Kansas City entrepreneurs have a new resource that can serve businesses at any stage of development. The Bloch Venture Hub, located at 4328 Madison in Kansas City, held a ribbon-cutting on March 23 (see video below).
A grand opening welcomes the public today from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.
The Venture Hub is a collaboration of Country Club Bank and the Regnier Institute for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the University of Missouri-Kansas City’s Henry W. Bloch School of Management. The three-story building formerly formerly housed Country Club Bank’s commercial and SBA lending division.
When Country Club Bank moved those services to its new corporate headquarters on the Plaza, bank officials offered the Bloch School the use of the building.
The three-story layout of the building is being used to accommodate entrepreneurs according to three stages of business. At each stage, entrepreneurs will have access to resources that can help them, ranging from launching a venture to growing and refining an established business.
“At the Bloch School, we encourage an entrepreneurial mindset. An innovative approach to thinking is at the heart of everything we do. As part of Kansas City’s university, we are dedicated to supporting new venture creation across our campus, and into the community we serve,” said Dr. Jeff Hornsby, director of the Regnier Institute and chair of the Department of Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the Bloch School during the ribbon-cutting ceremony. “The Bloch Venture Hub is a central location for people throughout the Kansas City community to easily access our knowledge and resources as they develop their ideas into new ventures.”
Level 1 houses EntreLab, a new initiative funded by the Kauffman Foundation, where aspiring and startup entrepreneurs can access mentoring, advice and resources. Space is also provided for entrepreneurs to meet with mentors, attend educational programming facilitated by the Bloch School, access the startup resources of other UMKC programs, and work with peers and industry experts.
The second level of the facility serves as a start-up incubator for up to 10 launch-stage ventures. These entrepreneurs will also have access to mentoring and training resources, including the 160 industry experts on the roster of the Regnier Institute mentorship program.
The top floor, Level 3, is an up incubator for established ventures that desire to scale but need additional space and mentoring.
“These visionaries that will be in this building are the creative backbone and the future business leadership of Kansas City,” said Mary O’Connor, executive vice president of Country Club Bank, at the ribbon-cutting ceremony. “We share that same DNA. Our father and past chairman of Country Club Bank, Byron Thompson, himself came to Kansas City with nothing more than drive, his strong work ethic, his integrity and a vision for the future. So he walked that entrepreneurial walk and in doing that he ingrained in us, and really the fabric of Country Club Bank, respect for the critical importance of that entrepreneurial spirit.”
