To enhance economic development and support entrepreneurship in Douglas County, K-State Research and Extension has joined forces with a community initiative aimed at revitalizing the county’s entrepreneurial landscape.

Douglas County CORE — an acronym that stands for Connections, Opportunities and Resources for Entrepreneurs — was developed to make entrepreneurship easier in the county, and it has partnered with the Extension to create an “entrepreneurship ecosystem.”

“One of the things that we’re doing is ensuring that folks see that there are resources in the ecosystem for them to tap into so they can hopefully find a path forward in entrepreneurship,” Douglas County Extension Executive Director Marlin Bates said.

Kyle Johnson, founder of Douglas County CORE, is an entrepreneur himself and said it can be hard and complicated when there isn’t sophisticated programming to help take entrepreneurs through the various stages of their journey.

“It’s further complicated by the fact that different kinds of tech entrepreneurs have different needs from one another, and small business owners or micro enterprise entrepreneurs have different needs as well,” Johnson said.

The work that has been done so far has included creating quarterly programs to attract entrepreneurs, like a competition to pitch ideas and award funds to the winners as well as monthly meetings, fellowships, advisers, capital and microgrants, according to a press release.

This network of aspiring entrepreneurs and established businesses is projected to create approximately 1,300 high-paying technology jobs and 300 high-paying non-technical jobs in Douglas County.

“The world’s best economists say that anything that you’re going to do to move the needle on homegrown entrepreneurship and economic development must be a systems-based approach,” Johnson said. “The ingredients in our system are these things, you know, these quarterly events like pitch competitions.”

“This can help you recruit, then you can train people and mentor them and deliver monthly programming, and then, ultimately, financing,” Johnson said. “There’s a way that all of these things can fit together.”

Bates was already engaged with Douglas County CORE through his office’s community development initiatives. Recently, this collaborative effort received funding from the K-State 105 program, designed to foster economic growth and progress across Kansas.

K-State 105 utilizes the extensive K-State Research and Extension network to bring the university’s knowledge and solutions directly to Kansans in their own communities. The initiative also establishes connections and partnerships with state institutions, nonprofits and other organizations to expand resources and capabilities in each of Kansas’ 105 counties.

“We’re always on the lookout for new funding partners and new opportunities for us to complete the mission, which is to make entrepreneurship in Douglas County easier,” Bates said.