February 14, 2013 by Chris Wolfgang
Omaha If you're in Omaha, you may have noticed roadside billboards or coffee shop handouts promoting a new crowd-funding site called Red Basket. The effort isn't some new startup, instead it's a new approach to giving back by a 122-year-old Omaha insurance company, Woodmen of the World. Red Basket, a person-to-person giving site, launched in select … read more
February 11, 2013 by Danny Schreiber
Kansas City Kansas City native Arash Ferdowsi (far left) may have a unique career path and success in the tech industry, but he still shares one thing in common with many in his hometown: he's a huge Kansas City Chiefs fans. And a frustrated one, too, the Kansas City Star noted in its Saturday feature story on Ferdowsi. Now in San Francisco, Ferdowsi is the co-founder and CTO of Dropbox. The path that got him there, Star reporter Eric Adler shared, started … read more
February 5, 2013 by Chris Wolfgang
Omaha "Spending $20-50,000 often just isn't in the cards for a young company," said Rod Smith (left), co-founder of Volano Solutions. But small businesses still need to manage their work tasks, particularly as they realize that processes usable by one or two employees – say, spreadsheets and email reminders – aren't as … read more
February 1, 2013 by Danny Schreiber
Kansas City The University of Missouri-Kansas City Innovation Center at 1:30 p.m. today will reveal the details of Digtal Sandbox KC, a new proof-of-concept and mentoring center that's a result of a $1 million federal grant in 2012. Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon and a group of executives from notable Kansas City … read more
January 31, 2013 by Annie Sorensen
Santa Monica Living up to its name, startup accelerator Launchpad LA has helped Kansas City-born Divshot leap into the next phase of its business. Divshot, a drag-and-drop interface builder for web apps, was conceived in April 2012 at Startup Weekend Kansas City. Three months later, co-founders Michael Bleigh and Jake Johnson won a national pitch competition that included a finale in Los Angeles. With the win in L.A., came the opportunity to pitch at Launchpad, a Santa Monica-based accelerator founded by Mark Suster. Their momentum didn't stop as the duo received an invite to join the accelerator. … read more
January 24, 2013 by Danny Schreiber
Leawood Customer loyalty marketing startup Front Flip, the maker of a virtual scratch-off app with the same name, announced today it closed a $3.7 million Series B round led by Jon Darbyshire of the Leawood, Kan.-based Archer Foundation. A number of other Kansas City area investors also participated in the round, including Peter Brown, former chairman, CEO and president of AMC; Gary Fish, founder and CEO … read more
January 24, 2013 by Megan Bannister
Iowa City After years of frustration struggling to collaborate with peers in large lecture classes, University of Iowa juniors Adam Nelson (far left) and Joe Dallago (near left) took matters into their own hands in the form of a startup. The resulting venture is clusterFlunk, a virtual meeting place that allows students enrolled in the same course to collaborate on assignments, help one another study before tests and upload documents. The site will go live tonight … read more
January 8, 2013 by Danny Schreiber
Las Vegas A short documentary shot in Nebraska, Iowa, Missouri and Kansas just three months ago debuts today at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. "Silicon Prairie: America's New Internet Economy," a 22-minute film that follows reddit's Internet 2012 Bus Tour last October, will show at 9:30 a.m. local time at the Las Vegas Convention Center. … read more
Through August 22, help us decide the winners of our inaugural Silicon Prairie Awards, which will recognize 12
companies and individuals. You can vote once per day per category.
Winners will be announced live on stage at
our August 30 event.