Medizzle offers unique twist on social media portal

For creators of new social media portals, the immense popularity of Web 2.0 giants such as Facebook and Twitter is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, each site’s success paves the way for subsequent technological innovations, as more and more people realize the impact social media can have on their lives and businesses. But [...]

SchillingBridge: Small town living goes hand-in-hand with entrepreneurship

Throughout their 25 years as small business owners, Mike and Sharon Schilling have whittled entrepreneurship down to a science.
Since starting a farm supply company back in 1985, they’ve also created a seed supplier, a fertilizer plant and numerous other businesses, parlaying each previous venture into the next. In 2002, the couple’s entrepreneurship culminated in growing grapes at a nine-acre vineyard near [...]

Engler Agribusiness Entrepreneurship Program takes shape

The Paul F. and Virginia J. Engler Foundation donated $20 million to the University of Nebraska at Lincoln earlier this year in an effort to create a program focused on finding students with entrepreneurial drive and providing those students with the resources to help educate them in successful agribusiness.
The program is in its infancy but [...]

Coach’s challenge sparks Agile Sports; Raikes School provides tools and experience

A challenge in 2006 from then University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) Cornhuskers Head Football Coach Bill Callahan sparked the development of Agile Sports, now a growing startup in Lincoln’s Haymarket.  Callahan wanted to improve how videos of play action are used in training. He also wanted a safer, easier way to get videos to players and [...]

Allied Strategy sets path for Raikes School startups

While the Jeffrey S. Raikes School of Computer Science and Management at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) is a gateway to corporate positions for some graduates, others use this honors program education and experience to start them on a different path – launching their own companies.
The startup stories of two Lincoln companies that raised significant outside capital demonstrate the ways the Raikes [...]

ABC News features Nebraska Entrepreneur resource GROW Nebraska

ABC’s News Article “Rural Enterprise on the Rise” highlights GROW Nebraska and how beneficial membership can be for small businesses within the state. The article also showcases Katrina Frey of Heavenly Creations and John Marquis of Ogallala Bay Rum as each explains how GROW has helped take their business to the [...]

Advice for Nebraskan family businesses successful at UNL

As the Baby Boom generation continues retiring from years of working, their predecessors are beginning to fill the gaps left behind. Those inheriting a business may not know to effectively keep their family business moving forward after the previous generation.
Dave Specht took on the challenge of providing consultation and guidance for family businesses.  His work [...]

Dave Hall – Restore A Muscle Car

It’s not always possible to make a hobby into a successful and profitable business.  However, one Lincoln businessperson found a way to make a passion for cars into a successful restoration business.
Dave Hall sat down with members of the Lincoln Young Professionals Group on July 8th to talk about how he started Restore [...]

CropMetrics provides exclusive services for area farms

Expansive fields of crops are common sites in Nebraska. Behind every field there’s a specific science that focuses on the best way to plant, irrigate and harvest these crops.  Many farmers don’t have the proper equipment to yield the best results. This is where Nick Emanuel and CropMetrics come in.
Emanuel, a native of North Bend, [...]

Deckerton Bringing Word-of-Mouth into 21st Century

Even though advertisers are talented enough at promoting products to earn a livelihood doing so, a slick flash presentation or a clever commercial often cannot quite match a personal endorsement offered by a close friend. It’s that level of trust that Lateef Johnson hopes to nurture between his clients and the individuals to whom they cater. [...]

Lincoln muscle car shop weathers economic storm and finds national attention

It’s not always possible to make a hobby into a successful and profitable business.  However, one Lincoln businessperson found a way to make a passion for cars into a successful restoration business.
Dave Hall, the owner and operator of Restore a Muscle Car LLC in Lincoln, started out in the computer science field working mostly in [...]

Nebraska web firm “elevating” quality of brand management

The benefits of a powerful brand are obvious. When an unexpected sneeze coats your hands with mucus, chances are you don’t ask someone to hand you a “facial tissue.” You probably ask for a Kleenex. Likewise, a child with a scraped knee will be far more inclined to request a Band-Aid on the wound, rather [...]

Tomac Bicycles Keeps Wheels of Enterprise Churning Nonstop

Tomac Mountain Bikes promises its customers “hardcore, quality products.” When one takes a glance at the company’s inner workings, it’s obvious those same descriptors apply to the man behind the brand, Joel Smith. Here’s a breakdown of a typical workday in his own words:
“We work the sales side of things early in the morning, because we have [...]

Grand Island Marketing Firm Shares Networking Know-how

When a sizable portion of the planet is but a Google search away and everyone you speak with on a regular basis is plugged into Facebook and Twitter feeds, keeping a physical list of contact information or a stack of business cards can sometimes feel superfluous. But when it comes to building a solid networking infrastructure, it’s often those [...]

Big Omaha 2010 Keeps Entrepreneurial Momentum Strong

Even though last year’s Big Omaha proved successful enough to convince even the staunchest skeptics that entrepreneurship could flourish hundreds of miles inland from America’s coasts, that proof of concept didn’t quite cut it for Silicon Prairie News co-founder Dusty Davidson. To him, entrepreneurship is a science: initial results are all fine and good, but [...]

Game on Games brings hobby hub to rural Nebraskans

McCook, Nebraska, is probably one of the last places you’d expect to find a game store, let alone one with a global customer base. But since 2007, Game on Games has been providing Nebraskans in the southwestern corner of the state a place to, well… get their game on. Branching well beyond the world of [...]

Big Omaha acting as conduit for Midwest’s entrepreneurial energies

Sometimes, bigger is better. At least, that’s the philosophy the Silicon Prairie News staff — the organizers of this year’s Big Omaha event — are adhering to.

Kid Command’s Virtual World Inspiring Kids to Save Real One

As much clout as baseball boasts within the American zeitgeist, it can be argued rather persuasively that video games have supplanted the national pastime in the minds of modern kids. With some 97 percent of kids playing video games, it’s no wonder Collin Caneva saw the medium’s potential for educating children about real world problems. [...]

Lincoln Technology Firm Named 2010 Small Business of the Year

OMAHA – James Bowen and Nick Bock, and their company Five Nines Technology Group, have been named the Nebraska Small Business of the Year for 2010 by the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA).
The information technology firm was nominated for the honor by Marisol Rodriguez, director of the Nebraska Business Development Center in Lincoln.
“Five Nines [...]

PK Partnership Class Boasts 90 Percent Small Business Success Rate, Tripling of Sales

Everyone’s heard horror stories about small business failure. Some sources peg the rate of new startups that plummet into the abyss during their first year at around 70 percent; others go so far as to posit that 9 out of 10 new businesses collapse annually. But for many entrepreneurs in south central Nebraska, 90 percent doesn’t signify [...]

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