Omaha + Lincoln ≠ Two Ecosystems

** The opinions of this blog post are that of Kellee Mikuls - Executive Director of Ignite Nebraska, a workforce development non-profit. They are her views alone.

Tom Chapman with Peeq Pro and startup stakeholder recently shared a powerful thread about the inefficiency—and missed opportunity—of treating Omaha and Lincoln as separate ecosystems when it comes to innovation, startups, and talent.

As someone who’s not originally from Nebraska and once ran a startup here, I’ll be honest: I didn’t understand the divide. I’d hear from Omahans that Lincoln felt too parochial. And from Lincolnites that Omaha had too much ego.

Dumb.

It’s not just me saying that—it’s what almost everyone says once they’ve worked across both cities. The consensus? We would all benefit from coming together to harness the full force of:

• Investor capital & funding

• Employer Customers (BIG ONE = Revenue)

• Talent pools

• Best practices (so founders can avoid unnecessary pitfalls—wish I had them when we were building Swishboom!)

But here’s the question we keep circling back to:
If we all agree that unification is the right move, why haven’t we done it yet?

Is it a government or chamber thing? Is it like ecosystem redistricting—where we need to collectively learn to call it by a new name (à la “CHI Health Center” for those of us still calling it the Quest Center)?

This question came up again in a recent conversation I had with Wallace “Todd” Johnson, but about Workforce Development. We both believe that Nebraska needs a more unified, strategic approach in this area too. Right now, we’ve got a wide range of players—some doing exceptional work, others… less so. But we’re lacking a North Star.

What if we had a shared, strategic goal—like retaining young talent and placing Nebraskans into sustainable careers? I’m convinced we’d see better results across the board.

So, here’s my attempt to map some of the key players—because step one is knowing who’s already doing the work.

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So step one — who is doing “the work” in the space?

Startup Ecosystem Orgs

Focused on increasing the number and success of startups in Omaha & Lincoln:

• NMotion

• Nebraska Startup Academy

• Invest Nebraska

• Nebraska Angels

• The Combine

• Open Range

• Techstars (Omaha just added!)

• AgTech Connect Conference

• StartupLNK

• Pipeline Entrepreneur Fellowship - growing number of Nebraska participants

Honorable Mentions:

• Silicon Prairie News – for spotlighting what’s happening

• Scale Omaha – powered by Nebraska Startup Academy, creating spaces to connect

Workforce Development Orgs

Focused on increasing talent pipelines, upskilling, and/or job placement:

• RISE

• Persevere

• Heartland Workforce Solutions

• AIM Institute

• Ignite Nebraska

• Center for People

• Nebraska Tech Collaborative

• Aksarben Foundation / InternNE

• Lincoln Literacy

• Omaha/Council Bluffs Bridges Out of Poverty

• Midlands African Chamber

• I Be Black Girl

• The Bay

• Goodwill Industries of Greater Nebraska

• Community Action

• Health Center Association of Nebraska

• No More Empty Pots

• Code Black

• Latino Economic Development Council

• Latino Center of the Midlands

• Additional non-profits doing important workforce development work!

Government, Public, and Quasi-Public Players

Operating at the intersection of economic development, education, and employment:

• Greater Omaha Chamber

• Nebraska Chamber of Commerce & Industry

• Lincoln Chamber of Commerce

• Nebraska Department of Labor

• Metropolitan Community College

• Nebraska Business Development Center

• Nebraska Department of Economic Development

• University of Nebraska Medical Center

• UNeTech Institute

• Lincoln Partnership for Economic Development (LPED)

• Lincoln Manufacturing

• American Job Center

• Southeast Community College

• University of Nebraska System (UNO & UNL)

Honorable Mention:

• Tech Nebraska an initiative to help ensure our State can continue to compete with a sound and thoughtful infrastructure

• Nebraska Innovation Fund - a DED program that helps fund early stage startups without diluting their equity

This isn’t a comprehensive list, I’m sure I missed key players - leave them in the comments.

It’s a conversation starter. But it’s a lot of players with all different objectives. Some might think it’s diluting, some might think it’s holistic. I haven’t decided.

Step 2: Is what is the overarching Strategic Goal of this region? Stay tuned…..