Silicon Prairie News

Omaha The Startup Nebraska effort is launching on Friday. What does this mean? It means that now is the time to get involved. The event is a launch but not a completed … read more

Lincoln This week I was discussing the need for Nebraska to rebrand itself with a friend, when we struck up an idea that I would like to float out to the Silicon Prairie News readers. Currently our economic development leaders and minds are focused on recruiting companies to the states within the Silicon Prairie. What if they shifted that focus to recruiting (back) Silicon Prairie-grown successes – business people, entrepreneurs and innovators – who have plied their trade in other parts of the world and been successful? [Obviously, I believe that efforts to grow local entrepreneurs are vital … read more

Lincoln On August 29, I began working for Nebraska Global. Nebraska Global is an odd place because it partners a software investment fund with the creation of software enterprises. Currently, our portfolio includes a number of startup companies – including two that I am working with more intimately. Moreover, our company itself is relatively young – around one year old. Thus, Nebraska Global … read more

Omaha So, you are not an entrepreneur, but you want to engage in the Silicon Prairie community. What should you do? First, I question whether or not you are an entrepreneur. In my opinion, entrepreneurship looks a bit like a bell curve. While most people are not as entrepreneurial as Richard Branson, many could become entrepreneurs if the right stimuli … read more

Omaha I have heard a lot of discussion regarding incubators recently. There are many advocates, but I would offer that more important than the physical space for an incubator are the people who will go inside of it. I wanted to write a longer post rather than simply commenting on the PIE article because I wanted to be more long-winded than I thought appropriate for the comments section. There is an incubator at Scott Technology Center right now, and so I would offer to those who say … read more

Omaha Omaha must become a more welcoming place to people who are not from here and people who are different – a solution to the provincial problem from Post One. A great bellwether for this problem is international immigrants. This is a key group not just as a bellwether but also because a high priority because immigrants can play key roles as entrepreneurs and highly skilled knowledge workers. In Omaha, international immigrants make up approximately … read more

Omaha This is a post that builds off of my first post on migration – the Silicon Prairie needs to grow. I tell people that we need to focus on college students, and the immediate response is that I don't want to hire college students for my business. And many college students are ultimately not ready to work in a new startup or in a key position. However, even if that is the case, we should still focus on them. College students … read more

Omaha The Silicon Prairie Region needs to increase its population. Omaha has lagged fast growing cities like Austin for the last 50 years. In 20 years, one key indicator of success as an entrepreneurial an innovative hub will be whether the community has added people. Places like Silicon Valley and Austin have shown meteoric increases in population alongside their increases in reputation. Within that scope … read more

Omaha I have been to all three Big Omaha events, and they have all been special. However, this one particularly resonated for me on two key themes: positivity and determination. Both of these personal characteristics have been suggested as key components that differentiate entrepreneurs from the general public. Positivity At Big Omaha, we had the opportunity to hear from Marc Eckō, Shervin Pishevar and Ben Huh. These are not irrational people – out … read more