The Effects of “Brain Drain” on Nebraska’s Startup Ecosystems

Rick Gregg September 11,2025 What do you think?

Measuring Ecosystem Performance

The Startup Genome has always been my “go-to” resource for how to objectively measure and rate startup ecosystems against each other. The Startup Genome’s Global Startup Ecosystem Report 2025 (GSER 2025) is a comprehensive analysis of the current state of startup ecosystems. The GSER lists the forty (40) top and 100 emerging startup ecosystems worldwide.

Within an eight hour or so drive from Omaha are some high performing ecosystems including Chicago (#16 – top), Denver-Boulder (#26 – top), Minneapolis (#13 – emerging), and Kansas City (#91-100; emerging). Ecosystems are generally defined by the Startup Genome as a shared pool of resources, generally located within a 62 mile radius around a center point in a given region. Resources typically include policymakers, accelerators, incubators, coworking spaces, educational institutions, and funding groups.

Forever Stuck in the Activation Phase

The Startup Genome’s ecosystem lifecycle consists of four phases, each with distinct characteristics and goals. These phases consist of activation, globalization, attraction, and integration. The activation phase is characterized by fewer than 1,000 startups with limited ecosystem experience, and face challenges like resource leakages (e.g. “brain drain”) to later stage ecosystems which make it difficult to grow an ecosystem in an activation stage. In order to move to the next phase, globalization, the ecosystem must achieve multiple $100M+ exits and attract national resource attention. Omaha, Nebraska is an example of a startup ecosystem that has been stuck in the activation phase for several decades with chronic false starts and setbacks resulting in poor performance.

Nebraska’s Economic Review

The recently released report entitled “Nebraska’s Economic Review” commissioned by the Aksarben Foundation and authored by Development Counsellors International paints a sobering picture of resource leakage (“brain drain”) in Nebraska’s startup ecosystems and the State’s inability to attract national resource attention.

The competition for talented workers has resulted in Nebraska losing its educated workforce to other states every year for over a decade resulting in a resource leakage of 68,156 jobs to other startup ecosystems keeping Nebraska’s startup ecosystems stuck in the activation stage. The loss of an educated workforce does represent a “brain drain” and is far more significant economically than simply an inconvenient truth. Access to skilled talent is a top consideration in startup and corporate location decisions. When making long-term decisions associated with managing a workforce, executives need evidence that a state’s current labor force and talent pipeline will meet their companies’ future talent needs over the next few decades.

Startups and companies with a need to grow high-paying jobs will be very reluctant to invest in states experiencing “brain drain.” All indications are that Nebraska has been experiencing “brain drain” for over a decade. As a result, Nebraska can’t attract the required national resource attention to move out of the activation stage when the State ranks 29th out of 51 in labor force growth over the past 5 years. More critically, Nebraska has experienced net negative domestic migration, meaning more people are leaving the state than moving in from other U.S states.

Unlocking Startup Ecosystem Activation

It’s imperative that stuck startup ecosystems find a new way to organically train and thereby increase the number of local entrepreneurs to reduce resource leakage and attract national resource attention. Clearly, decades of doing the same things over and over again aren’t working. It’s time for a new, innovative approach to solve startup ecosystem activation challenges. Thirty-one (31%) percent of Americans consider entrepreneurship, and ninety-nine (99%) percent of entrepreneurs never receive funding to pursue their dreams. The reality? Entrepreneurship is risky.

Introducing The saaskamp Community Startup

No Applications. No Cohorts. Founder. Friendly. Funding. The saaskamp Community Startup offers a no-cost, risk-free option for an aspiring or experienced entrepreneur to participate in a real, for-profit tech startup part-time while working their full time job, self-employed in gig work, working on their own startup, attending a university, or to develop real-world resume building experience for future employment. Anyone is welcome. By participating in saaskamp, you will naturally begin collaborating with others and working in groups to develop startup ideas including your own. As a result, you will find like-minded co-founders and team members that want to be part of your successful startup.

No Experience. No Problem. The saaskamp Community Startup takes an innovation first and technology second approach to building a startup. We’ll help you find a repeatable business model that generates revenue and attracts funding if you desire. Your curriculum will be tailored to your skills, interests, and experience level that begins with ideation and then progresses through market opportunity, overcoming buyer resistance, customer discovery & validation, value proposition design, testing business ideas, business model innovation strategy, business model generation; and ends with a minimum viable product (MVP) that generates revenue. We’ll even give you a $100,000 SAFE investment term sheet on day with a discount and no valuation cap one if you’d like. Together we can solve our startup ecosystem’s activation challenges.