Des Moines Brian Hemesath wasn't far removed from the lecture halls of Iowa State University, where he graduated in 1999 with a computer engineering degree, when he took a chance by going to work for a telecom company, Raviant Networks, in 2000. " 'Give it a year,' " Hemesath recalls being told, " 'and you'll either be richer than hell or be out of a job.' "And it was a year and a week to the day that I was in … read more

Kansas City Entrepreneurs Unpluggd comes to the Silicon Prairie today with an event in Kansas City featuring a fantastic lineup of speakers. Behind Entrepreneurs Unpluggd, a Chicago-based blog and event production company, are co-founders Tim Jahn, who has been a regular at Big Omaha, and Stella Fayman … read more

Omaha Since Sojern brought him on board in April as its new CEO, Mark Rabe has been a man on the move. Rabe oversees Sojern, an Omaha-based travel advertising and data company, from an office in San Francisco, but he jokes that his travel schedule makes it feel like his "office is seat 10B" on an airplane. Earlier this month, shortly after Sojern unveiled its boarding Pass and just before the company announced the appointment of two new vice presidents, Rabe took time out of his travel-heavy schedule to visit with Silicon Prairie News. At the six-month mark of his tenure … read more

Omaha Tom Miller thinks small. 40k small. That’s the size restriction called for by most ad agencies in online banner advertising today. “That’s what I take a lot of pride in, the ability to squeeze large amounts of visual information into teeny, tiny ad restrictions," Miller said. "That’s where I get a lot of my repeat business.” Miller is a freelance designer and Flash developer working out of What Cheer’s office space in the ever-evolving Mastercraft building … read more

Kansas City When doing business these days, it's all about mobility. Ask John Epperson of Ruxter how companies can make their business mobile, and he'll tell you it's simple: by using Ruxter 2.0. Ruxter aims to help businesses reach mobile customers and bring in new ones with the mobile web — QR codes, text messaging, mobile coupons and advertising. In my experience, there are two cool, useful features that make Ruxter worth using: easy setup and invitation process. I had an opportunity to demo Ruxter … read more

Cascade For Singly creator Jeremie Miller, a typical weekday may consist of a 7 a.m. jog through downtown San Francisco before meeting with a Silicon Valley CEO, researching the latest social media tools on the web, brainstorming with business partners at the Singly headquarters and cranking out several hours of computer code. Pretty impressive for a big-city commuter who sill calls eastern Iowa home. … read more

Omaha Jeff Raikes' professed allegiance to Nebraska is more than just lip service. As Raikes, a native Nebraskan who lives in Washington, delivered a keynote in La Vista last Friday, the day before the University of Nebraska and University of Washington were set to face off in football, he assured the crowd that he's a Husker fan through and through. … read more

Omaha Jeff Raikes resides in Seattle and has spent three-plus decades on the West Coast, but take some time to pick Raikes' brain and you'll find he's still a Nebraska boy in many ways. Raikes, formerly a manager at Apple Computer and senior executive at Microsoft is now the CEO of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and, as of 2008 is the namesake … read more