Flywheel is a company based over in Nebraska, Omaha who do the very best hosting for Wordpress. Dusty talks about what makes them special plus the importance of a great workplace and culture. We also discuss the joys of home AI plus his favourite cooking gadget!

Dusty Davidson is a technology entrepreneur residing in lovely Omaha, Nebraska and we enjoyed a great conversation talking about what makes Flywheel tick, their workplace and people plus plans for the future.

He's best known for my work with Silicon Prairie News & Big Omaha and is currently the co-founder and CEO of a WordPress hosting company called Flywheel.

He's super passionate about startups (particularly those in the Silicon Prairie) and he loves his food and wine!

Dusty grew up in Iowa and attended Iowa State University (yes, where they invented the computer). Afterwards he spent some time traveling around Europe before coming back to reality and settling into a couple of software development jobs.

The first was a small company with a great culture, and the second was at a large company with a shitty culture. The combination of those experiences drove him (with the help of his partner Kevin Zink) to start his first company – Brightmix. Essentially they wanted to create a place where they would want to go work everyday, and surround themselves with people who might want something similar.

He often describes Brightmix as a software consulting company whose prime directive was to be a product company, not a time-for-money company. After a couple failed attempts they finally got their chance with Tripleseat, a web-based software for restaurants to manage private events. In September of 2010, they raised some money and went “all in” on Tripleseat.

Along the way, they got connected with Jeff Slobotski, and teamed up to start Silicon Prairie News. Dusty describes it as “wanting to find more people like us.” That is – in Omaha how do you surround yourself with people that care about innovation, high growth startups, cutting-edge technology, great design and creativity?

Over the years Silicon Prairie News itself has spawned a number of things, including Big Omaha, Big Kansas City and the Silicon Prairie Awards. It has very much been alongside, if not been a driving force of what he describes as an entrepreneurial renaissance in the Midwest over the past 6 years. SPN to this day serves as the #1 voice for entrepreneurs and startups in the middle of the country, and in January 2015 it was acquired by the AIM Institute.

Fast forward to today, where he has the privilege of working alongside some good friends to build Flywheel, which he believes to be the best WordPress hosting solution on the market – and certainly the most beautiful. They’re early on but growing quickly, and are working hard each and every day to make the lives of web designers easier.

I recently spent some time in Italy and I reflect on the benefits of travel and also the ability to work when traveling, thank you internet!

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The full transcript is available over on the right hand side of the page >>> :)

HUGE thanks to Howard and Harry at Engine7 for their audio mastery.

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Special Guest: Dusty Davidson.

Sponsored By:

• Flywheel Wordpress Hosting: Get three months free on any annual plan! Promo Code: jm2017

Links:

• Instapaper — Save Anything. Read Anywhere.
• Jim Rohn — Widely recognized as a personal development legend, Jim Rohn possessed the unique ability to bring extraordinary insights to ordinary principles and events. The combination of his substance and style still captures the imagination of those who hear or read his words. His success philosophies and influence continue to have worldwide impact.
• Vivere Suites — VIVERE proposes a new way of enjoying the countryside. Surrounded by the mountains of Arco and only 5 kilometers from Lake Garda it is the ideal starting point for numerous excursions. There are four suites with kitchenette and two junior suites. All suites have their own private entrance and private garden and are equipped with all modern comforts. Our guests also have at their disposition the romantic veranda overlooking the swimming pool where they can enjoy their breakfast or sip on drinks. During cooler evenings guests can sit by the fire and listen to good music in the living room and try the excellent wine produced from our own vineyards
• Amazon Echo — Amazon Echo is a hands-free speaker you control with your voice. Echo connects to the Alexa Voice Service to play music, provide information, news, sports scores, weather and more. Prime members can also ask Alexa to order eligible products they've ordered before and many Prime products. All you have to do is ask.
• Sous Vide precision cooker — Recommended by Dusty!