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Thanks for helping Goodsmiths become Silicon Prairie’s New Startup of the Year!

Perhaps you heard the good news, but allow us a moment to celebrate — Goodsmiths won the first New Startup of the Year award at the inaugural Silicon Prairie Awards! The ceremony was held last night at the Joslyn Art Museum in Omaha — a gorgeous space that accommodated and entertained over 400 entrepreneurs and startup fans for the evening. The awards celebrate the best of entrepreneurship and startup work in the Silicon Prairie’s three hub cities: Des Moines, Omaha and Kansas City.

We started the adventure on a bus, which we rented for our team and 25 of our friends and colleagues in Des Moines (bus photo by Christian Renaud). A good time was had by all, and we got to Omaha in plenty of time for the show — and yes, we did make it before the one-minute mark.

Halfway through the show, we welcomed Techstars founder and CEO, David Cohen, to the stage for the keynote speech (photo by Levi Rosol). He talked about the great things Boulder’s tech scene is doing — and how they’re not trying to be the next Silicon Valley. He challenged our region to do the same: focus on becoming a better Des Moines, a better Omaha, or a better Kansas City — and keep the importance of community. Analog, the cardboard cutout edition, watched from stage right.

We don’t have many photos from when we were on stage or received our award (we were a little busy) — but don’t worry, they’re coming. But we did catch our golden prairie dog sleeping on the bus while the rest of us celebrated well into the night. (Photo by James Eliason)

Next year the awards are coming to Des Moines — and we hope to be present for those, too! Thank you everyone for helping Goodsmiths be the best new startup in the region! We have so many good things in store, and we’re only going to get better from here.

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