Yaw Odame and Caity Klitz, co-founders of Seamster, knew they had to move to Lincoln, Nebraska, if they wanted to start a company.
“We were talking about building this thing, and we kind of joked with our friends, ‘Hey, we should move [to Lincoln],’” said Odame. “Food doesn’t cost as much, and rent is really cheap.”
Odame and Klitz were living in downtown Chicago at the time. They didn’t even know about the startup community in Lincoln before they moved. It was purely an economic decision.
But last year Odame and Klitz officially launched Seamster in Lincoln, and this year they joined the NMotion accelerator.
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“We’re getting beat up a lot,” said Odame, referring to the program’s intensity. “But we are learning a lot too.”
What is Seamster?
Seamster allows users to create content that can be effortlessly shared across a variety of channels.
“It’s an adaptive content platform,” said Odame. “It allows you to create variations of your content and tag it for different audiences.”
For example, a tourism organization would be able to send slightly different versions of content to different states with a click.
“The digital landscape is constantly evolving”
Most content management systems, like HubSpot and Optimizely, focus on metrics. Seamster is for those who already know their audience but want to deliver custom content based on time, audience’s location and device.
“The digital landscape is constantly evolving and as result it has become increasingly difficult to manage experiences across various channels,” said Odame.
Seamster is being built for a future beyond just websites.
“The popular definition of CMS [Content Management System] is something that manages a web site,” said Odame. “But this is pure content management.”
The Seamster API will be able to push content to web sites, apps, kiosks, digital signage, even print, from a single platform.
From Chicago to Lincoln
Before moving to Lincoln, Odame worked out of a coworking space affiliated with the University of Chicago.
“It was basically Fuse times ten,” said Odame.
Odame found it hard to find willing mentors and partners.
“It was very, very dense,” said Odame. “It was very hard to make introductions there and get help.”
Odame has found the Lincoln community to be the complete opposite experience.
“Every connection here immediately leads to another,” said Odame. “In the first two weeks, reaching out to 5 people led to meeting 15 other people. That was great.”
What’s next for Seamster
Seamster’s four member team is three weeks into NMotion so far. They are continuing customer validation interviews and nearing private beta testing stage.
“We have a couple content marketing agencies that are interested in using our application,” said Odame.
Odame feels they are on the leading edge of a new era of content marketing.
“A lot more content professionals are talking about adaptive content,” said Odame. “We hope to be in that space and to help them do that.”
