What is your story?

After growing up in the small town of Hordville, Nebraska and making it into the Nebraska Business Honors Academy here at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, I threw myself into as many new experiences as possible. I have worked at Assurity Life Insurance since freshman year, then was fortunate enough to join the Clifton Builders Program sophomore year and go to Europe over the summer on a backpacking trip. I've been working with insurance startups over the last year now and found a gap in the marketplace to start my own. Through customer discovery and finding incredible partners, I have been able to help start Prepare Insurance.

What is your business?

Prepare Insurance - We protect middle income families with high deductibles against the possibility of a heart attack, cancer, or other sidelining events with critical illness insurance through our digital platform.

Who is your entrepreneurial inspiration OR biggest hero?

Jared Carlson, he has previously started five companies and now works as the head of Assurity Venture Capital department. He has mentored me on what to do, what not to do, pretty much sharing his journey. Whenever I feel off track or unsure, he is there to help guide the way.

What advice would you give to a student starting their entrepreneurial journey?

Always continue to test, whether that is early in the stage to find a solution to a problem or later when you are trying to find what marketing message works. It will help out tremendously in terms of learning and finding out how to move forward.

What has been your favorite "Engler Experience" to date?

Going through Build Camp in the Engler program has been an amazing experience, being able to go through the customer discovery process and learn how to vet out ideas. It will be extremely valuable going forward plus just being able to meet so many amazing people.

What has been the biggest hurdle or struggle you've dealt with in your entrepreneurial journey?

I think taking feedback and suggestions with a grain of salt. In the beginning, I would take everyone's feedback and make iterations based off of it and this caused my initial message to get lost and I had to revert my focus back to what got me to this point.