photo by: Courtesy: Douglas County CORE

A slide from a recent presentation by leaders of Douglas County CORE lists broad goals that the organization has established for making the county a hub for entrepreneurship.

Douglas County has a decadelong chore if it wants to become a hub of entrepreneurship, and now a group is proposing that a couple of workers be hired to specifically focus on that task.

City, county, state and private officials soon will be approached about providing $250,000 in funding to a new Lawrence-based entrepreneurship organization to hire a pair of professionals who will work to build a system for business creators to be successful in the county.

You may remember that in June we briefly introduced you to a new group called Douglas County CORE. At that time, it involved about 50 people who gathered on the KU campus to discuss ways that the county could better serve as an “entrepreneurship enabler.” The group has kept working since that time, and now it is putting forth a proposal to hire two full-time positions: a director of entrepreneurship and a research navigator.

Kyle Johnson, a Lawrence entrepreneur who has raised venture capital for his Internet advertising company Bixy, is a co-founder of Douglas County CORE. He said the positions were needed as part of a long process of converting the county into a hub of new business startups.

“The thing people have to understand about ecosystem building, it is really a 10-year investment in a bunch of capabilities and entrepreneurs who add up to be very significant over time,” he said. “But it is not a short-term thing. You have to have a 10-year focus.”

You also have to have somebody who is a counter, Johnson said. You know the old saying of you can’t improve what you don’t measure. That means someone needs to be measuring items like how many entrepreneurs do we have in the community, how many jobs are they adding, how much investment are they garnering, what type of wages are they paying, and several other metrics.

“If we can understand that, we can start moving the needle,” Johnson said. “But you have to be able to execute and track metrics quarter over quarter.”

It will be interesting to watch what type of reception CORE’s funding request receives. Johnson said the group isn’t seeking the entire $250,000 to come from the city or the county. It also plans to put in a grant application to the Kauffman Foundation, which is a Kansas City-based entrepreneurship organization. It also will explore funding options with the Kansas Department of Commerce, and will seek private funding.

The city likely won’t be asked to make any decisions on the funding request until its budget sessions this summer. The funding would be for the 2023 budget year.

The city already has one position on its payroll dedicated to economic development. That director position, however, has historically focused more on managing the city’s incentives programs — everything from tax abatements to the Neighborhood Revitalization Program.

KU also several economic development-related positions, including its Lawrence-based Small Business Development Center and an entire staff at KU Innovation Park, which is the West Campus technology incubator facility that is expanding. The Lawrence chamber of commerce also has multiple staff members related to economic development, both in terms of attracting new companies and also working with existing firms.

But Johnson said all of those organizations have their own specific niches and focuses. What CORE envisions with the two new positions it hopes to create would be broader and would not compete with other organizations, he said.

“There needs to be an umbrella organization that is not seeking to encroach on anybody’s turf but rather is acting as a connector and looks to fill gaps,” Johnson said. “We’re not asking anybody to change their mission. It is not our job to try to convince people to increase their scope. We want to meet everybody where they are at and fill gaps.”

Johnson said the director of entrepreneurship position would do tasks such as creating new learning events for entrepreneurs, coordinate with other entities, establish an infrastructure for mentoring, create a resource guide, and help spur thought and action on broader topics such as local venture capital networks.

The research navigator position would be out and about in the community connecting with entrepreneurs or people who want to become one. That position would have a special focus on connecting with minority entrepreneurs or others who may be an “under-served population.”

“Certainly, entrepreneurship is tough, but if you are in an under-served population, it can be 10 times tougher,” Johnson said.