Franchise Research Institute Dissects What Works, Makes It Work Even Better

Watch for additional articles over the next month on our new series about franchising. It’s said that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. If that’s true, then Jeff Johnson and the rest of the Franchise Research Institution help facilitate the metaphorical fan clubs for dozens of successful businesses. If you’re looking to jump into the [...]

CDR Announces January Lending Information Meeting

  Entrepreneurs with a business idea or business owners who want to grow — especially those struggling to find funding — should circle Jan. 11, 2012 on their calendars. That’s the day Community Development Resources will host a free lending information meeting at Southeast Community College in Lincoln. Deb Payne, manager of Alice’s Integrity Loan Fund at [...]

Insights Into Understanding and Pursuing Successful Entrepreneurship and Innovation

Are you interested in innovation and entrepreneurship?  The Jeffrey S. Raikes School of Computer Science and Management at UNL would like to share this talk by Barry Uphoff.   Barry will provide a spectrum of insights into understanding and pursuing successful entrepreneurship and innovation. Barry Uphoff is Managing Principal at Capricorn Investment Group and has more [...]

Capital Insights – Interview with Archrival

On November 30th the Lincoln Young Professionals Group presented their new entrepreneurship series called Capital Insights. To kick it off they had some of Lincoln’s finest young entrepreneurs take the stage in an informal fireside chat with the founders of Archrival, Clint! Runge and Charles Hull. For more on this great event, you can check [...]

Keep Funding in Perspective

Tom Chapman has some advice for newly funded startups: “Now is not the time to rest.” In his current position as vice president of the software investment firm Nebraska Global and in his previous role as director of entrepreneurship and innovation for the Greater Omaha Chamber of Commerce, Chapman has worked with hundreds of startups, and [...]

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 [...]

Vahallan Papers Lessons On Success and Startup

Your staff is growing, your market is expanding, you are walking a fine line between running the business and still being involved with the process. Sound familiar? So how do you keep true to your roots and let go to let your team grow? Nebraska Entrepreneur had the opportunity recently to ask this question to Dan [...]

Innovation Series Aims to Access Hidden Potential

Creativity and innovation are buzzwords that get a lot of mileage among business owners. But what exactly is innovation, where does it come from, and how do you create it? Shane Farritor, a University of Nebraska-Lincoln engineering professor and entrepreneur, aims to answer these questions and more in his upcoming series of Innovation Seminars. With thought-provoking [...]

Taking Entrepreneurs at Their Word: Alice Dittman Loans Money on Her Terms

Funding will be the topic of our next series on Nebraska Entrepreneur. Big to small, the topic comes up in some form for most startups.   When Alice Dittman was a banker, she wasn’t able to give all the loans she wished she could. Now that she has retired as the president and CEO of Cornhusker Bank, [...]

Nebraska Global Investment Fund Raises $37.3 million

[UPDATED] LINCOLN, Neb. — October 4, 2011 — Nebraska Global today announced that it has completed the capital raise portion of its Nebraska Global Investment Fund at $37.3 million. The fund is one of the largest software investment funds in the Midwest, and has attracted investors drawn to the idea of building sustainable, impactful and [...]

Business Model Innovations – Matthew Wegener, ISoft Data Systems and the Turbine Flats Project

Matthew Wegener, founder, president and chief executive officer of ISoft Data Systems and co-founder and president of the Turbine Flats Project, was one of three companies that presented on a panel about business model innovations in information technology at the 2011 Nebraska Research and Innovation Conference. In college Wegener took a part-time job to pay the [...]

Junior Achievement of Lincoln launches new high school focused program

Junior Achievement of Lincoln is always looking for ways to inspire and ignite entrepreneurship within children. JA has been doing this for many years, but this fall the organization will be undertaking a new and exciting venture called Driven Youth Invitational. This seven-week program is designed to take motivated high schoolers and prepare them to create and [...]

Community CROPS supports local entrepreneurship, offers fresh food

[This is part of a series of articles over the next month focusing on one of Nebraska's key entrepreneurial areas: the food industry. Check back frequently as we explore local food producers, restaurants and the growers .]   William Shakespeare once famously asked: What’s in a name? For local non-profit organization Community CROPS, there’s a [...]

Taking your recipe from product to profit has never been easier

[This is part of a series of articles over the next month to focus on one of Nebraska's key entrepreneurial areas: the food industry. Check back frequently as we explore local food producers, restaurants, and the growers .] With farmers’ markets blooming and themes of “Go Local” sweeping grocery stores, it is prime time for [...]

Raikes School students paired with corporations for real-world education

Every year the Jeffrey S. Raikes School of Computer Science and Management at the University of Nebraska – Lincoln takes on a new set of projects for its Design Studio program. The curriculum enables juniors and seniors at the Raikes School to work as technologists and business managers on real-world software development projects. The Design Studio [...]

Finding Opportunity in Upheaval

In 2007, the global financial crisis challenged finance companies like Nebraska-based Nelnet,  Inc. Nelnet found opportunities in the economic turmoil, starting new subsidiary businesses in the process. This is the story of how a company embraced creativity and encouraged entrepreneurship among its employees. In 2007, Hannah Smitterberg was losing a lot of sleep. She and [...]

Retirement is not the plan for one Nebraska entrepreneur

For 50 years, John Brasch has been building a legacy in the elderly care industry with his company, the J. Brasch Co. He’s started four companies and launched six products and now, at 70, Brasch has decided to give it another go. He will begin his fifth company and will begin selling his seventh product, the SafePresence Caregiver Communicator [...]

Nebraska Distinguished Entrepreneur Award Winners

On March 14th, 2011 UNL’s Nebraska Center for Entrepreneurship hosted their annual Innovation Night to present their 2011 Nebraska Distinguished Entrepreneur Awards.  This years awards went to four different companies including Jack Henry with Global Industries, Charlie Hull and Clint! Runge with Archrival, Steve Kiene with Nebraska Global and John Lund with OFFWIRE. The purpose [...]

Opportunity assesment and evaluating a deal with John Moorhead

John Moorhead of Free Air Collective and Fiserv talks about the lessons he has learned in opportunity assessment through the 3 startups he’s been a part of.  The Startup Lessons event was put on by the Lincoln Young Professional Group on March 8th, 2011.  “Equity vs Cash”, what is your contribution, does it interest you…these [...]

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 [...]

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