Dundee Venture Capital’s Mark Hasebroock addresses more than 150 people at Straight Shot’s kickoff for its second class on Wednesday. Founders of the seven companies listen in the back left.
When Corey Anand, a startup founder out of Chicago, was asked to join Straight Shot, an accelerator in Omaha, he was ready to get out of his element.
“I’ve never been to Omaha, but this was three months out of my life that I could be heads down and work on my company,” Anand said Wednesday night after the accelerator shared its second class of seven ecommerce and SaaS startups.
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Despite Anand’s unfamiliarity with Omaha, he was told good things about a strong community willing to give their time and expertise.
“This is not about the investment,” Anand (left) said. “You go through $20K quick, and then you need another $20K. No, this is about the long term—the rich and meaningful connections you make and the people who can support your mission.”
He found that Dundee Venture Capital’s Mark Hasebroock and Beth Engel and Straight Shot Director David Arnold appreciated his vision for Kitchin—his startup that creates a digital kitchen inventory and recipe finder based on what’s in your cabinets—so he committed.
Wednesday, he found himself with the floor and more than 150 people’s eyes on him at Straight Shot’s kickoff event at its new 12,000-square-foot home at the Wareham building.
“What’s for dinner? It’s a tough question,” began his two-minute pitch for Kitchin in front of an audience of friends, families, mentors, tech community members and even some investors. “You see what groceries you have at home, but don’t know what to make. Kitchin is a digital kitchen where you take a snapshot of your receipt and it creates an inventory and helps you find the best recipes to prepare using the ingredients you have.”
This is about companies getting to their goals faster, Arnold told the crowd. They had 220 applications and chose the seven best to get $20,000 in funding, networking, curriculum and 90 days of acceleration.
“It’s connecting to mentors, finding goals, getting talent on board, raising capital,” he said. “We had 350 
people say they would be mentors last year. We had 450 people at demo day last year. That is a testament to this community.
“Omaha is a great place for a program like this because it relies on good mentors who are charitable with time and resources.”
The class is a diverse one: two women, minorities, younger, older, those with experience in startups, those without. Its seven founders shared their pitch and mingled with the crowd.
Jill Thayer Liliedahl, the newly selected CEO for SitStay, was already validating when she met a longtime customer at the event.
They talked for nearly 10 minutes about what she liked to see on the site: more personalized recommendations and a reputable “WebMD for dogs” to see what supplements or food works best for dogs with certain ailments.
SitStay is a unique company in the accelerator: it’s been around for 19 years, starting as an early pet product website during the dot com boom, but has turned over many times over the years.
Liliedahl, a former Nelnet Innovation Hub employee who also helped at Lincoln’s NMotion accelerator, said she pitched the idea of participating in an accelerator during her interview for the job because she’s seen the benefits of them firsthand.
“It is an unusual fit,” she said of an old company in an accelerator. “But we’re operating like it’s the 90s and we’re in the position to see if where we’re going is a scalable and repeatable model. There are a lot of options, so we are going to try several options out and fail fast.”
She said she’s excited to work with Hasebroock, who also started ecommerce company Hayneedle.
“After three days of being here, I feel like any barrier we have had in the past is removed,” she said.
You can read more about the seven Straight Shot startups here.
