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.

Devon Seacrest and Hunter Dorhout, Codebuddy

After working together at Penlink, Devon Seacrest and Hunter Dorhout decided to launch their own venture, CodeBuddy.

Billed as the “Ultimate Software Development Experience”, CodeBuddy helps you go from concept to launch and build scalable software like the pros with CodeBuddy rIDE. It's fast, it's code you can trust, it's yours.

A seasoned startup founder with experience raising capital, Devon decided to take the accelerator route especially considering this was Hunter's first time as a founder. Since completing the NMotion Accelerator 2023 cohort, Devon and Hunter have continued to grow the company's revenues at a brisk pace.

They have raised two additional investment rounds and just closed on a $872K Seed round. Devon took the time to share what he's learned. 

If you could teleport back to when Hunter and you started CodeBuddy, what advice would you give yourself?

Make sure to apply to NMotion and every other opportunity to connect with mentors, customers, advisors, investors, and advocates.   

Actively listen to what everyone has to say, but then throw it away and do what is best.  Don't over-inflate or under-inflate your ego.  Friction is good as long as you are open, honest, and respectful in your communication.  Be intense whenever you can but take care of yourself and family when time calls.  Invest in your people to take risks and learn from either outcome.  Make sure relationships have mutual value.  A lot of these messages became our core values.  

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

In business, the toughest decisions I've had to make are to decide when to stick with an idea or move on to the next.  Mostly because of the impact it has on other people.  

There are some ventures that I've worked on that I regret leaving to0 soon and some that I'm glad I timed-out because it led me to CodeBuddy.  Or having to make changes when people aren't in the right spots or aren't working well with other people.  

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

Co-founder friends. Non co-founder friends. My family. Therapists. My Swedish YouTube yoga lady. My faith and church family. My surfboard.

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

Usability testing individuals who closely match our ideal customer profile. It's a true win-win on multiple levels.

We gain valuable feedback on bugs, user experience issues, and overall product/company direction. They get to voice their frustrations about similar tools on the market and shape a product they might actually use.

We build genuine relationships with potential future customers, not just by selling to them but by listening to them. They get a chance to experience the product in a low-pressure, collaborative environment—without feeling like they're being sold to.

Learn more about CodeBuddy here.

Teresa Friesen, SheMate

In 2021, Teresa Friesen joined the NMotion Venture Studio to build a company from scratch. Even though she came from a family of entrepreneurs, Teresa Friesen hadn’t thought of herself in that way up to that point. 

Instead, she was drawn to the field of social work and solving highly complex people issues. In addition to working in the clinical setting, she returned to the classroom as a professor to teach aspiring social work professionals.

But in the hazy days of the COVID era, she felt the urge to do something different. Through the StartupLNK Jumpstart Challenge, she came upon the opportunity to help women athletes leverage new NIL (Name Image Likeness) rules to create meaningful income sharing their knowledge and insights on a wide range of topics. 

Today, SheMate helps connect young women with Olympic, professional, and amateur athletes to learn and grow through virtual group mentoring sessions. SheMate is a partner of Hudl and the Dallas Wings professional basketball team. 

1. If you could teleport back to when you started SheMate, what advice would you give yourself?
Making your business work is going to take longer than you expect, and certainly longer than you would like. That's okay. That is a reflection of truly understanding your customers, understanding your market, and trying to determine the best next step to intersect it all. Dive into the data and keep pushing forward. 

2. What has been the toughest decision you have had to make?
Every time we have to course correct feels really tough. It's hard for me to not feel guilty or like we wasted time or money on things that did not end up going as expected. I can recognize that going a different direction is a reflection of new data and a smart move, but it's hard to let those past steps go without fixating on them.

3. Who do you lean on to help refuel and recharge your mind/body/spirit?
First and foremost, myself. I do not believe that I can fully refuel or recharge if I'm depending on things outside of myself to feel good. I start with mindfulness and reflection to bring myself deep awareness of my thoughts, preoccupations, and goals. If I find that I'm needing connection, I make quality time with wonderful people. If I find that I need a mental reset, I spend time moving my body outside. And if I find that I need rest, I let myself rest unapologetically.

4. What hacks and tricks have you developed to connect with customers?
Stop thinking about sales and instead foster relationships. Know your people, ensure they know you, and make what you are building mutually beneficial, authentic, and aligned with goals and purpose.

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