Bar Napkin Business

Adam Holmberg and Matt Gohring are the owners of Code Beer in Lincoln, Nebraska. In this interview, we talk with Adam about his experience starting the brewery while still keeping his full time job and the challenge of growing a brewery following in a community that was quickly becoming saturated by craft beer and tap rooms.

While they thought they knew what it took to brew beer, Adam and Matt quickly realized that building a business around their hobby was harder than anticipated. Learn how they bought their equipment from Goose Island, had to haul it back to Nebraska, the mistakes they made, and the plans gone awry.

Learn more about Code Beer at codebeer.co or follow them on Facebook or Instagram.

Infogressive, a fast-growing company that provides around-the-clock cybersecurity services with custom and personalized support to keep your organization safe and protected. In this interview with Founder and CEO, Justin Kallhoff, we dive into how he started his business, some of the lessons he learned the hard way in growing his business, the common ways most businesses compromise their own security, and how they adopted the "Netflix" business model for the next generation of their company growth. 

Justin is also a fellow through Pipeline, a network of high-performing entrepreneurs who call the Midwest home.

Learn more at Infogressive.com or follow them on LinkedIn.

Devon Seacrest has tried his hand at a number of entrepreneurial pursuits. Starting first with hand sewing clothes for beannie babies, he now focuses his efforts on ScoutSheet -- a high growth software company helping businesses transform the outbound sales process. 

ScoutSheet is designed for high-growth technology companies doing outbound sales.  This smart list-building technology allows you to build your own custom lists of people or companies using relationship mapping and live data gathering.

In this interview, we talk about the challenges they face, the entrepreneurial program that's help contribute to his success, and the common question people ask about data privacy. 

Defy Ventures is an entrepreneurship, employment, and character development training program for currently and formerly incarcerated men, women, and youth. On this episode, we talk to Jeremy Bouman, executive director of Nebraska, about his experience in helping individuals launch and start a company after serving time in prison. 

Learn about the types of businesses prisoners can start for less than $20,000 and some of the success stories from Defy Ventures nationwide.

Defy Ventures transforms the lives of business leaders and people with criminal histories through their collaboration along the entrepreneurial journey. To get more insight about Defy Ventures, visit defyventures.org.

John is a Professional EOS® Implementer, Visionary, and Founder of Gear80. He helps business owners stop spinning their wheels and get more profit, enjoyment from their work, and time with their families.

An EOS® Implementer combines a passion for helping entrepreneurs and their leadership teams with the skills and experience to help strengthen all Six Key Components™ of their business.

Learn why John is building a business this way, how he helps others find sanity and grow their business, and the failures and learnings it took to get to where he is today. Visit Gear80.co for more information.

Edward Weginer is the founder of Alpha BTC, a trusted bitcoin (BTC) leader offering advocacy, implementation and consulting services for retail, eCommerce and other organizations in the Midwest.

Bitcoin is a decentralized, digital currency used as a means to transfer value around the world. Released to the public in 2008, it has grown into a network of miners and users of all shapes and sizes worldwide. On this episode we talk about bitcoin, how to get started, and some of the ups and downs Edward has experienced in building a business based on cryptocurrency. 

Learn more at alphabitcoin.com or visit them on facebook. Learn more about the Midwest Block-a-thon at www.block-a-thon.com.

Pink Gorilla Events is an independent event production company founded in 2008. Events that are owned and run by Pink Gorilla Events include the Market to Market Relay Series, Good Life Halfsy half marathon, Born & Raced In Nebraska 10K Series, Leprechaun Chase 10K, Cornfield Cornfield 10K and Harvest Moon Hustle 10K. They excel at creating unique, large scale hyper-local, signature running experiences that appeal to elite athletes as well as the casual fun-runner.

On this episode we talk with Zach Harsin, COO of Pink Gorilla Events and one of the equity partners of the company. Learn how his previous company merged with Pink Gorilla, the unique way he approaches sponsorship, and why customer service is the ultimate marketing strategy.  

Learn more at www.pinkgorillaevents.com or visit them on Facebook. 

Whether you're looking for specific deals or a local place for food, drink, or shopping, there's a good chance you'll use your smartphone to discover options. That's exactly what Mailani Veney wants you to do. Her company, DealAnyDay, gives you a free, no-registration, no-coupon list of deals in your city. Your list is made by people, for people. 

In this episode we talk about the idea behind the company, the philosophy of building a business the "Hawaiian way", and the desire for her to build a startup ecosystem other woman tech entrepreneurs like herself. 

Learn more at www.dealanyday.com, download the app, or visit them on Facebook! 

Angela Garbacz believes in dessert at every meal. Which is fitting, considering she owns Goldenrod Pastries - one of Nebraska's favorite pastry shops. But her journey to owning a bakery started as a food blog, transformed into a side hustle, and eventually into a brick and mortar bakery. 

In this interview, we dive into the challenges Angela faced in building her business, including a frustrating first meeting with a banker when trying to get a bank loan; challenges in communicating with a construction crew when her only way to describe the build out was "it has to be cute"; and the social media philosophy that took her from a few fans to over 12,000 followers on Instagram. 

Learn more at www.GoldenrodPastries.com or follow her on Facebook or Instagram at @Goldenrodpastries.

Evol Empire Creative is an end-to-end digital agency headquartered in Lincoln's Historic Haymarket. Andrew Tuzson is the founder and mastermind behind Evol Empire Creative. In this interview we talk about the most important ingredients for success in launching and growing a company.

We also dive into his journey in founding two agencies in two different states, slowing down to scale up, and building a culture of hustle. 

Learn more at www.evolempirecreative.com.