How did AnywhereCam go from an idea hatched in our founder’s brain during the pandemic to a multimillion dollar, venture-backed startup headquartered in Fort Morgan, Colorado? Well, we didn’t do it alone, that’s for sure. In this post, we’d like to highlight some of the organizations that helped us get to where we are today.

Let’s start with Logan County Economic Development Corporation. They organized a pitch competition for startups on the Eastern Plains of Colorado in the summer of 2023. Mike Blecha had just incorporated AnywhereCam a couple months prior, and he was running the company as a side project at the time. Dan Lane, who became Mike’s co-founder, was serving as a judge in the pitch competition. Little did they know that this little startup event, which brought Mike and Dan together for the first time, would change the course of both of their lives when they decided to team up. It never would have happened if Logan County Economic Development Corporation hadn’t made the effort to bring entrepreneurs together out in Sterling, CO.

As Mike and Dan struggled to get AnywhereCam off the ground on a shoestring budget, the Rural Jump Start program run by the Colorado Office of Economic Development & International Trade (OEDIT) came to the rescue. As a qualifying rural startup from Fort Morgan, CO, we were able to get reimbursed for a huge chunk of our expenses from 2023. That reimbursement kept us afloat as we worked on product-market fit.

At the same time, Mike and Dan were participating in programming offered by Startup Colorado. This organization connects founders at startups located all over rural Colorado with speakers, resources, mentors, and with each other. Those connections would prove to be extremely valuable a little bit later in our journey.

Another organization that has helped us tremendously has been Morgan County Economic Development Corporation (MCEDC). Located just down the street from us in Fort Morgan, MCEDC has helped AnywhereCam with finding space for our fulfillment center, provided grants to improve our building facades, funded the creation of promotional videos to help us get the word out about AnywhereCam, and has even provided financing to us through their loan fund. MCEDC has been absolutely crucial to our success.

At a certain point, it became clear that we had demonstrated product-market fit and we were going to need to raise some funds to reach our full potential. That’s when our local Small Business Development Center (SBDC) came into play. Thanks to them, we gained free access to a financial planning tool that helped us create professional looking financial forecasts that we were able to incorporate into the pitch deck we used for our seed raise.

In the fall of 2024, Startup Colorado invited AnywhereCam to present at its startup pitch competition in Durango, CO. At that event, we met a Durango-based venture capital group by the name of Howdy Partners. Howdy Partners deploys capital that comes in part from the state Venture Capital Authority, another state agency that proved invaluable to AnywhereCam. We didn’t know it at the time, but our meeting with Howdy Partners would turn out to be transformative for our company.

In December of 2024, AnywhereCam successfully closed on a seed round led by a local angel investor from Fort Morgan and joined in on by Howdy Partners.

With some real money finally in the bank for us to work with, AnywhereCam started to take off like a rocket. However, with growth came the need to purchase more inventory and hire more staff. Fortunately, we were able to work with community lender Northeastern Colorado Revolving Loan Fund to take on some debt financing to help fuel our fast-paced growth.

Fast forward to today, and we’re utilizing OEDIT’s Global Consultant Network as we start expanding internationally.

For any entrepreneurs reading this, especially in rural places, the main lesson we’ve learned is this: Colorado has a robust startup ecosystem that has many mechanisms in place to help founders in rural areas. Don’t go it alone. Connect with your local economic development organizations. Sign up for startup programming. Attend startup events. In almost every case, the benefit we received from building relationships with each of these organizations came well after our initial engagement with them, often when we least expected it. You have to get out there, meet as many people and organizations as you can, and just keep pushing. With the right support, eventually you’ll get to where you want to be.