Since its inception in 2013, Digital Sandbox KC has supported a number of early-stage startups, providing proof-of-concept funding and assistance with aspects such as technology and product development, beta testing and market research. A goal is to help entrepreneurs move past the concept stage and commercialize their idea.
The program now is part of the Technology Venture Studio at the UMKC Innovation Center. We checked in with Jill Meyer, senior director of Technology Venture Studio, to get the latest on Digital Sandbox KC.
How many projects has Digital Sandbox KC funded to date?
“We have funded 153 to date, which equates to almost $3 million in project funding.”
In recent years, Digital Sandbox KC has awarded as much as $20,000 per project and aims to support about 20 projects a year. Earlier this summer, the program surveyed past participants and found that the group had raised $162 million in follow-on funding.
“Two of these companies have recently exited, RFP360 and LaborChart, so it’s very exciting to see the progression when a program is taking a bet on these early-stage companies and after X number of years see how successful they can be and can grow. … It is truly that exciting moment of this is exactly how it should work. This is what it should be doing. … Part of the value of the program is the people from the community that are engaged to help.”
Meyer said RFP360 applied three times before it received funding, and during one of the Digital Sandbox KC meetings, an individual helped the startup tweak the pricing model, which “made a huge difference.”
“(The founders) will say now that, ‘were it not for being pushed to get it right so it will scale, we would have thrown in the towel and gone about it the way we were going to do it and we might not be where we are today.’”
Why is it important to support early-stage companies and help them get to proof-of-concept and beyond?
“If we aren’t feeding this pipeline of technology in Kansas City, we are not going to see enough early-stage innovation.”
Without that innovation, Kansas City can’t fully leverage the momentum that’s been built since the debut of Google Fiber and the city’s quest to become America’s most entrepreneurial city, she said. The intentionality of area leaders led to programs such as Digital Sandbox KC and LaunchKC as well as new funds, like KCRise Fund.
“Programs like Digital Sandbox are a necessity. You can’t get to your big companies, your VC-backed companies and your exits without supporting the early-stage innovator who says, ‘I have a concept. I’ve been working on this, and I want to make it happen here.’ … Kansas City is a really tremendous community for connecting all the people who are offering up, ‘How can I be a part of it and how can that network work together collaboratively to move businesses forward?’ It’s that collaboration on top of the innovation of the entrepreneurs that I think makes a big difference in our community.”
What’s your vision for Digital Sandbox KC?
“I would love to see a ton more funding for Digital Sandbox from the private community and from additional funds. I would love to be able to double and triple the number of projects that we are currently able to fund each year. I would love to see a follow-on grant fund that doubled down on these businesses. … similar to what we used to have with LaunchKC. Any sort of opportunity like that to continue to get them through that early stage – we refer to it as the ‘valley of death.’ It’s a lot harder to raise $150,000 than it is to raise $1.5 million.”
With more funding, Digital Sandbox could surround more early-stage companies with the opportunities, mentors and networks to help them reach the next level of grant funding, she said.
“So by the time they are ready to be taking early-stage equity funding or public-private match or things of that nature, they have traction. Real traction. They have it together in a way to be able to explain here’s where we are and here’s where we’re going.”
