How might the established 1 Million Cups format—two startups pitching their businesses to an audience—someday change in order to continue to benefit the greater entrepreneurial community?

Volunteer organizers of the weekly 1 Million Cups at the Kauffman Foundation have been talking about some future possibilities.

“What is the evolution?” said 1 Million Cups organizer Bryan Azorsky. “We may get to a point where we only do one presentation sometimes, and we do something else with the brainpower in the room.

“We’ve been discussing how it would be fun for the people in the room to collide even more. One of the thoughts we’ve had is to say, ‘Here are five topics that relate to our city and the entrepreneurs in our city. And if you’d like to form small groups to talk about these things, please do.’ And, within half an hour, you’d have a very small task for each group to address this problem or that topic. And then we could create an ongoing discussion.”

Startup founders who formally pitch at 1 Million Cups are routinely asked by organizers: “What can we do as a community to help you?”

“But, at the same time, it has to be reflected on us,” said 1 Million Cups organizer Courtney Chapman. “What else are we doing as an audience to help build the startup community as a whole? What problems are there? And, right now, a big topic across the city has been funding.”

“Or it could be hiring the right talent,” Azorsky said. “It could be manufacturing. People might not know how to go about buying something from overseas. Marketing could be a good one. It would be a way to tap into our entrepreneurial community for answers that can help everyone.”