Build In Norfolk
Welcome to Build in Norfolk! I’m Emma Bennett, Growth Manager at Invest Nebraska and Intersect Coworking and Incubator. This podcast is all about highlighting the builders, creators, and innovators shaping the future of Northeast Nebraska. Whether you’re a startup founder, small business owner, or just someone interested in the growing entrepreneurial ecosystem here, this podcast is for you.
Build In Norfolk
From Museums to Mobile Apps: Dustin Southworth on Building with No-Code
Dustin Southworth shares how he transformed his frustration with inaccurate museum information into Museum Go, an interactive app connecting museum visitors while providing reliable details about cultural institutions across Nebraska.
• Started with the simple problem of inaccurate museum hours on Google
• Evolved concept from "Museum Hours" to a social community space
• Used no-code tools like Bubble before discovering AI-powered development through Replit
• Created Passport to Nebraska Art as a learning project while building skills
• Found entrepreneurial community through One Million Cups and local pitch competitions
• Emphasizes that rural entrepreneurship extends far beyond agriculture
• Discusses the unique challenges and advantages of building in smaller communities
• Currently optimizing the Nebraska Art passport while developing Museum Go
• Leverages AI tools for both development and marketing efforts
If you're sitting on an idea, let this be your sign to get connected with your local entrepreneurial community. You never know what might come of it!
Welcome back to Build in.
Emma Bennett:Norfolk, the show where we highlight the builders, creators and entrepreneurs shaping the future of Northeast Nebraska. I'm your host, emma Bennett, and today I'm joined by someone who's not only building a product with a purpose, but who's also a great example of what happens when creativity meets community. I'm talking about Dustin Southworth, the mind behind Museum Go, a no-code app that has evolved from a user-generated online community space to an interactive passport app. Dustin's story is a great one about finding inspiration in everyday work, discovering tech tools that empower non-technical founders and building something special right here in Norfolk. Dustin, you want to give us an introduction and share a little bit about Museum Go.
Dustin Southworth:Yeah, absolutely, I'm Dustin Southworth. I moved to Norfolk in 2020 at the height of the pandemic, which was the oddest time to move somewhere and start a new job.
Emma Bennett:Fair, fair. I moved the year before during the floods, so both great choices, yeah absolutely so getting started was interesting.
Dustin Southworth:But then I started kind of after about a year or so getting involved in some of the groups and meeting new people and then kind of started working on this project wanted people to be able to go find hours, because Google is not the best at displaying hours that like museums need, because a lot of the times they are seasonal or you have to find somebody to go unlock the door and again, google is not good at displaying that. So I wanted somewhere where people could do that. I had had this idea for probably five or so years, just never really I had started a website but never really did anything with it. I needed some developers. I didn't know any developers to actually put in the functionality.
Dustin Southworth:So I just never, never touched it, put it in the back burner. But then I was talking to somebody who was talking about this no code, low code, ryan and and I said, hey, I have this idea that might be good for it, but let me know what you think. And he's like, yeah, that's a really good idea, we should, we should start pursuing that. And so we and and originally it was called museum hours, because that was like the pure focus was just hours, but then it kind of expanded as, as we started talking more and more about what it could be, what we could do with it, it became more of a social space, a way to for people to share their experiences going to museums, because I think that's important and and I also wanted to make it so, uh, extroverts and introverts could could participate, because I know, not everybody wants to be on camera.
Dustin Southworth:But that was one of the things we wanted to do was have video or or um, insights about what you liked about your visit. Uh, so we at first had just video, but then I said, well, we should add text to it so you can just type out what you liked about it and have that interaction and it's expanded from there where we are looking to build like meetups into it, where we have influencers that can really get those groups together, but then we want them to actually go to the museums go to an exhibition opening or a gallery show, something where there's a reason for people to go.
Dustin Southworth:I don't have anybody else to go with, but if I could just jump on the app and say, hey, I'm heading here, who else would like to go with me? That was kind of the idea behind this, where we wanted to encourage people to get together and get out into the real world. So we built this on Bubble. Originally, that was the low-code platform that we were using. We had to have developers. It was kind of tough, but then we found this new system called Replit and it allows you to kind of talk to it like AI and it builds code for you.
Emma Bennett:Love that yeah.
Dustin Southworth:So I knew I wanted to build Museum, go on this new system, but I wanted to learn it first. So the first iteration I did, I did Passport to Nebraska Art, because that's also something I've been thinking about for probably four or five years especially since I started working at the Arts Center. I have said that we should have instead of we have the Nebraska beef passport. We've got the wine and beer passport the regular passport but why don't we have an art passport?
Dustin Southworth:because, even as somebody who works at an art center, I don't know even half of the galleries that are across Nebraska, but I know they're out there right. So I wanted some way for us to bring all that information together and allow people to find those places that they don't know about.
Emma Bennett:Nice. So you talk a little bit about, like marketing, museums as your background, but you're not the software developer, that's not. Talk a little bit about your background and how that kind of. I mean I have a marketing background so I take this as a grain of salt too, but I think marketers are really adept at technology or really open to it. So talk a little bit maybe about how your background as a non-technical or non-software focused founder helped or hurt in your experience here and how you kind of worked around that.
Dustin Southworth:Yeah, so the funny thing is, I do actually have an IT degree.
Emma Bennett:Well, looky there, you learned something new.
Dustin Southworth:But specifically not a coding degree.
Emma Bennett:There we go.
Dustin Southworth:I went into the IT support side because I wanted to be that person that could do almost anything. The original reason I went into IT was I was going to be a website developer. Into it was I was going to be a web website developer, but when I applied for the college that year, they happened to change all of their programs and got rid of specifically the web development.
Emma Bennett:I love that background so I did go through it.
Dustin Southworth:I did take a couple development classes and I learned that I hated that fair. I just cannot, uh, it's just not something that my brain can wrap.
Dustin Southworth:Fair Fair ended up moving out to just outside of Chicago for a couple years. A friend out there said hey, you're not really doing anything in Nebraska right now. Would you move out here with me and just hang out? And so I did. And I did a couple things, but one of the things I did was started volunteering at a museum. I mostly did front desk stuff but also was a docent for a little bit, where I actually gave guided tours of the museum that I was at.
Emma Bennett:Nice. The only experience I have with that is like Joey from Friends. So I mean, if Joey can do it, it would be fun, Exactly.
Dustin Southworth:Yeah, so there was another museum not too far away, about five miles away, that had a job opening and it was guest services and membership, and so I applied for it, not really knowing if I would get it.
Emma Bennett:And I knew.
Dustin Southworth:I didn't have the background necessarily to get it and I ended up not getting it. But I asked the director at the time um, what can I do to improve my skills? How can I get a job like this? And she said come volunteer for us, come hang out, help us out. And then I started helping them with their social media and that really got me in the door. After about a month or so they said we really like what you're doing. We want to hire you to do what you're doing.
Dustin Southworth:The other person that we did hire is really good at these other things, more on the education side, and that was the part that I didn't have. She was very good at that, but she doesn't have the skills to do social media. So we're going to hire you to come on and you're going to take on membership and marketing. So that's kind of how I got my foot in the door within museums and I was there for about a year. We ended up did end up closing down, but then I moved back to Nebraska and found the job that I'm currently at and I've been here almost for five years now.
Emma Bennett:Love it. So when we talk to founders, you know one thing that's really important in what we teach, the kind of the philosophy we follow is identifying a problem and then building your solution, not just doing solution first, problem second. So you touched on it a little in your intro too, but talk about the challenge or that problem that you faced and then how kind of you identified it and thought maybe this is something we could work towards.
Dustin Southworth:Right, yeah, yeah. Like I said, that, hours kind of was the place that I started and there weren't good solutions. I knew that it was a problem for me. It was something that I wanted to have. So I started looking into it, like I said, starting building a website because I knew that other people would need that information. Other people would need that information. I mean, even what phone number to call is sometimes hard to find. Again, even Google will have a phone number and it'll be the wrong one. You'll have to call five different people before you actually get the person that can actually help you.
Dustin Southworth:So I just started looking into it, started thinking about what information you would want. What would I want if I was traveling, if I was going there? And that really led me to this idea. And then, like I said, we kind of started expanding on it. What else would I want to know? How else would I want to connect with those places as I'm traveling? So then we just started kind of building out the features and thinking about what we could add. What could this thing be? It could be huge. I even have ideas for different stages.
Dustin Southworth:Now I can have a pretty simple starting app, but then, I've got ideas for these huge back end that it could, that it could truly be. So there are stages that I'm already thinking about in this thing.
Emma Bennett:That's awesome. So you know, let's look at this more like timeline then. So you've had this idea you're working in the museum, working at the art center. What was kind of the trigger point to move things forward? I know like we met at an intern mixer of all things. Um, neither of us are interns, but we you. It was at the art center I was helping organize, um, so let's talk a little bit about that of like then the resources and some of that connection, that that really moved things forward sure, yeah, uh, yeah, we had.
Dustin Southworth:We had that uh meet up and and at the Arts Center and we got to talking about doing podcasts of all things. I don't remember how that conversation started, but we started talking about it and you mentioned that you had the podcast studio here and version one way back in the day the small, small little room.
Emma Bennett:I think studio is a very generous term for that. But here we are now.
Dustin Southworth:Right and we talked about meetups and stuff for podcasters. But then I think it eventually came up that we were doing the One Million Cups thing and I've always been interested in entrepreneurship. I've never actually jumped into it until fairly recently, but I just wanted to be around people who were interested in entrepreneurship. So that's why I started coming to the One Million Cups. It kind of got me excited and I met all the people that we have. Now We've got an amazing core group of people that come to One Million Cups all the time, so it's nice to see those people on a regular basis.
Dustin Southworth:And one of the ideas behind Museum Go that we've talked about is third spaces and how we're trying to promote third space, and I was thinking about it. One Million Cups is really a third space where you have like-minded people coming together.
Dustin Southworth:We may not have the same backgrounds or same ideologies, but we come together for a common goal and meet up and talk. And that's what led to me meeting certain people who encouraged me to do different things, to start different ideas, even some ideas that I'd had before but didn't have the encouragement or knowledge to start pushing forward. These people really encouraged me to pursue these things.
Emma Bennett:Yeah, I think one of the big things we talk about in the space at Intersect here is building that community. Not only is it a physical space for people to meet and gather, but it is that, that community. Not only is it a physical space for people to meet and gather, but it is that third space. So I think if we did like an ROI study we don't have money, but we're looking at the return on investment of our time I think we could pinpoint a lot of that back to 1 million cups and how that is. I know you were one of our first attendees and you're still the stronghold and part of our organizer team, which we don't do a whole lot, but you know Some of those. It's like that ripple effect where you start, you kind of join one thing and then you do another and another. So you went from one million cups. Then let's talk a little bit about Big Idea, because you did a pitch competition then.
Dustin Southworth:Yeah, that was a nerve wracking idea of even doing it. I am not a public speaker by any means. Unless I'm passionate about something, then I really do love to talk about it. And so, yeah, we, you kind of invited me to do this big idea and I put together a presentation about Museum Go, what the kind of core concepts are, how we can make money off of it, and ideas behind it, and went and pitched and again, it was a very nerve wracking experience.
Dustin Southworth:but but it was awesome and getting to meet even people that we don't see on a regular basis and seeing what they're doing out there. We had all those people that were doing amazing things, and to see all all those people come together was awesome.
Emma Bennett:Yeah, it's, it's really fun. It's. You know, we'll do it again this fall. You know, october, november, and we always want at least 10 people pitching and we did. We got that last time and so it was just such a cool experience to see, you know, the evolution of your idea and this conversation you had with Ryan to now you have a pitch deck and a three minute pitch and prepared for two minutes of questions afterwards. So you know, it's like a proud mom moment where I'm like, yay, they're doing it, they're doing the things. So I think that's really exciting. As we talk about some of those milestones, like what were some of the things you were really excited about, we'll do two questions here, like what were you really excited about as you were building Museum Go and what were some of those challenges like bigger pieces that you had to overcome?
Dustin Southworth:Sure, the exciting thing was really just getting it going, like actually getting out there and doing it, because, again, it had stalled for five-plus years and didn't really do anything but having that knowledge base in ryan and and the people that he knows, um, and getting that ability to do this was really awesome. Um, just, I think time was a lot of the things that, uh, it took a while because, uh, we would, we gave the idea to the developers that we had um and it would take a week, and then it would come back with a feature and then you'd have to say, well, either okay, yes let's move on to the next feature, or that wasn't quite what I wanted.
Dustin Southworth:Let's let's read map this kind of thing. So it was really just like that. That waiting, especially for me, is like.
Dustin Southworth:I want to get going and get it done kind of thing and get it out there is the exciting part for me is like I want to get going and get it done kind of thing and get it out there is the exciting part for me. So to hold myself back and say like, okay, I gotta wait because I can't, there's nothing I can do right now. I just have to wait for these other people to get it going.
Emma Bennett:That was probably the toughest part for me anyway no, um, I want to talk a little bit, then, about the rural aspect. You know, like I don't know how close to Chicago you were when you were in Chicago, but even Norfolk to Omaha, norfolk to Lincoln, there's such a difference. I feel like, um, we have a really strong ecosystem in either way, but have you had any or experienced any challenges? Um, because of our location or because of the rural aspect? Or is that a benefit, and how was that beneficial to you, or what did you seek out to overcome any of that?
Dustin Southworth:Yeah. So the funny thing is I was in a rural-ish area outside of Chicago. I was in DeKalb and it's very much corn country, so we were surrounded by cornfields there too. You know, yep, and that caused me to have to. I was doing some entrepreneurship with like I was using meetupcom and I would go meet groups that were doing entrepreneurship, but I had to drive 45 minutes to go meet those people.
Emma Bennett:You still like really rural. Yeah, you were there, you were in it.
Dustin Southworth:Exactly yeah, you were there, you were in it. Exactly yeah. So it was that kind of distance from those knowledge bases I think is one struggle that we have, just getting access to people and seeing people on a regular basis, cause, uh, we can, like, I went to that um innovation week, uh, the startup week Um, and it was awesome to meet some, some of those people and some of those people I've met before, but I don't get to see them regularly, so I don't get to update them what I'm working on.
Dustin Southworth:So, they don't get to see what cool things. I'm working on. But I also don't get those resources of of those bigger networks, which I think is just the hard part for us. But at the same time I think they don't realize again all the cool things that we are doing out here all the time. They don't see that because they're not coming out and visiting us either. I think there's cool things that we can do and when we use the word rural, I do think of agribusiness, especially in Nebraska agriculture.
Dustin Southworth:That's one of our biggest industries. But that's not all we're doing out here. We are doing these innovative technology things that you wouldn't think of, and so that's amazing to me that we get to do that.
Emma Bennett:Yeah, we just got to start busting people from Lincoln and Omaha, bringing them out. They can come on Wednesdays. There we go. Problem solved? No, it is.
Emma Bennett:I think it's something. You know, nature of the beast. I think it's also a huge opportunity. It's the reason I like to live where I am. You know, norfolk's great. I get to do just something. Like you said, I wish more people knew.
Emma Bennett:But it's exciting then for us to make sure to go to those events as well and say, hey, we're still here and we're not just doing corn. It's an anecdote I say all the time, but I remember when we first opened the space I had a gentleman try to come in the door, like knocked on the doors because the doors were locked, and he came in and he asked like what kind of chicks we had? Because we were an incubator and I was like oof branding 101. You're not wrong, we incubate businesses like you would baby chicks, but not the same, definitely not the same. So that's it. Just speaks to it. You know, you have to remember rural doesn't just mean ag and we have a lot of cool things going on out here. So we're at a really good point. I kind of want to talk about some of the lessons you learned and like the power of being surrounded by people who have different skills and have some of those skill sets, and then you know what has, how they've helped shape and give feedback and things like that.
Dustin Southworth:Yeah, absolutely yeah. One of the things I've thought about over my time has been I was always. I always had cheerleaders behind me, but not necessarily people who could help me or who knew how to help me. Like they'd be like, oh yeah, that's a great idea, but then there was just no support under that.
Dustin Southworth:It was just like, yeah, you're, you're awesome, that's a cool idea, but I didn't get any feedback or anything that could actually help me. But coming to 1 million cups and finding those people who are doing stuff, like I think that's the interesting part is that people who are are entrepreneurs already are in there and encouraging other people to do these things I had gone to. I mean, like I said, I went to meet up stuff. I had been in several young professional groups which are awesome and they they really help when you're just getting into a community and trying to build that community. But entrepreneurship is a totally different beast, a totally different idea, thought process, and so having people that are able to encourage you and know what they've gone through in the past like how did I start a business and they can kind of help you and say like all right, these are the next steps that you need to think about. This is how you need to push yourself, what you need to do, and they can encourage you in those ways. That's kind of what I've found with the group that we have here is that we're all pretty very encouraging and trying to get people to.
Dustin Southworth:What's your idea? What do you want to try? What can we help you? Try it's kind of. I think the biggest thing is what can? How can I help you?
Emma Bennett:And that's one of the questions we always ask which?
Dustin Southworth:is awesome and I think that's super important is what? How can I help you?
Emma Bennett:Yeah, it's, it is, you know it's you, you build an ecosystem and it's you have to let founders build it or whoever you want this to be for is who has to build it. But then having those mentors but you know, even just engaged members to help with that. So I love that. You know just putting that question out there, saying what can we do to help you, and keeping that. So I love that. Take that away of like, just be involved and give feedback. You know you don't always have to know the best answer or know the only answer, but just giving actionable feedback is huge, especially as you're iterating. Let's talk about the goals. What are you working on now? What's the vision for Museum Go? Where are you at? What's up next?
Dustin Southworth:Right now finalizing and optimizing the passport to Nebraska arts. I'm already in talks with several people to expand that and get that going. The idea again originally behind this was just to learn the platform, figure out what I can do, figure out how to actually build Museum Go. Now that I have this knowledge base around the system Replit, I plan to start working on iterating it. What I'd like to do is get a better foundation, because I think that's one thing I didn't really. I started with a good idea of the outline but I didn't have a good foundation.
Dustin Southworth:So actually writing that out, figuring out what I need using ChatGPT- quite a bit for this to help me iterate and figure this out, and then just start building, because that's really the next thing that I need to do Just start building.
Emma Bennett:Absolutely Get that feedback. Keep building. I know it's always the fun part I love almost week. You come into one mc and I can say, like what have you worked on this weekend outside of a couple late nights and a lot of coffee? Um, you know you got it sweet. Well, our next session I want to go through um is just a couple rapid fire questions you know, at its core.
Emma Bennett:We want this to be a podcast that serves other founders in questions and answer some of those questions. So you can pass if you don't like it, but I have a few questions. So what's one word you'd use to describe being an entrepreneur?
Dustin Southworth:The first word that comes to mind is frightening, but exciting also.
Emma Bennett:I think it's fair. I think it's true, you got to be a frightening but uh, but exciting. Also, I think it's fair. I think it's true, you gotta be a little nervous, but some those things that push you are always good. Um, what is a resource that helped you learn about no code or low code tools?
Dustin Southworth:uh, again back to the people that we have around us, um, but then just finding the whatever platform you're on going to like YouTube, or a lot of them have their own like tutorials and instructionals, and just diving into those things and learning all about it.
Emma Bennett:Yeah, I love a good. I love a good YouTube course. What do you think one thing that people misunderstand about rural entrepreneurship Again, I think it's going back to that.
Dustin Southworth:It's not just ag, it's not just people doing things in the middle of nowhere. I mean, we are doing some cool, exciting things out here.
Emma Bennett:Yes, I think I know the answer to this one, but what's one tech tool that you're obsessed with right now?
Dustin Southworth:AI in general. Fair okay good, but those tools to build and content creation. Ai has also been something I've been diving into recently, just to help get the word out of the things that I am doing.
Emma Bennett:Nice. Yes, absolutely. God bless AI. I use it all the time.
Emma Bennett:Well before we close out, dustin, like I said, you're the kind of founder we created this podcast for. Well before we close out, dustin, like I said, you're the kind of founder we created this podcast for. We want to share stories so that others in our area know you don't have to just be, like we said, in those bigger communities and building is happening here in Norfolk. So, like we said, we want to provide some answers, have the inspiration and just that visibility. So, through episodes like this, we're giving our physical community those digital wings and creating that third, that online space. So we thank you for your efforts in that area as well. But thank you so much for sharing your story and insights To all our listeners. If you're sitting on an idea, let this be your sign Show up, get connected and you never know what could come of it. Make sure to follow along with Build in Norfolk for more episodes featuring founders, just like Dustin. We'll be back soon with another story of someone building something big right here in Nebraska.
