New energy boot camp to harness area's natural resoucres, entrepreneurial talent
Friday December 14, 2007
Eastern and Southern Kentucky's natural resources have fueled the nation's electricity demands for decades - shipping products and profitability out of state.
A new program at Kentucky Highlands will harness those resources and identify untapped potentialto help entrepreneurs create new businesses focused on renewable energy and energy efficient opportunities in Kentucky.
The Kentucky Highlands Energy Business Boot Camp is a new intensive performance-based entrepreneurial training and mentoring program that will be conducted in partnership with Technology 2020's Center for Entrepreneurial Growth, which has offices in Oak Ridge, Tenn.,and London, Ky.
The boot camp focus will be on helping energy-related researchers, inventors and entrepreneurs create a fundable, sustainable and profitable business model that will help create jobs in the region.
"This project will capitalize on Kentucky's strengths, but utilize them in a way that supports businesses in the 21stcentury economy," said KHIC's President & CEO Jerry Rickett. "KHIC will lead the way with proven business development programs and intensive entrepreneurial management training. Our partnership with Tech 2020 will bring an organization to the table that has a long history of commercialization and development of research applications from Oak Ridge National Labs."
The $225,000 two-year program will be funded through the Appalachian Regional Commission,the Governor's Office of Energy Policy and KHIC. Selection for the first boot camp program will begin in January.
Bob Wilson, director of the Center for Entrepreneurial Growth and KHIC consultant, will lead the program. He brings years of experience in leading young and emerging energy and technology businesses to achieve fast but sustained growth.
Wilson and his CEGTeam are running two other successful business incubators - one at ORNL in Oak Ridge, Tenn., and one in Knoxville at the University of Tennessee campus. In addition, the CEG team has worked with more than 120 start-up companies.
"This unique opportunity will allow Kentucky to utilize its regional assets and core strengths from the ‘old' economy and turn them into opportunities in a fast-growing energy space that is driving a global, high-tech market," Wilson said.
The businesses selected to participate in the boot camp will be chosen from Kentucky's 51 Appalachian counties, plus Fayette County because of its research activities at the University of Kentucky. Some preference will be given to businesses located in or willing to locate in KHIC's 22-county service area.
(See www.khic.org/service_area.htmlfor a list of those counties.)
The program willinclude:
- A screening process that will produce the selection of four businesses for each of the two boot camps. Screening will be done to ensure compatibility with program goals and will include a written application, phone and face-to-face interviews, and a final presentation to the selection committee. Selected businesses will receive stipends up to $7,500 to offset costs associated with class participation, ongoing strategic planning, field exercises, travel, and time away from their businesses during the nine-month session. In addition, up to two individual entrepreneurs per session will be invited to participate but won't receive a stipend;
- Participants will attend four classroom-style training sessions that will last four hours each. In addition, work will be assigned between classes to prepare the entrepreneurs for their own strategic execution plan. That work will include:
- A market research project to define and develop a target market;
- An execution plan to reach their best potential customers;
- Development of a sustainable business model or plan; and
- Development of a capitalization strategy.
- Individualized coaching, which sets this program apart from other business training opportunities; and
- Energy-focused networking events and a symposium, which will facilitate partnership opportunities by connecting investors, innovators and entrepreneurs of new energy-based enterprises.
To learn more and to apply for the program, visit the KHIC website at www.khic.org or contact Bob Wilson at 606-864-5175 or bwilson@khic.org .
Kentucky Highlands Investment Corporation, founded in 1968 to stimulate economic growth in nine counties in Southern and Eastern Kentucky, now serves 22 counties in the region and has created more than 9,600 jobs.