How the Business Innovation Act helps NMotion founders advance Nebraska’s economy

Kearney-based Fast Forward received strategic investments from the Business Innovation Act and is creating high wage jobs in central Nebraska

The grass is always greener where you water it. The Business Innovation Act does exactly that.

What if you knew that by investing $1 into a Nebraska startup, you would trigger $11.52 in additional investments? What if you knew that by investing $1 into a Nebraska startup, you would help it generate $11.50 in revenue?

Up until recently, it was a no brainer. You’d make those strategic investments every day, all day, especially if you want to make sure your best and brightest can build new, high wage paying companies here in Nebraska.

That’s the economic impact the Business Innovation Act and all of its strategic investment programs makes. It’s just good business and good for the future of Nebraska.

With reams of research to back up the claim, the Business Innovation Act has propelled Nebraska from the bottom of the barrel to the top half of states in terms of startup success. But out of nowhere, the state of Nebraska announced it was pausing funds already appropriated without giving a reason.

Just becoming aware about the Business Innovation Act? Here is a quick Mug.News primer on its programs and impact. Plus, here is a Guest Editorial from Tech Nebraska’s Executive Director supporting its reinstatement.

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The Business Innovation Act is Nebraska’s secret weapon. It is a competitive advantage we have over other states in the region. These programs have helped attract Nebraska founders back to the state and keep those already here from leaving for greener pastures.

Not only has the Business Innovation Act made it possible for Invest Nebraska to co-invest in every NMotion powered by gener8tor company, it has helped generate valuable non-dilutive grant funding to help founders build their prototypes without giving up additional ownership.

It has been a rare area of agreement in the political arena. Nebraska legislators and Governors across the political spectrum agreed this was one of the best strategic investments they could make to advance Nebraska’s economy.

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But don’t take our word for it. Here is what NMotion founders have to say about the impact the Business Innovation Act has helped them make an impact here in Nebraska.

Stacy Dam, CEO and Co-Founder, Set Your Sites

We are deeply grateful for the support provided through the State of Nebraska’s Business Innovation Act (BIA), particularly the Prototype Grant and investment through Invest Nebraska’s matching funds with NMotion and leading our pre-seed round. This investment has been nothing short of transformational for our company and for the communities we serve.

Since receiving the Prototype Grant and NMotion-Invest Nebraska matching funds, Set Your Sites has grown from a single pilot location at Lake Wanahoo in Wahoo to managing more than 600 campsites across four states, generating six-figure sales within just 10 months. Our ability to innovate quickly with this funding, helped position us to be named Nebraska’s Innovation Business of the Year by Governor Pillen and the Nebraska Business Development Center, an honor we will forever cherish, further staking our determination to innovate locally.

BIA funding enabled us to bring innovative solutions to market rapidly and with capital efficiency—momentum that directly attracted private investment. In the months following our Prototype Grant award, Set Your Sites secured a $500,000 pre-seed round led by Invest Nebraska. Their lead investment brought our round to the finish line and the financial support gave us the resources we needed to grow from a part-time team of two to a dedicated team of six, with contracts now deployed from coast to coast.

The Prototype Grant did more than accelerate our growth; it created high-quality Nebraska tech jobs, fostered new partnerships, and helped generate increased revenue for Natural Resource Districts, the Nebraska State Fair and private campgrounds, dollars that are being reinvested right here in our state. Programs like BIA are foundational to Nebraska’s innovation ecosystem, providing a launchpad for companies that might otherwise struggle to gain traction.

We are currently preparing to apply for an SBIR award through the USDA—a critical next step toward national commercialization—the SBIR match offered through the Business Innovation Act has been a major factor in our decision to pursue this federal grant. Without this match, the incentive to build and scale our operations in Nebraska diminishes.

Other states, including Minnesota, Iowa, and Wyoming, continue to offer SBIR matching programs. The current pause on Nebraska’s program puts homegrown companies like ours at a competitive disadvantage and forces us to revisit where best to base our long-term operations.

We respectfully urge the reinstatement of Business Innovation Act funding as soon as possible. This program is vital to fostering entrepreneurship, retaining innovative companies, and ensuring Nebraska remains a national hub for technological advancement and economic development.

Set Your Sites is proud to be a Nebraska company founded by University of Nebraska graduates with small town Nebraska roots. By reinstating BIA, we are confident in our ability to keep building, innovating, and hiring right here at home.

Kent Campbell, CEO and Co-Founder, Quantum Qool

The Business Innovation Act has been foundational to Quantum Qool’s launch and Nebraska-based growth and its loss would directly undercut our ability to build a globally competitive deep-tech company here in the state. The Act is not an abstract policy for us. It truly is the mechanism that made this company exist and for it to be possible for both founders to come back to Nebraska.​ Without the BIA-backed capital from the likes of Invest Nebraska, it's very unlikely that we could have attracted sufficient private investment at this early, hardware-intensive stage in the state.

The BIA’s Prototype Grant and Academic R&D Grant programs are exactly the tools Quantum Qool needs to de-risk and commercialize our disruptive thermal management technology. These programs help companies like ours turn high-potential lab innovations into manufacturable products in partnership with Nebraska universities and local talent.​

Both Quantum Qool co-founders are Nebraskans who left the state for other careers, then made intentional decisions to return and build here because of incentives like the BIA and the strong signal it sent about Nebraska’s commitment to innovation. Knowing that BIA capital, prototype support, and academic R&D partnerships were available was a key factor in choosing Nebraska over other tech hubs.​ Preserving and even strengthening the BIA will determine whether companies like Quantum Qool are built in Nebraska or someplace else.

Claudia Munoz-Najar & Armando Salgado, Co-Founders, Build Más

Without the Business Innovation Act, our ability to initiate Build Mas would have been considerably limited, if not entirely unattainable. It provided the essential capital to develop and improve our initial product, which now serves over 20 small trade contractors. Furthermore, participating in NMotion marked a significant milestone for our organization, as it introduced us to the Nebraska ecosystem and enabled access to numerous opportunities.

Dennis Einspahr, CEO and Founder, Tour Golf League

The Business Innovation Act helped Tour Golf League, a manufacturer of glow golf products for golf courses, accelerate our research and development efforts at a critical stage.

By receiving the BIA, Tour Golf League was able to invest further into research and development. After successfully completing R&D, we were able to purchase injection molds to establish scalable manufacturing of glow products. With manufacturing now established, we are preparing to distribute nationwide out of Nebraska. None of this possible with out the BIA.

More specifically, I want to highlight the direct impact the BIA grant had on other Nebraska businesses through our manufacturing development. Tour Golf League became Big O 3D Print and Design’s first major customer in 2024, a local product design company. The funds Big O 3D Print and Design received from Tour Golf League as a result of the BIA allowed them to purchase additional 3D-printing machines to expand their operations. Big O 3D Print and Design is now a growing business in Omaha supporting other startups just as it supported us.

Outside of the manufacturing impact, the BIA grant also enabled us to invest in sales. In a short time, we expanded our course partners in Nebraska from 3 to 16, resulting in more revenue for golf courses during unused business hours, increased part-time job opportunities, and new activities for Nebraskans to participate in at night.

The BIA grant creates an immeasurable downstream and long term impact, and without it, Nebraska will miss out on the valuable benefits that come from innovation investment.

Jessi Korinek, CEO and Co-Founder, Nave Analytics

The Business Innovation Act has been the single most critical mechanism for de-risking our technology and successfully attracting private capital to Nebraska.

As an AgTech company developing advanced sensor-free soil moisture intelligence, we relied on the BIA to prove our concept. The Prototype Grants (received twice) provided the crucial, non-dilutive capital needed to develop and validate our initial data pipeline. This validation was the required foundation that allowed us to secure a key pre-seed investment from Invest Nebraska.

Without the BIA, we would have lacked the sequential funding required to move from research to a scalable commercial product, and we likely would have been forced to seek our growth capital outside of Nebraska. Our recent SBIR/STTR match award is a critical validation. By matching federal R&D dollars, the BIA amplifies the state’s return on investment, accelerating the development of advanced algorithms and ensuring that cutting-edge geospatial science and data technology is commercialized by a Nebraska company.

We are profoundly grateful because the BIA allowed us to build a high-growth technology company right here in the heartland. The Act didn't just give us money; it gave us a full ecosystem—from the initial grant funding to the business structure provided by incubators accelerators like NMotion and The Combine—that recognizes the unique needs of a deep-tech startup.

By enabling Nave Analytics to grow, the BIA is fulfilling its mandate to create high-wage jobs and drive the next generation of technological innovation within Nebraska's most vital industry, agriculture.

Joe Toscano, CEO and Co-Founder, Service Stories

I am deeply grateful for the Business Innovation Act and the vision Nebraska's leaders had in creating it. This funding is part of the reason I decided to move back home to Nebraska from NYC to start my company. The state's commitment to supporting entrepreneurs was a decisive factor in my decision to come back to Nebraska.

Shortly after founding Service Stories, we were awarded $80,000 through the prototype grant program - funding that proved absolutely transformative. I can say with complete confidence that we would not be where we are today without that support, and it's quite likely our company simply wouldn't exist. That investment allowed us to hire a full-time developer and bring on two supporting team members part-time, giving us the technical capacity we needed to build our product. Because of this funding, we're on track to complete our MVP by the end of the year and will have a full-featured product ready to launch.

I'm particularly proud that all of these talented team members we've hired are right here in Nebraska. We're creating good jobs and generating tax revenue that flows back into the state - exactly the kind of economic multiplier effect the BIA was designed to achieve. It's incredibly rewarding to be part of that virtuous cycle.

What makes me most grateful is how the BIA demonstrates Nebraska's commitment to being a place where entrepreneurs can thrive. Without programs like this, companies like ours would be forced to seek funding from out-of-state sources, and over time, that pattern could lead businesses to relocate to markets with stronger financial ecosystems. The BIA ensures that Nebraska remains competitive and attractive for the next generation of entrepreneurs.

I hope the state will reverse its current decision in favor of maintaining this vital program that turns innovative ideas into thriving Nebraska businesses.

Emma Sheyi, CEO and Co-Founder, Immigify

The Business Innovation Act has played a foundational role in helping us launch and grow Immigify. We quite literally would not be where we are today without the support provided through the BIA programs.

Invest Nebraska, through the NMotion accelerator, invested in us early and gave us the initial lift we needed to build momentum. Their partnership not only provided critical capital but also opened doors to mentorship, networks, and credibility at a stage when most startups struggle to find footing.

Additionally, the Prototype Grant was instrumental in enabling us to build our native AI model—technology that sits at the core of our platform today. This funding allowed us to experiment, iterate, and develop a high-impact product that would have been extremely difficult to build without early non-dilutive support. Thanks to this, we’ve been able to create a scalable, tech-enabled solution for immigrants navigating complex processes, and we’ve grown into a mission-driven company making meaningful impact.

We are deeply grateful because the BIA didn’t just help us start—it allowed us to sustain and grow a high-impact business built right here in Nebraska. Their belief in our vision has empowered us to serve thousands of users, build cutting-edge technology, and contribute to the state’s innovation ecosystem in ways that wouldn’t have been possible otherwise.

Founders, You are Your First (and Best) Salesperson

Guest Post: Emma Sheyi, Immigify

NMotion Blog sponsored by UBT

I’ve always believed and aligned with the fact that in the early days of a startup, the founders must lead the sales effort. There’s no better crash course in understanding your market than being the one pitching, handling objections, and closing deals yourself.

When you’re the one selling, you gain a front-row seat to:
1, The friction in your product-sales cycle
2. The skepticism behind customer adoption
3. The emotional triggers that actually drive conversions

These insights are gold — and no sales hire can uncover them for you as deeply as you can.

Over the years (and across my third startup now with Ayodeji Adesola), one consistent truth has stood out: we grow fastest when we first identify what actually works in sales before bringing in a team.

Once we find the winning motion or channel, that becomes our baseline playbook for any new salesperson. It gives them a head start while they explore and optimize other growth levers.

Because here’s the thing — if you can’t sell your own product, you might not have a sales problem. You might have a product-market fit or ICP definition problem.

So before you rush to hire a sales team, spend time being the seller yourself.

You’ll come out with sharper insights, stronger conviction, and a sales motion that actually scales.

Visit the Immigify website today. 

Stacy and Dustin Dam, Set Your Sites

NMotion Blog sponsored by UBT

When Stacy and Dustin Dam started taking their family camping more, they were surprised to learn how behind the technology curve most campsites were. As they began to think about, they realized they could something about.  

Stacy was a top performing admissions director in higher education and Jedi level CRM database wizard, while Dustin has worked on several hardware and software projects (including for NASA and Amazon Kuiper Satellites). 

Together, they created Set Your Sites with the idea to make the experience of getting a campsite much easier than it is. Since then, they  completed the NMotion Accelerator Fall 2024 cohort, won the Governor's "Most Innovative Business Award",  received the LaunchLNK grant, and landed several campsites around the region.

This summer, Set Your Sites powered the Nebraska State Fair campsites. The team lived onsite in their own RV to better understand their customers' problems first hand.  

Before they and their growing team dive into the busy Fall conference season, we asked them to share the lessons they've learned on this journey: 

If you could teleport back to when you started Set Your Sites, what advice would you give yourself? 

Don't fixate on your perfect customer and burn time building what you think they need. Be open to who has early interest in your initial product, gather data quickly, fail fast and see where the journey takes you. We would have never guessed our customer profile is what it is today and we couldn't be more grateful for how it has turned out. 

What has been the toughest decision you have had to make? 

We have had to part ways quickly with some employees that were our first hires. We were hopeful that they would be a part of the founding team but it became apparent that the vision wasn't working. It is not easy moving from founder led to adding a team. We have learned so much from this process and in the end we made the right choice but it is always difficult when livelihoods are involved. 

Who do you lean on to help refuel and recharge your mind/body/spirit? 

Our first thought wasn't who but what do we lean on and it is being outside. One of the benefits of the business is hitting a trail, launching the boat or getting lost somewhere is encouraged. Nature has been our greatest teacher and healer when we need a recharge and reminder why we do what we do in the first place. 

What hacks and tricks have you developed to connect with customers? 

We get in the camper and embed ourselves wherever our customers are! We live the problem we are solving for from the perspective of the camper and also campground manager. We camp every chance we get, serving as camp hosts and extra hands. You don't learn about the problem from hearing about it on a Zoom call, the good stuff comes from seeing the problem play out in real life. These opportunities inform your next steps really well.

Visit the Set Your Sites website today. 

Playing in the Sandbox is Serious Business

You're a busy founder rising and grinding, why participate in hackathons?

Our human brains are wired to do three things very well:

1. catalog resources

2. make and use tools

3. collaborate with others

With the seemingly increasing pace of technological advancement, you don't have time or mental bandwidth to keep track of everything. That's where your fellow humans come in to help you.

Hackathons, design challenges, and other time-constrained challenges are fun opportunities to zoom out from the day-to-day of startup survival to play with new problems, tools, and people.

Play is a powerful creative force. It helps your brain see the world with a fresh perspective. It encourages new combinations. It leads to new horizons.

If you are in or near Nebraska, you have two excellent chances to come play with us in the sandbox in the coming weeks. BOTH ARE FREE EVENTS AND WILL OFFER FOOD & DRINK!

Saturday, September 27: Ten Hour Challenge X JumpStart Challenge

This collaboration offers you the chance to spend one day in the sandbox solving real-world problems pitched by real-world organizations. Or to freestyle on problems/ideas of your own.

This year, topics of interest under the JumpStart Challenge include artificial intelligence, civic tech and ag tech. Partnering entities posing challenge prompts and subject matter experts include engineering firm Olsson and the Iowa-Nebraska Equipment Dealers Association.

You then have the choice to keep working on your solution for 10 days to compete for real-world cash prizes and the chance to work with real-world customers. Read more about what to expect here and then register here.

Saturday, October 11: Breakthrough Weekend - Short & Scrappy Edition

Join students and community members at UNO for this even shorter event. You can bring your own idea or join a team.

Either way, you can leverage CodeBuddy to turn your concept into actual working software. They will be onsite to help folks leverage their AI-driven software development tool.

It's free. It's fun. Food provided.

Learn more and register here.

Build Just Enough: Why Founders Should Sell While They Ship

By Scott Henderson, Managing Principal, NMotion powered by gener8tor

If there’s one message we hammer home to founders over and over again, it’s this: More people fail by building too much too early than by selling too soon.

In other words, build just enough. 

Build just enough to prove there’s someone willing to pay for it. Build just enough to test the assumptions that could kill your business before it even starts.

Driving Two Horses Forward in Tandem

If you think of yourself as a farmer driving a team of two yoked horses, you start to understand this approach. One of the horses is Proof of Concept and the other is Proof of Customers.

To plow the field, you can’t just drive one horse forward. That’s unfortunately what some founders do by spending almost all their time focused on building the product out into a robust solution without ever trying to sell it to their target customers. 

Conversely, you can’t spend all your time selling to customers without ever delivering on your promises. They will eventually go elsewhere to someone who can. 

What works is the founder driving the Proof of Concept forward enough to then test against the customer’s needs. As you keep building enough of a solution to prove enough of customer desire to take action, you will find your startup making the progress you need. 

Selling Is Learning

We get it—selling can feel uncomfortable. You didn’t start a company to cold-call strangers. But if you’re a founder, and you haven’t yet sold $1M worth of product, you need to be in the trenches selling. Not just because it makes you money, but because it makes you smarter.

Sales isn’t about pitching features. It’s about listening for pain, hearing objections, and figuring out what words actually unlock interest. It’s about learning what people care about enough to act on. It’s a kind of learning you can’t outsource as a founder.

You’ll never be closer to the truth of your business than when you’re face-to-face (or Zoom-to-Zoom) with a real customer who is deciding whether or not to pay.

Start With Assumptions

Every startup is built on assumptions. That the problem is real. That people care enough to pay. That they’ll use it the way you think they will.

The faster you test those assumptions, the better. Because here’s the truth: you’re wrong about something—you just don’t know which part yet.

So how do you test an assumption? I recommend reading the Minimal Viable Testing Process blog post from First Round and focus your attention on what it says about key critical assumptions and the Atomic Unit Test.

1. Identify it clearly. What is the key critical assumption you’re betting the business on?

2. Attach a metric. What would prove it right—or wrong?

3. Set a timeline. We like tight two-week sprints.

4. Design the test. What action can you take right now to validate or disprove it?

You’re not trying to prove your idea. You’re trying to disprove it. That’s the scientific method. If the idea survives real scrutiny—great. But don’t spend months building something only to realize no one ever wanted it in the first place.

Key Critical Assumption

Take Uber, for example. One core assumption: that people would get into a stranger’s car. If that assumption had failed, there’d be no Uber. No Lyft. Game over.

Every founder has their own version of that atomic unit test. Maybe it’s whether campground owners are willing to automate bookings. Maybe it’s whether hot cocoa buyers prioritize taste over convenience. Whatever it is, find the one assumption that, if false, breaks your business. Then go test it.

Make Your Sprint Count

Once you’ve got your key assumption, break it down into a focused, two-week sprint. Something like:

• Assumption: People are willing to buy this solution now.

• Metric for success: 5 sales demos booked.

• Tasks: Build a prospect list. Draft and send outreach emails. Follow up. Schedule demos.

You don’t need 10 priorities. You need one or two that matter. Put your head down for two weeks and run fast. Then regroup and learn.

Action Talks. Everything Else Walks.

Founders love to ask what customers might do. That’s a trap.

The better question is: What have they already done?

• Did they give you their email?

• Did they show up to a demo?

• Did they put a deposit down?

Future intentions are cheap. Past actions are honest. That’s why we say: there’s no traction without action.

Even if they’re just taking a small step—signing a letter of intent, joining a waitlist, attending a test—they’re signaling interest with real behavior. That’s the kind of data you can build on.

Final Thought: Everything Should Point to Revenue

Whether you’re raising venture capital or bootstrapping from scratch, your energy should flow in one direction: toward revenue. Not swag. Not vanity metrics. Not “building in stealth.”

Your job is to climb the traction triangle—step by step—from customer interest to customer cash. And if the top feels out of reach? Start one level down and take real action from there.

Your idea doesn’t become a business until someone buys.

So go sell. Learn something. Prove something. And build only what’s worth building.

There’s No Traction Without Action

By Scott Henderson, Managing Principal, NMotion powered by gener8tor

Why your customer saying “maybe” isn’t good enough

Let’s get one thing straight: no one cares how great your idea is if no one’s doing anything about it.

You can have a slick prototype, a glowing customer survey, or a deck packed with hockey-stick projections — but if nobody’s clicking, signing, showing up, or swiping a card, you’ve got vapor, not a venture.

Traction Isn’t a Vibe — It’s a Verb

Traction isn’t how excited your friends are for you. It’s not a “would totally buy this someday” comment. Traction is behavior. Traction is evidence.

Here’s how Steve Blank put it: “A startup is an organization designed to search for a repeatable and scalable business model.” You’re not building a proven business like a pizza shop in a college town. You’re searching for new one. And that search? It needs proof.

So what counts as proof? Welcome to the Triangle of Traction — where we climb from weak signals to real receipts.

The Flimsy Stuff (a.k.a. Talk)

• "I'd definitely buy this!"

• "This is such a cool idea!"

• Survey says: 87% of respondents claim they’d pay $9.99 a month.

None of this counts. It’s social noise. Nice to hear, useless to build on.

Tier 1: Action That Could Lead to Revenue

• Created a customer account

• Downloaded the app

• Claimed a Free trial

• Joined the wait list

• Active on your community forum (Discord, Slack, Facebook group, etc.)

These are early steps toward eventually ringing the register. Whispers of smoke for the fire you're trying to build.

Tier 2: Promises with Teeth

Now we’re talking:

• A Letter of Intent (LOI)

• A written statement from a company saying, “When this is ready, we’ll pay X.”

It’s not money in the bank — but it’s a directional bet with someone’s name on it. A founder named Dusty Birge secured a million dollars in funding using five letters of intent. They weren’t contracts. They were commitments. And they moved the needle.

Tier 3: Actual Dollars BEFORE a Product

Presale = proof. You’ve got someone paying today for something they won’t even get until later. That’s confidence. That’s hunger. That’s real.

Ask Vishal Singh, who sold cattle tags before they were ready. It was gritty. It was direct. And it ended in an acquisition from Merck Animal Health.

Top Tier: Revenue, Plain and Simple

The top of the traction triangle is what everyone wants: someone gives you money, and you give them a product or service — right now. Repeatable, scalable, with the promise of margin eventually.

But don’t get ahead of yourself. Sell it once. Then learn to sell it again. Then sell it without you in the room. Margin comes later.

Don’t Confuse Noise for Momentum

Your biggest enemy right now? It’s not another startup. It’s not a better version of your idea.

It’s indifference.

Indifference sounds like “huh, interesting.” It feels like ghosted emails and dead Slack threads. The only way through is action — real action — from someone other than you.

So make it easy for people to move:

• Put up a waitlist.

• Offer a 7-day trial.

• Create a simple pre-order page.

• Ask someone to sign a lightweight LOI.

Doesn’t have to be sexy. It just has to be something.

Repeat After Us: No Traction Without Action

If someone’s taking a step today — clicking, committing, paying — you’re building something real.

If they’re just promising to be excited later, you’re still in the dream phase.

So yeah, ring the damn register. Get your hands on that first messy little sale. It won’t be perfect. It won’t scale yet. But it’ll be the beginning of a business, not just a brainstorm.

Because ideas are cheap. Action is everything.

Michael Scott, Venture Capitalist?

By Scott Henderson, Managing Principal, NMotion powered by gener8tor

Let’s take a minute to imagine the founder journey—but not through Elon, or Zuck, or some sleepless YC grad. Nope. We're going full Michael Scott, Regional Manager turned startup icon.

So picture this: our guy Michael stumbles into a business that’s actually selling. Paper, of all things. But hey, it’s working. He's got customers, he’s got revenue, and somehow the numbers are going up. Time to raise some cash.

Dilution, Baby

Here’s where the fun begins. Michael starts raising money. First a little, then more, then a full-blown Series C. But what happens every time he takes on that sweet VC funding? New shares get issued. That means Michael’s percentage ownership in Dunder Mifflin gets diluted.

And guess what? That’s okay.

Because while the percentage of the pie he owns shrinks, the pie itself keeps getting supersized. Like, Costco-level supersized. That’s the startup math no one puts on the T-shirts:
Smaller slice × Bigger pie = More money.

From 90 Cents to $41.75

By the end of the journey, Michael’s holding onto his original million shares. That’s right—he never sold. But thanks to growth, each share now clocks in at $41.75. What used to be worth lunch money is now worth a beach house and a boat named “That's What She Said.”

Total payout? $41.75 million.

Not bad for a guy who once grilled his foot on a Foreman.

Growth > Ego

Too many founders chase valuations like they’re trophies—big numbers that look good in TechCrunch but fall apart when revenue doesn’t catch up. Michael (accidentally?) did it right: he focused on selling. He grew revenue. He made that pie bigger with every round.

And when it came time to exit? He didn’t just cash out. He feasted. 🍕

So what’s the moral of the story?

Forget owning 100% of a sad little microwave pizza. You want a mega slice of a New York-style, 5-topping VC-funded pie (just not Sbarro’s). You want growth, and you want the kind of scale that turns early sweat equity into late-stage champagne problems.

Growth is money. Growth is power. Growth is how Michael Scott went from selling paper to pocketing $41.75 million.

Be like Michael. But maybe… don’t open a café disco.

So You Built a Claw Machine — Now What?

By Scott Henderson, Managing Principal, NMotion powered by gener8tor

Imagine the claw machine you invented in the previous post in this series is earning a few thousand bucks a month, and people are lining up with their loose change. Congrats, you’re making money. Now the question is: Do you keep it small, or do you go big and raise capital?

There are three good reasons to raise venture capital. And none of them are "because some blog told you to."

Reason 1: You Found Something — And Now Everyone Wants a Bite

You spotted something the market didn’t. Maybe it’s a weird little niche. Maybe it’s the next Uber. Doesn’t matter. What matters is, now that people see you making money, they’re coming for it.

Startups attract competitors like buzzards to a fresh carcass. It’s not personal. It’s just how markets work. Amazon? They live for this. Jeff Bezos literally said: "Your margin is my opportunity." That’s not a metaphor — that’s a business model.

So you raise capital to defend your ground, move faster than the copycats, and build moats while the wolves are still circling.

Reason 2: You’ve Got IP, and It’s Actually Worth Protecting

If your claw machine isn’t just a gimmick — if there’s real tech under the hood — you might be sitting on something worth locking down. Patents, proprietary code, custom hardware… these are more than bragging rights. They’re leverage.

Think Tesla. Think Harley-Davidson’s iconic engine sound. These are not just products; they’re defensible positions. And capital helps you hold them.

VCs love startups that don’t just build, but own something unique.

Reason 3: You Need to Get Customers — Fast

This is where it gets real. Most early-stage startups don’t die because they have a bad product. They die because no one hears about it fast enough.

So you raise money to buy time — and customers. Literally. You use that capital to lower your CAC (customer acquisition cost), and you keep those customers around long enough that their lifetime value (LTV) makes it all worth it.

It's math. Ugly, beautiful, spreadsheet math.

Let’s say Spotify pays $30 to get you in the door, and they make $10/month from your subscription. If you stick around for a year or two, that’s a win. If you bounce after two weeks? Not so much.

Venture capital bridges that gap. It helps you survive the “we’re not profitable yet” part — long enough to actually get profitable.

Why Growth Matters More Than Looking Good on Paper

Let’s get honest. When investors look at your claw machine, they don’t care how polished it is. They care how fast it’s growing.

A startup pulling in $5K/month is fine. One pulling in $50K/month is fundable. One growing 20% every month? That’s a rocket ship waiting to happen.

Yeah, you’ll probably lose money up front. But those who keep growing 20% every month win because they figured out how to bend the curve up.

Founders who can prove:

• low Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC),

• high Lifetime Value (LTV), and

• a path to compounding growth

…those are the ones investors throw money at. Not because they’re lucky. Because they’re prepared.

The Point

Raising venture capital is not about cashing in — it’s about buying time to win. Time to defend your turf. Time to scale your moat. Time to turn customers into a movement. And yes — time to grow like hell.

So if you’re building your version of the claw machine, ask yourself:

• Do I have competition breathing down my neck?

• Do I have something worth protecting?

• Do I need to grow faster than my bank account allows?

If yes, then maybe it’s time to raise. Just don’t forget: the money doesn’t make your company valuable.

The growth does.

What did we miss? What would you challenge? Let us know in the comments.

🕹️ Claw Machines, Rocket Fuel, and the Venture Capital Game

By Scott Henderson, Managing Principal, NMotion powered by gener8tor

Imagine, just for a second, that you’re the first person to ever come up with the idea for a claw machine.

You know the ones — drop a couple quarters in, maneuver the joystick, hope the claw doesn't drop your prize like it’s made of cooked spaghetti. We’ve all seen them at arcades, pizza joints, gas stations, wherever nostalgia and neon lights intersect.

But now picture this: you’re the inventor. And your invention? It’s actually making money.

Steady money. People are lining up to play. The thing prints quarters like it's the Federal Mint. In short, you’ve built a business.

So here’s the question: Why on earth would you take outside investment?

Because You're Not Selling a Claw Machine. You're Building an Empire.

That claw machine — it’s not just a game. It’s your prototype. Your proof of concept. Your foothold. And maybe it’s pulling in $5,000 a month. Not bad, right?

But what if someone came along with the resources to help you install 100 of them across the country? What if you could go from $5K to $50K to $500K in monthly revenue?

That’s where venture capital comes in.

Venture Capital Is Rocket Fuel

There are only two things you need to remember from this post if nothing else:

1. Your startup is a claw machine.

2. Venture capital is rocket fuel.

Venture capital is what happens when people with big checkbooks bet on people with big ideas. But unlike banks — who like tidy spreadsheets and proven revenue — venture capitalists invest in uncertainty.

They don’t care if your business model is still half-baked. In fact, they expect it. What they want is the potential. The possibility that, given the right conditions, you’ll turn your claw machine into the next Apple. Or the next WhatsApp.

A Quick Reality Check on Risk

Let’s be real: most startups fail. Most rockets don’t leave the launchpad. Some explode on takeoff. Others drift off-course and flame out quietly.

Venture capital knows this. It’s baked into the model.

These investors are placing dozens, sometimes hundreds of bets, hoping that one or two claw machines will hit escape velocity — and stay there. Those outliers? They more than cover the cost of all the others.

So Why Raise Venture Capital?

Because the traditional path is slow.

You could keep your business small and steady. Nothing wrong with that. In fact, that path — bootstrapping, linear growth, staying private — can be great for a lot of people.

But if your ambition is scale, if you're swinging for the fences, then you need fuel. Not a gallon of gas. Rocket fuel.

Venture capital isn’t for everyone. But for those who take it on, it’s a commitment: not just to growth, but to reinvesting every dollar back into the business. No dividends. Just forward momentum.

Growth = Value

Let’s go back to your claw machine.

I'm gonna tell you something that will blow your mind. The world of finance is nothing more than a ritualized process for determining the present value of future revenue.

That's easy when you have a proven business model like a pizza shop in a college town, but startups are organizations in search of a scalable, repeatable business model. How does one even start to figure out the present value of future revenue when your startup is so early?

It'll about betting on those startups who are growing their revenue month over month. Even if the actual revenue number is small. It's all about growth.

If it’s making $5,000/month, that’s something. But if it’s making $5,000/month and growing 20% month over month? And you keep that growth rate up consistently? Now you’ve got something people want to buy — or take public.

This is what investors mean when they talk about an exit or liquidity event. It’s the day your shares — and theirs — become real money. Through an acquisition. Or an IPO.

That's when your little claw machine turns into a serious payday.

Need Proof?

When WhatsApp took a $60 million investment from Sequoia Capital, they didn’t just pocket the money. They poured it into growth. In less than five years, they went from scrappy startup to 450 million users.

And then Facebook bought them for $21.8 billion.

The founder walked away with over $10 billion. Sequoia made $3 billion on that one deal. That’s venture capital at work — high risk, yes, but eye-watering reward if you pull it off.

Final Thought: What Is Venture Capital, Really?

It’s not a loan. It’s not a grant. It’s not magic.

It’s rocket fuel.

It’s the belief — and the bet — that your claw machine can change the world.

So the next time someone asks you what venture capital is, tell them this:

It’s high-stakes belief. It’s shared risk and reward. It’s money with a mission: growth.

Now, go build your machine.

Applications are now open for the NMotion Accelerator Fall 2025 cohort, which comes with a $100K investment, twelve weeks of working shoulder to shoulder, and lifetime access to the NMotion powered by gener8tor network.

Learn more at www.nmotion.co today.

Jeff Tezak, Tiiga

Jeff Tezak from Tiiga is 2x NMotion alumni having completed the pre-accelerator gBETA Lincoln with co-founder Harrounda Malgoubri and the NMotion Accelerator 2022 program with co-founder Katy Tezak.

Katy Tezak, Harrounda Malgoubri, and Jeff Tezak

After Tiiga completed the NMotion Accelerator, the team graduated from a food tech accelerator in Tasmania, Australia. That’s when they began to experiment with go-to-market strategies and product framing.

This past fall, Tiiga unveiled a refreshed collection of products to help supercharge your gut health using the baobab superfruit.

Originally, Tiiga was all about hydration, but they listened to consumer feedback and data to realize they were more than that. Tiiga is really a gut health powerhouse. 

With the new focus, they created a new formula that increases the fiber from the baobab fruit, took out the sugar, lowered the sodium, and added coconut water powder. It’s quite tasty and refreshing.

Knowing how much the team has kept driving forward despite setbacks especially in the challenging consumer product good sector, we caught up with Jeff to ask him to share his perspective and learnings. If you know Jeff, you know he has takes.

If you could teleport back to when you started Tiiga, what advice would you give yourself?

Find revenue first, then make a product. Or figure out a solution to a problem that can give you the revenue to break even quickly. Have the confidence to do things on your own for as long as possible. I don't think I'd take my advice on these things as I think a lot of the time it's just time and effort that eventually gives you perspectives on things that happen in your life. No advice will work.

What has been the toughest decision you have had to make?

Letting people go when times were tougher. 

Who do you lean on to help refuel and recharge your mind/body/spirit?

Family, Religion and Sports. Having kids while building a business has been pretty incredible. I find myself excited about each part of my day, spending time with my family and getting to build a business. Religion, understanding that we're always taken care of and that it's as much as we want something it's out of our hands which is reassuring. Both watching and playing sports allows me to think strategically and feel pressure along with the physicality of the experience helps me to feel more alert and ready to work.

What hacks and tricks have you developed to connect with customers?

I like people and am interested in what they do, how they live and what they go through daily and in life. Basically, I find something that connects us on an interest level or between them and me. Could be people, places, things. This is easier for me as I'm interested in just about everything. 

Learn more and stock up on Tiiga here.