Since Brock Anderson and Logan Hoffman met playing sports together as kids, they have been good friends and natural teammates. In high school, they became business partners, launching Premier Umpires LLC to more easily staff youth sports games with local referees.
Today, through the Center for Entrepreneurship’s New Venture Competition at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, the pair is pushing their partnership and business aspirations even further.
“We got the chance to pitch a new company, Officiator,” Anderson said. “It's software that builds on our experience with Premier Umpires to make staffing officials even easier for local sports communities.”
“We had this idea for an app that could alleviate problems we kept running into,” Hoffman said. “Having this event to bring our idea to and get feedback made all the sense in the world for us.”
Nebraska's New Venture Competition gives Husker entrepreneurs like Anderson and Hoffman the opportunity to pitch their ideas to a panel of professionals from across the business world. While the cash prizes are a big draw, the team said the individualized feedback they received gave them a major boost.
“The judges really cared about helping our business and offering us advice,” Hoffman said. “They gave us genuine business insights. You could tell they cared about our idea in the long run, which I really appreciated.”
The duo took fourth place in the competition and were awarded the Thomas G. Guy Startup Team Award for outstanding organization and collaboration. With their fresh knowledge and resources, they are now taking their business to the Center for Entrepreneurship’s Entrepreneurship Accelerator Program, an entrepreneurial incubator at the university and one of the many reasons Nebraska has risen to No. 35 globally for entrepreneurship.
“For us, the program isn’t just about the mentorship we’ll get,” Anderson said. “Meeting other student entrepreneurs, even if they’re in a completely different industry, is so cool. It’s great to just bounce ideas off each other.”
Students in any major at Nebraska can start their entrepreneurial journey at the Center for Entrepreneurship, located on the third floor of Howard L. Hawks Hall. Whether they have a business idea, want to innovate within an existing organization or simply want to develop an entrepreneurial mindset, the center offers coaching, courses, competitions and resources to help them succeed. Learn more at business.unl.edu/entrepreneurship.
