Inside the Midwest's Secretive and Scrappy Start-up Scene | Hacker News Reader

Inside the Midwest's Secretive and Scrappy Start-up Scene

inc.com

91 pointswayoutmind51 comments

When I was in Omaha for Big Omaha this past May, I had the opportunity to participate in a little press day they had set up to showcase the Omaha entrepreneur and technology community.

My guide, a member of the Nebraska Angels, drove me around to meet a few local entrepreneurs. We left downtown Omaha, cruised past Warren Buffet's modest house (that he still lives in), past a large university surrounded by a gigantic public park, down a little hill, to an area that used to be a racetrack, but now is being redeveloped into retail and condos.

We pulled up to a new looking building and opened a door on the first floor to walk into the office of SkyVu Entertainment. The place was bustling with 20-30 young people working on SkyVu's latest mobile game apps. They created the popular Battle Bears games (which I had coincidentally never heard of before visiting SkyVu).

I took an amazing tour of their office, learned a lot more about their games, their team, and their culture, and about their founder Ben Vu.

Why am I even sharing this?

Because I was blown away that this profitable, growing, exciting mobile game studio, who has a series of hit iPhone games, is located a few miles outside of downtown Omaha, NE.

The students attending that university who want to be a mobile game developer don't have to leave Omaha and head for the big city. They can get their career started right there.

"... I was blown away that this profitable, growing, exciting mobile game studio, who has a series of hit iPhone games, is located a few miles outside of downtown Omaha, NE."

I'm actually surprised at your reaction. They're making iPhone games. iPhone games can be made anywhere there is internet access and developers. Is it so shocking that in Omaha, near a university, there are enough programmers, artists, business-minded folks, and other creative types that want to make mobile games that a company like SkyVu can succeed? Why would I want to move to a big city when my goods are completely virtual?

When I think of game development studios, I don't think of Omaha, NE (for better or worse). I may be alone.

Ben Vu, the founder of SkyVu, actually used to be an animator in Hollywood. He moved back to Omaha to start SkyVu when Battle Bears (which was originally intended to be a movie) took off as an iPhone game.

I just think that's cool.

You're not alone. My brother lives in Omaha and I've visited once. I had no idea it was hiding a tech community (my brother isn't a techie).

The game industry ends up concentrated in hub cities because when companies fold, a large proportion of the talent wants to get another job quickly. If SkyVu is the only option in Omaha, that's actually a huge risk.

As it happens this is part of the recent 38 Studios shutdown story: 150 employees were enticed to move out to Providence, RI; subsequently the company shut down with little warning, and without clearing its payroll debts. If they were in the Bay Area, the employees would have an easier time recovering, but having moved so far away from a hub, their personal finances have been heavily impacted.

If anyone is looking for more Midwest startup opportunities, Detroit is worth a glance. I'll copy a comment I made around a month ago [3]:

My opinion would point more towards something like Detroit. A city not well known for tech (and well known for not being an economic powerhouse). But with Dan Gilbert's "Webward Avenue" and Dan Izzo's "Bizdom U" startup accelerator (founded when YCombinator was still a baby), new tech is starting to trickle into Detroit. See also: Detroit Venture Partners, M@dison.

There's a backing of billionaires willing to put as much as they can into Detroit to make it a tech haven, and so far it's showing some progress. I don't live in or even near Detroit, but it's a pretty promising sign for a city (and state) suffering the full brunt of technology's impact on unskilled labor.

[1]http://www.mlive.com/news/detroit/index.ssf/2011/06/transfor...

[2]http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dan-izzo/go-midwest-young-entr...

[3] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3923825

I'm moving to Detroit next spring. I'm excited to see what kind of opportunities are around the city. Lots of neat stuff going on and Dan Gilbert is doing a great job.

I work in West Michigan which unfortunately doesn't have the same new-tech support Detroit is getting, but honestly I'd rather see it in Detroit. That city needs the attention and help its starting to get, and it will help the state as a whole (as well as northern Ohio/Toledo).
The business community there is pushing so hard to get the city up and running again. They're even donating money to the government to build a light rail/commuter rail system (enough money to run it for 10 years at no taxpayer expense)[1]. It's a really positive attitude, and absolutely inspiring. Maybe someday I'll find myself down on Woodward Ave as well.
[1]http://www.forbes.com/sites/joannmuller/2012/05/30/private-f...

Living in the area (Lincoln, NE), you can see that the tech startup scene is blooming. With the cost of living so low, plentiful access to engineering students (UNL), and the rise of investment capital, the opportunity to build a successful startup in this area is growing quite quickly. I was once convinced that I had to move to the valley to be successful, but now I couldn't be more proud of this area, and am determined to build success here.

We are experiencing a similar bloom in Cincinnati, it is quite exciting to watch! It is awesome to see it happen in other places too.

I don't know about blooming, but things are happening in Nebraska.We haven't had an Instagram, Dropbox or anything like that appear, yet. Lincoln's in-progress push to reframe the city as the next Boulder or Austin should help too.

What sorts of initiatives are you referring to?

I use to live in Lincoln before moving to San Francisco..
What sorts of startup resources are you seeing that you feel will propel Lincoln forward?
I can think of a handful of "startups" or technology based companies in Lincoln; Hudl, Penlink, Nanonation, i2rd, ...
While it's great to have these companies, I would contend that the number of startups Lincoln has is probably in line with the rest of the country and nothing special. The world is changing; if the city is inviting to new businesses you _should_ see more software type businesses crop up.
I just don't see Lincoln as anything special.

While you may be right about comparisons with other similar sized cities, I feel that I've seen quite the blooming of tech startups. Admittedly, I'm very biased as I live here. But with the arena project and all of the entertainment venues planned, Lincoln will look very different in 10 years.
Here is a list of some tech/data startups in the area (Lincoln, not Omaha):
http://www.macpractice.com/mp/
http://gitpilot.com
http://www.socialassurance.com/
http://archcrowd.com/
http://www.firespring.com/
http://www.getlockr.com/
http://www.cmsdm.com/
http://www.dontpaniclabs.com/
http://www.icora.com/
http://www.ec3h.com/
http://www.beehiveindustries.com/
http://eliteform.com/
http://the42.com/
http://www.archrival.com/
How long have you been gone?

A few more to add to the list:
http://www.roundus.com
http://www.turbineflats.org (a building full of tech companies)
http://www.alliedstrategy.com

"http://www.turbineflats.org (a building full of tech companies)"
I feel like there are more "startup buildings" popping up all over the US.
Turbine Flats in Lincoln. Mastercraft in Omaha. General Assembly in New York. 1871 in Chicago. American Underground in Durham.
That's great. Gathering like minds is such a big step.

Yeah but at least two of those immediately jump out at me as "not startups" unless you count startup as "company that happens to do tech" which I don't.

I just don't see Lincoln as anything special.
Great bike paths, though. Say, how's that nipple detection algorithm coming?

Someone has already implemented a nudity algorithm in js. https://github.com/pa7/nude.js
One step closer to Pohl.. :)

Big props for silicon prairie! Living and working out of the midwest (Lincoln, NE for me, Omaha for my co-founder) is great at times (biggest win is that it's a lot more affordable) and not so great at other times - the tech scene is quite a bit smaller than the other major tech areas of the country and obviously access to funding and such is lacking compared to other areas. Not a big problem for us because we're bootstrapped but potentially a problem for startups looking for that kind of support.

Similar situation here in Madison (is there a name for us?). We are not looking for funding but if you do, you face a lot of investors who don't understand software products, and the terms are much worse for the entrepreneur. This will just take time to change.
One big win other companies here have noted is finding great employees that stick around is easier here. There is a great university in Madison (that frankly sources many great developers for the valley) and it's just a matter of making people realize you can do cool stuff from anywhere, as long as you have an internet connection.
I love the west coast, but right now I'd rather just travel there periodically and focus on my product here.

if i may throw out a name for tech startups in madison: silicon dairy.

I've never hard that before, honestly. It made me smile.
...though I hope it doesn't catch on :)

i grew up in iowa, i always enjoyed wisconsin and madison in particular. i have a fondness for the place, truly.

Yeah in the Midwest people tend to hold onto local things a little too much. You don't need to ditch it, but you don't need to make everything Hawkeye this or Husker that or Prairie this.

Yea I agree. People take location very defensively, but people can be offensive about it, too. I'm a local of the internet, more than anything.

Anecdote: My recruiter told me that the Chicago tech startup scene is the second largest in the country, behind SV. Not sure how true it is, but Groupon was pretty good for the scene.

I live in Chicago and am heavily involved on the tech startup scene here. Our scene is growing rapidly and changing by the month.
Is it the second largest in the country? I dunno. Probably not, I would think that'd be New York.
I don't really care though. I'm too busy contributing to the scene and working to keep that tide rising. :)

Do you have any suggestions on how to "get involved" in the Chicago startup scene? I'm in the burbs, and I'd love to drive in for meetups or any garden variety "Chicago startup" thing, but I haven't had much success finding anything worthwhile.

I live in the burbs too, so I know the feeling. (Actually moving closer to the city in a week).
There are loads of startup related happenings regularly now. I produce some myself. :)
Shoot me an email (tim ATatAT entrepreneursunpluggd DOTdotDOT com) and I'd be happy to give you some suggestions.

Check out Technori.com Once a month they have a showcase for startups. I know www.nextdoorchi.com has startup gatherings once per week.

1871 is probably the best co-working space I have ever seen. There are many great Chicago startups that share office space in their office down at Merchandise Mart. They offer many different entrepreneurship courses as well.
Code Academy is an excellent startup to check out. Their offices are located at 1871 in Merchandise Mart.
Someone above already said Technori. A ton of great Chicago startup people show up to the networking event held before the actual Technori presentation.
I have heard good things about the Chicago Lean Startup Circle meetup group.
If you are either a web developer or designer you should checkout Refresh Chicago as well. Every Refresh meeting I have been to was definitely worthwhile. The presentations are normally pretty technical though.
Code and Coffee meetup group is worthwhile for developers that don't mind waking up early. I've paired with some great developers and learned a lot.
I would highly recommend checking out all of the above. Chicago definitely has a great startup scene. Being pretty introverted, I initially had to really push myself to get out and meet people. TRUST ME, it is worthwhile.

The Chicago tech startup "scene" is infuriating because it's a self aware scene, rather than being a result of a high density of tech people. This results in a bunch of people who are more interested in promoting the city and/or rah rah groups, and less people just doing cool stuff.
The most amazing people I know in Chicago have nothing to do with the startup fans and are reasonably insular (probably because it's less irritating to be insular).

Silicon Prairie is probably one of the emerging startup centers of US. Apart from Dwolla, there are many promising startups in the region which might make it big. I feel, the Midwest work ethics and dignity of labor set them apart. Most of these startups are also well connected to each other and form a tight network.
Though it's smaller compared to SanFran, East Coast or Austin, I would still bet on Silicon Prairie.

Smaller networks promoting tight networks I can agree with, but I'm always skeptical of throwing out judgements on "work ethic" based on what part of the country a person is from.

Speaking of Dwolla and tight networks, Shane Neuerburg, one of Dwolla's co-founders lives in Osage, MN, a township with only 774 people in it.
He's now working with a startup in Fargo, ND called BreadVault, but Fargo itself is full of startups working closely in incubators and community spaces, many funded by Doug Burgum, who built Great Plains Software and sold it to Microsoft in the 90s and is now Microsoft's largest campus outside of Redmond. Some of the Burgum funded projects work closely with Mayo Clinic and Sanford Health.
And these are just the smaller startups in the upper midwest. Minneapolis is a hotbed for media startups.

Silicon Prairie News [0] does a pretty good job covering the tech start-up scene in the region around Kansas City, Omaha, and Des Moines. Check it out if you want a closer look at what's going on in that part of the Midwest.
0. http://www.siliconprairienews.com/

SPN does the best coverage of midwest startups hands down. On top of that they put on the amazing Big Omaha conference.

Hey all, this is Eric Markowitz, author of this article. It's really interesting to hear everyone's impressions, and thanks for taking the time to comment here.
A heads up--we're publishing Part 2 of this story Monday morning on Inc.com. I think you'll all find it interesting...
Check back then!

Thanks for shining a light on the amazing work and communities sprouting up all over the Midwest!

For anyone trying to understand midwest & technology should read Tom Wolfe's master piece on Bob Noyce: http://www.stanford.edu/class/e140/e140a/content/noyce.html

That's a really great work. I very much enjoyed it. Thanks for linking!

Love the article, love that tech is coming to the midwest (Clevelander, there's a bit around here too). Can't stand that every tech scene has to have silicon in the name.

Keep getting surprised how much we have going on here in Louisville, KY[0]. Though mentioning I'm from KY elsewhere has led to comments such as "You have computers? And shoes?"
[0] shameless plug, if you're in the area next Wed: http://plancast.com/p/btcm

I'm from Louisville and didn't know about this! I agree that the scene is bustling here, especially with Forge (http://www.forgehq.com/)

Adam actually shares an office with us.

I never knew Nebraska was considered the midwest...

Now you know :) BTW, is it just me or are most "midwest" states actually more east than west?

Everything between the mountain ranges is 'midwest' to many folks.

It's not the midwest, but Tony Hsieh, founder and ceo of Zappos, is running a $300mm investment to turn Las Vegas into a tech hub. Apparently a big piece of the investment is his money too. $50mm is allocated for startup funding.
http://www.inc.com/magazine/201202/tony-hsieh-zappos-excelle...

Now there's an interesting idea. Las Vegas has many things going for it as a potential tech hub, including a large metro area, dirt-cheap real estate, a lax attitude towards regulation, easy access to the big west-coast hubs, and no shortage of ways for the young and single to keep themselves entertained. What it doesn't have is an intellectual atmosphere (now there's an understatement) or a critical mass of smart people (if I move there, are my friends gonna be croupiers and strippers?).
Of all the cities mentioned in this thread, I like Las Vegas best as the next Austin (if not the next San Francisco).

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