Silicon Prairie News

Omaha "One, I think mentorship is a gift in and of itself," Pishevar says. "By mentoring you’re already giving something to the mentor, right, as the mentee. So the value of it is just being in that relationship as a mentor and a mentee. And so if you go about it with that attitude it, as a mentor, is very different. And the other thing I would say is, you know, you’d be surprised … read more

Omaha "So I’ve been around so many startups that I’ve seen a lot of moments," Fishback says. "You know, I’ve said many times to people from the idea someone has an idea to the time they start a company, it’s almost universally one year. I don’t know why. That’s just, like, law of averages or whatever. But it takes a year. This was really different than that. … read more

Omaha "What Big Omaha means to me," Chopra says, "is that there is a whole untapped base of entrepreneurial energy that, if we are organized in the right way, they can be successful as entrepreneurs and help our country meet its goals, from improving our health care system, improving our educational system, building a clean energy future. This will happen … read more

Omaha "Do I think that this is an ambitious conference?" Baldwin says. "I categorize it much more as hope, and I think hope is much more about community where ambition is much more about individuals. And I think, for Jeff and Dusty, they’re very hopeful that the community will grow to what the community will allow it to be. They don’t want to it to be Boulder. … read more

Omaha "You know," Gary Vaynerchuk says, "I’ve always known that context — and I didn’t know how to express it — was the whole game, right? For example, you have a feeling towards me right now that is different than you have towards AJ because we engaged together last year, so we created context, right? And now you have a different feeling towards AJ … read more

Omaha "It’s funny," Janah says, "I don’t really consider myself that ambitious. I think I’m just frustrated by the way things are, and I think I’m constantly imagining ways that we could do better. I first got interested in poverty alleviation in Africa when I was a student in high school when I was 16, and ever since then I’ve kind of become extremely frustrated with the big development … read more

Omaha "The journey that I’ve managed to kind of go on," Eckō said, "in building the businesses I’ve been in has been one where I’ve been very self reflective over the last three years. And I’ve really, deeply thought about the role of authenticity and what that means and how to attempt to — even though you can’t mathematically, you know, define it — but how do you attempt … read more

Omaha "The one piece of advice," Philip Kaplan said, "and this may sound like a platitude or something but I think it's actually usable – is to get in over your head. Sign up for something that you don't think you can do. Like, get a job that you're totally unqualified for or promise something to a client that you don't think you can deliver. Because I happened … read more

Omaha "We're trying to revolutionize the eyewear industry," Neil Blumenthal, co-founder of Warby Parker, said, "and revolutionize the way people think about for-profits, because we think that for-profits can be catalyst for change – if they're stake holder centric, if they think about other people other than just their shareholders. And that might be, you know … read more

Omaha "I guess the one piece of advice I would give anybody," Dan Martell, co-founder of Flowtown, said, "is that no matter what you're gonna to decide to work on – whether it be a million-dollar idea or a 10-million-dollar idea or a 100-million-dollar idea – you're gonna spend the same amount of time doing it. So if you believe that, and it'd pretty evident … read more