Brand strength and franchisee support contribute to success for Scooter’s Coffeehouse

Watch for additional articles over the next month on our new series about franchising. When Don and Linda Eckles opened the first Scooter’s Coffeehouse in 1998 in Bellevue, Neb., they weren’t just offering specialty coffee and warm service to their drive-thru customers. They were establishing a brand that the company would later build upon to [...]

Franchising Tips: Fast But Controlled Growth Fuels Complete Nutrition

Watch for additional articles over the next month on our new series about franchising. Ryan Zink and Cory Wiedel of Omaha were operating a GNC franchise when a career-altering revelation changed everything. Success in the nutritional supplement business, they realized, would be achieved by offering much more than just products. “We had come up with [...]

Startup Tribulations Overcome by Customer Relationships

Given his general apathy toward running, a business geared toward fitness was the last thing on Mike Ewoldt’s mind when he decided to launch Peak Performance with his brother Jim. Founded in February 1994, the business which was conceptualized over a late-night conversation and initially comprised merely an 1,800 square-foot store has now burgeoned into [...]

Are You Destined to be an Entrepreneur? Interview with Grant Stanley

[Our VIDEA contest in August produced a multitude of entries on entrepreneurs that they felt have good lessons to share. Grant Stanley of Contemporary Analysis was one of those.] Nebraska entrepreneur Grant Stanley recently sat down with us to talk about his experience starting Contemporary Analysis and entrepreneurs in general.    

L5 Building Nebraska’s Entrepreneurial Community Through Education

If you want to evoke a passionate response from L5 co-founder Kevin Hagemoser, just tell him the business he worked so hard to build is a networking group. He’ll be only too happy to correct you. “I abhorrently say it’s not a networking group,” Hagemoser said. “I call it a trade association for entrepreneurs.” According [...]

Simplifying IT

Ameet Savant has always been a scientist at heart. Growing up in Mumbai, India, Savant could usually be found disassembling his toys – or for that matter the family radio and television – simply for the sake of understanding their inner workings. “In retrospect, the minor cuts, scrapes and 240-volt shocks were worth the natural honing of my [...]

Long road to production for fashion designer Yolanda Diaz

Most entrepreneurs have amazing stories about how far they’ve come to fulfill their dreams, but how many had to move to a different country, learn another language and be knowledgeable about multi-government regulations on imports and exports? And that’s just some of what Yolanda Diaz has endured to fulfill her 25-year dream of having her own full clothing [...]

Business Model Innovations – Joe Petsick, Proxibid

Proxibid started in 2003 with the task of taking one of the oldest industries - auctions - and bringing it online. Since 2003 Proxibid has held more than 35,000 auctions live online and increased its staff to just over 100. Proxibid was one of three companies that presented on a panel about business model innovations in information technology at [...]

Outstanding Speaker Lineup for the 2011 Nebraska Research and Innovation Conference

[UPDATE: Registration has been extended until 3pm Wednesday, Sept. 21, 2011.] Innovation has been at the forefront in Nebraska with the new Talent and Innovation Initiative and many other objectives, both public and private. The need to foster innovation in key industries has taken hold as a clear way for Nebraska to grow its economy [...]

Midwest Technology Exchange coming this May

The Midwest Technology Exchange (mtechx) is a collaborative conference focusing on the development and commercialization of Midwestern technologies which have been developed in collaboration with the U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command (USAMRMC) and the Telemedicine and Advanced Technology Research Center (TATRC).   An internationally renowned group of speakers including Steve Burrill, Rich Bendis, [...]

Cornstalks demonstration night

The Cornstalks demonstration night is intended to provide Silicon Prairie region companies with an opportunity to highlight their products and technologies. This first iteration of demonstration night included 10 companies highlighting primarily software and web-enabled technologies as well as being new or young (less than 18 months old) to the marketplace. The goal of the [...]

Agile Sports and Stephanie Healy talk about growth

2011 Nebraska Summit on Entrepreneurship How to rapidly grow a Nebraska startup – unlimited vacation and Jets tickets Brian Kaiser, CTO, Agile Sports Technologies In four years, Agile Sports has grown from its three founders to 30 employees and from one devoted customer (the University of Nebraska Husker football team) to 2500 teams in 48 [...]

Collaborative Work Spaces and the Accelerating Effects on Business

Collaborative Work Spaces and the Accelerating Effects on Business Matthew Wegener, President & CEO, ISoft Data Systems and Turbine Flats Turbine Flats is an idea community and home to 10 early stage and start-up businesses. In this session, Matthew Wegener will discuss the businesses that are taking root at Turbine Flats today. He will explain [...]

Keynote: Moglia shares insights, lessons on business

Joe Moglia is one of the most recognized names in the heartland. Whether it’s through the Omaha Nighthawks or TD Ameritrade, Moglia has made an impact on Nebraska with his knowledge and expertise on business. Before joining TD Ameritrade a decade ago, Moglia worked for Merrill Lynch in New York. After 17 years there, he moved [...]

National Lemonade Day comes to Omaha

It’s not uncommon to see children sitting on the sidewalk in a neighborhood with a self-made lemonade stand in the spring or summer with the hopes of making a little money but on May 1, don’t be surprised by all the lemonade stands outside Omaha metro businesses. It’s all part of National Lemonade Day, an [...]

2011 Summit Preview: Megan Hunt of CAMP Co-working Space

The 2011 Nebraska Summit on Entrepreneurship will feature lecturers, panel discussions and question and answer sessions from various experts on the climate of entrepreneurship in Nebraska. Among the speakers will be Megan Hunt of CAMP Co-Working Space. Hunt created CAMP, Omaha’s first creative co-working space. Since CAMP started in June 2010, the site has seen [...]

2011 Summit Preview: Joe Olsen of Phenomblue

Joe Olsen managed to take a nontraditional business in Omaha and expand it nationally, garnering the attention of some of the world’s most renowned companies. Olsen is the CEO and Director of Strategy and Innovation for Phenomblue, originally sold visual effects and animation to television studios, movie producers, and ad agencies. Today, Phenomblue is an interactive brand [...]

Big Omaha – Past, Present and Future

We recently sat down with Jeff Slobotski and Dusty Davidson of Silicon Prairie News to learn about the event Big Omaha.  The third annual event will be held May 11-13 this year.  Be sure to signup on their website and check back for updates as they begin to roll out announcements. Why Big Omaha was [...]

Invest Nebraska Names $50,000 New Venture Winner

(Omaha – November 19, 2010) Invest Nebraska Corporation, a statewide venture development organization, hosted its East 2 West state competition Friday at The Old Mattress Factory Bar and Grill in Omaha. Six hopeful finalists competed for the chance to win a $50,000 equity investment, but only one went home with the prize. After judges’ deliberation, [...]

UNeMed event highlights innovators, provides grants

Hundreds gathered in Omaha last week to recognize local inventors and researchers in science fields as part of the UNeMed Innovation Week. Research, newly developed equipment and innovations in technology were among the top award winners at the week-long event. The event was the culmination of an entire year’s worth of research and gave awards, [...]

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