The Hustle Conference started as one of those "Hey, someone should do that" ideas. And honestly, we've heard that a lot. There’s a clear need for an entrepreneurship conference in Omaha. You can extend that out to all of Nebraska and outward further, across the Midwest. There's a hunger for it—a void that needs filling. Instead of just talking about it, we decided to make it happen.

Entrepreneurship events are common elsewhere; we've attended a few ourselves. Omaha had something similar and it made a huge impact, but it eventually faded away. And then COVID hit, putting in-person events on pause. With live events making a strong comeback, the timing felt perfect to launch Hustle.

2024 was our inaugural event and 2025 is our year two. We’re going bigger and better this year, leveling up, taking what we’ve learned from our post-event survey and the many conversations we’ve had over the past year with folks who attended.

We believe there’s something special about a live event—especially one that brings together an eclectic, curious, and driven group of people like entrepreneurs. If you bring a few hundred entrepreneurs in the same room together, good things happen. The energy, the exchange of ideas—it’s infectious.

You might be surprised to know that Nebraska is home to over 180,000 small businesses. And according to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, more than 21,000 new businesses were started here in 2023 alone. That blew us away. As we have connected with people across the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Nebraska, we’ve been amazed by the incredible companies, organizations, networking groups, accelerators, incubators, advisors, mentors, and investors out there—many of them flying under the radar. That’s why we want to cast a wide net and invite everyone. We hope attendees will forge new connections that otherwise might not happen. The more diverse the group, from different industries and disciplines and locations, the better.

The common thread across our eclectic community of Hustle attendees, speakers, and sponsors is really a shared mindset. These are people who want to grow – they want to grow and scale their businesses and they want to grow personally. They don’t settle and they don’t sit still. They want to share and connect with peers and mentors, other fellow travelers on the entrepreneurial journey.

We’ve all attended our fair share of conferences, and most of them follow the same formula: a lot of sitting and listening. Don’t get us wrong, that can be inspiring. We love hearing success stories from fellow entrepreneurs. But we want more, and we’re excited to experiment with the conference format to make it more engaging. Hustle is an active, hands-on experience. Workshops, speed networking, Q&As. We want Hustle to be noisy, lively, bursting with energy.

We also want real, honest conversations—not just about success but about the failures and missteps too. Being an entrepreneur is a roller coaster. It can be thrilling, but it’s also hard, lonely, and sometimes deflating. But we keep going because there’s purpose behind what we do. Let’s share those stories, listen, learn, ask tough questions, and explore together.

We both chose to live and build our businesses in Nebraska. We’ve raised families here. Entrepreneurs are already making a significant impact in Nebraska, driving economic growth, creating jobs, and enriching our culture. We want Hustle to shine a light on the incredible things already happening and help fuel even more growth.

We invite you to not just attend, but to truly be a part of Hustle. Help us shape it, grow it, and build our entrepreneurial community together.

Curt Drew and Eric Gautschi
Co-Founders