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 [...]

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: Pamela Dingman – It’s not over!

Many people will tell you in times of adversity and challenge that, ‘It is OVER,’ you tried, you did not make it, it is time to move on. The reality is that you learn more from failing, struggling and facing challenge than you do from succeeding. This is Pam Dingmans’ personal story of her journey [...]

Innovation Night, The Coolest Night in Innovation

The Nebraska Center for Entrepreneurship is hosting Innovation Night, The Coolest Night in Innovation on March 14, 2011 beginning at 5:30 p.m. in the Embassy Suites, 1040 P Street Lincoln, Nebraska. The evening reception has two goals; first to honor current entrepreneurs with the Nebraska Distinguished Entrepreneur Award, this year’s recipients are: Charlie Hull & [...]

$5,000 Awarded to Students with Big Ideas

Students representing Nebraska high schools, area colleges and universities had three minutes to pitch their idea for a new business. The second annual 3-2-1 Quick Pitch Competition was held on Wednesday at Memorial Stadium in the Club Level Concourse. “This year we had over 50 competitors from all over Nebraska.  We’ve had a good diversity of [...]

Mile markers along the road less traveled

Aaron Marshbanks has chosen the road less traveled. The road has taken him through failures and back again. He knows it has more hazards than the Interstate, but it also has more adventure. He couldn’t imagine traveling any other route.  He was still in grade school when he took his first trip down the entrepreneur’s [...]

’3-2-1 Quick Pitch Competition’ is Feb. 23, application deadline Feb. 9

Students are invited to compete in the second annual “3-2-1 Quick Pitch Competition” on Feb. 23 at Memorial Stadium. Applications to participate are now being accepted at the website below. From atop Memorial Stadium’s club level suites, students will have the opportunity to showcase their entrepreneurial, communications and presentation skills through a short “quick pitch” [...]

Lessons Learned: Jim Terrano Shares Wisdom Gained Along the Way

Entrepreneurs today have something Jim Terrano wishes he would have had in 1974; role models. “I didn’t have a good set of mentors or examples in front of me and so I had to go learn all of this on my own through trial and error,” the president and CEO of TELCOR said. “I think that [...]

Roundscapes presenting virtual reality from a new perspective

As if by some unspoken consensus, a visible rift between the real and the synthetic is assumed when discussing virtual reality. By merit of its depiction in popular fiction, conceptions of virtual reality inevitably including brightly pulsing LED displays and shimmering holograms. But Christopher Kingsley, CEO of Roundscapes, hopes to take digital depictions of life in [...]

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