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Prairie Village venture capital firm flips ‘flyover country’ label with new contest

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Fred Coulson

Prairie Village-based venture capitalist Fred Coulson thinks it’s ridiculous that non-coastal American cities has been derided as “flyover country.”

So his company, Five Elms Capital, decided to turn that mocking moniker on its head. Tomorrow, the application period closes for the first-ever Flyover 50 contest, honoring the 50 fastest-growing companies in the Midwest. The rankings will be based on revenue growth from 2010-2011.

Here’s what Coulson told Silicon Prairie News in March about the impetus for the competition:

We wanted to create a vehicle that would both recognize leading companies in our region and create opportunities for entrepreneurs to get together and build bridges between organizations that previously may not have crossed paths. People talk a lot about trying to create an entrepreneurial ecosystem in the middle of the country, but it’s not don overnight. We hope this is one small seed in that process.

The contest is open to companies based in 20 mid-continent states.

About the author

Jay Senter
Jay Senter

Jay Senter is the founder and publisher of the Post.

He earned his bachelor’s degree in business at the University of Wisconsin – Madison, where he worked as a reporter and editor at The Badger Herald.

He went on to receive a master’s degree in journalism from the University of Kansas, where he earned the Calder Pickett Award. While he was in graduate school, he also worked as a reporter for the Lawrence Journal-World.

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