The second annual Silicon Prairie Startup Week Startup Showcase and Pitch Competition are occurring tonight at Millwork Commons, giving 19 Nebraska-based startups the opportunity to network with the community and be selected to pitch live for a grand prize of $10,000. Last year, then University of Nebraska-Lincoln sophomores Kenny Morales and Wilson Overfield won the competition for their school discovery-and-matching app, FindU. 

Now juniors, Morales and Overfield said the prize money helped validate their work and inspire them to keep building their company. This year, FindU launched its MVP for user feedback before officially releasing the latest version of the app to download earlier this fall.

“I think a lot of young founders and just people who are building stuff should do it in the open,” Overfield said. “People see what we’re doing and then they are already thinking of like, ‘Oh, they should connect with these people,’ or ‘This would be a good idea for them to do this.’” 

Beyond participating in additional pitch competitions and networking events throughout the Nebraska ecosystem — such as winning the Ega Pitch Competition at AfroFest Omaha 2025 and talking at 1 Million Cups Omaha — the two have been accepted into entrepreneurial programming at UNL for students to develop their own ventures. These include the Nebraska Entrepreneurship Accelerator and the Jeffrey S. Raikes School of Computer Science and Management Startup Studio. 

Through Startup Studio, FindU has grown its team with other UNL students enrolled in the course, as well as with connections Morales and Overfield have made through the Raikes School. With their expanded marketing and outreach capabilities, Morales and Overfield said they have achieved significant traction and thousands of views across social media platforms. They have also created a high school ambassador program, giving Nebraska high school students incentives and applicable experience while they work to get fellow students signed up on the platform. 

Assistant Director of Startup Studio Jake Koperski said this is the second year formal programming has been up and running for Raikes School students interested in building a startup for their capstone project. He said each startup that participates in Startup Studio receives a $100,000 SAFE note from Invest Nebraska, where half the money comes from Invest Nebraska and the other half is matched by community partners and investors.

As Startup Studio is usually attended by seniors preparing to graduate, Koperski said Morales and Overfield participating as juniors reflected their “gusto” and impressive momentum. In order to get into the program, prospective students need to pitch their startups at a pitch competition judged by local business leaders, investors and founders. Morales and Overfield’s drive and character, he said, convinced the judges to accept them into the program.

“If we don’t support them, they’re going to go build this anyway,” Koperski said. “So we might as well help while we can — while they’re here in college.”

Morales and Overfield said their main focus for FindU is expanding its users. By getting more high school students on the platform, they said they hope to spark discussions with school leadership to get FindU integrated as a resource into school districts and colleges across the state. 

Besides FindU, Morales and Overfield said they have a larger ambition of building a venture studio in Nebraska to empower more founders and startups. They pointed to their other current ventures, such as a software development agency they are running, as well as their efforts in connecting creatives and builders across campuses, the community and beyond. 

“One thing we’ve noticed is a lot of our growth has just been on working on these silly projects, working on FindU,” Morales said. 

“Maybe we can retain a lot more of these talented people once they graduate college and go past their 20s because they are building something successful here,” Overfield said. “And they feel like they have the network and the talent around them to make their dreams happen.”

Interested attendees of the 2025 SPSW Startup Showcase and Pitch Competition can register online and learn more about other events occurring during SPSW.