Nebraska Angels Fund Kansas Company
Nitride Solutions Inc., a company based in Wichita, Kansas that develops products for light-emitting devices (LEDs), lasers and electronics, has secured a total of $1.8 million in funding from the Nebraska Angels and investment groups in Kansas and California.
Nitride Solutions will produce substrates that are used to build electronics such as DVD players, TVs, and other LED products. The company’s innovation in technology will create aluminum nitride substrates at a high volume and a low cost while improving on the defect rate of current products on the market. The product will help manufacturers lower their costs while increasing the efficiency of power systems in hybrid vehicles, improving consumer and industrial lighting, sharpening color on flat-screen TVs, and enhancing air and water purifiers. Nitride will use the funding to begin manufacturing and sales by the end of 2011.
“Nitride Solutions’ novel method of creating substrates will change the market,” said Karen Linder, co- deal lead for Nebraska Angels in Lincoln. “The technology is revolutionary, and the leadership team has the commercial experience and the scientific skills that will make the company successful.”
Nebraska Angels President, John Brasch said, “Nitride Solutions is a technology play with exciting possibilities. We are fortunate to have the opportunity to invest in their proposal. This was our first instance of investing with our peers from Kansas angel groups. We look forward to their co-investing with us in future Nebraska based startup company opportunities.”
Founded in 2009, Nitride Solutions is led by president and CEO Jeremy Jones, who has 30-plus years of experience in advanced materials businesses and COO Jason Schmitt, who has worked with this technology for 14 years.
Nebraska Angles on KFOR, 1240 AM
Lou Halperin and John Brasch discussed the Nebraska Angels on KFOR on March 16, 2010. This is only a portion of the interview, due to technical difficulties.
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SPN Interviews Jay Wilkinson of Nebraska Angels
Angels member Jay Wilkinson discusses angel investing on the web site of Silicon Prairie News, an Omaha-based group provide information to entrepreneurs and creative types across the state. Nice interview, Jay!
Read the article and watch the interview here
Tweetup Reminder – This Thursday!
Mark your calendars and make sure you head to Mosaic Community Development this Thursday at 6:30 for the next TweetUp!
This month’s TweetUp is in conjunction with Mosaic Community Development’s relaunch & re-branding party so we’re celebrating there with them!
Big Special Thanks to all of the sponsors including Blue Planet Natural Grill for providing all food and drinks!
We’ll see you this Thursday evening!
Tagged as: Mosaic Community Development, Omaha Tweetup, Tweetup
DrawnTown Takes Over Downtown Sioux Falls
It’s not every Tuesday evening in Sioux Falls, South Dakota where you’ll find 21 creative artists outside together at a park working on their medium of choice. However, July 14 was not an ordinary Tuesday night it was DrawnTown night.
Drawn Town, which gets its’ name from hosting the event in downtown Sioux Falls outdoor locations, is a unique social/creative event put on by a little design blog called Graphic Content. Sioux Falls based advertising agency, Fresh Produce, sponsors Graphic Content and believes it is important to highlight the work of local artists.
Kiel Mutschelknaus (that’s pronounced MU – CHIK – NOUSE), graphic designer for Fresh Produce and “curator” of Graphic Content said, “The site came out of a desire to highlight local art. It’s really grown and we’ve seen a lot of great stuff from right here in Sioux Falls.”
Graphic Content has existed for 14 months and has seen dramatic growth in the willingness and excitement for local artists to showcase their work. “It started kind of slow with Ted (co-founder of Fresh Produce) and I posting work from Fresh Produce, but it’s really caught on and now we’re backed up with submissions.”
In just over a year GC has showcased the art of nearly 50 local artists and is updated multiple times a week by Mutschelknaus with new posts to stimulate any art fan. Andrew Osborn, native of Omaha, Nebraska and recent graduate of Augustana College in Sioux Falls, has had his work showcased multiple times on GC and loves the opportunity. “It’s a neat little forum to not only get your art show, but to tune in to see what other local artists are doing. I draw inspiration from that and allow myself to be an inspiration to others,” Osborn said.
Tuesday’s event was the second installment of DrawnTown and it continues to grow in popularity in the community of Sioux Falls. The original DrawnTown event was held in June and had roughly 15 participants despite poor weather conditions. In regards to the future of the event Mutschelknaus said, “It’s already been a success. We have over 20 artists sharing, talking and collaborating. That’s what Graphic Content is really all about, collaboration. I just hope to see DrawnTown continue.”
Thanks to sites like Graphic Content and social media tools, artists now have the ability to share and promote their work all over the world for little to no costs. “As an artist any exposure you can get is necessary and Graphic Content allows anyone to exhibit art. Although some art can be private, art is meant to be seen and interpreted and GC provides that opportunity,” Osborn said.
To all artists of the Silicon Prairie, DrawnTown III is already set for August 11. Mark your calendars!
Tagged as: DrawnTown, John Meyer, Sioux Falls
SPN Interviews @Route140
Last week while Whuffaoke was in town, I had the opportunity to talk with Mark Simonds, or @Route140…a.k.a the man behind the Twitter Road Trip adventure.
Mark is traveling nation-wide road trip to interview people and companies using Twitter and have interesting stories to tell. The idea for his project started as an excuse to take a road trip. After realizing it would be great to meet the people he followed on Twitter, he then decided that this could be an opportunity to really dive into the whole social media concepts.
Twitter Road Trip is entirely self-funded and Simonds is also working with sponsors and donors to keep the travels going..
Take a glance and listen to our interview with Mark and feel free to connect with the Twitter Road Trip on Twitter at @Route140!.
Tagged as: @Route140, Mark Simonds, Twitter Road Trip, Whuffaoke
Meet Our New Contributors: Aaron Onken, Adam Templeton, and John Meyer
A month ago, we made an announcement that we were looking to add “a contributor.” Well, we’ve added three!
It’s a pleasure to introduce you to Aaron Onken, Adam Templeton, and John Meyer:
I met Aaron Onken at a Cornstalks meeting a few months ago. When he saw our announcement, he sent me an email saying, “I’ve been looking for the opportunity to do some writing. Plus, I’m usually at the same events you are.” It’s evident to us that Aaron is interested in what’s happening in our community and he’s eager to report on it. We’re excited to add another contributor to cover the Omaha metro.
In Lincoln, we’re adding Adam Templeton, a senior journalism major at UNL. Although our focus began with highlighting Omaha, we’ve covered nearly a dozen startups out of our state capital, and there are dozens more to cover. We’re looking forward to having someone stationed there. And I can’t forget to mention his hustle — over the past two weeks, Adam’s already made a couple trips to Omaha to learn more about SPN.
John Meyer is stationed a few hours north of us, in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. When I met him at Big Omaha, his enthusiasm for the event left an impression on me. In his email that followed our announcement, he wrote that he should be considered because of his “passion to showcase the great work happening right here in our own backyards.” There was no way we could turn him down. We’re very excited to begin hearing stories from the northern part of Silicon Prairie.
Please extend a warm welcome to our new contributors, and to learn more about them check out our updated “About” page: siliconprairienews.com/about.
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Cornstalks Reminder – This Thursday!
This month, the Cornstalks event that is hosted by the Greater Omaha Chamber of Commerce will be changing up the format just a bit. First of all, there is a new meeting time: 6:30pm. This new time will allow for an exciting new aspect of the monthly Cornstalks events: a Social Hour, which will feature wine, beer, and networking. Of course, the usual milk, cookies, and Red Bull will also be there. If you can’t make it for Social Hour, Cornstalks will begin at 7pm, as usual. The location will be at the Downtown Chamber of Commerce Building (1301 Harney St.). Come for the networking, stay for the speaker.
The speaker for this month is Charlie Hull of Archrival, a branding and design firm headquartered in Lincoln. Charlie is the co-founder, President, and Director of Creative Services for Archrival. He will be speaking about his experiences with bootstrapping a business, working in the world of marketing, and taking your questions, as well.
Last time, we heard from Mitchell Schefcik of Optera, who stopped by to tell us about his company, which uses laser technology to create 3D building models.
For those of you who are unfamiliar with Cornstalks, we did a summary post a while back. You can read about the events there, and we’ve included a question-and-answer FAQs from organizer Tom Chapman, as well.
Tagged as: Archrival, Charlie Hull, Cornstalks, networking
Whuffaoke Hits Omaha
The Whuffaoke Winnie came and is on the way to its final destination of Montreal…left behind was high praise for Omaha, good spirits and many memories! The event was amazing thanks to Christian Christensen and Alison Hult of Bluestone Development for the tremendous venue at 22 Floors, the sushi from Blue, and Blue Moon beer courtesy of Patrick’s Market downtown.
Take a look at these great photos courtesy of Andrew from Malone & Co…
Before the tour left we had an opportunity to catch up with each of the members and ask them about the tour, the inspiration, and thoughts as a newbie to Omaha and the region, what “words of advice” they might have for the entrepreneurial and creative class in the region.
Tagged as: MissRogue, Omaha, SXSW, Whuffaoke, WhuffaokeOMA
Weekly Wrap Up
Interests of Last Week
7/21 – OWH: Omaha Karaoke Fans Tap Their Inner Whuffie w/ Whuffaoke Tour Stop In Omaha
7/20 – OWH: Omaha Native Produces Award Winning Book
This Weekend! – Wild About Omaha Festivities
Events of Next Week
Thursday 7/30 - TweetUp @ Mosaic Community Development
Thursday 7/30 – Cornstalks @ Omaha Chamber of Commerce
Friday 7/31 – The Big Birthday Bash @ Brightmix’s World Headquarters
If you have any additional news or events that you’d like the SPN community to know about, please add it in a comment below (a link, date, time and location would be helpful).
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