In 2000 the state legislature passed the Kentucky Innovation Act with the stated purpose of strengthening Kentucky’s tech economy through targeted support for startups, early stage and small businesses within the tech sector. A number of different programs and approaches were developed to accomplish the task, including the creation of regional support hubs, now known as the Kentucky Innovation Hubs.
“This was an initiative to provide one-on-one support from a various number of regional centers, providing entrepreneurial support services directly to founders of tech and tech-enabled startups,” said Lisa Bajorinas, executive director of the Kentucky Innovation Hubs.
“It was designed so that there was equal coverage between more urban areas and rural areas. By providing that support mechanism or support infrastructure, more early stage companies would have the opportunity to succeed. Over the course of the last 25 years, there have been varying numbers of innovation hubs or centers, but they’ve always covered all 120 counties,” she said.
Today there are six Kentucky Innovation Hubs. Located in Covington, Blue North serves the Northern Kentucky region. Other hubs include Bowling Green (CREATE), Pikeville (SOAR), Lexington (Awesome Inc.), Paducah (Sprocket) and Louisville (Amplify).
The innovation hubs receive funding from the Cabinet for Economic Development and are charged with developing outreach and support programming. Each hub provides one-on-one coaching, guidance and support to startups. Through this, the hubs connect entrepreneurs with a network of experts and other resources they may need. The goal is to help founders to advance their business in a shorter amount of time, saving them time, money and headaches.
Bajorinas said this early support can make all the difference for a new venture.
“We like to say at the right stage, at the right time and for the right reason,” she said.
In addition to providing individual guidance and support, the hubs are also responsible for overseeing and building their region’s entrepreneurial ecosphere. They work to identify any unmet needs and form partnerships and develop programs that address gaps in service.
A unique collaborative model
Each of the hubs operates separately and develops the resources and programming that fit their particular region, but Bajorinas said she’s witnessed an unprecedented level of collaboration between the hubs that has led to collective and resilient strength overall. Other regions across the country, and even some larger cities, have developed support programs, but Kentucky’s model with its emphasis on sharing information and cooperation is rare, she said.
“We certainly understand that Kentucky has a limited number of startup resources throughout the state, and we have strengths in each of our innovation hub regions…We are very aware of our connected network together, and so we will often refer any of our startup clients to another innovation hub’s particular program or opportunity or capital mechanism in order to best serve that particular startup. We do some very elegant referrals and handoffs to other programs on a statewide level,” she said.
Dave Knox, executive director of Blue North, described some of the ways this collaboration works on the ground. One way is in the sharing of ideas, programming and resources.
“Sometimes that is taking a program that’s been successful in one place and putting our own twist on it. So we’ve done that with things like fellowship programs. But then there’s also been times where what one of us creates, the other can just leverage and use in their own backyard.”
For example, he said, Blue North, in partnership with Northern Kentucky University, created an “entrepreneur blueprint” designed to help support rural entrepreneurs. When members of Lexington’s innovation hub expressed interest in doing a similar program, Knox said he told them feel free to take it and use it – no need to reinvent the wheel.
“We have that type of collaboration that I think is really different than a lot of other places where maybe people compete,” he said.
Knox also noted that with the networking and cooperation between regional hubs, support for founders is truly statewide. He said he’s seen this play out at Blue North’s entrepreneur working and networking space, SparkHaus.
“A lot of companies have multiple places they call home. At SparkHaus, we probably have four different startups that have a presence here, but they also have a presence in Louisville or in Lexington or in Bowling Green…so, we have this collaboration with the other hubs,” he said.
Blue North might be working with one co-founder of a startup while, down in Louisville at Amplify, they are working with another or with the company’s head of finance or marketing. Because the hubs are in regular communication with each other, information and services can be coordinated for a startup operating in different parts of the state. Support doesn’t stop at the region’s border, Knox said.
How collaboration is facilitated
Bajorinas said the hubs have developed a set of metrics by which they keep meticulous track and measure progress and success. They provide information to each other, the state and to the public through quarterly meetings and “State of the Startups” reports.
“I bring together the executive directors of each of our six innovation hubs, on a quarterly basis. We meet in person, and we have a full day of meetings where we are learning, educating, sharing all kinds of things to help drive all of us forward collectively,” she said.
The hubs also report to the public through quarterly Kentucky Innovation Hub webinars. Each of the hubs provides information on their most recent activities, programs, successes and events within their region as well as recent “wins” for specific startups.
“[Hub directors] will talk at a high level about their metrics and their progress against their annual goals. Through our metrics, they will also talk about a more recent event that they have held, so they have an event highlight. And then we also ask them to talk about how they have made a particular customer connection or an investor connection and how that has advanced a particular startup,” she said.
The webinars are open to anyone and allow the hubs to be transparent about the work they do, while also painting the public a picture of Kentucky’s startup landscape. Blue North holds a public viewing of the webinars at SparkHaus (sparkhaus.co/events).
Making tech founders and would-be founders aware of what the hubs do and what is available to them is a primary goal. The services and support is available at no cost to them.
While the country’s coastal regions have been known as prime technology centers, Kentucky’s strong networks and collaborative approach has built the bandwidth necessary to provide the vital support these startups need when and where they need it, Bajorinas said.
“We can very quickly bring those startup founders into our network and expose them to all of our regional and statewide ecosystem. Very quickly we connect them to other founders, because that founder-to-founder peer support is so important. One of the greatest things I say about Kentucky is the fact that you have access to almost anyone or anything with just simply one email, one phone call. Kentuckians love to help each other,” she said.To learn more about Kentucky Innovation Hubs go to kyinnovation.com/hubs. You can also link directly to the past webinar recordings at the Kentucky Science & Technology Corporation website at kstc.org. Under “Our Initiatives,” click on “Kentucky Innovation Hubs,” and scroll down to see links to past webinars. To register for an upcoming webinar go to their webinar registration page. For more about Northern Kentucky’s innovation hub, Blue North, go to bluenorthky.com.
