Omaha’s new accelerator, backed by Dundee Venture Capital, Straight Shot, is making waves in Silicon Prairie. The cohort based accelerator, led by Faith Larson, is taking a big city approach to their accelerator class. Larson and her team have provided an intense amount of mentoring activities, speakers and networking events to make sure their teams are more than ready come demo day.

They’ve also taken a firm position in Omaha’s rapidly growing tech community. Their latest effort is a hackathon happening next weekend called CodeOne.

When Straight Shot partner First National Bank of Omaha decided that they wanted to see some new ideas and technology for their online web platform they turned to the team at Straight Shot. Together they decided to host a hackathon and engage the tech community to help with the banks platform.

The hackathon starts next Friday afternoon and runs through Sunday. Food, drinks, and plenty of caffeine will be supplied to the registrants. The bank is transforming their WinterGarden employee cafe space into a collaborative workspace for all of the hackers

Hackathons like this have created a stir in startup communities in the past. Perhaps most notably was Nashville’s “Code Crush” event. Some hackers are leery of corporations backing a hackathon for the sole purpose of developing their companies technology.

To that end First National Bank of Omaha has been a great partner to the Omaha tech and entrepreneurial community. Not only that but they are giving away $13,000 in cash for the top three teams. First prize is $10,000 cash. Second prize is $2,000 cash and third prize is $1,000 cash.

Throughout the weekend event First National Bank of Omaha will also be looking for potential candidates for their internship program which could lead to employment with the bank down the road. They’ve also made it quite clear developers will be developing for the First National Bank platform. I also hear that the food will be great, we’re not talking just chips,soda and pizza.

It’s looking like CodeOne will be an amazing event for developers, designers, coders and hackers. You still have a few days left to register and if you’re confident your three person team can knock it out of the ball park there could be some money in it for you as well.

Here’s a link to registration.

While you’re at it don’t forget to register for Everywhere Else Cincinnati, the huge national startup conference is just two weeks away. Dundee Capital’s Mark Hasebroock is one of our 30 top notch startup speakers.

Omaha Nebraska is no stranger to startups. Regional mega blog Silicon Prairie News is based there, and they’ve been holding the Big Omaha startup conference for the last five years. Earlier this month SPN welcomed even more startups to the Silicon Prairie with the announcement of the inaugural class of startups for the new cohort based accelerator program beginning July 8.

The accelerator has a focus on e-commerce with a variety of startups going through the first class. There are 14 founders in all and 7 startups. Four of the startups are from outside of Omaha and are starting to get settled in now before the fourth of July holiday.

According to SPN Hayneedle founder Mark Hasebroock is the brains behind Straight Shot. In the early part of the new millennium Hasebroock helped found hammocks.com an online site to buy hammocks. He helped grow the company into Hayneedle, one of internets largest retailers of outdoor goods, decorative items and items for the home.

Hasebroock is now the Managing Partner for Dundee Venture Capital, the firm that’s backing Straight Shot. But Hasebroock didn’t want to just create a startup accelerator because it’s the in thing to do in 2013. He has set a goal of growing 100 viable companies throughout the next 10 years. Hasebroock is no stranger to the accelerator, he’s currently a mentor in 3 accelerators, The Brandery in Cincinnati and Techstars Boulder and Chicago.

As with other accelerators, Straight Shot will be fueled by money, mentors and a mission to get the startups to an investible story by the end of the session. Local Omaha entrepreneurs are very excited about their newest entrepreneurial endeavor. Jake Stutzman the founder of elevate.co a local design firm that specializes in startups, is serving as a mentor for this first class and told nibletz.com that he’s been scoping out the startups and has already started informally working with some of the startups that are local to Omaha.

The program runs from July 8th to October 3rd and will culminate with an investor demo day at the end of the session. Straight Shot received 367 applications for it’s very first class. Silicon Prairie News reports that these are the startups selected:

	CardioSys (Omaha) “CardioSys is still developing the full SaaS model,” Larson said. CardioSys combines advanced mobile and wireless technologies along with predictive analytics in order to provide a real-time monitoring platform for patients with acute or chronic illnesses.
	Crateful (Omaha) “Crateful still has further product development but they actually have active DJs who are utilizing the product they’ve developed,” Larson said. Crateful uses advanced audio and data analytics techniques to make tools that help music enthusiasts with their No. 1 problem: finding the best music for the moment.
	BuyNow (Omaha) “BuyNow is out pitching, they have a trademarked product and are in the middle of their sales campaign,” Larson said. BuyNow is a mobile-commerce app that enables consumers to instantly purchase advertised products/services off of any multimedia ad by sending an SMS text message.
	Huntforce (Louisville, Ken.) “Huntforce is currently in the prototype phase for a hardware component that it’s developing,” Larson said. With HuntForce, hunters can view, organize, manage and share photos of their property and game from their mobile devices.
	Cosmic Cart (Durham, N.C.) “Cosmic cart has signed up retailers, actually active publishers and has some commerce that’s being transacted,” Larson said. Cosmic Cart adds convenience and security to online shopping by allowing users to add products into one shopping cart from anywhere online.
	Cympel (pronounced “simple”) (Minneapolis, Minn.) “Cympel has had pilot companies and is in final product development stages,” Larson said. Cympel delivers interactive advertisements and the ability for a customer to immediately purchase the product without redirection.
	Business Exchange (San Francisco, Calif.) Through the Business Exchange platform, businesses can provide feedback, insight, recommendations, reviews and ratings to one another based on real-world transactions.