Thunder Launchpad graduates first class

Entrepreneurs from 10 young businesses recently concluded the 12-week Thunder Launchpad accelerator program by pitching their ventures to potential investors.

The ventures were the first to complete the program, designed to help founders conceive, design and scale businesses in Oklahoma and boost technological innovation throughout the state.

The founders spent between five and 10 minutes Thursday in the Thunder corporate offices at Chesapeake Arena casting the vision for their fledgling businesses. Business industries included agriculture, insurance, online gaming, health care and more.

One of the businesses pitched at the event was Britebee, an app designed to better connect consumers to insurance agents.

“The first thing we think about is not how wonderful it is, right?” CEO and founder Keagan Henson said. “We think about the daunting task of searching for insurance, we think about how it’s just really difficult.”

This problem is what led to the development of BriteBee. Henson and his team sought to provide a secure way for consumers to search for insurance agents, while also providing insurance agents a quality way to follow-up with interested consumers.

“Britebee is providing a way for consumers to share, compare and also communicate online securely, transparently, without sharing your email or sharing your phone number with any of the agents you choose,” Henson said.

Henson and founders from other businesses that made pitches Thursday received mentoring from local business professionals as well as room to work and shared services in a 2,200-square-foot space at 309 NW 13 in Midtown through the Thunder Launchpad program. The program was developed in collaboration with StichCrew, founded by Erika Lucas, who explained some of the vision behind the accelerator program at the start of the event.

“We strongly believe that most of the pressing challenges we face today as a society are not going to be solved just through policy or a traditional mindset,” Lucas said. “It’s going to require bold entrepreneurs and taking a risk to solve some of those problems collectively.”

The presentation was followed by a meet-andgreet reception for the entrepreneurs and the potential investors and stakeholders.

[PHOTO BY DAVID DISHMAN, THE OKLAHOMAN] A team of representatives from Viribus VR Labs explains potential market size for a virtual reality therapy product in development. The team was one of 10 to make pitches to potential investors as part of the Thunder Launchpad accelerator program for...