Premium ContentMouse over Home then click on Premium Content for information.The path to Juber Mujawar's American dream is through an Omaha startup.
Mujawar is a 27-year-old master's student in industrial engineering at the University of Nebraska at Omaha and a native of Karad, India, a town of about 56,000 near the country's central western coast. His dream is to someday own his own company. But first he needs to find a job — he prefers a post with one of Omaha's many fledgling startups as a business analyst or a position where he can serve multiple roles.
This week, Mujawar set out to make his dream a reality by attending the Startup Job Crawl, a networking and job showcase organized by the Omaha-based blog Silicon Prairie News. The event drew about 200 university students and recent graduates and 40 Midlands startups to the Mastercraft Building in north downtown Omaha, a facility that's home to at least 20 small businesses in creative industries like design, photography, architecture and art.
A majority of students and recent graduates interviewed by The World-Herald at the event expressed interest in startups because of perceived job flexibility that would allow them to serve in multiple roles, the excitement of the startup becoming a success and, in turn, very lucrative, and working for a smaller company where their work and creativity is appreciated and acknowledged.
For Mujawar, the prospect of landing a job is one that gets him excited.
"I'm very much inspired by these local startups. It's an idea that brings these companies to this level, and I've always dreamed of having my own company, where you can just go and work as you enjoy your life," he said as he and other students migrated around rooms and booths, visiting with with company representatives.
In Mujawar's opinion, startups, not large companies or corporations, offer the kind of opportunity he's looking for.
"In a big company you work in a specialized department with no knowledge of any other department," he said. "At a startup, you're involved with everything. I like that."
He also likes the prospects of hitting it big with a small outfit that could become lucrative faster than climbing the corporate ladder, Mujawar said.
The excitement of a new business — "seeing that develop and grow and being part of that first group to get it going" — would be a great experience, said Tierney Powell, a sophomore in social entrepreneurship and English at Creighton University who was seeking her first-ever internship at the event.
"Even in an internship opportunity, I'd like to witness something grow and change and evolve and become better while I'm learning about business in general," she said.
Others were looking for a change of pace.
Brad Nelson, a recent graduate from UNO, had a job lined up with an Omaha company doing product development and sales after he graduated from college. After spending some time in his role full time and clashing with one of his superiors, he decided the work environment wasn't for him. He left the company and is now looking for a startup job.
"I like the idea of having your hands on all parts of the business," Nelson said. "Being able to learn everything is something I think is really valuable."
The event wasn't just for job- and internship-seeking students and young professionals. It also served as a forum for some Omaha and Lincoln businesses to connect with an untapped demographic that will help spread the word about their businesses, what they do and possibly make a connection for future recruits.
"It's important for us to have our name out there and for people to understand who we are and that there are opportunities here in technology, in retail, in cutting-edge-type stuff in Omaha," said Steven Dee, the chief information officer for Hayneedle, the e-commerce conglomerate that employs about 400 people in Omaha."
The event also attracted smaller firms like Randomnade, an online platform that allows gamers to build and share video game strategies over the Internet.
"There's not many opportunities for this kind of exposure," said Rick Knudtson, who co-founded the company with Joe Crum and Mitchell Shaw, all of whom are working on it as a side project to their full-time jobs. "If you want to go to a big trade show, getting the money you have to fork over for that is almost impossible.
"It's also important to get with like-minded people that are interested in startups ... and that fast-paced work environment."
The Startup Job Crawl was the first of its kind in Omaha and served as a follow-up to a similar event in Des Moines hosted by Silicon Prairie News last fall. After corralling the participating students in a large, vacant office space in the Mastercraft building, the group was split into three groups and proceeded to visit with businesses stationed in three sections of the facility.
Before the students broke into their groups, Jeff Slobotski and Dusty Davidson, co-founder of Silicon Prairie News, and Dusty Reynolds, the Greater Omaha Chamber of Commerce's director of entrepreneurship, spoke about the importance of three key factors in making a startup successful: an idea, money and people.
"I would argue that the third one (people) is the hardest to find," Reynolds said. "Without good people, you're not going to be able to execute people's ideas or make any money."
Contact the writer:
402-444-1414, ross.boettcher@owh.com
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