Silicon Prairie Startup Flywheel Launches, Words Press Hosting Re-Designed

FlyWheel, Dusty Davidson, Silicon Prairie News, Omaha startup, startups, launchOften times when we talk about our friends at Silicon Prairie News we talk about our friend Jeff Slobotski, as the “Chief Community Builder” Slobotski is often times the face of SPN. His co-founder, equally as vested in the Silicon Prairie region, Dusty Davidson, is often times very busy building something.  Well after six months in beta his latest “something” is now launching, and it’s a relief to many designers reliant on the WordPress platform.

Davidson along with partners Rick Knudtson and Tony Noecker have launched “FlyWheel”. The team, which Davidson calls a “…dream team of founders” has launched a “premium” WordPress hosting platform built for designers. “We’re re-imagining what it means  for designers to host and launch sites on WordPress, and for them to collaborate with customers and other designers and developers. ” Davidson told us an in email.

flywheelscreenOne of the things that sets FlyWheel apart from other hosting platforms is that they strictly WordPress. “All we do is WordPress, our servers are tunes specifically for WordPress, ultrasecure and have top performance” Davidson said in a statement. That makes “light speed’ normal speed for designers that use FlyWheel for their sites.

dundee-spFlyWheel allows design firms to launch demo sites for free and then easily transfer files to a client site to “go live”, a feature which Elevate’s Jake Stutzman, finds particularly useful. FlyWheel will allow a webspace for actual collaboration rather than having to send stills back and forth through collaboration platforms like BaseCamp.

To that end, FlyWheel has made it very easy for a designer to grant access to their site without having to send usernames and passwords back and forth through email, which may open up a client to a designers entire portfolio.

FlyWheel also caters to designers by cutting out a lot of the technical jargon found with hosting companies. Even with a technical background Knudston told Silicon Prairie News  “I joke … what are acronyms like CGI? Or what version of PHP is it running? Or things like SSH access,” which is one of the reasons he came up with the idea for FlyWheel.

flywheelscreen3“The problem that we’re trying to solve is specific to web designers and agencies who manage large numbers of sites,” Davidson said. “Somebody like (Omaha design firm) Grain & Mortar will design 30 WordPress sites a year, and they need to manage those … they have to log into 30 different hosting accounts, or they have to remember passwords and user names or they have to do things that make managing that many sites and launching sites in that manner very difficult for them.”

FlyWheel also features an integrated management tool that allows design agencies to quickly get an overview of all of their WordPress projects and quickly login to a clients site, share credentials with a client or even bill a client for their FlyWheel hosting.

You can check out FlyWheel now at getflywheel.com

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Kauffman Foundation Backs Silicon Prairie News

A big congratulations goes out to Jeff Slobotski and the team at Silicon Prairie News. Since 2008 SPN has been serving the high growth tech and startup community in the midwest with a concentration in a triangle between Kansas City, Des Moines and Omaha Nebraska. In addition to providing great news coverage for startups and entrepreneurs in the region, SPN has either hosted, sponsored or covered all of the major events in the region.

It’s their unwavering commitment to the startup community in that region which has sparked a major sponsorship from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. The Kauffman Foundation sponsors start efforts, events and initiatives across the country. They are also a major research resource for startup, entrepeneurial and job data in the United States.

With its sponsorship, the Kauffman Foundation becomes the site-wide sponsor of siliconprairienews.com; lead sponsor of Silicon Prairie News’ flagship event series in Omaha, Des Moines and, new in 2013, Kansas City; lead sponsor of the 2013 Silicon Prairie News Awards; and lead sponsor for a new series of Silicon Prairie News’ events in California, New York and other entrepreneurial hubs that will target entrepreneurs who were raised or educated in the Midwest but have relocated to other parts of the country.

“This sponsorship aligns with the Kauffman Foundation’s mission to educate entrepreneurs by supporting efforts that provide the knowledge, skills and networks needed to start and grow businesses,” said Thom Ruhe, Kauffman Foundation vice president of entrepreneurship. “We are proud to support Silicon Prairie News as it recognizes successful entrepreneurs in Kansas City and throughout the region and celebrates the jobs and wealth they create for society.”

All in all the goal of most startups, and ecosystem supporters, like SPN (and nibletz) is to help spur economic growth and create jobs. To that end Slobotski plans on adding a full time staff in Kansas City, with an official launch in November.

“Today marks an important step in our organization’s future,” said Jeff Slobotski, co-founder and chief community builder of Silicon Prairie News. “Together, with the resources and support of the Kauffman Foundation, we are excited to continue building the region’s startup and entrepreneurial ecosystem.”

Linkage:

SPN

Kauffman Foundatoin

And you should probably check this out

Silicon Prairie News Now Taking Nominations For Annual Awards Show August 30

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Four years ago Silicon Prairie News (or SPN as they’re affectionately known) began reporting on stories in Omaha and surrounding areas. They soon added coverage from Des Moines, Kansas and other areas. Today SPN is the site of record for anything happening in the Silicon Prairie.

While we know all too well how hard it can be to get traction and coverage for Startups “everywhere else” SPN covers their regional area with the veracity that TechCrunch covers Silicon Valley. Not only that but SPN co-founder Jeff Slabotski has formed quite a community around the tech site and the rising startup scenes out there.

To recognize the hard work that startups and tech companies have put forth in the region, Silicon Prairie News started The Silicon Prairie Awards. We are all well aware that the work put into a startup “everywhere else” towers the work needed to build a startup on either coast. Not only are entrepreneurs and startup founders fighting for big media coverage, resources, funding, and talent are more challenging.

Silicon Prairie News has also become a valuable resource to other tech and startup news sites. We’ve picked up some great stories from SPN.

“Over the last four years, Silicon Prairie News has worked to highlight and support the region’s startup community,” SPN co-founder Jeff Slobotski said in a release. “The Silicon Prairie Awardsis now an annual opportunity to bring that community together under one roof and recognize the companies and individuals that have had an exceptional year.”

The Silicon Prairie Awards will highlight the achievements of startups in their core coverage areas Omaha, Des Moines and Kansas City. The awards will be in these categories; Startup, New Startup, Consumer Startup, B2B Startup, Mobile Application, Startup Executive, Startup Technologist, Startup Designer, Startup Investor and Startup Service Provider.

Nominations are being taken here through July 25th.

Linkage:

Source: DesMoinesRegister.com

Cast your vote now at SPN

Nibletz is the voice of startups “everywhere else” here are more stories from “everywhere else”

Even a few bucks would make a big difference