Keystone launching corporate engagement accelerator to boost low-friction startup collabs

Kansas City’s entrepreneurial ecosystem gets its fair share of positive press thanks to a decade of momentum, Kevin McGinnis noted, but the region’s ability to scale innovative ideas to their potential remains stalled because corporations and startups lack an easy on-ramp for collaboration.

Kevin McGinnis, Keystone Innovation District, details plans for a new Corporate Connections accelerator during a GEWKC panel conversation on startup-corporate collaboration at Union Station; photo by Tommy Felts, Startland News

“We have been listening for years to the ecosystem, to the community, to the corporations, on what is needed,” the president and CEO of the Keystone Innovation District told a crowd gathered Thursday at Union Station for Global Entrepreneurship Week-Kansas City. “And we’ve been slowly trying to pull together pieces of that pie, and we’re ready to now roll this out in a way that’s more holistically approachable for corporations to engage.”

Keystone’s solution: a new accelerator program called Corporate Connections that is set to include reverse pitch events and mentorship opportunities to help high-growth startups find enterprise partners.

“How do we build that relationship between corporations and the startup ecosystem — not just here in Kansas City but globally — to start to build that innovation path?” McGinnis asked. “This program is designed to get corporations off the sidelines and engaged in a low-friction way.”

Keystone is launching the Corporate Connections program after receiving a project grant from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation earlier this year.

“Because of that grant, we have the ability for the next two years to heavily subsidize the entry point for corporations to get engaged in these tiers,” McGinnis explained.

The first tier of the program will be free for corporations to join as executive mentors and industry experts, he said.

“They can just join our mentor programming and start to engage just through those curated relationships that we can bring to them,” McGinnis noted. “Qualified startups can come in and get access to that industry expertise that costs our corporations nothing, but it starts to provide them an on-ramp to get engaged in the ecosystem and starts to provide that value for their employees to be engaged in the ecosystem.”

No start date for the program was announced Thursday, though McGinnis indicated corporate leaders could begin inquiries now.

Corporations can also take advantage of the Keystone Sessions weekly event series, he said, where they can showcase what they are doing from an innovation perspective.

“It’s an opportunity for them to come in and curate a topic around their innovation, around their problem sets, around what they’re working on, and have a networking event and invite the community,” McGinnis said.

Kevin McGinnis, Keystone Innovation District, left, announces a new Corporate Connections accelerator during a GEWKC panel conversation on startup-corporate collaboration at Union Station; photo by Nikki Overfelt Chifalu, Startland News

For $10,000 a year, corporations can join the second tier of the program, giving them access to quarterly reverse pitch competitions, innovation scouts, and quarterly innovation roundtables, he shared. In the reverse pitch competitions, corporations can bring a problem they see in their industry or market before qualified startups.

“They’re not selling anything,” McGinnis noted. “They’re basically giving entrepreneurs a roadmap to where, if you solve this problem, we are a customer standing on the other side waiting for you.”

Keystone plans to engage partners in the program — including Endeavor Heartland, Flyover Capital, and the KC Tech Council — as innovation scouts.

“So if one of the companies in this $10,000 tier comes to us and says, ‘Hey, we’re looking for companies that do X, looking to have this problem solved, we’re looking for innovation in these areas,’” McGinnis explained, “we can now go out to a national network of partners, a global network of partners, and say, ‘Show us your startup companies. Show us those technologies that are out there.’ Let’s curate those, bring those to Kansas City, and introduce those to our corporations here in town.”

The initiative also establishes an Innovation Advisory Council, which will hold quarterly roundtables to bring together corporations and university partners that are looking at inventive ways to address the needs of and problems faced by industry players, he said.

And for $25,000 a year, corporations can join the Corporate Connections accelerator program, McGinnis shared.

Craig Moore, senior manager of entrepreneur experience for Endeavor Heartland, speaks during a GEWKC panel conversation on startup-corporate collaboration at Union Station; photo by Tommy Felts, Startland News

Endeavor Heartland — a Northwest Arkansas-based network for high-impact entrepreneurs — will be the recruiting partner for the accelerator, bringing in the best companies to do pilots with the corporations.

“This isn’t just an accelerator to come in and build relationships, get good at pitching, be able to have a demo day, and celebrate the wild successes that you had as a startup or the acceleration you’ve done in three months,” McGinnis said. “We will specifically be looking for enterprise-ready companies, enterprise-ready startups that are in their growth stage, post revenue, ready to scale, ready to support a corporate company.”

“We will be identifying ones that are ready to do a pilot,” he added, “and integrating them into pilots with the Kansas City companies that are part of this program. That brings in new entrepreneurial blood, brings in new connections into Kansas City.”

McGinnis noted that past accelerators — like the Sprint accelerator — served as a catalyst for entrepreneurial activity in Kansas City and brought startups from across the globe to the region (with a few of those companies sticking around for years). He’s hoping the new Corporate Connections effort has the same impact.

“Let’s build a program that allows our corporate clients, our corporate customers, and our partners in Corporate Connections to help us attract startups to Kansas City that become the next enterprise in Kansas City,” he added.

Jason Haney, innovation and growth initiatives leader at Black and Veatch, offers details on the limits of corporate and startup collaboration during a GEWKC panel at Union Station; photo by Tommy Felts, Startland News

David Chew, vice president and SBA leader for Academy Bank, discusses the connectivity between corporate and startup innovation; photo by Tommy Felts, Startland News

Drew Robinson, senior manager of special projects and generation development for Evergy, shares his experience from corporate Kansas City during a GEWKC panel; photo by Tommy Felts, Startland News

Before announcing the new program, McGinnis moderated a panel discussion around building better corporate-startup relationships with Craig Moore, senior manager of entrepreneur experience for Endeavor Heartland; Drew Robinson, senior manager of special projects and generation development for Evergy; David Chew, vice president and SBA leader for Academy Bank; and Jason Haney, innovation and growth initiatives leader at Black and Veatch.

The panelists shared challenges and opportunities with forming collaborative relationships between early-stage innovators and more established venture leaders in the business community.

“Kansas City is very strong,” Moore said. “We have a number of industries. To me, we are very industry agnostic. So that’s a lot of great opportunities for new solutions to be born, but you have to be able to figure out a way to get there, and I believe this conversation is a good start.”