Facilitators

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  Taylor Monks

  BasicBlock

  Founder & CEO

  See Bio
• 

  John Grange

  OpsCompass

  Co-Founder and CTO

  See Bio
• 

  Brian Kaiser

  Hudl

  CTO

  See Bio
• 

  Rick Knudtson

  Workshop

  Co-Founder

  See Bio
• 

  Amy Johnson

  LifeLoop

  Co-Founder and CEO

  See Bio
• 

  Keith Fix

  Retail Aware

  Co-Founder & CEO

• 

  Chad Reelfs

  I See It Ventures

  Investor and Advisor

  See Bio
• 

  Joe Petsick

  Auctic

  Co-Founder

  See Bio
• 

  Ben Williamson

  Invest Nebraska

  Principal and General Counsel

  See Bio
• 

  Erica Wassinger

  Proven Ventures

  Co-Founder, General Partner

  See Bio

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Taylor Monks

BasicBlock

As the CEO of BasicBlock, Taylor has a demonstrated history of identifying trends and accurately predicting market strategies in both payments and transportation. With a strong background in tech and marketing, he leads the company’s product team and overarching R&D and customer acquisition initiatives. He’s the catalyst behind the BasicBlock team and is constantly pushing for velocity and growth. He attended Nebraska Wesleyan University before dropping out 6 credits shy of a degree to start BasicBlock and radically upturn an industry. He splits time between the company’s Lincoln and Chicago offices with his dog Mimi unwavering by his side.

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John Grange

OpsCompass

John is the Co-Founder and CTO of the fast-growing OpsCompass. They provide real-time visibility, monitoring, and control of cloud environments through products and services. ​

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Brian Kaiser

Hudl

A native of Overland Park, Kansas, Brian graduated from the University of Nebraska’s Raikes School of Computer Science and Management in 2006. That same year, he teamed up with David Graff and John Wirtz to create the first version of Hudl for its first client, the Nebraska Cornhuskers. As Chief Technology Officer, Brian has overseen Hudl’s infrastructure since Day 1 – a fitting role for someone who ran his own computer repair shop in high school.

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Rick Knudtson

Workshop

Rick Knudtson is the founder, entrepreneur, and tech investor from Omaha, NE. He's currently building Workshop. Previously, Rick co-founded and helped grow Flywheel (acquired by WP Engine in 2019).

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Amy Johnson

LifeLoop

Amy Johnson is the Co-Founder and CEO of LifeLoop. She was featured on Argentum Senior Living's Leaders Under 40. She has a passion for keeping communication between senior facility residents, families, and staff at its best through a software program she created. Amy is also on Dreamweaver Foundation's Board of Directors.

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Chad Reelfs

I See It Ventures

Chad is a solutions-oriented executive who is self-motivated, driven, and innovative. He is passionate about leadership development and adding value to others. He builds trust and brings the best out of his teams. Chad helped start Sojern with Gordon Whitten in 2007 and worked for him at Intuit. Chad has personally closed and grown millions of dollars in revenue each year, while consistently hitting and exceeding multimillion-dollar sales quotas. He helped build and scale Sojern to a $350M valuation in 2019. He has been a part of building and scaling several $100M businesses. Chad is working with investors and helping to scale our I See It Ventures accelerator companies.

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Joe Petsick

Auctic

Co-Founder, Proxibid Inc. | Executive In Residence at University of Nebraska-Lincoln - College of Business | Co-Founder, Auctic

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Ben Williamson

Invest Nebraska

Ben assists Nebraska entrepreneurs in preparation for rounds of funding. He helps structure both debt and equity deals as well as supports current companies in the Invest Nebraska portfolio and strives to improve and grow Nebraska's entire startup ecosystem. 

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Erica Wassinger

Proven Ventures

As a general partner and cofounder at Proven Ventures, Erica Wassinger is a go-to investor for new companies as they pursue growth in Nebraska.

Wassinger, previously named the Silicon Prairie Champion by Silicon Prairie News, has made her mark on the midwest economy tied to the creation and support of hundreds of entrepreneurs and some of Nebraska's most exciting startups.

She routinely contributes to Nebraska's largest news outlet, the Omaha World-Herald, where she discusses the intersections of tech, venture and Nebraska startups. Her entrepreneurial insights have been quoted in publications like Forbes, Inc. Magazine and NPR.