Pipeline marks 10 years of jump-starting entrepreneurial economy

It has been 10 years since Pipeline started training its first class of entrepreneurs in Kansas.

And it has been a busy decade, filled with a lot of change and a sense of the region’s growing dynamism, said president and CEO Joni Cobb.

On Thursday night, Pipeline will name its latest class of entrepreneurs and hand out awards at its Pipeline Innovators Dinner in Kansas City.

Pipeline was created in 2006 by the Kansas Technology Enterprise Corp., a partly state-funded technology development company. The Kansas Legislature merged KTEC into the commerce department in 2011, and Cobb had to scramble to find funding elsewhere.

Cobb and her supporters in the regional business community established Pipeline as an independent group and in the succeeding years spread beyond Kansas to Nebraska and Missouri. Pipeline is based in Kansas City, Mo.

Pipeline supplies training and mentorship to entrepreneurs with early-stage companies.

Over the years, a number of area entrepreneurs have been selected for the fellowship: Carlos Fernandez, Alex Cavgalar, Nate Gregory, Jeremy Jones, Gary Mason, Gerald Rues, Brandon Shuey, Mark Allen, Ben Tyson, Brian Williamson, Tahir Ahmad and Joey Blue.

Cobb said that in that decade, she has seen a growing entrepreneurial density.

“Our original mission was, ‘What can we do in flyover country to identify the Nate Gregorys in Wichita, impact their growth and seed it so that they become successful here?’ ” she said.

In Wichita, particularly, she said, there has been a spurt of activity in recent years. The city seems to be catching up to other cities in the region such as Kansas City, St. Louis and Omaha.

“It feels like there is a critical mass forming around the entire process,” she said. “Sometimes, it just takes getting over some hump.

“I don’t know what it was, but it feels that Wichita is really moving.”

This story was originally published January 25, 2017 at 4:53 PM with the headline "Pipeline marks 10 years of jump-starting entrepreneurial economy."