Category: Entrepreneurship
Core Use Cases
In this series, we are focusing on creating a software system. This has many steps. We created a mental model. Next, we got an overview of the project. Then, we gathered requirements and built an epic-level backlog. In this step, we are going to take those artifacts and break them down into core use cases…
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Artificial Intelligence Radically Changes Viability in Innovation
It’s impossible to have a conversation on innovation without wandering into artificial intelligence. Although it feels like AI has advanced lightyears in a mere matter of months, and in many ways, it has, the truth is that AI is a broad field and has been advancing for years. Recent advances in generative/large language models and…
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Challenges Women in STEM are Facing Today
Earlier this month, I attended the Nebraska Women in STEM conference in Omaha, and it was my first time experiencing it. I wanted to share a few thoughts with others regarding the conference. First, seeing so many women in one place was powerful; the second observation I had was that whether it was intentional or…
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Getting to the Core
During a recent 1-on-1, I was asked about how I developed my ability to summarize thoughts succinctly and how that person could develop that skill as well. The question candidly caught me a little off guard. The question came from a recent meeting where a partner had spent a solid 5-10 minutes outlining the challenges…
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Our Next Bold Move
It is a very exciting day for us at Don’t Panic Labs. Today, we are announcing that we have completed the purchase of investment fund Nebraska Global’s interest in the company. I’m not sure how to put this other than saying that this is a big deal. Perhaps it’s as significant as the steps taken…
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The Mechanical Turk (The Love Test for Entrepreneurs)
For the last couple of years, I have spent a significant amount of time talking to innovators both independent (entrepreneurs) and inside of organizations (intrapreneurs?). The conversations generally focus on a variation of these familiar themes: Uber for … Ebay for … Facebook for … Computer vision to … Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning to…
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Reflecting on the First Inside/Outside Innovation Summit
Last week, entrepreneurs, business owners, startups, and corporate innovators experienced the first Inside/Outside Innovation Summit at Pinnacle Bank Arena. The event was put on by the team at Econic (especially Brian Ardinger and Josh Berry) with the mission to bring together startups and corporate innovators. A few of members of our team were on hand…
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Removing Friction
Since the day I started with Nebraska Global, Doug Durham has always advocated that Cleverness = Complexity. Thus, we always strive for the simplest code, the simplest solution. This is one of our core software development principles, but it seems to also expand to organizational aspects. When we reach the business level, I might suggest…
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Just Roll With It: An Unconventional Intern Story
I have been an intern at Nebraska Global/Don’t Panic Labs since January of 2016. I work part time during the school year, and I worked full time at Nebraska Global last summer. I have been part of several different departments, and I am not even sure how to describe my job further than “intern”. I…
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Don’t Be So Business
“Business is business and business must grow…” – The Lorax (Dr. Seuss) We all take business so serious. We focus on little numbers. We get all obtuse over odd details. People often want to take the fun out of work. In this blog post I am going to argue that by focusing on just three…
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