I’m hanging at BigOmaha, listening to an amazing lineup of speakers. From Jason Fried to GaryVee, the BigOmaha team totally out did itself in bringing top notch talent to the MidWest. I drove up from Kansas City along with 20 others to check out the Omaha Tech scene….I’m totally impressed.
Last Night, the party kicked off with awesome vegan treats and brew at Secret Penguin and @WhatCheer. WhatCheer is behind http://www.iliveinomaha.com and Secret Penguin develops some pretty interesting youth branding building off their expertise in youth skateboard culture.
Shortly after stuffing myself with tech talk, beer and vegan eats, the party moved to SlowDown, a trendy Indy venue next door where GaryVee recorded a live video broadcast of his Wine Library TV. The dude is hilarious.
Check out the Ustream clip:
Again, kudos to the BigOmaha Team! My cheer to you:
We shouted in Indy in December, and next its in Atlanta for www.startupriot.com. Bam! This awesome fullday (and from what I hear, all night!) event is Atlanta’s shot in the arm for startups, funding and presentations. We’re super pumped to be a part of the process. Shout It!
Here’s a summary of the ideas being pitched right now, I’ll keep publishing as people pitch. There is no intellectual property here, so if you pitch an idea, its public…so, if you’re highly protective of it, don’t pitch it! Music to my ears, too many people in Kansas City have that “I cant tell you attitude.” Open dialogue and open source will get you further ahead than keeping it close to your chest. continue reading »
We’re at the GooglePlex in Seattle with 150 people from amazing companies, startups, firms, yada yada. The first hour tonight is all about networking, drinking a little beer and meeting as many people as you can. We’re listening to the sponsors from nPost, Google, Peet’s Coffee, and Perkins Cole. The sponsorship is awesome.
I interviewed a couple of people tonight from Law firms, startups and the seattle startup crew. Check out the fews on the top right.
I re-discovered a fantastic website this week, KIVA.org. They are an international nonprofit that helps entrepreneurs in developing countries raise small amounts of loans to conduct business in their country. Known as micro-lending or micro-loans, these small repayable notes help them start a business or expand their current business. Many of the entrepreneurs support a family of 4 to 10, including relatives, and a workforce.
You lend amounts over $25, and you can track the progress of the entrepreneur through journals and his/her repayment schedule. Once you’re repaid, you can lend again! I’m planning on building up a monthly subscription to the website.
To date, the group has made over $58 million loans to small businesses through partner organizations, in every country you could imagine. I’m focusing my loans in the Middle East.
Check it out and help someone across the world by giving them a loan and a leg up, not a hand out. I think this website is amazing.
Last Night, the party kicked off with awesome vegan treats and brew at Secret Penguin and @WhatCheer. WhatCheer is behind http://www.iliveinomaha.com and Secret Penguin develops some pretty interesting youth branding building off their expertise in youth skateboard culture.
You can see the loan I just made to Alaa (pictured right) for his car business at: 
