Maxwell and Entry Envy won recognition for their innovative solutions by leaders in their respective industries, earning top honors and five-figure cash prizes in June.

That’s not all the two startups have in common. Both are led by 40-something-year-old women CEOs who pivoted from a corporate career to become a founder. Both are based in Omaha and have connections with NMotion — Entry Envy is in the current Growth Accelerator Cohort and Maxwell completed an NMotion pre-accelerator program in 2022.

Earlier this year Maxwell became the third ever company from Nebraska to complete a Techstars Accelerator.

Co-founded by Adriana Cisneros Basulto and Stephen Enke, Maxwell tries to help healthcare employers retain their employees through AI, behavioral science, and a lifestyle benefit account that attempts to deliver balance and joy.

Maxwell was awarded the SHRMLabs Better Workplaces Challenge Cup in an international competition hosted at the 2023 Society for Human Resource Management Conference and Expo in Las Vegas. SHRMLabs is the workplace innovation hub and venture capital arm of SHRM. The competition focuses on the most innovative HR startups, and consists of three rounds involving over 450 initial submissions from around the world. 

Entry Envy — founded by Jennifer Lea — offers a subscription service that delivers customized seasonal decorations for customers’ front doors and entryways. 

Lea’s company won the Subscription Trade Association’s annual pitch competition at SubSummit in Dallas, the top conference for direct-to-consumer subscription companies. This event brings the top four subscription-based startups of the year to pitch their company to four judges and hundreds of audience members. 

At Maxwell, a data-backed way to make work better 

CEO Cisneros Basulto’s early career spanned banking, project management and eventually human resources where she found her passion.

“At the end of the day, it dealt with what I deeply believe is the most important resource any company, organization or community has, and that is their people,” Cisneros Basulto said.

Her progression of HR work and personal experience handling work-life balance, along with her desire to prioritize an inclusive workplace, led her to create Maxwell, so she could help companies help their employees. 

Employees can use their Maxwell benefits to pay for things like pet insurance or mental health resources, or choose to divert the funds to pay for gas or groceries, Cisneros Basulto said. The money sits on a Maxwell debit card, which can be downloaded to an employee’s Apple wallet

Maxwell has the data to back up that this approach works, its leader says. 

In companies Maxwell works with, workplace retention goes up around 9%, even in tough industries like healthcare, Cisneros Basulto said. People use the app, with an average 93% utilization rate, she said.

Cisneros Basulto found out about the SHRMLabs Better Workplaces Challenge Cup in 2020, but didn’t feel that Maxwell was ready to compete until 2023 following a year-long process of developing the latest version of their product.

“I was like, Okay, let’s do it,” she said. “We’re at a point where we have the data to show it works, and we feel like we have a really great solution.”

The competition started with 450 initial submissions that judges narrowed down to 50 — half from the United States and half global brands. After winning their segment, Maxwell competed against the other four winners in the US semifinals, coming out on top once again. The Omaha startup moved on to the final round in Las Vegas.

The SHRM23 Annual Conference brought in over 20,000 attendees to engage about the world of human resources. The Better Workplaces Challenge Cup is one of the main events.

The panel of judges included Suzy Welch, a bestselling author on work-life balance, business journalist and NYU professor.

Cisneros Basulto had three minutes to do her pitch, and 10 minutes for questions. Her pitch earned Maxwell the $50,000 grand prize and the 2023 Better Workplaces Challenge Cup.

For Cisneros Basulto, winning this competition felt amazing in several ways. Having HR experts acknowledge that Maxwell’s retention solution can and does work made the company founder proud.

“I also feel proud as a woman on stage, and an immigrant and Latina,” Cisneros Basulto said.

At Entry Envy, two scary decisions lead to early success

Lea’s founder journey began in January of 2020, when she made the “hardest decision she’s made”, and got a divorce. During the COVID-19 pandemic Lea bought a house as a fixer upper and put in around 1,800 hours of work remodeling it. By April 2021, she was trying to add curb appeal to the outside, but couldn’t find any house numbers that appealed to her. 

Raised by a carpenter, she went to her garage and made the door sign that became the first concept for Entry Envy.

“When I came up with this idea, it was like an epiphany,” Lea said. “I don’t think I slept or ate for 48 hours, I just created this entire company in my head.”

While creating the company, Lea worked around 70 hours a week managing a law firm, which she had done for two decades. Eventually, she took the jump and quit her job to focus solely on Entry Envy. 

“I think the scariest decision I ever made was quitting my job,” Lea said. “Six-figure corporate income, single mom with two kids, to chase a dream and it’s so scary. It absolutely scares me every single day.”

Today, Entry Envy provides customers with a unique subscription, where at the base level they receive new decorations for $30 per month. They begin by choosing a product, which can be a house number or a custom-painted sign. From there, the monthly, or quarterly, subscription boxes provide new seasonal decorations for their front doors. 

While preparing to launch Entry Envy, Lea discovered the Subscription Trade Association and instantly signed up. Just three months after launching, she applied for the organization’s pitch competition for young companies. She was selected as a semifinalist, making the top 15 out of hundreds of applicants. After an initial pitch over Zoom, the judges did not advance Lea to the finals.

Instead, she was selected as the 2022 best new subscription of the year at the “Grammys of subscription services,” the Cube Awards.

“So, I’m shocked…I’m like, ‘Oh, my gosh, this is incredible,’” Lea said. “We’ve had that to celebrate over this past year.”

Once applications opened for the 2023 pitch competition, Lea was ready to throw her hat once again into the ring. This time Entry Envy made the cut. The committee advanced the Omaha startup into the final round along with three other subscription companies for the pitch competition – a 10-minute presentation in front of four  judges and a packed audience.

“I feel like I’ve pitched my company 150 times over the last year and a half,” she said. “But doing it in a pitch Shark Tank-style competition was very different on stage like that.” Lea’s efforts paid off as she was ultimately named the winner.

Lea said her access to NMotion was another reason for her success. A week before the competition, she practiced in front of members of their team. Their insight resulted in a totally different approach.

By winning this award, and being selected in front of hundreds of other subscription-based startups, Lea said she felt much more confident about her place as an entrepreneur. 

“I think it helps people that are maybe nonbelievers to go, huh there’s something here to pay attention to,” Lea said. “But for me, it’s about the confidence that I’ve got four real big judges that are also behind me.”