• Why Your Customers Don't Want to Talk to You (blogs.hbr.org)
• Working at a startup sucks (laurentk.posterous.com)
• Boston: No More Silicon Valley Envy (danweinreb.org)
• Why 37signals’ advice is irrelevant (iwasamonkey.tumblr.com)
• Survey of startup competitive advantages (radar.oreilly.com)
• The Secret of Successful Entrepreneurs (wired.com)
• My Winding Road to Lean Startup (giffconstable.com)
• An entrepreneur should be fair to all participants in the ecosystem (manylogue.com)
• The 3 essentials to start up (manylogue.com)
• DreamIt Aims to Accelerate New Business Development (forbes.com)
• How to Build a Data-Driven Startup (davidcancel.com)
• In a Startup: It’s About The People (startupi.st)
• Why I’m giving up on Europe and moving my startup to China (maxkle.in)
• How to Generate Leads: Referrals, Opportunity Leads, Advertising and Cold Calls (tengoldenrulesblog.blogspot.com)
• Why Project Managers Are More Likely to Become Linchpins (corporategeek.info)
• Customer Motivated Entrepreneurship and the Lean Startup (zviband.com)
• A Weekend Experiment with The Lean Startup - Part 2 (foundersblock.com)

If you have any startup-related links you'd like to share, shoot me a note!

Mentioned this week

• Filming live on Ustream from CAMP Coworking
• CAMP open house tonight from 7 p.m. to 11 p.m. at the Mastercraft Building at 1111 N. 13th St.
• Howard Buffett's Next Generation Leadership Conference in Washington D.C.
• Greg Chambers quits day job to start tropical clothing line Mad Gringo
• AppendTo co-founders discuss rapid growth, distributed workforce
• Silicon Prairie News Ice Cream Social and Two-Year Celebration on Friday, August 6
• Foursquare T-shirt giveaway coming soon

Megan Hunt works in CAMP Coworking with her newborn at her side. Photo by Bill Sitzmann of minorwhite.

We'll be sitting down with Megan Hunt, owner of CAMP Coworking and the woman behind the bridal design studio Princess Lasertron, tomorrow at 10 a.m. CDT to film this week's Weekly Wrap Up show.

Look for a post tomorrow with the live Ustream feed as well as a chat box. We encourage you to ask questions of either the show's hosts, Jeff & Dusty, or our guest, Megan. Leave them in the comments below or join us tomorrow.

You can learn more about Megan and CAMP Coworking in the following Silicon Prairie News stories:

• Megan Hunt & Eric Downs present CAMP Coworking at Cornstalks
• Megan Hunt & Eric Downs set to open CAMP coworking space
• SPN interviews Princess Lasertron, a.k.a. Megan Hunt

Greg Chambers went from working in merchant solutions on the 25th floor of the First National Bank Tower to starting Mad Gringo, a tropical clothing line for men, in the basement of a Dundee business. Photo by Andrea Ciurej.

Before starting a tropical clothing line in a state with no palm trees, Greg Chambers worked as a regional sales manager looking to get in touch with his inner “mad gringo.”

Chambers, employed with First National Bank of Omaha at the time, was far from tropical as he adorned himself in a suit and tie everyday, making his inner “mad gringo” go loco.

“It was great, but at the same time, it was not exactly what I was hoping to do with the rest of my life,” Chambers said. “[I] got a little fed up [and] needed to go find myself on the beach.”

After about four years with First National, Chambers headed to the shores of Mexico in search of himself and a new perspective on life.

There, he found a successful oyster shucker with no secret to living a carefree life other than “going slow.”

“He was exactly the opposite of what I was at that point, which was pretty pasty and tanned by the fluorescent lights,” he said. “He was just shucking oysters, going slow and trying to take our money.”

It was then that Chambers decided to quit his job and start Mad Gringo, a tropical clothing store headquartered in Dundee on the island of Omahahu, as Chambers likes to refer to Omaha.

“I decided if a guy like that can make it and live that kind of life, then I should be doing something different, too,” said Chambers, who associates himself as “Mad Greg.”

Chambers said tropical shirts are a way for the company’s target market of corporate 30- to 50-year-old men to keep their inner “mad gringos” happy.

“The tropical shirt just had such a moniker attached to it,” he said. “It became this iconic representation of the ‘go slow’ philosophy.”

Mad Gringo used to produce clothing for women and even pets, but the company has narrowed their target audience since their launch in 2007.

“Our core customer is this guy who is struggling, drives to work everyday and has a Volkswagen Passat station wagon,” he said. “He needs a little help and he needs a little humor in his day.”

However, Mad Gringo is made for anyone aching for a change.

“If you wear the party shirt too many times people are like, ‘Enough with the party shirt,’” he said. “That’s a good time to put on a Mad Gringo shirt.”

A selection of Mad Gringo Go Slow Tropical Shirts. Screenshot from madgringo.com.

Originally sold only online, Mad Gringo is making appearances in 250 retail stores nationwide.

In Omaha, the clothing can be found at Jerry Ryan’s Clothing and Sportswear on 78th and Dodge Streets, as well as Lindley Clothing on 132nd and Dodge Streets.

“Omaha’s not really our biggest market,” Chambers said. “[I thought], ‘Let’s open this up to the world. Let’s become a global microbrand.’”

Chambers hopes to eventually sell Mad Gringo products in more than 1,000 specialty resort stores, followed by building the company’s online presence.

“In men’s retail, there’s not a lot of stuff going on,” he said. “The retailers had a huge success with it right away.”

Although it might appear that the company is preaching that businessmen should do less work and sleep on the job, Mad Gringo is just trying to offer some advice.

“Go slow,” he said, “and if you can’t really go slow, just go slower.”

Chambers has high hopes of expanding sales in retail, but the direction of the company is unknown.

He said the company has received funding from individuals associated with the Nebraska Angels, but not the angel investing group itself, as well as a group of local business leaders.

A graphic from a Mad Gringo Go Slow T-shirt. Screenshot from madgringo.com.

“I don’t know exactly where it is going to go,” he said. “Right now, we are just focused on [helping] our target market.”

Chambers admitted that he had never worn a tropical shirt before starting his company.

Exchanging a tropical shirt for a suit was worth the risk, though.

“People I didn’t know started saying, ‘Hey, nice shirt,’” he said. “I started thinking, ‘Gosh, this is almost better than a nice tie.’”

Chambers finally found his inner “mad gringo” in the process.

“My inner gringo just has people making me laugh and doing a lot of nothing,” he said. “I’m perfectly happy just sitting around and taking a nap.”

More on Mad Gringo

Website: madgringo.com

Founder: Greg Chambers

Founded: 2007

Headquarters: Omaha (5015 Underwood Avenue)

Store locations: More than 250 retailers nationwide, including Jerry Ryan Clothing and Sportswear at 7806 Dodge Street and Lindley Clothing at 707 N. 132nd Street.

Mad Greg’s Take

What is your advice for entrepreneurs who are starting businesses in Omaha?

Start with a plan. You want to execute on it, get a little bit of money from somewhere–dig it out of a friend’s family, wherever–go out and test the concept. Once the concept starts showing some life, it’ll probably go a different direction than you would expect. Get out there and make it happen. You’d be surprised at how many people around here actually want to help.

What is your advice on keeping your inner “mad gringo” happy?

• When the doors open on the elevator, brandish your pen like a sword and announce “Arr! Prepare to be boarded!” This works at the company refrigerator, too.
• Skip the socks this afternoon. Socks are the neckties of feet.
• When your boss approaches you with another idea, tell him or her how great the idea is, but don’t offer to follow through. Just keep mentioning what a great idea it is. Then, go back to what you were doing. He or she may look confused for a minute, but they’ll eventually walk away.
• Take a nap, even if you have to run out to the parking garage to do it.
• Watch a sunset, today.

Editor's Note: This is a follow up to an article we published last week: Co-founders Jonathan Sharp & Mike Hostetler tell the appendTo story.

With a clever line of jQuery yesterday, appendTo co-founder and president Jonathan Sharp publicly welcomed the newest member to his company's team:

AppendTo, based out of Denver, is a consulting, training and support company for jQuery, the most popular of the JavaScript libraries. The company currently stands tall as the only major player in this arena, and since forming last October, they've expanded quite rapidly.

The new employee greeted in the tweet above, Elijah Manor, is the company's tenth team member. He currently lives and will remain in and work out Nashville, Tennessee, which brings the appendTo distributed team state total to eight.

"We'll do the rundown…San Francisco, [two in] Denver, two here in Omaha…ah, what's next?" Sharp said. Sharp, who's located just outside of Omaha in Plattsmouth, Nebraska, finished the list with states: Ohio, Michigan, Massachusetts, and North Carolina.

To review, they have nine full-time employees and one contractor spread across eight states, and as of today, the company's been in business for just over nine months.

"Everybody we've pulled on so far we've been very aware of their skills around remote working," appendTo co-founder and CEO Mike Hostetler said.

"We strive to really connect people during our normal workday and we do that through a variety of different activities," said Hostetler. "We all get on Skype and talk and we have a daily stand-up…half the purpose of it is for everybody to communicate on what they're doing but the other half is really just connecting, joking around."

The team members will all meet in real life – some for the first time – at this year's jQuery Conference in Boston, which will be similar to the one held in San Francisco this past April.

For the time being, however, Skype will suffice for their face-to-face interaction. "It allows [Mike and I] to go face-to-face and engage for some really important conversations that need to happen," Sharp said. "But then there's also the ability to shut it off," he added, which allows him to go heads down and get work done.

Sharp said all the team members are encouraged to work around 45 hours per week and to maintain a healthy work-life balance. "Our culture of creativity is really key to appendTo and one of the things that we use to give us space to do that is really keep a balance between work and life," Sharp said.

As president and CEO of appendTo, Sharp and Hostetler continue to develop their company's employees and plan for growth.

"We've even talked about assigning somebody to read the Getting Things Done book before they start," Hostetler said. "[We read] tips and tricks on how to be effective, how to work efficiency. We want to build those into the company culture and we've put a lot of effort into how we organize the company to be able to grow and yet really maintain that feel of a small creative team."

In his opening remarks, Milligan introduced their talk with a one-sentence summary. "We're basically going to go through what we would consider kind of an assessment of what your initial meeting with a patent attorney would look like."

The two touch on the basics of a patent, the clearance and protection of one, the use of a patentability search, the typical cost of filing a patent and more.

If you're in need of obtaining a patent or are just curious about the process, I encourage you to watch the video below. Also, check out Milligan on Twitter at @dmilligan, his stream is filled with interesting links about patents as well as startups and technology.

If you or your company has one to add, please contact Danny at jobs@siliconprairienews.com with the listing and a short description of your company. We're looking for all types of opportunities, from a week-long project to a full-time position. We hope to help you make a connection.

If you apply to one below, make sure to mention that you found it on Silicon Prairie News.

IA/UX Designer – Phenomblue (Omaha)

Phenomblue is an interactive brand experience agency.

We are seeking passionate designers who can bring our crazy ideas to life.

Reporting to the Experience Design Director, Phenomblue IA/UX Designers should have a passion and detailed understanding for how interactive experiences should look, feel and function on the web. in this role, you'll have the opportunity to work within a multitude of digital experience platforms including campaign website sites, mobile applications, client applications, interactive signage, etc.

Full job post

Digital Strategist/Copywriter – Phenomblue (Omaha)

Phenomblue is an interactive brand experience agency.

We’re looking for an ingenious Digital Strategist/Copywriter who excels at problem solving, communication and bringing ideas to life. You’re in love with digital culture and thrive on helping see ideas through from concept to completion. As a strategist, you are both a generalist in interactive marketing and a specialist with great passion, knowledge and skill for copywriting and content planning. You make the difficult task of creating clear, compelling communication look easy and enjoy doing it. Plus you're wanting to contribute your background, perspective and skills to a team that is dedicated not just to cutting edge interactive work but defining that edge.

Full job post

Interactive Specialist - REBEL INTERACTIVE (Omaha)

REBEL INTERACTIVE is a full-service agency dedicated to helping clients brand, interact and profit.

We're looking for someone to wow our clients as they walk in or call in; and support all the areas of the Agency. The position will involve the following:

• REBEL Attitude
• Outstanding Client Service Skills
• Front Desk and Reception Management
• Greeting Walk-in Traffic
• Handling the Daily Flow of the Agency
• Project Manager Support
• Content Management and Designer Support
• Sales Support
• Account Management Support
• Administrative Support for CEO
• Billing Support
• Events Management

Full job post

Science Communications Intern – NUtech Ventures (Lincoln)

NUtech Ventures is a nonprofit research corporation dedicated to forming partnerships between University of Nebraska-Lincoln researchers and those in the private sector in order to develop products based on the University’s research.

Projects & Responsibilities

• Interview faculty inventors and compose features for our new website•
• Report on exciting research developments around campus
• Create and distribute press releases on deals between NUtech and industry partners
• Track down interesting news stories for post and discussion on our blog
• Compose non-technical summaries of new UNL inventions and innovations
• Design creative educational materials using photography, video, and print

The Opportunity

• Build your portfolio by publishing on our website
• Be challenged with diverse writing assignments. Every day is different!
• Improve your ability to communicate clearly about science and technology
• Make valuable connections with university faculty and the business community

Qualifications:

We know it’s challenging to translate difficult scientific concepts into words that the business world can understand. Do you have this talent? We are looking for a great writer who’s creative, curious, and motivated to learn about new fields. The ability to maintain confidentiality and work independently is essential. Coursework in science is preferred but not required. Knowledge of HTML is a plus.

The Organization:

NUtech Ventures is a brand new nonprofit affiliate of the University of Nebraska that’s committed to doing things differently. We strive to move valuable university research to the marketplace. This can involve patenting and licensing of technologies as well as collaborative partnerships with industry. Our portfolio is diverse, ranging from agriculture to nanotech. We have the exciting privilege to see cutting edge research on a daily basis and be a part of translating it to the real world. We are a team-oriented office that strives to be innovative and promotes creativity.

Hours & Schedule:

This internship can be paid or taken for credit. It starts as soon as possible and extends through fall semester. Work approximately 10-15 hours per week, with the option to increase hours. We provide a flexible schedule within the office hours of Monday through Friday 8 a.m. - 5 p.m.

Please send resume and cover letter to Cheryl Barts, Technology Agent at cbarts@nutechventures.org.

Screenshot from campcoworking.com

Last month, CAMP Coworking owner Megan Hunt and future CAMP tenant Eric Downs spoke to about 20 startup-enthused individuals at Cornstalks, a monthly entrepreneur gathering hosted by the Greater Omaha Chamber of Commerce.

Watch their presentation below and learn more about CAMP Coworking from our coverage last month,  Creative coworking space CAMP nearing completion, and Megan's personal blog post yesterday, Coworking has come to Omaha! An invitation to CAMP and some FAQs.

And if you'd like to check the place out for yourself, the folks at CAMP Coworking are hosting an open house this Friday from 7 to 11 p.m. RSVP and learn more at campcoworking.com/openhouse.

Another event reminder, Cornstalks will be taking place tomorrow, Thursday, July 29, from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Here are more details:

Location: Greater Omaha Chamber of Commerce downtown building (1301 Harney Street)

Program: This month, State Senator Heath Mello will be stopping by to participate in a discussion on public policy and all things legislative. State Senator Mello is a leading advocate for new ventures, innovation and entrepreneurship in the unicameral and can provide a meaningful voice to potential issues expressed at the meeting.

Drinks and snacks will be served at 6:30 followed by the formal program at 7:30 p.m.