's much more. Big Omaha is a family. This is not hyperbole. "Who makes you better?" This is the question I posed to attendees as we kicked off an amazing two days of speakers, best practices, laughs, tears, hugs, high-fives, shoulder shakes, relationship building and more. To answer this question all we had to do was look around … read more

EVENTS

Ninth Division tells the story behind its latest Big Omaha app

4149_fd21d17b17_small May 11, 2012 by Guest Contributor

Omaha (This is a guest post by Andy Peters.) Why build an App for #BigOmaha? A lot of people use it as their program. SPN Trusts us. (Like Oxide Design Co.) We like putting what we learn year over year to a test. We have done the app for four years now. We love doing it, and it proves a good challenge to our skills year over year. This year, the conference had a completely artistic (in my view) approach to the branding. It was important to us that not only did the … read more

OPINION

An excerpt from Karen Linder’s ‘The Women of Berkshire Hathaway’

4090_a215a1165a_small May 5, 2012 by Guest Contributor

Omaha I’ve attended the Berkshire Hathaway annual shareholder’s meeting in Omaha, Nebraska, for the past few years and always get there early (or send my husband early) to be able to secure seats in the main arena of the 19,000-seat CenturyLink Center. The 2011 attendance was 40,000, so getting there by 6:30 a.m. is important, lest you be relegated to the folding … read more

SERIES

Experimentation is to a startup as a task list is to a job

4083_465df20b4b_small May 4, 2012 by Guest Contributor

Columbia (This is a guest post by Wade Foster.) Few people come out of the womb, kicking and screaming, born ready to be a startup founder. Most of us take the longer more traditional route. Usually that means 12 years of primary education, 4 years of secondary education, a few more years working at a good job before finally catching the startup bug. You can't get this idea out of your head so you make the leap of faith into entrepreneurship. There is nothing wrong with a more traditional route. I took the more traditional route. … read more

SERIES

The three daily Ps to achieving your goals

4040_f56d99d5c8_small April 27, 2012 by Guest Contributor

Kansas City (This is a guest post by Ryan Tinker.) Many people think about goals as big achievements 10 to 15 years away. That's great, but that's only half the battle. The other half is actually working – day in and day out – to complete those goals. I'd like to share 3 simple habits I've followed over the past few years that have helped me achieve my goals. 1. Poop sheet: Sure, the name is a bit odd, but it's the most vital of all my habits. Keep a list of your life goals (I only have about six) on a piece of paper (right) in your wallet/purse (or spreadsheet). Adjacent to each goal, write the next major milestone you must complete to move closer to attaining that goal. Review this daily. I review mine … read more

OPINION

Ten reasons to attend OpenIowa, a public data competition

4031_7bd90d9bfc_small April 26, 2012 by Guest Contributor

Des Moines Ready for a challenge? StartupIowa is daring developers, designers and data junkies to turn public data sets into something useful at its first OpenIowa event. The code-a-thon is similar to other open-data events sprouting up around the country, like the recent Hack Omaha. Similar to Startup Weekend, OpenIowa challenges attendees to launch a product in one weekend using the vast … read more

EVENTS

Creator of Big Omaha brand gives insight, a look behind the scenes

4006_67630df344_small April 25, 2012 by Guest Contributor

Omaha Why we like branding Big Omaha 1. Silicon Prairie News trusts us, 2 .the branding is an essential and enduring part of the conference, 3. but … the branding is irrelevant to selling tickets. Together, that means no matter how the conference is branded, it’ll still be a massive success. So, if there's no risk in doing it wrong, we can try some wacky things to make sure it's really right. The best branding is … read more

OPINION

A closer look at crowdfunding for startups

4012_ed1cda0ad7_small April 21, 2012 by Guest Contributor

(This is a guest post by Bill Hanigan and Mark Wickham.) Congress is in the business of making laws. Some of those laws prove helpful, while others do not help much at all. The recently enacted (and eagerly anticipated) crowdfunding provisions contained in the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act (JOBS Act), which was signed into law on April 5, may ultimately fall into the latter category. Congress intended … read more

OPINION

Four rules for raising money in a ‘recession’

4010_8c24a70a99_small April 21, 2012 by Guest Contributor

Lincoln (This is a guest post by Christopher Kingsley.) Countries may be unable to pay their debts and the global economy is still struggling, but if you read any tech news, it seems like the one place in the world where they are still dropping money from helicopters like its 2007 is technology startups. There are few things currently hotter than funding the next scrappy vowel-less app team. From incubators handing out $150k to every startup to ridiculous 100x earnings … read more