Omaha With sweltering summer heat gripping the Midwest, the SPN meteorology team advises denizens of the Prairie to spend only sparing time outdoors. Instead, we recommend curling up in the cool of a climate-controlled environment in front of the web-enabled screen of your choice and enjoying our Big Omaha 2012 video playlist. Earlier this week, we published the final couple videos in … read more

Omaha The entrepreneurial story Michael Karnjanaprakorn shared May 11 at Big Omaha 2012 was one that grew out of disenchantment with the status quo in education. Karnjanaprakorn's frustration with education took root when he was in college and came to the conclusion that he'd been duped. College had always been portrayed to him as a place where he'd be equipped with the tools for a successful career. Instead, he found himself cramming for one exam after … read more

Omaha Ted Rheingold started Dogster in 2004 with the modest goal of making $500 per month from advertising to help cover rent for the office space he occupied. In his wildest dreams, he imagined the site might attract 10,000 users. Within a couple months, Dogster had put those dreams to shame. By March, the site was home to some 50,000 profiles, and Rheingold's car was chugging along the tracks on the roller coaster ride that is running a startup. Rheingold … read more

Omaha After a monthlong hiatus, the Big Omaha 2012 Video Series is back. Sarah Prevette of BetaKit kicks off the last batch of videos from our May conference with a talk about mistakes, missteps and bouncing back. Prevette is less than a year removed from selling her startup, Sprouter, a site that provides founders help with their startups. But the story she shared wasn't one of glitz, glam and a golden touch on the way to a pie-in-the-sky acquisition. … read more

Omaha The speaker who strolled on stage at Big Omaha 2012 to the cash-infused chorus of Kayne West song was, unsurprisingly, unapologetic about his own acquisition of liquid capital. “People are always like, 'It's not about money; it's not about money," Eddie Huang said during his May 11 talk at Big Omaha. "It is about money. You should not be embarrassed to be about money, and I'm about money.” Huang, who's the chef, entrepreneur and TV personality behind such … read more

Omaha If you've been following our Big Omaha 2012 Video Series, you've seen the solo performances given by Yael Cohen of F Cancer, Ben Lerer of Thrillist, Jim McKelvey of Square and Philip Rosedale of Coffee & Power on May 10 at Big Omaha 2012. Now, we bring you an encore performance featuring that entire quartet. The four founders took the stage together to close the opening day of this year's conference, riffing on a wide array of questions …  read more

Omaha An unmistakable thread woven through Philip Rosedale's life and his talk on May 10 at Big Omaha 2012 is the tendency to challenge commonly held assumptions regarding people and the work they do. Take, for instance, Rosedale's thoughts on the perception that Silicon Valley is full of nothing but the swashbuckling cavaliers of the business world: “Even in Silicon Valley, and I think in some sense especially in Silicon Valley and the tech world, real risk-taking is … read more

Omaha Kevin Hale and his team at Wufoo, an online form builder, approach interactions with new users like dating, and interactions with existing users like a marriage. Wufoo's software, Hale said at Big Omaha 2012, was constructed so that users can have a relationship with it. "When we knew that we were going to build software," Hale said, "we didn't want to create any kind of software – software that was going to remind you that you were working in a cubicle. … read more

Omaha Mena Trott has always been a goal-oriented individual. In college, she set her sights on getting straight 'A's at least one quarter. She did exactly that in her senior year, while juggling a course load of 25 credits, no less. Over the last decade, the founder of The Sew Weekly and co-founder of Six Apart zeroed in on a variety of other ambitious objectives: win the weblog of the year award at South By Southwest, make the cover of a magazine by age 30 and sew … read more

Omaha When the co-founder of Turntable.fm jumped on stage on May 10 at Big Omaha 2012, he treated the room to the first listen of a yarn he'd never spun before. "I really want to put it out here and be vulnerable," Seth Goldstein said. "The strengths that I find most important in entrepreneurs are not just confidence and aggressiveness and focus; it's also vulnerability and authenticity and, importantly, emotional intelligence." So, over the … read more