Hudl's often the software used to help high school football teams earn a trophy, but the Lincoln, Neb., company last month took home some hardware of its own. The University of Nebraska awarded Hudl its Walter Scott Entrepreneurial Business Award, which is designed to encourage businesses to create partnerships and links with the university in the area of technology. The award followed … read more

Cedar Rapids Vault Coworking and Collaboration Space wants to offer entrepreneurs more than just a desk and community; they're ready to give them a curriculum. "We want … read more

Columbia The newspaper industry's print model has hit a rough patch—its outdated pricing strategies continually fail to produce reliable revenue. And with local classifieds moving online, it's easy to see why some … read more

Lincoln After three months in private beta, Lincoln, Neb., startup Boutique Window on Friday began letting any small retailer sign up for its online marketing tool. The startup's software, which costs users $40-$60 per month, aims to make it easy for brick-and-mortar stores, such as clothing boutiques, to showcase their merchandise online in order to boost sales offline. "Boutique Window has saved our customers time by allowing them to publish … read more

Cedar Rapids The Iowa Economic Development Authority on Friday awarded a $100,000 loan to Bandwith Pool, the Cedar Rapids startup that wants to make it easier for businesses to find reliable and affordable Internet providers. The assistance came through the state's Demonstration Fund, a fund that aims to help potential high-growth companies reach a position where they're able to attract later-stage private sector funding. When we first covered Bandwidth Pool in March, it had just released its public beta—users could sign up, pay … read more

Kansas City Sprint didn't have to call long distance to acquire app developer Handmark and its social and mobile advertising subsidiary OneLouder. The 13-year-old company is based about 20 miles north of Sprint's headquarters in Overland Park, Kan. The telecom giant today announced the move, one it says it made in an effort to boost its advertising platform, Pinsight Media+. Neither party disclosed terms of the deal, which was completed last month ... read more

Kansas City Neighbor.ly has been selected to join a community of nine other civic startups from around the country in the Points of Light Civic Accelerator. "We're getting access to the best and brightest minds of civic technology," Neighbor.ly CEO Jase Wilson on Tuesday told Silicon Prairie News. "We'll emerge with a much more polished, effective product." Points of Light, a nonprofit organization that mobilizes people to do volunteer work, joined forces with Village Capital, a firm behind 17 accelerator … read more

San Francisco For the third time, Banno founder Wade Arnold made his way to Finovate to unveil a product he hopes wows an audience filled with banking and financial industry execs. "To some extent, a lot of people who present at Finovate are here to disrupt banking," Arnold ... read more