Topeka Plug And Play: The Closer

Photos by John Burns

In the summer of 2018, GO Topeka hired Katrin Bridges to enhance the area’s entrepreneurial ecosystem with a particular focus on animal and ag tech startups. A native of Germany, Bridges arrived in the United States in 2000 to attend graduate school in Philadelphia and was familiar with the opportunities and risks inherent with startups through firsthand experience, having led a Boston bio-tech business for four years.

When the Topeka contingent returned to the Plug and Play campus to make its pitch on April Fool’s Day, 2019, Bridges opened her presentation with a title slide touting Topeka as an opportunity with “No Joke” in a big font front and center. After a six-hour meeting, Bridges invited Plug and Play representatives to visit Topeka to learn more.

During a three-day event in June 2019, Bridges said the community gave guests “the reception of their lives. We have so many assets here—potential corporate partners, great universities pumping out research all day long and hardworking Midwesterners. Our guests were blown away.”

In spring 2020, Plug and Play committed to Topeka.

“Before our interactions, Topeka was not on their radar,” said Bridges, “but the more we told our story and shared our vision, the more believable the Plug and Play possibility became.”

The first ag tech cohort pilot launched virtually in October 2020 with 10 participants from Australia, Colorado, Florida, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom.

“We started small not only because of the pandemic but also because we wanted to become comfortable with our process and finetune things,” Bridges said. “At the end of the day, startups want to be successful and ahead of the curve, so we’re creating an environment that facilitates that with our own Topeka spin.”

The program is designed to pair startups with partners who can assist with funding, access, talent, space, product development, research and other needs. Construction work for a new innovation campus is seeking approval from the Joint Economic Development Organization in the upcoming months and will be underway by the end of 2021.

“The space will complement other incubator and entrepreneurial endeavors and be a hub of innovation,” she said. “In addition to offices, we’ll also incorporate flex lab and wet lab areas.”

Two firms specializing in life science buildings explored options in outlying areas but both determined the ideal spot for the campus should be downtown.

“They independently concluded that the many amenities available downtown would be really attractive to an innovative entrepreneur who wants to feel connected to cool places and creatives spaces,” Bridges said.

Noting that “entrepreneurs see opportunities where others see problems,” Bridges is enthusiastic about the collaborations, discoveries and economic enhancements the Plug and Play partnership will yield not only for the cohort participants but also for the program’s corporate partners—Cargill, Evergy and Hill’s Pet Nutrition Inc. so far—and the region as a whole.

“Our corporate partners have access to a Plug and Play vertical and have been provided with an elite list of 60 startups working on issues that our corporate partners have previously identified as opportunities to enhance their operations and improve customer experiences,” said Bridges. “Our job at GO Topeka is to take all of this activity and make an economic impact.”

A second cohort launched March 24 with 10 participants from New York, Singapore, Canada, Massachusetts, Iowa, Missouri, California and Alabama.

Each cohort is set for three months, but Bridges said Topeka will provide incubator space for up to 12 months once the cohorts meet in person, allowing participating entrepreneurs “to embed themselves in our ecosystem.”

Noting the regional significance of Topeka’s Plug and Play partnership, Bridges said the entrepreneurial and economic development activities taking place “are more collaborative than competitive.”

She perceives community engagement as a key complement to the capital city’s cohort culture and structure.

On June 10, Plug and Play, in collaboration with GO Topeka, will host Expo Day, a virtual event open to the public. Members of both cohorts will share their aspirations and the knowledge and networking opportunities gained through their Plug and Play participation.

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