Start city’s startup engine
Even as the Great Recession swept away thousands of local jobs, Wichita believed it could always make more. If that faith has been shaken since, the city’s entrepreneurial spirit remains palpable.
Few doubt the grim data offered recently by analyst James Chung as part of the Wichita Community Foundation’s Focus Forward project – that Wichita ranks 227th among 366 metropolitan communities for entrepreneurial “startup density” and, though it’s 51st in population, did not even make the top 160 cities for capturing venture capital last year. “Based on population size, roughly $10 million to $20 million should be flowing to Wichita annually,” Chung said.
Stories shared since Chung’s presentation have portrayed Wichita as hostile to young inventors and lacking a startup culture, even compared with Tulsa, Des Moines or Kansas City, Mo. For those shopping their ideas here, advice is said to be easier to come by than capital or space.
But some promising strategies are being deployed locally for turning ideas into products, services, companies and jobs. There’s more investment by business veterans in young innovators than meets the eye. There’s also a shared recognition that more can and should be done.
Plans call for a business accelerator/incubator to start operating downtown sometime next year, as a new $9 million E2E fund raised from local businesses is used to foster entrepreneurial activity. A task force created by the Wichita Metro Chamber of Commerce is behind what is a diverse, cooperative approach to stoking the economy.
“There’s more momentum now to fix things than I’ve seen in a long time,” said Occidental Management CEO Gary Oborny, who co-chairs the entrepreneurship task force.
The most visible sign of Wichita’s move toward economic reinvention is the ambitious innovation campus going up at Wichita State University, which just received a $7.1 million federal grant for technology and research meant to create manufacturing jobs.
And the new Greater Wichita Partnership is working with others in the region to “align and focus our economic development initiatives,” said Jeff Fluhr, who now leads it as well as the Wichita Downtown Development Corp. He cited the Blueprint for Regional Economic Growth as one among several efforts underway.
Can a conservative town that has long specialized in and relied on one industry – aircraft manufacturing – turn into a hothouse for 21st-century businesses of many kinds?
It can if its history is intertwined with the creation and success not only of Cessna Aircraft, Beech Aircraft and Learjet but also of Koch Industries, Coleman Co., Pizza Hut, Rent-A-Center, Residence Inn, Sheplers, White Castle, and Freddy’s Frozen Custard and Steakburgers.
And it can if there are would-be inventors and business owners who see no reason to go elsewhere, recognizing that the technological tools, collaboration and crowdfunding that distinguish maker culture and the fast-changing economy can work anywhere. As news reports have noted about “Silicon Prairie” tech hubs such as Lincoln, Neb., and Des Moines, affordable living is a significant asset. (Of course, “blazingly fast Internet speeds” are essential, too, as one Lincoln techie told Bloomberg.)
Just as entrepreneurs built Wichita, entrepreneurs can assure its future.
For the editorial board, Rhonda Holman
This story was originally published October 17, 2015 at 7:07 PM with the headline "Start city’s startup engine."