Kansas City In May, I wrote an article about Vicinity Games, a game development company located in Kansas City. In that article, co-founders Nate Allen and Mike Koporc introduced Paper Craft, a multi-player shooting game for XBox, and shared a sneak preview of the game. Paper Craft launched in late May and since then has accrued over 1,300 paid downloads on the XBox marketplace. Allen said that even though Paper Craft could use minor enhancements … read more

Days after releasing findings from a study that showed lagging job creation from new businesses, the Kansas City, Mo.-based Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation today outlined a new initiative aimed at jump-starting startups and, in turn, the economy as a whole. (Image, left, from kauffman.org.) Kauffman president and CEO Carl Schramm and vice president of research and policy Robert Litan presented a proposal to spur the ailing U.S. economy and increase job creation … read more

Des Moines Zach Cox seems about as even-keeled as they come, a man not prone to hyperbole. So last month when I interviewed Cox … read more

Omaha In preparation for this week's Cowtown to Boomtown event in Cedar Rapids, Seed Here, the organization that runs the event, asked Tom Chapman, director of entrepreneurship and innovation at the Greater Omaha Chamber of Commerce, to write a paper digesting what he and other individuals, companies, organization and institutions have done to build up the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Omaha. From presenting Omaha's strengths and … read more

Des Moines Our friends at the Business Record ran several stories in their most recent issue highlighting the startup community in Des Moines, and like we did with Lynn Hicks' article in the Des Moines Register last week, we wanted to make sure our audience saw them as well. In the first article, writer Kyle Oppenhuizen interviews three prominent players in the local startup community, Mike Colwell of the Business Innovation Zone, Christian Renaud of Startup City Des Moines, and John Stineman of the Heartland Technology Alliance, about their … read more

Omaha Lodo Software, which last made headlines with the February release of its FI Dashboad, is in the process of raising its fourth round of funding to prepare for what they believe is next in online banking – personalization. … read more

Earlier this year, we shared a preview of the June cover story of Wired magazine. Titled "Smart Jobs," the 15-page article and infographic spread, took an analytical look at the next phase of job growth in the U.S. At the time we published the story, we were unaware of its connection with a presentation given … read more

Omaha The folks at Deal Garden are putting out a bumper crop this summer (sorry, couldn't resist the horticulture joke) with a recent expansion into travel via Midwest Getaways. They launched it earlier this week and, as of Thursday afternoon, already had more than 500 buyers on their first deal, a two-day getaway to Omaha. There are more deals in the works … read more