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Introduction

KANSAS CITY, Missouri. BBQ, jazz, the Royals baseball team, and … technology startups?

One of these things is not like the others.

For much of coastal America, the states of Kansas and Missouri are little more than “flyover country,” Midwestern open space that many people only ever see from the window of an airplane at 40,000 feet. It’s a mysterious blank space in the middle of the country, a place that we all know is full of people and farms and towns, but not one that, when we’re being honest, many of us truly understand. Why would anyone want to live in the middle of the Great Plains? Where do they work? What do they do for fun? Really, what’s the appeal?

As a state, Kansas has long been misunderstood. It got so bad, in fact, that in 2004 journalist Thomas Frank published a book entitled “What’s the Matter with Kansas?” and no one outside of the Midwest even batted an eye in protest.

But here’s the thing: Kansas City is a major American metro area that straddles two states and boasts a total population of more than two million people. And it’s growing. It is also home to a surprisingly deep technology community, thanks to its traditional strengths in telecommunications (Sprint), financial services (BATS and H&R Block) and satellite technology (Garmin). What’s more, the nonprofit Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation is based in the city and is an international force in the promotion of entrepreneurship, funding a wide range of business development events and programs. Among its many initiatives (youth education is another focus), the Kauffman Foundation sponsors the startup resources site Entrepreneurship.org; the Kauffman FastTrac business development program; an online video education program; as well as 1 Million Cups, the entrepreneur coffee club series that is currently held weekly in more than 50 U.S. cities.

But Kansas City, as a tech ecosystem, still has a branding problem. It’s just not a place that many people outside of the region think of when they think of technology. To be fair, however, some of that is self-inflicted.

When I visited the area as part of my research for Screw the Valley: A Coast-to-Coast Tour of America’s New Tech Startup Culture, I met with Thom Ruhe, then the vice president of entrepreneurship at the Kauffman Foundation, and he explained the region’s challenges this way:

“In places like here in Kansas City, for example, it’s the polite Midwest. And part of that culture is holding us back. It’s very nuanced, but it’s hugely significant. If you’re in Menlo Park and you bump into someone at a party, the first thing they’ll probably ask is what you do. Out there, if you’ve worked at four different companies in three years, that doesn’t matter, they don’t care. Your identity is what you do. I’m a CFO, or I’m an engineer. Come to Kansas City, Omaha, or Minneapolis, and take the same scenario, but the question isn’t ‘What do you do?’ It’s ‘Who do you work for?’ Your identity here is around who you create value for. It’s a slight difference, but the implications for our economy are significant.”