THE HEADSET APP
BY NICK TOPP
A few years ago, my friend Patrick Daberkow, the head football coach at Concordia University, stared at his clunky, broken headsets. He was shocked by the staggering quotes, to the tune of 60 grand, to replace the equipment.
“There has to be a better way,” he told me.
Spoken like a true entrepreneur.
He pulled his phone out of his pocket with his earbuds and looked at me and said, “Tell me this can’t work.”
He was onto something. So we dove into extensive customer discovery.
We interviewed 40 football coaches across the United States to learn about their opinions, issues, and problems with traditional headset systems.
We learned that, universally, everybody had a pretty okay to terrible experience with their headset systems.
Why was everyone settling for just “pretty okay”?
Our findings shifted us into doing some exploration and testing.
We wanted to replace the clunky headsets with something more accessible.
The Headset App was born.
Coaches and teams can use whatever hardware they prefer- earbuds, headsets, or speakers.
All they have to do is connect to our app and communicate.
No updating equipment. No untangling cords.
The Headset App offers the same service coaches use with a better, simpler system.
We tested our Headset App prototype with 110 coaches in the spring of 2023 to receive feedback.
Then, we raced to market and launched the app on June 29, 2023.
Since the app’s launch, we’ve partnered with several baseball and local teams in the college and high school space.
Through each stage, we’ve been grateful to be surrounded by people who want our start-up to succeed as much as we do.
We’re excited to be changing the way teams can communicate, but we wouldn’t be here without a team of our own supporters.
LaunchLNK: More than financial support
As a relatively young business, we were absolutely ecstatic when we found out we were recipients of the LaunchLNK grant.
Securing non-dilutive money is really significant for our group, particularly because we have six founders. We’re grateful to retain ownership while receiving a boost toward our goals for the future.
Each dollar has helped us expand our team. The grant allowed us to bring on two interns for this year, and we hope to continue our internship program in the future.
But, perhaps even more valuable than the money itself, were the connections and networking opportunities we experienced through the LaunchLNK grant.
Having Kathy Andersen, the Lincoln Partnership for Economic Development, and the Lincoln Chamber of Commerce in our corner has been a game-changer.
Kathy helps us brainstorm valuable connections to expand the app’s reach.
She also helped us navigate the financial logistics of growing a startup so we’re being good stewards of the money that we’ve been given.
The connections Kathy has helped us make in the early-stage startup world in Lincoln have provided us with a wealth of knowledge and resources, like risk management.
One of the biggest challenges our founding team has faced has been navigating financial security. We are a little older than some startup founders, and many of us have young families and spouses to support.
Naturally, we’re a little risk averse.
It’s important we understand where we want to land before we take big leaps.
Our community partners have empowered us to feel confident with our business decisions.
We could not be more appreciative of the LaunchLNK grant and the opportunities it has provided us in such a short amount of time since we’ve been recipients.
The Nebraska way
We have really fallen in love with the startup realm and the supportive community here in Lincoln.
One thing that we found that’s unique to Lincoln itself is that the Lincoln startup community helps Nebraskans in the startup world in a very Nebraskan way.
“Nebraska nice” seems to apply to everyone we work with here.
The level of community and just genuine desire to help others has been super helpful in a way that we have not experienced in communicating out of state or even on the coasts.
People are just so generous with their time.
For instance, Chuck Norris with Nelnet sat down with us over many coffees and lunches to help us understand this whole startup space.
The Husker Venture Fund at the University has also been a great resource, as have many, many other people.
We are so grateful to be able to tap into the vibrant startup community in Lincoln and connect with other like-minded entrepreneurs and business leaders.
The Headset App’s future is stronger than ever thanks to everyone’s help.
It’s important we understand where we want to land before we take big leaps. Our community partners have empowered us to feel confident with our business decisions. We could not be more appreciative of the LaunchLNK grant and the opportunities it has provided us in such a short amount of time since we’ve been recipients.
Celebrating each victory
Through LaunchLNK’s support, we’ve experienced several exciting booms in business. There’s so much to be proud of with our team, but the biggest wins have been the teams’ responses.
Coaches want our product.
We’re confident we’ve found a “better way” to communicate on the field.
We were able to navigate into the baseball space pretty quickly and effectively. We had six schools here in Lincoln and surrounding areas using the Headset App this spring already.
We also secured a three-year agreement with two summer leagues, where DI football and DI baseball programs go to play — so that was a 48-school deal for us, which we were very excited about.
Finally, we were able to bring on two of our six founders full-time, which has allowed us to spend more time and energy on the product.
It’s been an incredible journey so far, and we can’t wait to see what the future has in store for us and our teams.
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