These local startups and entrepreneurial groups are setting Wichita ablaze. Wichita Inno last month opened up nominations for its first Fire Awards, seeking to identify those entities pushing the city’s entrepreneurial ecosystem forward.
Following those nominations, the WBJ honed in on winners in five categories that range from entrepreneurial advocacy to new technologies that could change businesses and the lives of consumers.
They were selected on factors including new funding, company and workforce growth, product launches, pivots and local impact.
Below are our overall “Blazer Winners” from each category:
Ecosystem Advocate: FlagshipKansas.Tech
FlagshipKansas.tech was founded to help promote the startup-driving technology industry in Kansas. And in in the past year, it has added new focus on one of the most valuable resources in any industry — the talent pipeline.
Flagship was recently selected for a State Apprenticeship Expansion, Equity, and Innovation (SAEEI) grant to develop and implement apprenticeship programs and the organization was added as part-time administrator of the initiative.
Flagship also advocated in the Kansas Legislature for House Bill 2466 to help expand computer science courses in schools around the state.
“Making computer science more accessible to middle and high school students and providing funding and resources for Kansas teachers helps the state take another step forward in closing the technology workforce gap,” Ashley Scheideman, executive director of FlagshipKansas.Tech, said in May when the bill was signed by Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly.
Additionally, the organization has won grants from Microsoft related to digital literacy and secured $10,000 from AT&T to help fund a technology camp for students in June in partnership with the Workforce Alliance of South Central Kansas.
Still to come in 2022 for Flagship will be the Ad Astra Technology Summit, slated for September 12, where the focus will be on educators, industry and startups.
And behind it all, the organization continues its founding mission of raising awareness of the technology industry in Kansas where the sector employs around 37,000 people and generates around $8 billion in revenue.
Website: https://flagshipkansas.tech/
Fire starters/community builders: Wichita Startup Week
Organized entirely by volunteers, Wichita Startup Week brought a wealth of resources and inspiration to the local entrepreneurial ecosystem in its inaugural year.
Presented by Koch Industries Inc. and held for the first time last October, the event drew more than 300 attendees and distributed more than 2,300 tickets to various sessions during its five days of programming.
And from the event came numerous success stories, from the introduction of new startups like Soya Fuel to the broader community, to existing businesses able to grow through the event’s networking opportunities and even to entrepreneurs inspired to finally run with their own ideas after attending.
After a big opening salvo, Wichita Startup Week is gearing up to light even more entrepreneurial fires in 2022.
The program’s second week-long event is slated to return to Groover Labs in October.
Programming this year will include a diversity and inclusion discussion, presented by Fidelity Bank, as well as events centered around newcomer startups, an event centered around existing new companies presented by accounting firm EY (Ernst & Young) and an innovation talk presented by the Kansas Department of Commerce.
Other planned programming for 2022 includes an Oct. 10 kickoff party, an Oct. 12 NXTUS Inc.-sponsored enterprise engagement event, an Oct. 13 trade show sponsored by local cryptocurrency startup Voltage and a pitch competition presented by Cox Business, and a Oct. 14 finale presented by Martin Pringle Law Firm.
“Wichita Startup Week will connect first-time entrepreneurs to the resources needed to accelerate, help founders and independent businesses leap to their next milestone, and connect community leaders with Wichita’s brightest talent,” co-founder James Williams said earlier this year. “Our 100% volunteer-led team believes the next great Wichita company will walk through our doors, and we think the time is now to realize that opportunity.”
Website: https://startupweekwichita.com/
Revenue growth: Knowledge as a Service/Ringorang
A Wichita-based startup is bringing a digital solution to employee training as a means of helping companies build the kind of skilled workforces that can help them navigate the labor challenges of the world after Covid-19.
Knowledge as a Service (KaaS) relocated its operations to Wichita in 2021. KaaS is the provider of Ringorang, an app-based, continual training platform that employers can use to help drive home the skills needed for everything from safety to processes.
From Fortune 100 companies to the federal government, the company’s growing list of customers have helped drive revenue growth of 645% from the first quarter of 2021 to the second quarter of 2022.
But a global reach hasn’t kept KaaS from thinking local.
The company has continued to hire in Wichita to its Garvey Center headquarters. That hiring has included help from a pipeline partnership with Wichita State University — one the startup is also mining through WSU and WSU Tech to help it rapidly align the training needs of employers with its platform to potentially benefit other schools and businesses across the country.
That will help it boost its portfolio of users and expand in the existing industry clientele of construction, health care, retail, technology and utilities.
As it does, the company’s leaders believe Ringorang will be a leading component of the future of work not by changing training but by changing the way that training is delivered.
And it’s doing so from a local launching pad they believe is the perfect place to help make Ringorang a fixture of corporate cultures from coast to coast.
“We have never seen a city that is so aggressive with its entrepreneurial support,” BW Barkley, co-founder and COO, previously told the WBJ. “We’re more embraced here and we’re going to move things faster because of that.”
Website: https://www.ringorang.com/
Market growth: Fair Market Health
In its mission to change the way health care is paid for, Wichita-based Fair Market Health has quickly expanded its reach.
Fair Market Health was launched in 2018 and is now led by president and CEO Dean Jargo, who had spent 20 years at Koch Industries in Wichita.
The company partners with health-care providers to build a price-transparent marketplace that runs the full spectrum of health-care services.
That allows consumers to shop for services based on all-inclusive pricing while helping alleviate the fatigue the FMH leaders say they’ve discovered among providers from the red tape of the traditional insurance model.
And the digital marketplace helps cut costs for individuals, business customers and service providers by removing the need for the third-party payer system dominated by insurance carriers.
The potential savings and efficiency of the FMH platform have resonated in the market.
In the past year — in addition to growing its workforce from one employee to more than 10 — sales have doubled, transaction volume has grown, doctors and health-care services on the platform have more than tripled (including its expansion in mental health, dental, vision and more) and employer clients have increased fivefold.
The company has also begun expanding outside of Kansas and has built new services tailored for small employers.
And that will continue to boost the cooperation that Jargo told the WBJ in April is at the heart of the company’s goal of disrupting a health care market that is measured in the trillions of dollars in the U.S.
“We believe health care works best when patients and providers are working together,” he said.
Website: https://www.fairmarkethealth.com/
Catalysts/investors: NXTUS Inc.
Entrepreneurial organization NXTUS Inc. has been taking a bite out of the lack of capital some have said has been a hindrance for startup activity in the Wichita region.
Last month, the group announced it had reached nearly $1.5 million in growth capital over the past nine months to push its four-year total to $4.5 million.
The $1.5 million went to nine regional startups, including $280,000 to three Wichita-based companies.
“Overall, NXTUS exists to help entrepreneurs build companies of significance by connecting them to capital, customers, and community,” said Quinn Robertson, who runs NXTUS' Accelerate Venture Partners angel investment group and other NXTUS capital programs. “On the capital front, we are keenly focused on expanding awareness and increasing the supply of risk capital in Kansas.”
The organization has also seen its angel investor group grow nearly 50% in the past nine months, while the companies in its investment portfolio have boosted employment to more than 250 people — up 40% since Accelerate Venture Partners' first investments.
The funding is addition to NXTUS Inc.’s ongoing work to foster local entrepreneurs and to connect potential Kansas customers with startups from across the globe through its NXTSTAGE Pilot Competitions.
The organization’s latest contest, focused on health care and community vibrancy, culminated in June with 22 projects and 13 potential partnerships among a group of 12 startups.
Website: https://www.nxtus.io/
