Sherry Turner talks diversity, funding landscape

There are few people in Kansas City that have worked harder than Sherry Turner to increase women’s engagement in entrepreneurship.

Founder of OneKC for Women, Turner works to help women in the area find jobs, start businesses, get financing or invest in other businesses through a variety of organizations. After years leading large corporate teams, she now helps guide the Women’s Capital Connection, Women’s Business Center and Women’s Employment Network.

Turner recently participated in Startup Grind Kansas City, discussing her work, Kansas City diversity and the area funding landscape. To learn more about Startup Grind and its upcoming speakers like Sprint CEO Marcelo Claure, click here.

Here are a few snippets from Turner’s conversation with area businesspeople.

On engaging more women in entrepreneurship …
I think we have to be really intentional about labeling. … The startup community’s always been very white male-led. I mean, that’s the facts across the country. I think that after tonight we have to be more intentional about being a part of this (community) as well and drive that even through our e-newsletter and try to do some cross-promoting on stuff. … Our goal would be to have the resources available to have women gain the confidence.

On her work to create a micro-lending platform in KC …
Small businesses really couldn’t find access to capital. What we’re able to see is that the KC market is large enough that we should have multiple microloan programs because you can leverage federal dollars available to establish a loan pool and keep that viable. So our goal is to get the second one going. … We’re going to do our first 20 loans over the next several months with women-led (businesses) because we know those companies and then we’ll open it up in January to the general public.

On advice for attaining capital …
If you’re doing it alone — as in you’re not seeking out advice from people that have already been there and done that to help you evaluate, if you’re trying that decision on your own — I don’t think you’re utilizing the people that are willing to help around you. … We don’t claim to know everything, but we always know somebody that (can help) because they trust who we are and will sit down with you and give insight.

On her managerial skills …
In my corporate career, I managed 1,100 people at a time, so that was a training ground. Honestly, this is crazy, but it’s easier to manage that than small staffs. It’s layered kind of. You know you have direct reports who are responsible for tasking, and you’re managing strategies. I learned early in my career what it means to be a 50,000-foot level thinker in terms of that strategy, because I had that operational demand. But then as I moved into other careers with small staffs, you become tactical and you have attention to detail and you’re in the weeds. Really, I think I learned (managerial skills) in the different jobs that I had when I had to be 50,000-feet and detailed.