Omaha entrepreneur is Pipeline’s Innovator of the Year

A founder of RaceNote, an Omaha, Neb., company whose technology helps manage auto racing teams, won the Pipeline Innovator of the Year award Thursday night at Pipeline’s annual awards gala.

Innovator of the Year is the top award given by Pipeline, a regional network that identifies emerging entrepreneurs in Kansas, Missouri and Nebraska and helps them with one-year fellowships. This year it went to Dusty Reynolds, a co-founder of RaceNote, a motor sports management platform.

Reynolds and the program’s other 2015 fellows now become part of the mentor network, which each year identifies 10 to 13 fellowship recipients for its yearlong business leadership development program.

The gala at the Midland Theatre drew more than 600 people, the organization said. It capped an all-day event that included pitches at the Alamo Drafthouse from the organization’s 2015 fellows. The judging of those pitches was part of what went into the Innovator of the Year award, which also was based on a refined business plan and a score carried over from performance during the fellowship year.

The judges for the pitches, business plans and other aspects of the program came from across the country, Ireland and Northern Ireland.

“I had heard so much about Pipeline and its Innovator of the Year,” Maree Helena of Think Ireland Inc. said in a news release after the gala. “After seeing this energy and success up close, I can’t wait to get the entire group to Ireland to meet our entrepreneurial community.”

The other awards:

Entrepreneurial Leadership: Tom Hillman, FTL Capital, St. Louis.

Member Growth: Jason Tatge, Farmobile, Kansas City.

Member Inspiration: Jeff Hargroves, ProPharma Group, Kansas City.

Top Pitch: Mark Zmarzly, Hip Pocket, Lincoln, Neb.

Besides Reynolds and Zmarzly, the outgoing class of Pipeline fellows was Lu Alleruzzo, Immunophotonics, St. Louis; Jen Amis, Encounter Telehealth, Omaha; Callie England, Rawxies, Kansas City; Jeffry Harrison, RoverTown, St. Louis; Dan Lohman, PushUp Social, St. Louis; John Martens, NMotion UAS, Wichita; Aaron McKee, Purple Wave, Manhattan, Kan.; Jill Minton, t.Loft, Kansas City; Chris Motley, Better Weekdays, St. Louis; Davide Rossi, FitBark, Kansas City; and Laura Steward, VideoFizz, Kansas City.

The 2016 class of fellows also was announced:

Clayton Chapman, the Grey Plume, Omaha; Michelle Faits, Pro-Arc Diagnostics, St. Louis; Keith Fix, Blabfeed, Omaha; Kimberly Gandy, Play-It Health, Kansas City; Brian Handrigan, Recursive Labs, St. Louis; Blake Hawley, Integrated Animal Health, Lawrence; Justin Kallhoff, Infogressive, Lincoln; Sarah Mirth, Artifox, St. Louis; Jeff Rohr, SquareOffs, Kansas City; Tommy Saunders, FEWDM, Kansas City; Devon Seacrest, Realbot, Lincoln; Vishal Singh, Quantified Ag, Lincoln; and Kyle Tabor, Invisible Industries, St. Louis.

This story was originally published January 22, 2016 at 10:09 AM with the headline "Omaha entrepreneur is Pipeline’s Innovator of the Year."