Google Fiber has drawn more than two dozen startups to a neighborhood in the city’s heart. But it’s a different kind of connection that has led many of them to stay there.

It looks just like a typical neighborhood. Or it would if there weren’t a group of 40 University of Kansas students striding down the street on a field trip.

They’re here to see Kansas City’s Startup Village, a swath of startups located around 44th Street and State Line Road. In little more than a year, 25 startups have moved into 13 buildings in the neighborhood, which was the first to receive ultra-fast Google Fiber service.

The KU students are just the latest in a long line of visitors. Elite investors, reporters from The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times and CNN—they’ve all come to witness the Village’s inspiring mix of technology and collaboration. The Village represents one of Kansas City’s best shots at becoming a hub for tech startups, and it’s driven mostly by a loose-knit team of volunteers and supporters.

Village tour guide Brittain Kovac, 29, enjoys watching new eyes take in the evolving scene.

“It’s such a unique culture and environment around here,” Kovac said. “There are no cubicles, no partitions. These young people are seeing that there are other possibilities out there beyond the mundane of what we’re so used to: go to school, graduate, get a job—boring, right?

“They’re seeing that they can be successful, they can be creative, they can be innovative and they can be surrounded by other like-minded people.”

‘It Happened with Zero Planning’

The concept of Startup Village was born in 2012, when three startup properties came to be within half a block of each other in the first neighborhood in the world to get Google Fiber and its blazing-fast Internet speed.

“It happened with zero planning,” said Adam Arredondo, 29, co-founder of first-generation Village startup Local Ruckus and recently Hoopla.io, which are developing new ways for consumers and businesses to find, share and publish online information about local events.

“We say the Village’s birthday is Sept. 30, because that’s when we shared the first email,” Arredondo said. “We were like, ‘Hey, this is pretty crazy—why don’t we try to get more startups to the area?’ Really, the only goal was to get more startups here, and kind of get people excited about Google Fiber.”

Arredondo remains one of the informal co-leaders of the Village, which has no president, no board of directors and no official agenda—it’s just its own organic thing. That’s been enough to attract major media coverage and a steady stream of local, regional, national and international visitors.

“We’ve had people visit from 45 countries,” Arredondo said. “We’ve had people move here from 12 states. We’ve had over $7 million of investment and resources sunk into the companies in the Village. We’ve had venture capitalists come and check out what’s going on, representing over $4 billion of capital. The Village is now this example of what entrepreneurship and startups can do, because there are so many measurables. The impact is undeniable.”

Still, things can change quickly in the startup universe. This morning’s brilliant plan can become this afternoon’s also-ran. After more than a year, why does the Village not only continue to exist, but thrive?

“Google Fiber’s been the catalyst and drawn a lot of attention,” Arredondo said. “But it’s really the community that keeps people here and keeps them excited.”

Community and Collaboration

Even the one Village startup that’s probably the greatest beneficiary of Google Fiber recognizes that the Village flourishes more from community and collaboration than advantageous technology.

“Google Fiber is a huge attraction that we gather around, but what’s really valuable is the community we’ve built,” said Brandon Schatz, 31, owner of SportsPhotos.com, a platform for sports photographers.

Last February, Schatz moved his startup from Springfield, Mo., to the Village solely to get ultra-fast Google Fiber, which he needed in order to upload thousands of photos at a time in an efficient 30 to 40 minutes instead of a grueling 30 to 40 hours.

But it’s the Village’s human touch that’s made Schatz a true believer in what the community can do for bootstrapping entrepreneurs.

“More people here are focused on how to help each other than on how to succeed on their own,” Schatz said. “I know that sounds really weird, but that’s exactly how it works. It’s extremely helpful.”

Another Village startup told Schatz about a grant program that led to SportsPhotos.com getting $100,000, which helped pay the salaries of the company’s nine-member team. Schatz called the help “phenomenal.”

In the Village, you’re just as likely to find an open door as you are an open mind. Knocking, while polite, isn’t required.

“That’s the richest portion of what we have here,” said Anurag Patel, 34, director of operations at SportsPhotos.com. “You can go down the street and walk in and talk to someone without thinking that you’re going to be taking up their time or that you’re going to have your idea stolen, which is what you’d normally think of competitors in business.”

‘Work is Play’

Most startups in the Village are in actual houses, as opposed to office buildings, because Google Fiber currently serves only residential properties. A small number are owned by entrepreneurial benefactors who allow startups to live and work there for free.

Nationally known investor Brad Feld’s Fiberhouse lets a worthy startup stay for one year without paying rent. (It’s presently inhabited by 3-D printing software company Handprint from Boston.) And local Web developer Ben Barreth’s Homes for Hackers house lets startups stay for free in three-month intervals.

Homes for Hackers’ most recent crop of techno-bohemians includes New Appetite, co-founded by Chicago native and University of Arizona graduate Kuba Douglas.

“It’s a discovery and promotional collective for music artists,” Douglas said of his company, which he created with two college friends who also live and work in the house. “It will be like Pandora, but for indie music, with the music posted by users, the stuff they enjoy.”

Like many other startups in the Village, Douglas will follow the launch of his website with a mobile app. New Appetite, he said, has received a “substantial amount” from an angel investor, so things are looking up.

“We’ve met tons of people in the Village,” Douglas said. “It’s just have fun, meet people, network. I mean, I’m 22, so work is play.”

There’s unquestionably a significant hangout factor at play in the Village, especially among the youngest of the young lions—any excuse is a good one for cookouts, street parties, alleyway gatherings. And it would be okay, too, if New Appetite someday turned Douglas and his partners into rich men.

“Hopefully,” he said.

It Takes a (Startup) Village

Marc Vo is a self-described “transplant from Hong Kong” who owns OfficeMate.io, a California-based information technology consulting and outsourcing company for small to medium-size enterprises.

What brought Vo here a year ago was the opportunity to test Google Fiber. What’s made him stick around has been what he calls the “diverse set of ages, life skills and geographies” to be found in the Village.

“Mix this all together and you get some great collaboration,” Vo said. “I work in the background mostly, because it’s kind of rude to participate and then leave, but I’m here to build the community. It’s important, because I want to create jobs.”

Vo is convinced that the Village is going to keep growing. He wants to invest in a commercial co-working space that’s tied to the Village—something that’s been on the minds of many forward-thinking Villagers—but located a few miles away in Kansas City’s West Bottoms area, where he’s already scouted potential sites.

“The Village would be residential and keep the same ‘home’ vibe and everything,” he said. “But in the West Bottoms, you could have a five- or six-story building. The top floor would be lofts, mid-floors would be common lounge areas to just relax in with TVs, the lower floors would be co-working facilities and the bottom floor would be public space.”

Village co-founder Arredondo would like to see more properties and startups join the Village. But when he considers the area’s most valuable potential, it’s as a continuing driver of the Kansas City startup community as a whole.

“The Village is great for early startups, but as startups grow, we’d like them to graduate from the Village,” Arredondo said. “What’s available in the Village can’t accommodate a 20-person company, or at least not very easily.

“We know that a lot of what we’re doing now is building toward an even stronger community down the road. The Village is a catalyst and a very visible and exciting piece of the greater Kansas City startup community, and we want to play our part.”