$250K node grant expected to fund AI upgrade at KCSourceLink, part-time navigators for PHKC, Square One, The Toolbox

A hefty new grant is expected to build upon a community collaboration’s framework to help small businesses start and grow over the next five to 10 years in the Kansas City area. The goal: better access to diverse resources for local entrepreneurs.

The Missouri Technology Corporation (MTC) earlier this month announced a $250,000 regional node grant for the Kansas City region, specifically slotted for the UMKC Innovation Center — which coordinated a core group of collaborators, including KCSourceLink , SourceLink , The Toolbox , Porter House KC and Square One at Mid-Continent Public Library .

Winning the grant came as the culmination of a series of community-wide workshops — and notably the Forging the Future of Entrepreneurship event attended by nearly 200 guests — which sought to crowdsource priorities and plans for the node, said Patty Gentrup, director of special projects for UMKC Innovation Center and KCSourceLink.

“We engaged literally hundreds of entrepreneurs, small business owners and people from entrepreneurial support organizations,” she said. “We held 19 focus groups in February and one in March over a five week period.”

From the stakeholders, Gentrup continued, the organizers learned the biggest potential for impact would be to focus on “opening doors to entrepreneurship and small business development.”

MTC notes that a grant-winning node should serve “as a front door for the regional entrepreneurial community, allowing entrepreneurs to more easily access the resources they need to launch or grow their businesses, thereby expanding the state’s entrepreneurial capacity.”

Building the framework

Through the course of the workshops, organizers of what became the Kansas City node developed seven imperatives.

1. Cultivate Entrepreneurial Talent: Drive talent into small businesses, developing the people needed to build and work in them.

1. Capitalize Entrepreneurs: Dramatically increase access to capital for startup and early-stage businesses, especially for women and minorities.

1. Build Entrepreneur Support Capacity: Invest in a collaborative system of entrepreneurial support.

1. Open Doors to Entrepreneurship and Small Business Ownership: Dismantle barriers to pursuing entrepreneurship.

1. Celebrate the Kansas City region as the place for entrepreneurship and small businesses: Tell the world about the success and impact of entrepreneurship in the region.

1. Move Ideas from the Research Lab to the Marketplace: Capitalize on regional research assets to build the innovations that Kansas City region, the U.S. and the world need.

1. Engage the Corporate Community in Building Small Businesses: Identify and connect additional stakeholders to support and more fully develop small businesses.

Michael Carmona, UMKC Innovation Center, speaks in April during the Forging the Future of Entrepreneurship event; photo courtesy of KCSourceLink

To that end, Gentrup’s colleague — Michael Carmona, community relations and impact manager for the UMKC Innovation Center — said KCSourceLink will effectively spearhead the door opening and small business development work with the help of a technology upgrade, for starters.

“Our existing technology that we use to help get people connected to the resources, get connected to the events, is going to advance with some artificial intelligence,” Carmona said.

Such upgraded technology will allow partners to more quickly update online information and profiles more efficiently and “take care of some of those tasks that right now has required a lot of human activity,” he added.

In turn, Carmona said, partners can “then be able to focus on more impactful work (with) the entrepreneurs.”

KCSourceLink’s Resource Navigator — which helps entrepreneurs search 230-plus resource partners — remains a primary tool, he said, with a coming AI boost.

“It’s similar to a Google search, but it’s a lot more than Google because what our team and our partners have been able to do is look at these 230-plus partners and identify the services that they provide, even to the point where we’ve identified what these organizations specialize in,” Carmona said.

Expert navigators

Beyond enhancing Resource Navigator, the MTC grant will also fund the relaunching of a community navigator program.

“The basis of this particular program was to work with individuals who … are very well connected in certain communities, whether it be geographically, whether it be based on race or ethnicity, and look to them to … connect in the communities that they’re already engaging in and adding that additional support by helping get people connected to resources … that can help them start and grow businesses,” Gentrup said.

To deepen such work with individuals, the grant is expected to expand the human capacity at three of the core node members (The Porter House KC, Square One and The Toolbox) by funding a part-time community navigator — or small business resource expert — at their locations.

“That’s going to be massively helpful,” said Ashley Muffitt, director of small business services at Square One.

Based out of Mid-Continent Public Library in Lees Summit, Square One helps entrepreneurs and small business owners start and grow a business. It also supports job-seekers with resume updates and other job search assistance.

Square One’s 2023 impact

Square One is part of a 35-plus branch library system serving over 800,000 community members across Clay, Platte and Jackson Counties in Missouri.

In 2023, Square One Small Business Services:

• Offered 250 free community programs designed to help businesses start and grow.
• Conducted 300 one-on-one appointments with entrepreneurs, focusing on research, marketing and professional development.

Square One currently staffs a business information librarian, social media specialist and workforce specialist, Muffitt said, “but none of the three of those can meet our Spanish speaking needs,” which she adds have been increasing, as has the number of Spanish speaking new business owners in search of guidance.

The incoming node-supported community navigator will round out the team while also being a liaison to this community, Muffitt said.

“We do a lot around access for Spanish-speaking individuals in particular,” she said. “So we’re excited to be able to have someone that is being paid to translate who is also geared toward being able to help businesses.”

Gentrup and Carmona expect to onboard the navigators later this year and to see the positions funded through August 2026.

August’s funding announcement marks the first year of MTC’s Regional Node Grant program. In total, MTC awarded $1.3 million for “the implementation or execution of each region’s strategy for the establishment or continued operations of regional entrepreneurial nodes throughout Missouri.”

Learn more about this year’s grant recipients and about the Regional Node Grant Program in general .

The post $250K node grant expected to fund AI upgrade at KCSourceLink, part-time navigators for PHKC, Square One, The Toolbox appeared first on Startland News .