ScaleUP! Kansas City, which helps the region’s small businesses massively ramp up their growth, is taking applications now for its seventh cohort. Applications are due Dec. 6.
That new class will begin meeting in late January. Applicants must have been in business at least two years and generate at least $150,000 in annual revenue, with the potential to make more than $1 million per year. (Interested? Just apply here.)
Up to 15 local entrepreneurs will be chosen to receive four months of training and coaching that will equip and inspire them to take big steps in their business.
Even better, ScaleUP! is free for participants, thanks to financial support from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation.
The program was originally funded by the U.S. Small Business Administration’s ScaleUP! America Initiative. In fact, Kansas City was one of the first cities to get a ScaleUP! program.
Unfortunately, the SBA is discontinuing its financial support. Here in Kansas City, Kauffman has promised to fund at least two more rounds of ScaleUP!
“We know that entrepreneurs and small business owners are a critical part of our economic vitality, nationally and right here in Kansas City,” said Erin Jenkins, program officer at the Kauffman Foundation. “ScaleUP! Kansas City is both a commitment and an opportunity for us to remove barriers for our homegrown businesses to grow and scale.”
ScaleUP! Kansas City is based at the University of Missouri-Kansas City Innovation Center. To date, the program has assisted 92 small business owners, giving them the guidance they need to boost sales, add employees, enter new markets and more.
Jowler Creek Vineyard and Winery, for example, now distributes its product to more than 30 new stores in Missouri, and that’s not counting its shipments to more than 35 states. Ruby Jean’s Juicery has added another KC location and expanded to Springfield.
“ScaleUP! Kansas City continues to fill a key and vital gap in our entrepreneurial ecosystem,” said Jill Meyer, program director of ScaleUP! KC.
“Building a business is hard and lonely work, and business owners spend a lot of time working in their businesses, but rarely have the time or resources to work on their businesses. ScaleUP! KC gives them that perspective and gives us a chance to provide mentoring and training to these businesses that are so key to our economic growth.”
