After an exciting announcement for start-ups yesterday from Leap Ventures, we received a press release from Invest Nebraska Corporation today announcing the launch of its Operational Assistance program, which will invest up to $25,000 in selected companies. (Will we be seeing another announcement tomorrow? Let’s hope so.)

From Lincoln:

Invest Nebraska Corporation, a non-profit venture development organization, announced today the launch of its Operational Assistance program.

The Operational Assistance Program is designed to spark angel and venture capital investment throughout the state of Nebraska. To accomplish this goal, the program is focused on helping companies that have demonstrated potential to attract angel investors (high net worth individuals), or venture capital, in order to become truly ready to attract major capital investments.

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“Many companies we see have the potential to get funded but are missing one or two key milestones that angel and venture capital investors seek,” said Dan Hoffman, executive director of the organization.

“This program helps them overcome that last hurdle – whether it be applying for patent protection, developing a working prototype, completing capital raise documents, or conducting market validation research,” he added.

Companies selected to participate in the Operational Assistance Program will receive up to $25,000 of investment from Invest Nebraska to complete the key milestones that will position them to attract high-growth capital later on. Hoffman indicated that the organization plans to fund at least four to six companies in 2009. Interested companies should complete an application and return it to Invest Nebraska. The application can be found at www.investnebraska.com.

To qualify for the Operational Assistance Program, companies must:

* Be based in, or willing to relocate to, Nebraska. * Have the potential to become backed by angel or venture capital investors. * Be positioned so that operational assistance from Invest Nebraska can significantly impact their probability of achieving funding from sophisticated angel and venture capital investors.

“The program is focused on those situations where Invest Nebraska’s capital and assistance can have a meaningful impact on their ability to attract capital,” said Invest Nebraska Corp’s Operational Assistance Committee chairperson, John Gustafson of Ideation Ventures.

“While it is not focused on companies that have many items to complete before raising capital, those companies are invited to apply early to get advance feedback,” Gustafson explained.

Added Invest Nebraska’s chairman, Matt McNair of the University of Nebraska Foundation: “The addition of the Operational Assistance program is an important complement to our regional New Venture Competitions across the state.”

To date, Invest Nebraska Corporation has organized new venture competitions in Scottsbluff, Norfolk and McCook, Nebraska, with two more competitions planned for 2009.

Invest Nebraska is funded through the Nebraska Department of Economic Development and private contributions. To learn more about the organization, visit www.investnebraska.com.

You can check out coverage about the competitions listed above on their “in the news” page: investnebraska.com/inthenews. Also, you may recognize Invest Nebraska from our Creative Capital Pitch Session, which they and Nomad Lounge have partnered with us to hold. It’s evident that Dan and his team really care about the future of Nebraska. We’ll be excited to follow those that recieve their funding.