OMAHA, Neb. (KMTV) — First National Bank of Omaha was founded back in 1857 and has become one of the city’s largest companies. Alongside Greater Omaha Chamber’s Startup Collaborative, the two have partnered up to invest in Omaha with the Future Fellows program.
“We knew that there were a lot of entrepreneurs in the community. The bank is always about investing in our community,” Senior Vice President of Innovation & Disruption at FNBO Marc Butterfield said.
The program started in 2018. This year there were 80 applicants, and 40 of them made it into the program.
In the end, five of the startups earned grant funding - a total of $50,000 split between them.
“At the end of the day, it was really about getting would-be entrepreneurs ideas, resources, and support, so they could be confident to go and propagate these ideas,” Butterfield said.
“This has been pretty life-changing for me,” CEO and Founder of Superb Shifts Molly O’Neil said.
Superb Shifts was one of those five winners.
“The concept behind it was – I currently work in a nursing home and I was experiencing the pain of the staffing crisis, and the pain of staffing agencies tasking advantage of us being at their mercy,” O’Neil said.
The startup gives healthcare workers flexibility in their schedules by allowing them to pick up shifts when and where they want.
It is also user-friendly for the senior living facilities, which can determine wages and describe what the shift entails.
Essentially, Superb Shifts benefits both the healthcare worker and the facilities.
“Kind of cutting out that middleman that takes the large chunk of change was the main principle behind Superb Shifts,” O’Neil said.
The Future Fellows program and the grant turned an idea into reality.
“It was all pretty pivotal for us because we were then able to have the funds to start making our app, developing, and moving forward,” O’Neil said.
For First National Bank, it’s all about investing in the community and helping local businesses grow just like they did.
“There’s a lot of talent in Omaha and a lot of them feel like they have to leave, and it’s because of the opportunities that they don’t have here,” Butterfield said. “That was one of the main genesis points for us to do Future Fellows, it was ‘How do we create those opportunities?”
Currently, Superb Shifts is beta testing with just one senior facility, but they plan to expand across the Omaha area once they launch.
