Silicon Prairie News

Omaha When the co-founder of Turntable.fm jumped on stage on May 10 at Big Omaha 2012, he treated the room to the first listen of a yarn he'd never spun before. "I really want to put it out here and be vulnerable," Seth Goldstein said. "The strengths that I find most important in entrepreneurs are not just confidence and aggressiveness and focus; it's also vulnerability and authenticity and, importantly, emotional intelligence." So, over the … read more

Omaha These days, Jim McKelvey's best known for his work as the co-founder of Square, the mobile payments company that enables anyone with an iPhone to accept credit card transactions. But that's just the most recent chapter of the McKelvey story, which includes endeavors far more distant and varied — from his years as a glass-blower to his experience writing a college text book as a college freshman. On May 10 at Big Omaha 2012, McKelvey drew on that… read more

Omaha Yael Cohen was floored three years ago when her mother was diagnosed with cancer, but it didn't take Cohen long to stand up and start fighting. "I'm not a researcher, so I can't contribute scientifically to the race for the cure," Cohen said on May 10 during her talk at Big Omaha 2012. "And I'm really f---ing impatient. I wanted to do something where I could see my impact and I could use the skills I had." So Cohen started what today has grown into F--- Cancer … read more

Omaha It didn't take much time teaching at an underfunded New York high school for Charles Best to realize the severity of the disparity between opportunities enjoyed by students at different schools in the U.S. "When I started teaching in the Bronx," Best said, "I saw firsthand that all schools are not created equal." Best and his fellow teachers would chat in the lunchroom about things they longed to offer their students but lacked the funds to … read more

Omaha When Sahil Lavingia turned 18, he came to an important conclusion. "I was an adult," he said, "so I decided I was going to get serious about my career." That career, in a very short span, has included stints at Pinterest, Turntable.fm and now Gumroad. Lavingia founded Gumroad, which is designed to help people share and sell their creations directly to their social network followers and friends. As a speaker at Big Omaha 2012, he discussed his path to Gumroad. … read more

Omaha As the Silicon Prairie News team pored over the Big Omaha 2012 attendee list in the days leading up to last week's conference, one thing that stood out was a spike in the number of venture capitalists attending the conference from outside SPN's three-city region of Des Moines, Kansas City and Omaha. It's one … read more

Omaha Charles Best created DonorsChoose to make it easy for anyone to help students in need. Last week, the crew from What Cheer made it a little easier Best spoke Friday morning at Big Omaha about DonorsChoose, the website he founded that allows public school teachers to post classroom project requests and, in turn, lets donors pick specific projects they want to support. When Best mentioned the DonorsChoose API during his talk, it captured the imagination of … read more