For a while now, the city of Frisco has played host to several high-tech pilot projects. Now, the suburb’s Economic Development Corporation is looking to double down on those efforts to set the foundation for the city’s entrepreneurial future.
The Frisco EDC is looking to add to its team with the newly created innovation manager position to serve as a connector of the city’s startup ecosystem. The city eyes the creation of a hub for its solutions-focused tech community.
“What we really kind of lack in our community is a front door to Frisco’s innovation ecosystem, whether that’s a hub or a nonprofit organization or an owner… we’ve got a lot of different organizations, but they’re a little fractured right now with COVID,” Jason Ford, Frisco EDC’s vice president, told NTX Inno. “We saw that this fragile state was one of the reasons we need to bring on a new innovation manager to help us start creating that structure.”
Ford said the EDC is looking for candidates with expertise in the world of high-growth startups and capital funding avenues to help connect the city’s companies with more access to capital. He added that to do so in Frisco would also require a candidate to have a “high level of polish and professionalism.”
The move comes as the city looks to create an “innovation hub,” a place that Jason Cooley, the city of Frisco’s chief innovation officer, describes as similar to a coworking space but with a curated focus on founders working on startups and projects that have the potential to grow the city’s economy while developing solutions that can serve its citizens.
“It will be a catalyst or a home, if you will, for individuals that are living in the innovation, smart city space, where they can come and collaborate. That’s something that we're looking to get started in the very near future,” Cooley said in an interview. “Every week we are approached by individuals that are in this space that have products and services that they believe fit our profile and serve our citizenry… and at some point in time, we have to bring these people together to see what we can produce and what we can develop.”
The building out of its innovation team and the creation of an entrepreneurial hub is part of a plan to boost Frisco’s economic recovery from the pandemic and a way to set the city up for a future in which technology plays a heavy role. Ford said Frisco is home to more than 200 startups and schools like UNT and Collin College that help feed the talent pipeline. He added that startups' focus would allow economic growth to happen organically and position the city to become more tech-enabled and sustainable, noting that companies in industries like fintech and telehealth have seen growth amid the pandemic.
Already, the city has acted as a sandbox for companies to test out their tech. Autonomous driving startup Drive.ai operated a small fleet in Frisco, ending in 2019. That same year, Uber selected the city as a test site for its vertical takeoff vehicle helipad. And in 2020, the city partnered with Starship Technologies to test its on-demand food and grocery robots.
“We have the resources here in Frisco, we have the technology, we have the expertise to bring some of these things on board, and now we need to figure out what… actually serves our citizens the best, and that is something that we can capitalize on and expand,” Cooley said.
Ultimately, Frisco’s innovation plans are about job creation and growth, Ford and Cooley said, both noting that creating a higher density of tech talent will likely attract other companies to support them or work in adjacent industries. That strategy can be seen in how the city positioned itself as a major player in sports, hosting teams like FC Dallas and the Frisco Roughriders, which eventually helped attract other companies like esports franchise Complexity Gaming.
“We’re trying to find ways of identifying more of those high-growth potential startups and finding ways to support them to nurture them for us to create jobs and for them, hopefully, to be able to scale up and solve really any industry problems that can and maybe solve problems for us right here in our area,” Ford said.
