Nearly every startup has had to pivot in some form or another. A tweak here or there. But two entrepreneurs from Florida taking part in the NMotion Accelerator in Lincoln have made a pretty drastic change: from creating a company that helps athletes become entrepreneurs to creating an app for on-demand lawn care.

Co-founders Mike Fingado and Brian Dzingai figured out early in the program the first idea wasn’t something they’d be able to launch and scale quickly enough. 

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The origin of Athletepreneur goes like this: the pair who met on the track team at Florida State, started a blog featuring athlete entrepreneurs in 2010 and soon their inbox was full of athletes wanting to get their story told. Hundreds more wanted to be connected and learn from each other. They even helped a few Michigan University athletes create a rideshare for their school. 

So when NMotion called looking to bring sports startups to Lincoln, a town already bustling with a handful of sports startups, Fingado and Dzingai agreed it was a good fit for them. But Athletepreneur was a passion project for the two athletes turned serial entrepreneurs. 

Fingado says athletes often have a hard time transitioning out of sports. Many have the knack for entrepreneurship, but often lack the resources or mentors to make it happen.

The online platform would help feature, mentor and inspire athletes to become innovators. Athletepreneur would also provide perks, crowdfunding and networking. It was a sort of online accelerator for athletes, Fingado says. One problem: it was a tough sell to investors and would be a bear to scale quickly. 

“It wasn’t the easiest choice, but we’re glad we realized early we couldn’t scale that for the sake of this program,” Dzingai said. “We’re excited for Mowdo because this is the right place to launch this type of business.”

It’s still something they hope to do in the future.

Enter: Mowdo

A few weeks into NMotion, they realized they had to change course. Fingado said NMotion’s director had chosen the pair for their entrepreneurial spirit and past experiences, not the idea, so they felt comfortable pivoting.

They broke out a whiteboard and listed the five things a startup needs and from there thought of ideas that fit those criteria. The next thing had to solve a problem for consumers and producers, had to be a unique solution, had to be reoccurring, easy for the entrepreneurs to make money and scalable.

A conversation with a real estate agent who was having trouble getting someone to mow for a listing quickly sparked the pivot, Fingado said. His co-founder and brother helped flesh out the idea.

There were few on-demand options for the $80 billion industry. That’s 10 times bigger than the taxi industry, Fingado said. 

Mowdo, a way for part-time lawn mowers to make “more dough” and homeowners to get their lawn mowed quickly and on-demand, was their answer. They already have a number of beta users in Lincoln and Omaha.

“There’s certainly no nationwide market leader in lawn care,” he said. “Every city has five or six lawn care companies and dozens of neighborhood kids that do lawns, but payment is tough and arranging a quick mowing isn’t the easiest.”

The idea fit the criteria:

• It was reoccurring — everyone needs to mow their lawn every week or so. Snow removal could be another potential revenue stream in the winter. 
• Mowdo would take a percentage of each transaction for easy money.
• The process was largely stuck in the old school of invoicing and using cash and checks. All payments would be done through the app with a credit card. That means no more waiting weeks to get paid.
• Technology like Stripe was available to make payments happen easier.
• Mowdo solved a problem for homeowners and agents who needed an easy way to find a mower and get their lawn taken care of.
• The idea is scalable to pretty much the whole country and the market was underserved. It is unique in that there isn’t an app out there, although some competing websites do exist.

“We came into the program with super open minds,” Fingado said. “We both quit jobs, left other stuff behind. If we were going to pivot or do something else, we needed to do it early.”

The startup launched an online service request page this week for a select number of Lincoln/Omaha homeowners. A larger public launch and app are coming soon. Mowdo and six other startups will present at NMotion Demo Day on Sept. 9.