Startup Village: Reality TV Village?

Kansas City’s Startup Village isn’t a reality TV show – it just feels like one to Villagers who can easily imagine a viewing audience being entertained by the area’s freewheeling environment.

“I’ve been saying it for a few months – we need that (producer) that wants to just come in and do it,” said Brittain Kovac, communications liaison for the Village. “It’s the conversations that happen with somebody you run into in the alley, or somebody you bump into on the stairwell. We have so much fun here. There’s always laughter. There are some arguments that happen. It’s our own little piece of reality.”

A reality TV show about the Village would need a title, like “Start Us Up” or “Invention Town.” But “there are no words to describe it,” Kovac said. “You really have to spend time here. I would love people to follow us around.”

Alexa Nguyen of 3D printing software startup Handprint agrees that the Village could make for attention-getting reality TV.

“People have told us that they want to put video cameras in our house, because weird stuff happens here all the time,” Nguyen said. “We see each other at all hours. There’s no political correctness. I’ve seen everyone in their pajamas. I’ve seen everyone grumpy. That’s how we’re comfortable enough with each other to brainstorm and take chances on ideas together. That’s where creativity comes from.”

Village co-founder Adam Arredondo has shared a lighthearted comment or two about the notion, as well.

“We’ve joked about this being kind of a funny reality TV show,” Arredondo said. “As long as they didn’t skewer the truth, I wouldn’t care. It would bring more visibility and awareness of what we do with startups. And if it got a few more young people excited and down the path of entrepreneurship, then it would be totally worth it.”