Kentucky’s history is rich with entrepreneurial spirit. From extraction and mining, to app development and healthcare, Kentucky has never lacked for people with innovative ideas and passions. Unfortunately, corners of the state have struggled to find their footing as economies and demographics have shifted. Building a business that is both scaleable as well as committed to the commonwealth is a challenge. Resources have become centered in three geographies in the United States, leaving Kentucky entrepreneurs two choices: abandoned their concept, or move to one of these three entrepreneurial centers.

                With a presence in all 120 counties of the commonwealth, the extension program at the University of Kentucky seemed perfectly poised to help understand the issues in a better way. The Community and Economic Development Initiative of Kentucky (CEDIK) took the lead by leveraging the state-wide footprint of the extension program to find ways to study entrepreneurship and help support business owners.

                In 2017 CEDIK assembled a team of like-minded leaders from across the state to be part of an application to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Regional Entrepreneurship Acceleration Program (REAP). REAP is a two-year long effort to evaluate a geography’s entrepreneurial ecosystem and then create a plan to address windows of opportunity that better serve the innovators in that area. When CEDIK created the state team, there were several organizations and individuals needed to be part of the effort. Brian Mefford, Executive Director for the Office of Entrepreneurship at the Kentucky Cabinet for the Economic Development, John Roush, president of Centre College, Rusty Justice, founder of BitSource, Casey Barach, Executive Vice President for Tri-ED, Stacey Hughes, Director of Human Resources formed the core team. Added to the team were Kevin Loux, Director of Strategic Partnership with Shaping Our Appalachian Region (SOAR), and Sam Ford of the Kentucky Future of Work Initiative, rounded out the application team.

                On May 11^th, MIT announced that Kentucky had been chosen as one of nine regions from across the globe to participate in the 6^th REAP cohort. Never before has a region from the United States been selected for this prestigious process. The process is intended to look at the landscape for entrepreneurs across the state.

                “To say we are excited about this opportunity is a huge understatement,” says Casey Barach, Senior Vice President of High Growth Entrepreneurship at the Northern Kentucky Tri-county Economic Development group. “I’ve been working with entrepreneurs in different capacities for years and the need is great. But it’s a real challenge to focus efforts. I’m convinced that the REAP process will help us understand our own ecosystem better as well as really understate what our targets should be.”

                As the Kentucky team moves forward over the next two years, we will be looking at the entirety of the state’s entrepreneurial ecosystem in a way that has not been tackled before. By looking at the entire system holistically, this team will be able to provide insights to economic development entities, the state government, high education institutions, and private entities that will shape how Kentucky finds, develops, and support entrepreneurs. At the end of the two year process, the Kentucky team will be selecting a project that will allow Kentucky to “fill a bucket” of need for entrepreneurs in the state.