by Paige Dietrich
When I get up in the morning I think ‘this is going to be the best day of my life and I’m going to help somebody out so they can have the best day of their life,’” said Vern Powers, who has not only served two terms as mayor of Hastings, Nebraska, but is also involved in mentoring scores of entrepreneurs — several of whom now reside in office space on Nebraska Innovation Campus at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln.
Nebraska is a newfound “field of opportunities” for aspiring entrepreneurs and researchers looking for someone to invest in them, their products and the future of their companies. Powers believes Nebraska’s economy can be improved by mentors investing their time in entrepreneurs and startup companies to make sure Nebraska benefits by innovation and the resulting jobs
and revenue.
Not only has Powers served as a mayor; he has also been a business partner, mentor, founder or stockholder in 52 different businesses. Powers is owner and CEO of Hastings HVAC, which specializes in manufacturing the world’s largest heating, ventilating and air handling equipment. The company markets those products worldwide through a manufacturing rep network of 62 different companies. Powers also is owner and founder of Vestal W2O, a biotechnology company in partnership with the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, using patented products and procedures to convert raw municipal sewage into products not only useful for a world consumer market, but also useful in alleviating and mitigating EPA registered pollutants from land and waterways. The ideas and innovation of these new products led Powers to team with the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. Paul Black, chair of the UNL Department of Biochemistry, and his team of research professionals conduct advanced research on isolated molecules and biologic agents that not only clean contaminated municipal water, but also create marketable coproducts through the wastewater filtration and reaction process. These coproducts are biofuel, fertilizers and minerals that can be used in vehicles, agricultural fields, advanced technological settings, health care and more, Powers said. The project began eight years ago when the Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) asked Hastings (and all cities) to be better stewards of our environment. This moved Powers to begin a search to solve the problem as opposed to another Band-Aid on a solution.
“All the sewage treatment plants in the world have EPA hazards,” Powers said. But Vestal W2O, started by Powers to partner with Black and the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, will use biochemical processes to convert 20 percent of the valuable waste stream into oil. In addition, these molecules will also clean up heavy metals, nitrates, ammonia and carbon dioxide,” Powers said. Black had already begun conducting research on algae and biofuels; Powers encouraged him to meld that research into sewage treatment research. The University of Nebraska–Lincoln and Vestal W2O will be in charge of the research and Vestal W2O will own and be in charge of marketing the biofuel/oil and minerals produced by the processes. This research will be conducted in collaboration with Hastings HVAC, Echo Canyon, the city of Hastings and the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, Powers said.
This research is what has led Powers to lease office space at Nebraska Innovation Campus, the University of Nebraska–Lincoln research campus located between City Campus and East Campus. Nebraska Innovation Campus was designed to encourage public-private partnerships between the University of Nebraska–Lincoln and private sector businesses. Nebraska Innovation Campus aspires to be the most sustainable research and technology campus in the United States, and Powers is helping make that happen by bringing his research and businesses there.
Powers believes public-private partnerships are important for many reasons. The University would not have the money to make the algae-to-oil project into a billion-dollar-a-year oil company, but its faculty can conduct the research and the private sector can contribute money. When it’s all done, the University benefits by receiving royalties and the private company will control all of the sales and manufacturing. “It’s a true hand-in-hand partnership,” Powers said.
Another benefit Powers sees in private-public partnerships is technologies being invented and projects developed. Researchers need someone to take the invention to market, so that is where the private partner steps in.
Mentorship
“We always hear ‘we need to keep our kids in Nebraska,’” Powers said.
“As CEO of a number of Nebraska companies and also mayor of a town of 26,000, we can repeat that simplistic statement until the cows come home. Unless we actually go out and put our money where our mouths are and invest in our Nebraska students, they are going to go somewhere else if the opportunity looks attractive to them,” he said. Powers is a proponent of economic growth, which leads to jobs created in Nebraska for young adults.
Mentorship is an important part of Powers’ life, including mentorship of Lincoln-based Quantified Ag, which was a 2014 startup company in the NMotion Accelerator in Lincoln’s Haymarket. Quantified Ag, in its third year and growing rapidly, is now based at Nebraska Innovation Campus. Vishal Singh, founder of Quantified Ag, had started Quantified Ag’s technology using drones to monitor cattle. Singh and Powers were introduced by Brian Ardinger (director of NMotion and owner of Econic in the Haymarket) with the idea of Powers helping Singh by being his mentor and investing in his technology and helping take it to market.
Powers believes that by mentoring “you can help people and help the state. The main thing a mentor does is protect and guide the person they are helping, and invest mentally in their concept and the person.” That is what Powers has done for Singh and Quantified Ag. “Being there as a mentor on those scary days when confidence slips or money leaks or new challenges arise bolsters and encourages a new business owner not to give up.” In the end, through Singh’s hard work, follow-through and perfection of the technology, Quantified Ag’s success has also meant hiring more people, creating more jobs in Nebraska.
As a mentor to many entrepreneurs and startup companies, Powers believes that a mentor should provide helpful and protective advice, but be careful about committing to funding. “Probably some of the best advice you are ever going to get from a mentor is free advice. Then if you get further into the mechanics of the product and knowledge of the market, and there is a clearly identifiable need for the product, funding makes perfect sense.” Powers does request to be a board member for each company he mentors and/or funds, with a goal of making sure from start to finish that these companies make as few mistakes as possible. “With a great founder, a great team and the correct board DNA, decision-making has a very good chance of success,” Powers said.
Powers mentors others because he has found success in business and politics since graduating from UNL in 1984 and would like to share his philosophy of success with entrepreneurs. “I try to educate myself every single day, to be successful this must never stop. I read voraciously, I try to find the right people in my life and I’m positive every day.
“Persistence is paramount, quitting is easy. Don’t ever quit.”