By TYLER ELLYSON
UNK Communications
KEARNEY – Mayor Stan Clouse has been part of every Big Idea Kearney competition.
The soon-to-be state senator recognizes the importance of entrepreneurship and its impact on the community.
“As I’ve watched our community grow, there’s a lot of small businesses, a lot of folks with great ideas,” he said during Wednesday night’s event. “And I think that’s what makes Kearney great.”
“We encourage our entrepreneurship,” Clouse added. “We encourage folks to live their dream.”
In its 13th year, Big Idea Kearney celebrates current and aspiring entrepreneurs while serving as a launch pad for new businesses. Modeled after the popular TV series “Shark Tank,” the business pitch competition gives University of Nebraska at Kearney students and local residents a chance to turn their dreams into reality.
“Big Idea is intended to spur entrepreneurship in the Kearney area by supporting people who have an idea and helping them take that idea and turn it into a business,” said Sara Bennett, director of UNK’s Center for Entrepreneurship and Rural Development, which organizes the annual competition. “This is a chance to get validation for an idea and get feedback from judges and the audience about viability for their business concept.”
It’s also an opportunity to win up to $5,000 in seed money to get that concept off the ground.
More than two dozen people submitted entries for this year’s contest, with nine finalists presenting during the live event at Legacy on the Bricks in downtown Kearney.
IMPROVING HEALTH CARE
Becky Holden walked away with the top prize after winning over the judges with her pitch for Kaizen Design.
The Kearney resident has 20 years of experience working in health care design, so she understands how interior environments can affect both patient outcomes and employee well-being.
“When health care spaces are well-designed, it leads to better patient care, happier staff and more accessible services,” she said.
Holden and her business partners are developing software that will help hospitals and other health care providers design better spaces by streamlining the process and setting clear standards for the project team.
“Most project management software today tracks schedules and budgets, missing the mark on design, the physical outcome of the project,” she said during her pitch. “Kaizen is the first software to make design a priority, aligning with the organization’s goals and guiding teams to improve their care environments over time.”
Along with enhancing patient care, Holden believes this software can save providers money by eliminating costly mistakes and delays during capital improvement projects. The service will also include a crowdsourcing element, ensuring clients have access to up-to-date insights and industry trends.
“As we grow, we envision Kaizen becoming the standard for standards, the go-to platform for health care organizations aiming to build smarter,” Holden said.
Supported by a grant from the state of Nebraska, Holden expects a trial version of the software to be ready for testing soon, followed by a full launch of the product in 2025. Further down the road, she sees the potential to expand beyond health care into education, government and corporate real estate.
Grateful for the local support, Holden appreciates events like Big Idea Kearney that promote innovation in the community and encourage people to pursue their passions.
“I didn’t know I wanted to be an entrepreneur until I had years of experience in the field, and I think that’s important to acknowledge,” she said. “You might not realize this is your path until many years down the road. But once that seed is planted in your heart, you’ll know that it’s important and it needs to be done.”
INSPIRING STUDENTS
UNK graduate student Aaron Osmond took second place in the competition, earning $1,000 in seed money.
Originally from the United Kingdom, he’s a member of the Loper men’s tennis team and a second-year student in the Master of Business Administration program.
His idea is directly related to his experiences as a collegiate student-athlete.
“In tennis, we don’t have referees, so bad calls happen all the time, because players make their own calls,” he told the judges. “AutoCam Call is a solution to that. It’s cheaper than the competition. It’s more accurate than the human eye. And it has an iPad app.”
Targeting smaller programs that can’t afford multiple officials or expensive replay systems for their matches, Osmond wants to offer a more affordable option that eliminates this guessing game. His system would utilize multiple cameras positioned around the court, all feeding into an iPad. When a call is contested, that video is immediately accessible.
Eventually, he said, the system would be upgraded to make those calls automatically, so time-consuming challenges and reviews are no longer necessary. It could be used for livestreaming and instant replays broadcast on video screens in a facility, as well.
“The problem right now is there isn’t a system that’s economical enough and good enough for the schools to use,” said Osmond, who sees potential customers across multiple sports, including tennis, volleyball, soccer and pickleball.
Osmond will earn his master’s degree from UNK this spring and he already has a local employment opportunity, but Big Idea Kearney showed him entrepreneurship is also an option.
“Just getting to this point tells me this could be a real thing,” he said. “I’ve gone this far into the business, and I’ve proven to myself that it’s feasible.”
Madeline Rose, a UNK student from Sutton, won the $500 prize for third place with her pitch for Seasonal Scoops, a homemade pumpkin ice cream.
In addition to the cash prizes, the top five contestants will receive free or discounted services provided by the event’s professional partners – Nebraska Enterprise Fund, GROW Nebraska, Jacobsen Orr, Farmers Insurance – Mark Porter, Contryman Associates, Kearney Area Chamber of Commerce and Swink Creative Solutions.
Big Idea Kearney is sponsored by the UNK College of Business and Technology, Development Council for Buffalo County, Invest Nebraska, ALLO, Nebraska Enterprise Fund, Nebraska Business Development Center, NUtech Ventures, Pinnacle Bank, Nebraska Tech Collaborative and Nest:Space.
