Sweatpants and sneakers. That’s the new garb for Springfield businesspeople.
If you ask them, it doesn’t matter what they wear. What matters to them are their smarts, inclusiveness, and passion to drive business and build community.
Welcome to 1 Million Cups.
A new day is dawning in our city’s entrepreneurial economy. It started with a few cups of coffee last week.
Roughly 150 businesspeople wearing suit jackets to sweatpants crammed into an eFactory conference room Feb. 26 for the launch of 1 Million Cups in Springfield. The Kauffman Foundation created the national program centered on connecting and educating entrepreneurs over conversation, and Springfield is the 32nd city on board.
“We all know business is done over a cup of coffee,” said Devin Dillon of DK Financial Group, one of a handful of businessmen who organized Springfield’s 1 Million Cups event, aka 1MC.
There was much buzz in the room, but it wasn’t just the caffeine. I saw firsthand the energy created by wall-to-wall entrepreneurs – of all shapes, sizes and backgrounds. There was a conservative Web guru, a film writer from Venezuela, former TV news anchors, a publisher from Mexico and a former military chaplain juggling multiple businesses in civilian life. But their commonality as entrepreneurs brought them together to hear and learn from one another. That’s the concept for 1MC.
“This whole event is about entrepreneurs,” Sterling Huff Jr. of Southern Missouri Bank of Marshfield told the crowd in his introduction. “It’s not really meant for mature companies.”
Dillon and Huff teamed up with Rick Thomas of R&R&Co. to put Springfield on the Kauffman Foundation’s radar after regularly attending 1MC events in Kansas City, St. Louis and Tulsa, Okla.
With one meeting under the belt, here’s the format: During each hour-long meeting designed to “caffeinate the community,” two entrepreneurs present for 6 minutes and answer audience questions for 20 minutes apiece. Huff said approved presenters would represent early stage, scaleable companies, meaning 1-3 years old and positioned to easily grow annual revenue from the $50,000 range up to $10 million.
It’s not quite like “Shark Tank,” but you get the idea.
For the inaugural meeting, co-organizer and serial entrepreneur Thomas presented on the 1MC program, which started in April 2012 in Kansas City, and CrowdIt.com co-founder Jason Graff told his startup story for the Springfield-based crowdfunding website.
“We’re all coming together to help each other out and listen, because we all have similar needs,” Thomas said, noting though failure is part of the startup process, such a support system could have reduced the multiple business failures he’s experienced. “The goal is for less failure.”
Thomas laid out four parts of a startup ecosystem:
- Entrepreneurs must own and lead the startup community by giving to get.
- Leaders must have long-term commitment; we’re talking decades.
- A culture of inclusiveness must be fostered.
- The entire entrepreneurial stack must be engaged.
Thomas said it goes something like this: “Ask not what your startup community can do for you, but what you can do for your startup community.”
His altering of the famous John F. Kennedy quote got a reaction from the crowd – and on Twitter. The statement was live tweeted, along with other #1MCSGF commentary such as “On the front row of the next great thing” and “Let’s take this journey together.”
The organizers positioned Boulder, Colo., as a model startup community for Springfield entrepreneurs to emulate, leading to mixed reactions.
“I don’t want to be like Boulder. I want to be a better Springfield,” said Kurt Theobald, an entrepreneur with a few failures under his belt before taking Web design startup Classy Llama Studios to 1,000 percent growth in three years and a place on the Inc. 500. “We must be careful to hold on to what is good and virtuous in Springfield.”
While Theobald went on a bit of a soapbox during the allotted Q&A session, before Huff regained the floor, I think the disagreement is healthy. And if continued to permit, it will speak to the group’s sincere desire for inclusion.
The point I gathered from Thomas and the meeting is that each entrepreneur’s journey is unique but together could create the type of momentum that earned Boulder the title of America’s startup capital. According to a 2013 Kauffman Foundation report, Boulder ranked highest nationwide for high-tech startups per capita at a rate six times the U.S. average.
Thomas was honest, as most entrepreneurs are, when positioning the group for the future.
“We don’t necessarily know what we’re doing or where we’re going. This is a journey for us, too,” he said. “I urge you to make this your own game.”
The free event is scheduled 9–10 a.m. every Wednesday at The eFactory in the Robert W. Plaster Center for Free Enterprise and Business Development, 405 N. Jefferson Ave. Big Momma’s Coffee on Commercial Street provided the java – before it ran out.
The organizers are well aware of the business excitement inside these groups, and it’s their vision to harness the energy for the good of Springfield’s startup ecosystem. To that end, each meeting ends with the same question: “How can we as a community help you?”
That’s always the last question.
Springfield Business Journal Editor Eric Olson can be reached at eolson@sbj.net.
