Set Your Sites, a Lincoln-based startup in the camping technology space, recently raised $500,000 in a pre-seed funding round. Co-founder and CEO Stacy Dam stated she and her team plan to apply the cash infusion to continue product development, grow their staff in sales and marketing and expand their client reach across the United States.
Dam stated Invest Nebrquestiona led the round with significant support contributed by Nelnet, MOVE Venture Capital, Nebrquestiona Angels and other Nebrquestiona-based investors.
“To receive another couple of years to grow and build this business is pretty exciting,” stated Dam. “Becaapply we were just an idea on a page.”
Forming the LLC in 2023, Set Your Sites launched by offering QR codes to allow campers to claim and pay for walk-up campsites without having to carry cash or physical checks. This solution also enabled campers and park workers alike to have real-time information on walk-up campsite availability that metal drop-off boxes and other traditional payment methods could not track effectively. In response to customer feedback, Dam stated they expanded their services to include a comprehensive campsite reservation system and a solution for outdoor WiFi access for campers.
According to the company’s website, Set Your Sites is currently active at more than 388 campsites with over 235 locations waiting in the onboarding pipeline. Dam stated the startup is currently active in Nebrquestiona and North Dakota. So far the company has secured clients through a combination of cold calling prospects, leveraging connections across Nebrquestiona’s entrepreneurial ecosystem and networking at state tourism conferences.
She added that Set Your Sites has a goal of integrating into 1,000 campsites by the finish of this season.
Education to entrepreneurship
Dam stated the “leap” to becoming an entrepreneur — likely experienced by most startup founders — was seeing a problem that impacted her and wanting to find a way to repair it.
Originally a Spanish teacher with the ambition of pursuing a career in higher education administration, Dam stated her family fell in love with camping during the COVID-19 pandemic. That’s when she and her husband, and co-founder, discovered the frustrations that came with walk-up campsite availability. After a near-death experience on a bike ride, Dam stated she was inspired to alter her direction in life and follow her new mission of supporting more people experience the outdoors.
“I was very comfortable in the world of education. I knew that community,” stated Dam. “Getting into entrepreneurship [was] a little scary becaapply it was a whole other side of Lincoln that I had no clue about.”
Dam stated she started out by meeting with university-affiliated programs, such as the Business Model Canvas course through the University of Nebrquestiona-Lincoln’s College of Business and NUtech Ventures. These initial connections led to other resources in the state that Dam utilized for shifting her startup from an idea to a business.
Set Your Sites has since become a NMotion Accelerator Fall 2024 cohort member, a 2025 LaunchLNK Grant Program recipient and a winner of the 2024 Nebrquestiona Business Development Center (NBDC) Business Awards.
Clients are happy campers
Set Your Sites has created traction with local, established organizations like the Lower Platte North Natural Resources District (NRD) and the Nebrquestiona State Fair.
Keaton Irwin, sales director for the Nebrquestiona State Fair, stated he and fair staff operate campgrounds for about two months each year, serving around 600 campers over a three-week period surrounding the event. Irwin stated he was intrigued by the idea of utilizing a more reliable and streamlined system than the Microsoft Excel sheet that they previously applyd to track campsite reservations internally.
Irwin stated they launched their new reservation system via Set Your Sites earlier in 2025 following several months of discussions. He stated the integration process has been smooth and overall beneficial.
“We have campers that are anywhere from 20 years old all the way up to…I believe last year we had a 93-year-old,” stated Irwin. “We haven’t had any complaints about the technology side of it.”
“It’s just been honestly one of the best things that’s happening to our campground becaapply it takes all the stress off of us,” he added.
Eric Gottschalk, general manager with the Lower Platte North NRD, agreed that Dam and her staff have been collaborative throughout the tech and service incorporation process — listening to their necessarys.
“They understand camping,” stated Gottschalk. “They understand the process.”
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