Silicon Prairie News

Prairie Village After spending years on the East Coast and overseas working stints with TH Lee Putnam Ventures, Morgan Stanley and Citibank, Fred Coulson returned to his Midwestern roots in 2006, moving back to the Kansas City area to start Five Elms Capital. Five Elms, which makes investments of $1-10 million and works heavily with Midwestern businesses, made its first … read more

Lincoln The new president of the Nebraska Angels has two goals for 2012: "More members and more deals." Bart Dillashaw, a Lincoln attorney, succeeded Nebraska Angels founder John Brasch in October as the second president in the organization’s history. Dillashaw has been interested in technology and startups since attending college in Texas during the '90s dot-com boom, and he previously practiced law in Silicon Valley before moving to Lincoln in July 2010. "There's something … read more

Lincoln For Lincoln-based Nelnet, investing in local startups is part business and part contributing to an "ecosystem" of strong startups and growing businesses in Nebraska. "If we can create a better environment in our community for startups, technology, whatever it is, that's only going to benefit Nelnet," said Ben Kiser, Nelnet's managing director of communication services. Creating a community with more … read more

Fargo When we talked to Tadd Tobkin of Arthur Ventures for the story published Monday about the Fargo, N.D.-based venture capital firm, Tobkin was so generous with his insights that we couldn't squeeze everything into one post. So, we've compiled a collection of noteworthy excerpts from our interview with Tobkin that didn't quite make the cut for Monday's story. Included in the video are Tobkin's take on what he looks for in potential portfolio companies, why Arthur Ventures takes such a hands-on approach to venture capital and what it will take to get successful Midwestern entrepreneurs to consistently reinvest in local startups. … read more

Kansas City As the managing partner of Think Big Partners, Think Big Kansas City and bizperc, Herb Sih has been busy over the last three years (Left, photo from thinkbigpartners.com). Most recently, Think Big announced a collaboration with Angel Capital Group, a Tennessee-based investment group, to launch 4-6 companies in an incubator right here in Kansas City. The Think Big KC incubator is based on the Y Combinator/TechStars proof-of-concept model. Founders apply with a business plan and receive a little funding, along with some legal and marketing help, and 90 days of… read more

Omaha (Left: UNeMed president Michael Dixon. Photo by Marlon Wright.) Billions of dollars go into medical research, and billions can eventually be made from the resulting products. Unfortunately, there is often a large gap between an idea and its profits. This is called the “valley of death” in the health care field, and it’s UneMed’s job to bring local ideas through that valley to the other side. UNeMed is a division of the University of Nebraska Medical Center… read more

Des Moines Three years ago, the Iowa Legislature noted an opportunity for the state to move ahead in the advanced manufacturing, information technology and bioscience industries. To take advantage of that opportunity, they created the Innovation and Commercialization Division within the Department of Economic Development. Its mission is “to grow Iowa’s economy… read more

Omaha Mike McCarthy is the founder of McCarthy Capital, an Omaha-based private equity firm. Prior to the 2010 Young Professionals Summit, Joe Olsen of Phenomblue sat down with Mike to talk about business skills, entrepreneurship… read more