Nebraska Accelerator NMotion Announces 7 Startups Chosen for Summer 2014 Cohort

NMotion announced the seven startups accepted into the 2014 Summer program last week.

Four of the teams are from Lincoln, where the accelerator is based. The other 3 will be moving to Lincoln to participate in the program.

“We’re excited about working with this group of strong and diverse founders. Applications were up 80% from the previous year and included applications from all over the world, so it was tough making the final cut.” said Brian Ardinger, managing director of NMotion.

Because of Lincoln’s growing list of sports-related startups and mentors, including Hudl, opendorse, Lockr, EliteForm, Hail Varsity, Bulu Box, Powderhook and others, NMotion actively targeted sports-focused startups to bring into the program.

“We think density is important in a growing startup community since it allows for greater collaboration and connections. At NMotion we wanted to actively look for ways to capitalize on our community’s strengths and build on them,” Ardinger said.

Co-founder of Turnstile Cards, Zach Sanderson, “We’re excited to come from one supportive Silicon Prairie community (Iowa City/Cedar Rapids) to another, especially one with a sports startup legacy.”

NMotion’s 2014 cohort also includes startups in agriculture, music, and digital marketing.

Like other accelerators, NMotion startups receive seed capital, coworking space, and access to a pool of resources including over 100 mentors, training, and developer and designer talent. This year’s program starts on June 2, and each startup will use the 100 days of the program to work with teams and mentors to test and validate the market, build and prototype their solutions, and prepare for a demo day showcase to be held on September 9th at Nebraska Innovation Campus in Lincoln.

Companies also receive $15,000 of seed capital in exchange for a six percent equity stake. This funding was provided by Invest Nebraska Corporation along with members of the Nebraska Angels organization and individual accredited investors. Program sponsors include the Lincoln Partnership for Economic Development, Union Bank and Trust, NUtech Ventures, Nebraska Innovation Campus, and the University of Nebraska along with many other companies and organizations.

NMotion’s 2014 Summer cohort includes:

Adolade – Location-based mobile rewards platform: Ryan Cooper, founder of Golf Status, is creating a location-based rewards company that helps app and device makers monetize their users’ moments of achievement, loyalty, and influence.

Athletepreneur – Online network & marketplace for athletes: Co-founder Mike Fingado is coming from Seattle and his co-founder Brian Dzingai, who is a former Olympian from Zimbabwe, will be coming from Chicago. They are building a professional network and lifestyle brand for collegiate and professional athletes.

Commissioner.io – Sports league management platform: Kunwar Gill and Richard Bansal are coming from Toronto, Canada and are working on a sports league management platform for recreational leagues and their players.

DigiWidgets – Plug-in graphic editing engine for websites: Fresh from their win at the JumpStart Challenge, Lincoln entrepreneurs Stacy Carlson (Gotta Pixel) and Carl Steffen (Stone Fin Development) formed DigiWidgets as a plug-in graphic editing engine for websites that empowers users to create, manipulate and sell digital media.

MusicSpoke – Music publishing platform & marketplace for composers: The Lincoln startup MusicSpoke founded by Jennifer Rosenblatt and Kurt Knecht is a cloud-based platform where composers, conductors, and performers can connect and share new sheet music and performances.

PixoBot – Software platform for robotics in agriculture: Vishal Singh heads up Pixobot, a software platform utilizing drones and data to improve agricultural efficiency.

Turnstile Cards – Mobile fan loyalty platform: Zach Sanderson and Jason Kristufek represent Turnstile Cards. Turnstile Cards won a recent Startup Weekend competition and are coming to NMotion from Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Turnstile Cards is recreating the nostalgia of the baseball card in a mobile marketing platform for sports teams to connect with fans outside the stadium

5 Startups Get In Motion At NMotion Demo Day

There’s so much talk about startup accelerators. We report on a lot of accelerators, with an emphasis on the ones accelerating companies outside Silicon Valley. NMotion is one of those accelerators. I spent a bit of time talking with NMotion’s managing director, Brian Ardinger, throughout the course of the program. I also did a mentor session with the five companies in the program about a week before demo day.

Ardinger is one of those accelerator directors that knows the most valuable lesson already: Demo Day isn’t the end for the startups, it’s the beginning.

“When we invest in companies, we help them for life, not just for the summer,” it says on NMotion’s website. On the surface Ardinger is a tech-transfer guy. As the Entrepreneur-in-Residence at NuTech Ventures, Ardinger oversees the crossover from the University of Nebraska and the private sector. However, NMotion was by no means a “student program.”

Each NMotion team received a seed investment of $15,000 which is par for the course for a city Lincoln’s size. The teams also received over $100,000 in important business services and access to a mentor network, which Ardinger stresses doesn’t go away on demo day.

HipPocket, PaperTale, Cinnamon Social, SynserScan, and Alumni Labs worked around the clock as hard, if not harder, than startups at some of the most prestigious Valley accelerators. When the time came on Thursday afternoon, they were ready to show off their summer’s work in front of a crowd of nearly 200 (not too shabby for an inaugural cohort in Lincoln, Nebraska).

Cinnamon Social is a software for automated and intelligent social media content curation led by husband-and-wife founders Jason and Holly Petersen.

SynerScan is a software to digitize hospital operations offering better health care through data led by founder Brett Byman.

HipPocket is a software offering families better context and confidence for financial decision-making led by founder Mark Zmarzly.

Alumni Labs is a software that simplifies and manages the college selection and application process led by founders Martin Wolff and Steve Scharf.

PaperTale is a new software product founded by Dan Castagnoli designed to help manufacturers curb the $500 million dollar loss in paper coupons. Omaha.com reported that Castagnoli revealed in his pitch that people are using photo editing software to change coupons and dupe manufacturers and retail stores out of millions of dollars. In some cases these crooks change $5 coupons to $10 coupons.

While some accelerators immediately start taking applications for the next cohort the day after demo day, Ardinger is making sure that the teams that just graduated into the real business world adjust well. He’s also knee deep in Lincoln’s Startup Week going on all week long. NMotion’s demo day and then Startup Weekend were the official kick off events for Startup Week.

For more information on NMotion click here. Here a re some of our interviews with NMotion teams in our Startups In The Fastlane feature.

Startups In The Fastlane: NMotion Startup FiscalCircles

Whether you have an MBA or a GED, startup accelerators are often the biggest push that startups need to go from idea, or earliest MVP, to actual startup and company. Startup accelerators come in all sizes and shapes from YCombinator, 500 Startups, and Techstars to The Fort, The Brandery, and Seed Hatchery. In our Accelerating in the Fast Lane stories we’ll feature an interview with a startup currently going through an accelerator.

Nebraska is filled with startups and entrepreneurs. Warren Buffet hails from Nebraska, as does the Silicon Prairie News and their Big Series of award-winning conferences. On a recent trip to Nebraska, we got to hang out with Eric Moyer the co-founder and CMO of a startup that went into Lincoln, Nebraksa’s NMotion accelerator as Fiscal Circles and has since taken on the name, HipPocket.

HipPocket helps connect consumers to loan products in a more efficient and transparent way. Find out how in our interview with Moyer below.

What is the name of your start-up?

The name of our start-up has long been a loaded question. I am however happy to report, Fiscal Circles, Inc. is now doing business as HipPocket.

What problem are you solving?

We provide insight into consumer finance which until now has lacked any form of transparency. Consumers hoping to improve their financial situation have been forced to call around or ‘take a chance’ on a loan offer that may not be in their best interest through websites like lowermybills.com, quickenloans, etc.

Why now?

Consumer adoption of online banking and more specifically, personal financial management (PFM) sites like Mint.com is trending up. Further, interest rates are poised to increase markedly in the near term. We predict that timing is right for a vast number of consumers who have been on the fence about optimizing their finances will be motivated by a changing rate environment.

Who are your competitors?

The biggest competitor in the PFM space is mint.com, but we’ve also been diligently researching other providers in the space. We’ve seen some companies doing limited comparisons of budget or FICO score but none appear to be leveraging market and peer comparison data in a significant manner. We also have a secret sauce that we’re hoping you ask us about…

What’s your secret sauce?

Our proprietary process for taking users through the comparison process is our secret sauce. We help them build a complete financial picture and provide the clearest possible explanation of where they stand now and an easy-to-understand path to a better future. This process emphasizes simplicity and fairness. Instead of utilizing persistent reminders, info-graphics and a myriad of other tactics to change consumer behavior, we’ve chosen to concentrate on saving people money on the things they already buy.

By concentrating on making refinancing or finding a new mortgage easy and providing unbiased loan recommendations, we give the consumer a fair shot at getting the best deal.

Where are you/were you based before NMotion?

Prior to NMotion, our team split time among coffee shops, Turbine Flats (a co-working space) and of course, the founder’s homes.

Why NMotion?

We applied to NMotion to gain access to resources and best practices in an effort to improve our chances for success. Plus, NMotion is dedicated to developing the start-up community of Lincoln, Nebraska. We recognize that for our venture to succeed, the area needs to be seen as a viable place for new companies to gain a foothold. Brian Ardinger and his staff at NMotion have given participating teams every opportunity to develop and successfully launch compelling products and services.

What’s one lesson you’ve learned since the NMotion session has started.

One lesson we’ve learned is that the time spent validating assumptions might be worth more than what you’re building.

Where can people find out more?

You can find us on Facebook, Twitter and now, YourHipPocket.com.

Stay tuned for more stories from accelerators everywhere else.

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