An Omaha startup signed a TV deal, a Columbia, Mo. startup went from Startup Weekend to Y Combinator in eight months and a Kansas City entrepreneur who sold his company for more than $125 million last year returned to found another startup and fund others. These are three of my picks for the year's 10 biggest stories, which are stories that received our … read more

Kansas City Over the four years that I've written for Silicon Prairie News, I haven't seen an article on Omaha, Des Moines and Kansas City's startup scene receive as much buzz and attention as the recent New York Times story, "Tech Start-Ups Find a Home on the Prairie." Tweet after tweet, Facebook like after Facebook like and email after email, readers shared the story far and wide. On Nov. 21, the day The Times published the piece online, it made … read more

As the Silicon Prairie startup community develops, one of the ways collaboration and connections occur is through consistent opportunities to engage with one another. A strong community, moreover, is lead by a group of actors who are passionate around building our cities and region into something greater, and they take steps to make that happen. Actions by three individuals in the wake of our Thinc Iowa 2012 event in October … read more

Des Moines Some observers of college sports will tell you that athletes improve the most between their freshman and sophomore year. While I'm no coach, I believe that theory has to do with the idea that the initial year sets your baseline. After seeing how your particular skills and ability fit into the new environment, you take that first offseason to evaluate your strengths and weaknesses. You make adjustments. And, in that second season, you enjoy the largest … read more

… and, yes, we got a good chuckle out of it, just as many other Prairie people seem to have. As "The Office" opened its ninth and final season last night, viewers of the sitcom were brought up to speed with a rundown of how the show's characters spent their summers. As you can see in the video above (cued up to about 30 seconds before the Silicon Prairie mention), Ryan Howard …  read more

One counts McDonald's among its account holders, another carries recognition from the SXSW Interactive Awards and another had its product featured on the PBS News Hour. Seven months ago, none of these milestones had been achieved, but we've seen quick progress and achievements. In January, I presented a list of 10 Silicon Prairie companies that I deemed "startups to watch in 2012." My reasons for choosing the 10 ranged from experienced … read more

Omaha In an interview today, Zaarly founder Bo Fishback said Google Fiber will "kickstart a wave of new startup energy and activity" in Kansas City's startup community. On Twitter, it appears it's begun. Though not specifically "startup energy," a Twitter search for "#GoogleFiber AND 'move' " turns up … read more

Fayetteville One of the most underappreciated aspects of working online is that fact that you can set up anywhere. I choose to work from downtown Des Moines most of the time, but for a few days last week I found myself in Northwest Arkansas (colloquially “NWA”). While there visiting my parents, I took the chance to get a glimpse of the Natural State's startup community. I started by picking what looked like a cool local coffee shop in Fayetteville (which I found out … read more