You've got to be kidding. Evan Williams who co-founded Blogger, Odeo, and Twitter is from there. He tried to do several startups in Omaha before deciding that the problem was the place. So he moved to San Francisco and has been very successful. Follow his advice.
I lived in Omaha for 10 years and now live in the Research Triangle area of North Carolina where I started a company three years ago. Because of my Omaha ties we do some business there.<p>Omaha is a great place to live.<p>For startups as HN defines them, Omaha is not an ideal location. There are two big reasons for this:<p>1. Low cost of living. For a tech startup, Ramen and split-rent costs about the same everywhere. A low cost of living generally means that the people around you are used to paying less for things. Silicon Valley is nice because the population has money and is ready to spend it and founders can get by for dirt cheap just as they would anywhere else.<p>2. University System. SF, NYC, Boston (and RTP!) all have strong startup communities as well as great University systems nearby. This is not a coincidence. Omaha is an hour from the University of Nebraska. The next closest are the Iowa schools which are several hours away.<p>A good part of Omaha that the OP mentions is the creative scene. I am continually impressed by it. Omaha has also been making some great business development decisions over the last 10 years so I do believe the situation will only get better.
I bet if everyone thinks long enough, they can come up with enough reasons why their city / state / country is great for startups.<p>While I do believe that location plays a large enough part in the life of a startup, once the product is up and running, do people really care if the next cool product was built in eastern Timbuktu and not in the Bay Area?