Wichita program drives highway of resources to more KC startups; founders tout who they met along the way

Opening its doors to Midwest companies outside Kansas for the first time, a Wichita-based program that connects startups with the tools to better engage enterprise partners offered an added benefit to Kansas City entrepreneurs: a new ecosystem of support just a few hours from home.

Donnie Hampton, Roz

“The program’s Wichita location inspired us to broaden our outreach in the region, which has generated promising new opportunities,” said Donnie Hampton, co-founder of Roz, one of four Kansas City-area companies tapped for the just-completed NXTSTAGE Enterprise Engagement Series cohort.

As designed, NXTSTAGE helped Roz connect with key decision-makers at organizations that previously were outside the orbit of the startup’s leaders, he continued, noting his company now is in active discussion with several regional enterprise participants.

Through the program — organized by NXTUS in Wichita — entrepreneurs like Hampton engage in weekly workshops, one-on-one meetings, and enterprise coaching sessions. Participants also received curated “Enterprise Playbooks” and direct introductions to enterprise leaders, equipping them with critical tools and networks to scale their businesses.

“The NXTUS leadership team has been an outstanding partner — providing strong candidate support and valuable encouragement throughout,” Hampton said, noting the program set Roz up for additional success with enterprise players in the industry. “We are continuing to scale our outreach efforts, with a sharpened focus on serving highly regulated enterprises and their service providers, such as audit and assurance firms.”

RELATED: Roz audits its path to $2.15M in early funding; how KC helped this AI startup scale its potential

NXTUS last week celebrated the culmination of the 2025 cohort at the Startup-Enterprise Summit, hosted at Cargill Protein Headquarters during Launch Week, formerly known as Wichita Startup Week.

Click here to learn more about the NXTSTAGE Enterprise Engagement Series program.

The event marked the graduation of 20 Midwest entrepreneurs and celebrated the 13 enterprise partners that fueled the program. Participating companies represented founders from Wichita, Spring Hill, and Hutchinson, Kansas, to St. Louis and Kansas City, Missouri. 

ICYMI: NXTUS expands enterprise-focused program beyond Kansas; four KC-area startups selected

Their solutions spanned diverse industries, ranging from advanced cybersecurity, AI-driven health and wellness, to inclusive workforce integration, transformative HR services, logistics, compliance, and creative marketing.

Members of the 2025 NXTSTAGE Enterprise Engagement Series cohort at Launch Week’s Startup-Enterprise Summit at Cargill Protein Headquarters; photo courtesy of NXTUS

Bing Low, Ulom

“With the program, we get to build connections with corporations and city governments in the Wichita area, and it helps us understand the process of working with businesses in the area,” said Bing Low, co-founder of Kansas City-based Ulom, another Kansas City cohort member (and a fellow Pure Pitch Rally and Digital Sandbox KC alum). “At the same time, it validates our solution for the trade-skills workforce.”

Like Roz, Ulom is now working to deepen relationships with enterprise partners from the program, which included Berry Companies, Cargill, City of Wichita, Equity Bank, Evergy, Kansas Department of Commerce, Koch Supplier Strategies, LANGE Companies, iSi Environmental, Sedgwick County, Textron Aviation, U.S.D. 259 Wichita Public Schools, and Village Travel.

“We are looking for the best possible way to work with more businesses in the Wichita area,” said Low, whose company helps refugees, international students, and new immigrants adapt to their new home faster by connecting them to the right resources and community. “We want to be able to support the trade skills workforce in the area.”

Gharib Gharibi, Archia

For a Kansas City startup like Archia.io — which enables companies to build AI agents quickly and safely — the NXTSTAGE program played a significant role in shaping its go-to-market efforts, said founder Gharib Gharibi.

“In particular, through the program’s Enterprise Playbooks, we learned how buying committees operate, who the economic buyers and technical evaluators are in each organization, and how to navigate multi-stakeholder decision-making processes,” detailed Gharibi, whose startup also just earned Digital Sandbox KC funding.

“Our immediate focus now is converting the foundational knowledge we learned during the program into design partnerships and customers,” he continued, noting Archia.io is already having conversations with several companies about deploying its AI agent infrastructure in their environments. “We’re putting the procurement knowledge into practice with warm introductions rather than cold outreach.”

The 2025 NXTSTAGE Enterprise Engagement Series was made possible through support of enterprise partners, Network Kansas, the Greater Wichita Partnership with its Opportunity Wichita affiliate, Fidelity Bank, and Forvis Mazars.

The cohort, which launched in mid-August, also included the Spring Hill-based logistics startup OnSight, an all-in-one solution for driver check-ins, load management, and freight fraud prevention.