After two years of co-sponsoring a startup competition, Paducah, Kentucky-based Sprocket has spread its wings with its own program.
NEXT50K is a spinoff of the 1ST50K tech incubator program that took place in conjunction with Cape Girardeau, Missouri-based Codefi.
During those two years, that competition brought a total of five startups to Paducah, including Feedcoyote (the winner of our latest KY Inno Madness bracket), Ewagers (one of our KY Inno 2024 Startups to Watch), as well as Seamly Systems, one of our 2023 Startups to Watch. Note: Feedcoyote Founder Stevens Bonhomme — named as one of the recipients for our Inno Fire Awards in December — recently moved to Louisville after being named a winner in the 2023 Vogt Awards and Render Competition.
Now, with the financial backing of an eight-person advisory council, NEXT50K will award two startups with $50,000 each, provided they move their operations to Paducah/McCracken County for one year. One winner will be in the health-tech space; the other, in any other category.
“We’re a small community. How do we inject that innovative thinking into our community? ... It’s almost like an in-residence program where you bring people in, help them out, help them grow,” said Sprocket Executive Director Monica Bilak. “The community then gets to embrace them as well.”
Bilak added that the addition of the advisory council will be able to enhance the previous iterations of 1ST50K.
“It [can] really connect them directly to people who can make connections for them across the state, or even the nation — and just provide leverage,” she said.
The advisory council is composed of the following people: David Wilkins, Terri Lundberg, Kenny Boyd, Lennis Thompson, Steve Reid, Dr. Simone Fearon, JP Kelly and Mendee Morgan. A majority of the members have connections to the health care industry, hence the requirement of having one winner be from the health care sector.
Bilak said members who were not living in the Paducah already, were natives of the area who moved back during the coronavirus pandemic.
“They came back for a variety of reasons. It was really easy to live here,” she said.
Bilak said initial interviews will take place in March. The winners will be unveiled at a pitch day on June 15 in Paducah, which will run in tandem with its annual Techfest event from June 14-15. The approximate eight finalists will be on hand to provide demos leading up to the announcement of the two winners.
In September, the tech hub held its the first edition of TechXpo in downtown Paducah.
Sprocket, which opened its offices in 2021, is one of six innovation hubs located throughout Kentucky that are part of the system of KY Innovation, the entrepreneurial arm of the Kentucky Cabinet for Economic Development.
The other five KY innovation hubs are: Amplify Louisville; Awesome Inc (Lexington); Blue North (Covington); Central Region Ecosystem for Arts, Technology and Entrepreneurship (CREATE, Bowling Green) and the innovation sector of Shaping Our Appalachian Region (SOAR, Pikeville).
