Mark Zmarzly (above) pitches Hip Pocket, a service that gives users context in financial decision-making.

It’s over. After twelve weeks of hard work, the five companies chosen to take part in Lincoln startup accelerator NMotion’s inaugural class presented their products at Thursday’s Demo Day.

“We’re here to celebrate our first graduating class,” said Brian Ardinger, managing director of NMotion. “And more importantly, we have people in the room to keep the momentum going here in Nebraska.”

One hundred eighty-six people signed up at Thursday’s event, which was hosted in the Nebraska Alumni Champion’s Club on the University of Nebraska-Lincoln campus. Each startup had about ten minutes to pitch their product and was allowed some time for questions from the crowd.

While the event was part actual pitch—some investors were in the audience—the demo day also served as the the program’s final “practice round.”

 “It was exciting to see the culmination of a complete community effort,” Ardinger said.  “NMotion’s success and the success of the startups has been the result of a mentors, investors, community leaders and fellow startups giving their time and resources to make the startup ecosystem grow. It’s an exciting time to be an entrepreneur in the Silicon Prairie.”

Each startup is now on its way to building a business. As alumni of the program, Ardinger said each would still receive support from the startup community. NMotion will accept applications for the next year’s class later this year.

Brian Ardinger (left) and Daniel Castagnoli (right) talk before the pitches began at NMotion’s Demo Day.

Learn more about the five startups in NMotion’s inaugural class: 

Hip Pocket | Mark Zmarzly

Hip Pocket is a financial planning service that allows people to compare what kind of deals their peers are making. This would allow users to make more informed decisions when choosing a mortgage, refinancing a loan and attempting to save money.

Mark Zmarzly, CEO and inventor of Hip Pocket, has a background in the banking industry and said he’s witnessed firsthand that few people know what kinds of deals they’re actually getting. “Without any context, there is no confidence,” Zmarzly said in his pitch.

Hip Pocket currently is focused on working with Union Bank & Trust in Lincoln and discussing plans with investors.

Alumni Labs | Steve Scharf and Martin Wolff

Behind every new college student are dozens of application forms. Applying for college can be an increasingly tedious task when it comes to keeping track of dates and staying on top of multiple files.

“Getting (to college) is the challenge,” said Steve Scharf, Alumni Labs‘ developer. During their pitch, Scharf and co-founder Martin Wolff said their simple color-coded design can help parents and prospective students keep track of what items are due and when.

Alumni Labs hopes to have the application up for all Nebraska schools by the end of September and plans to expand nationwide by 2014. 

SynerScan Technologies | Brett Byman

While modern life is becoming more digitized, technology in the medical industry largely isn’t. Paper and pencils are still used to track nurse rounds, and phone operators still coordinate conversations between patients and families about medical statuses. In January, Lincoln’s Bryan Health asked for help and SynerScan Technologies answered the call.

Since then the SyncerScan team has created an application that helps digitize patient information. Once nurses log in, they can log patient’s status and see where help is needed. The app also provides statistics on the nursing staff’s performance.

“In a nutshell we provide visibility,” said co-founder Brett Byman. “Visibility for the family members to see the quality of care their family members are getting, visibility for nurses to see ahead to where patients need attention and where and visibility for management.”

Cinnamon Post | Holly Petersen

Cinnamon Post is a social media service that allows businesses to communicate across platforms with an app-generated voice. “We’re producing quality precision content in a brand’s voice,”  said founder Holly Petersen.

Petersen said her startup’s market is new businesses that may not have the manpower or knowledge to maintain an effective social media presence. Cinnamon Post figures out how to best communicate as a particular brand and self-posts social media content.

Papertale  | Daniel Castagnoli

Consumers can save billions by using coupons but modern technology makes it much easier to create fakes. Even some retail store scanners can’t verify if a coupon is real or fake. Enter Papertale, a startup that seeks to change that by providing instant document authentication.

“(Retailers) assume all of the coupons are correct,” founder Daniel Castagnoli said. Papertale communicates with manufacturers to authenticate each coupon, similarly to how debit and credit cards must be authenticated before use. In the future Castagnoli said he hopes to expand his product to provide authentication for degrees, prescriptions and other forms that are commonly forged.

Credits: Photos by Daniel Wheaton.