FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 

Contact: Kacie Hughes | kacie.hughes@openrange.org 

Date: September 23, 2025 

Techstars Omaha Startup Community Partnership Announces Inaugural Founder Catalyst Program Cohort 

Omaha, NE – The Techstars Omaha Startup Community Partnership is proud to announce the first cohort of the Founder Catalyst Program in Omaha, marking a new chapter in supporting and accelerating Nebraska’s entrepreneurial ecosystem. 

Selected from an impressive pool of more than 75 applicants, the 10 Nebraska-based founders will join the Founder Catalyst Program, which is designed to equip early-stage entrepreneurs with the tools, knowledge, and network they need to scale. 

Participants will gain access to mentorship from seasoned entrepreneurs, hands-on workshops in customer discovery, fundraising, and go-to-market strategies, and the global Techstars network of investors, mentors, and partners—all while building community with fellow Nebraska founders. 

“This first cohort represents the energy, vision, and talent that’s driving innovation in Nebraska,” said Laurel Oetken, Vice President of Operations for Open Range and Interim Techstars Omaha Startup Community Partnership Program Director. “By supporting these founders, we’re not just fueling individual companies—we’re helping strengthen the entire startup and innovation ecosystem.” 

The following 10 startups have been selected for the 2025 Founder Catalyst Program: 

• Joshua Hample, Andover Analytics – Andover Analytics is a data platform that tracks daily smartphone resale prices across major e-commerce marketplaces, wholesalers, and liquidators. Andover gives resellers a simple way to see what devices are selling for, how values change over time, and where buying opportunities exist that make the most sense for their business. 
• Andrew Rogers, Docology – Docology uses AI and Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technologies to extract critical and relevant clinical history from complex patient referral packets, then generate a concise HPI & medical timeline. It reduces clinical preparation time for physicians, nurse practitioners, and their staff. 
• Anastasia “Stasi” Grenfell and Jess Loseke, ESME – ESME is a personalized, AI-powered platform delivering integrative care across every stage of a woman’s life—from cycle to menopause. ESME eliminates fragmented care in women’s health and wellness by unifying data currently scattered across dozens of different apps and platforms.

• Jack Sellwood and Andrew Carlson, Grapple – Grapple helps finance, sales, and marketing teams investigate, analyze, and share business data in minutes not weeks. From data to board deck, Grapple gives you everything you need to automate your KPIs and dashboards—accelerated by AI. Simply connect your data sources (eg: Salesforce or Hubspot) and then build powerful data science-backed dashboards with natural language. 
• Jenilee Woltman, Mission Accomplished – Mission Accomplished is an AI-powered mobile app that helps neurodivergent kids (ages 6–18) build independence, regulate emotions, and complete daily tasks through personalized routines and real-time support. Designed by a speech-language pathologist and mom, the app bridges the gap between therapy, school, and home—empowering families while reducing stress and burnout. 
• Ann Schulte, Plexus – Plexus is building a modern mission planning platform for satellite operators. It replaces Excel-based workflows with a web-based platform that handles scheduling, link analysis, and operational planning. Operators can manage their entire mission from one dashboard instead of juggling dozens of spreadsheets. Its software automates the repetitive calculations and conflict detection that operators currently do manually. 
• Ravan Charles, Rigby AI – Rigby is an AI-powered all-in-one support platform built for B2B SaaS companies with complex products. Its goal is to help support leaders hire, onboard, and maintain quality at scale—solving the real problems of growing support teams in one place. 
• Joe Toscano and Alex Rapp, Service Stories – Service Stories helps service-based businesses turn their completed service tickets into answers to the questions that their customers ask online. The software does this by leveraging APIs and AI to pull service tickets from the company’s management platform and convert the details into expert content that improves both SEO and AI visibility. 
• Taylor Korensky, Maninder Hora, and Mitch Treu – StraightEdge Innovations, LLC (VisionSync) – VisionSync is a strategy execution platform that helps organizations move beyond scattered documents and disconnected planning processes. By providing one unified space for strategic initiatives, the platform eliminates the frustration of tracking goals across multiple spreadsheets and fragmented systems. 
• Robert Putt, Traffic Data Group – At Argus AI, we leverage a network of cameras to detect traffic anomalies in real-time, enabling instant emergency response, intelligent traffic alerts to improve flow, and thorough accident investigations. Its advanced AI solutions provide actionable insights to improve road safety and optimize transportation systems. 

Running September through December 2025, the program will culminate in a showcase in Omaha, where founders will share their progress with community leaders, investors, and partners. A select number of founders may also have the opportunity to present their startup at Techstars Global Demo Day, one of the program’s premier opportunities for founders to pitch and gain global awareness around their business. 

Earlier this year, the Techstars Omaha Startup Community Partnership Program launched in the Omaha and Lincoln ecosystem with a mission to empower local founders through connections, mentorship, and resources. This first Founder Catalyst cohort is a reflection of that mission in action, showcasing the vision and talent driving Nebraska’s next wave of startups. 

Learn more about the Founder Catalyst Program here. 

About Techstars Omaha Startup Community Partnership Program 

The Techstars Omaha Startup Community Partnership Program is supported by Open Range and committed to accelerating founder success and strengthening Nebraska’s entrepreneurial ecosystem by fostering access, mentorship, and resources.