Organizers of the 1 Million Cups entrepreneurship community this morning celebrated three years of startup presentations and coffee during an adapted meeting at the Springfield Art Museum.
Since the Kansas City-based Kauffman Foundation program kicked off in Springfield at The eFactory downtown, over 250 companies have presented their business ideas and engaged in open Q&As weekly with attendees. The group,
which moved to the city’s art museum auditorium last spring, held a panel discussion with four past presenters for its celebratory meeting.
“We’ve built this around the central question: What can we as a community do for you?” said Devin Dillon, a founding organizer, before the panel began.
Seated on stage before moderator LaDonna Greiner were entrepreneurs Brian Mansker of T1 Pro Race Belt, Charity McGill of Deep Water Software, N.K. Shrivastava of RefineM and Jordan Schanda of ScholarPrep. The panelists discussed taking the jump into entrepreneurship, choosing between a job and their startup, and the biggest challenges in business.
“You drive your future,” said Mansker, whose company sells magnetic buckle belts for sporting and triathlon events in 12 countries.
Attendance has averaged 100 each Wednesday morning, said organizer Drake Hughes.
Videographer Ben Clayton of Double Jump Media attends once a month and has found clients through 1 Million Cups. He recently took on a job for Pyramid Foods through a contact met last year.
“Fast forward a year later and they needed a video,” Clayton said. “We’ve gained some of our largest accounts here.”
The referral network brings Quinton Hamp back about monthly as well.
“My favorite thing is to grab a couple of entrepreneurs to get lunch afterward and get to know them better,” said search engine adviser Hamp of PunchSEO.com. “Most networks are 50 insurance people and one entrepreneur. Here, people focus on relationships, and business happens out of relationships. That’s probably what makes this thing so strong.”
Next week’s scheduled presenters are RockDolly Equipment, a mobile sound systems for bands, and the nonprofit promoters of gender equity The Women’s Foundation.
