CrowdPicks Featured in OWH

by dusty on November 10, 2008

Local “wisdom of the crowd” startup, CrowdPicks is featured in Monday’s Omaha World Herald.

After several years of planning, Murnane and Almeida left their employer, TD Ameritrade, to start Wall Street Cred, a site that would rate users’ accuracy for making stock predictions and would rely on the most credible users’ predictions to form a “smarter crowd.”

The idea was great in theory, Almeida said, but the pair quickly realized it would be difficult to determine users’ credibility because there was no defined length of time for the stock predictions to prove correct.

“There was no set end date,” he said.

They decided to develop the technology but to start by applying it to sports instead. That would be simpler, Murnane said, because sporting events have a defined outcome and a set time period.

CrowdPicks was also the winner of the Chamber Pitch Contest held recently, and Silicon Prairie News was there filming. We’ve included their entire presentation below..

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SPN Interviews DownsDesign

by Jeff Slobotski on November 10, 2008

SPN had the opportunity to interview Eric Downs, the man behind DownsDesign Studios.

Eric is the man behind many creative things going on in Omaha including the BarCamp Omaha site, Joe Frost’s GivingReturns and more.

Take a look at the clip and shoot Eric a note to find out more about what he’s up to!

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Kevin Rose on Surviving the Downturn

by Jeff Slobotski on November 8, 2008

After reading the article in Kevin Rose in Inc. I ran across an article in Wired Magazine on Rose’s recommendations for surviving the economic downturn.  Take a look…

Digg founder Kevin Rose says this is the best time to launch a company, even if the economy is going to hell, venture capital for web startups is drying up, and consumer spending has stalled.

“I believe it’s going to be a great time to start something new,” said Rose, while speaking at the Web 2.0 Summit, in San Francisco. His argument: There is less competition and noise in the marketplace and it’s easier to get press. “Funding for consumer internet companies is going away and that means there’s going to be a lot of opporunity for everyone.”

And if you choose to take the plunge, he has a few tips, which mainly boil down to one theme: Be cheap.

“When Digg launched, I had a day job. It was something I worked on at nights and during weekends,” says Rose.

And instead of dishing out tens of thousands of dollars for a fulltime developer, Rose outsourced it to a guy through Elance, and paid one-third of what he would have spent on somebody in the U.S.

“[Outsourcing] only works up to a certain point . . . When it comes time to add multiple servers you absolutely need to have talent that’s been there before,” says Rose.

And when it comes to PR, do it yourself. Aggressively communicate, he says, and Tweet your heart out.

“I really believe that email communication is dead,” said Rose. “Twitter is more of a real-time communication.”

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BrightMix In MBJ

by Jeff Slobotski on November 7, 2008

So while perusing through today’s Midlands Business Journal, we ran across a great story covering SPN’s own BrightMix.

We’ve included a scan of the article just below…enjoy and then make sure to send them a note of congratulations!

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Evening Presentations @ Highlight Midwest

by Jeff Slobotski on November 6, 2008

Here are the long awaited evening presentations from each of the cities represented as well as the panel moderated by Bo Fishback of the Kauffman Foundation.

Before we reveal the presentations, the following are a collection of links reviewing the Highlight Midwest event:

Nathan Wright of Lava Row
Highlight Midwest 2008 by Christina Maki
What I Learned at Highlight Midwest #hm1 by Troy Rutter
Highlight Midwest: The Midwest is More Than Flyover States by @jeffisageek
Highlight Midwest Recap by Zachary Cobb
Highlight Midwest… A Swindlr recap by Swindlr
Highlight Midwest 2008 Rocked by Andy Brudtkuhl

Flickr photos from Highlight Midwest:
http://flickr.com/photos/highlightmidwest/sets/

Enjoy the videos!

Carl Schramm of Kauffman Foundation


Chris Prillo’s Intro Video


Chris Pirillo’s Highlight Midwest Introduction from Highlight Midwest on Vimeo

Sarah Lacy’s Intro Video


Sarah Lacy’s Highlight Midwest Introduction from Highlight Midwest on Vimeo

Gary Vaynerchuk’s Intro Video


Gary Vaynerchuck’s Highlight Midwest Introduction from Highlight Midwest on Vimeo

Kansas City’s Presentation

Des Moines’ Presentation

Omaha’s Presentation

Closing Panel Discussion Part I of II

Panel Discussion Part II of II

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Bo Fishback - Kauffman Foundation

by Jeff Slobotski on November 6, 2008

Here’s a clip that SPN did with Bo Fishback, VP of Entrepreneurship for the Kauffman Foundation.  Bo was the moderator during Highlight Midwest’s panel discussion and asked some very poignant and timely questions of the panel.

Fishback’s role at the Foundation include developing and advancing transformative programs that strengthen entrepreneurial engagement in the economy and help entrepreneurs succeed.

Bo’s vision for entrepreneurship and new ideas are refreshing and we look forawrd to continued collaboration with Bo and the rest of the team at the Kauffman Foundation.

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Carl Schramm at Highlight Midwest

by Jeff Slobotski on November 4, 2008

While at Highlight Midwest last week, we had the opportunity to hear from Carl Schramm, President and chief executive officer of the Kauffman Foundation.  Schramm is one of the world’s most recognized thought leaders on fostering and advancing entrepreneurship.

Titles such as “evangelist of entrepreneurship” by The Economist and USA Today noting, “On every front, the Kauffman Foundation has worked intelligently to promote and sustain entrepreneurs – in the fields of entrepreneurship education, research, policy, economic development, and access to capital.”

Under his leadership, the Kauffman Foundation has developed innovative programs that: expose students to the power of entrepreneurship, open new pathways to effectively move university innovations into the marketplace, create better-qualified angel investors as a critical source of seed capital for entrepreneurs, and engage economists of the highest caliber to study the impact of entrepreneurship.

What was so exciting to hear was Carl’s invitation to entrepreneurs and innovators in the Midwest telling us that Kauffman’s doors are open to assist us in the broader effort.

Be sure to check the additional videos on Kauffman’s site from Carl as well as other members at the Foundation.

Stay tuned for more as Silicon Prairie News continues collaboration with the Kauffman Foundation going forawrd…

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The BIG Omaha Conference Update

by Jeff Slobotski on November 3, 2008


Fellow SPNers!  A quick note to let you know we’ve nailed the dates for the BIG OMAHA Conference.

The dates are May 7th & 8th 2009 in Omaha.  Gary Vaynerchuk is confirmed folks!  Amazing news for those who know what Gary is all about.  For those that don’t…please read up on him below.

Gary’s passionate personality, scholarly knowledge of wine as well as his live recordings helped him create a $45 million-a-year empire.

Gary Vaynerchuk.com (make sure to watch his Web2.0 Keynote address here)

Thanks Gary for the support!  Looking forward to having you in the Midwest in May!

We’re working on a host of other folks right now including some huge entrepreneurs in the social media/web2.0 space…Kevin Rose, Merlin Mann, Julia Roy and more…

Next up to confirm, Warren Buffett?

Who else do you want to see in Omaha?

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Highlight Midwest Review

by Jeff Slobotski on October 31, 2008

Silicon Prairie News is back from Highlight Midwest, an outstanding event just held in Kansas City along with a team of innovators from Iowa, Kansas and Missouri.  It was a whirlwind of activity, and we’ll have more posts coming soon including various interviews with the other city’s leaders.

In addition we’ll have the opening comments from Carl Schramm, CEO of the Kauffman Foundation and the presentations from each city as well as the closing panel which was moderated by Bo Fishback, Vice President of entrepreneurship at the Foundation.

Stay tuned for more…to give you a little something to work with for now, enjoy some of the photos over at the Flickr site taken by Silicon Prairie News as well as Zachary Cobb

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AIM Institute’s Web 2.0 Breakfast Series

by Jeff Slobotski on October 31, 2008

The AIM Institute has partnered with Silicon Prairie News to provide for 5 complementary passes to their upcoming Breakfast Series events which begin this coming week.

The first five people to leave a comment below will be sent instructions on how to register for the Breakfast of their choice.

If you don’t happen to be one of the first five to comment, don’t fret as there will be additional opportunities for passes in the near future!  Thanks AIM Institute!

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