In case you missed it during your daily commute…

The faces behind some of the nation’s fastest growing companies were greeting you from billboards around town.

Why do I point this out to you in a Strictly Business Magazine column?

Because the innovative companies featured in the ads were located right here in Lincoln. The Lincoln Chamber of Commerce and the Lincoln Partnership for Economic Development highlighted five Lincoln-based businesses in February that were named on the prestigious Inc. 5000 list of fastest growing private companies for 2013.

Note: The addresses listed next to the business is where the billboard was located, not the address for the business itself

• P & L Technology | 3201 Superior

• Infogressive | 4300 N 27th St

• Five Nines | 32nd & South St.

• Hudl | 2011 O St.

• Executive Travel | 46th & Cornhusker

The billboard campaign was a way for the Lincoln Partnership for Economic Development to congratulate successful companies that have started and grown right here in Lincoln. By highlighting their success stories, the Partnership hopes to inspire the next up-and-coming entrepreneurs.

Research and economic development trends show it is much more effective to grow and nurture the companies that already exist in the community than it is to try and recruit a large employer to re-locate. Each year, there are only a handful of major job projects that will look to move or expand and Lincoln is forced to compete with hundreds of other cities to land those projects here.

That is why we want you to see their faces every day, so that you can tell them congratulations and say thanks for making Lincoln a better place.

Building off of the idea that it’s better to grow businesses already in the community, the Partnership is moving forward in 2014 with a new program designed to focus on key technology and industry issues facing businesses today.

We call it the “Jump Start Challenge.”

In late February we gathered leading businesses from the manufacturing, IT, finance, insurance, healthcare, and real estate industries and asked them to bring us their biggest issue in their line of work.  We then invited entrepreneurs, designers, and software developers to hear the issues and form a team to collaborate on a solution.

We will ask them all back in April to hear their solutions.  What we hope to see is a solution that can generate a new start-up business.  We hope the new business will then have the potential to later market that solution outside of Lincoln and grow into something larger.

It’s a new model for a new era in Lincoln.  Stay tuned to see the results.


by Wendy Birdsall, President

Lincoln Chamber of Commerce

402-436-2350

www.lcoc.com


The Chamber’s mission is to improve the lives of Lincoln residents by providing increased economic opportunity and can only be accomplished together.  Networking opportunities, business advocacy, and creating economic viability are critical to our success.  We encourage you to become a member and help us achieve these goals for Lincoln.  For more information, please contact our Membership Director, Kristin Holmes, kholmes@lcoc.com.