Volano has had the good fortune to work with local venture capital investor, Dundee VC this year and their technology start-up incubator program Straightshot (www.straightshot.co). The relationship has been overwhelmingly positive, positioning Volano, who serves as a software mentor, in front of promising entrepreneurs and like-minded metro area businesses. Dundee VC has garnered the support of well over 100 dynamic businesses who offer specialized consultation to the seven technology-focused start-ups who are leveraging their help to eventually present a full-blown business concept in October and possibly seek additional capital to realize their ideas. Over 300 aspiring entrepreneurs applied for Straightshot and seven were selected. All of the participating companies have very simple, innovative ideas and one in particular struck me as having a particularly simple but extremely relevant solution to an on-line retail problem.
Check out Cosmic Cart. This North Carolina based duo are making the experience of on-line shopping easier for people like me who refuse to go into a brick and mortar stores, especially over the Holiday season and more profitable for retailers and publishers. Imagine if all of the existing retail accounts you had set up on-line were consolidated into one account. Now imagine that you could click on an advertisement in an on-line news publication and immediately purchase an item without having to be redirected away from the site you’re on (bad for the publisher) from your universal shopping cart. Publishers retain readers and advertisers can more easily monetize and track their return on advertising dollars spent.
If you have time and are interested in following the growing movement in Omaha to embrace small business growth and entrepreneurialism, especially in the technology world or are simply interested in the current thinking on how to improve our daily lives through technology, Straightshot offers weekly “Speak Easies” and networking events that allow these companies to hone their pitch and share ideas. I believe that Omaha is a special place these days. Between the Silicon Prairie News, the Mastercraft businesses, Big Omaha and programs like Straight Shot, we are witnessing an exciting and progressive movement into the business of technology and innovation that truly compliment Omaha as a bastion of fortune 500 companies and home to more traditional, established industries.
January 19, 2021
Software development is a team-based endeavor because of the complexity involved in launching a new system. Gone are the days when one developer can be point on the whole back-office software stack. It now takes multiple specialized roles to (appropriately) fulfill the software delivery lifecycle. A typical software project requires: Leadership Product management Project management […]
January 13, 2021
One definition of rot is the process of deterioration. Something that decays over time. By this standard – software rots like food in the Nebraska heat. It’s true. If your software isn’t regularly updated, it deteriorates and breaks down. Consider this – software is written to work at a moment in time…but time marches on. […]
January 4, 2021
OMAHA, NE, January 4, 2021 – In late 2020, Volano Solutions announced it has changed its name to Volano Software and launched a new website: www.volanosoftware.com. The name change was made to more accurately reflect what the company does, and the website was designed to be more informative and user-friendly to clients and prospective clients […]
June 2, 2020
According to LinkedIn technology (software) has a higher overall turnover rate than retail. With that, it isn’t a matter of if, but a matter of when. Volano has engineered a culture of “by developers, for developers” and this helps our retention. In fact, most of the folks that work at Volano have been here +5 […]
June 2, 2020
It is hard enough to build a successful business, and few want to invest time and resources into worrying about an Intellectual Property Assignment. But alas, you must do your homework. Fortunately, we make it easy for Volano customers. When asked – “Who owns the software and IP for my project?” – it is an […]
May 28, 2020
Many of us remember the grade school game Telephone. It was funny to see how a simple message would get garbled as it was passed along from person to person. But it’s not as funny when that message is a critical business requirement that will be turned into software that will power your business. Yet, […]