In Pursuit of Profession: Can KERNEL keep the area job scene popping?
Great things can happen when organizations team up. There is no better example of this phenomenon than the new KERNEL program in Tarrant County; an initiative that utilizes an entrepreneurial approach to solving community problems. But can programs such as this one help improve our job scene?
Tarrant County’s population has skyrocketed in the past 16 years. It has grown by 25 percent since 2000 and the City of Fort Worth had the highest population growth in the entire United States from 2000 to 2013. While that kind of growth fuels the great Texas economic engine, it can also spur social challenges that can affect our community. Violence, poverty, access to affordable housing and quality education and the availability of good jobs are all serious concerns for many in Tarrant County. Fortunately, since 2000, and decades before it, members of our business community have used their considerable resources to help address these issues. They have long realized that we can’t have a thriving economy or business sector if we let our community be consumed by social problems. Area businesses, both new and old, are bringing their innovation and business savvy together with community groups to continue to make a difference.
A great example of what can happen when these new business groups, such as TechFW and IDEA Works FW, get together with groups like the United Way of Tarrant County, is KERNEL. “KERNEL was created by United Way of Tarrant County as a way to engage the community and create significant social change that had a lasting impact. It was designed to be separate from our normal funding processes to allow agility to address current and new social issues and work with a broad cross-sector of people, organizations, non-profits, for-profits and entrepreneurs. We feel that together we can solve big problems that no one organization could do alone,” said David Frederick, vice president, marketing & communications, United Way of Tarrant County. “We’ve partnered with TechFW and IDEA Works FW to create a synergy in the business startup and innovation communities. Together with their assistance, KERNEL will provide new social innovation that has a lasting impact for our entire Tarrant County community.”
Basically, the way KERNEL works is that the program offers problem solvers a chance to pitch their innovative ideas to area investors to help solve social issues affecting our community. The winning pitch will receive $10,000 to fund their project and the United Way of Tarrant County will work with the grant recipient(s) to help them execute their plans and provide measurable results. So far, the United Way of Tarrant County has received 27 proposals. “As we’re still in the application review phase and are subject to non-disclosure agreements we cannot divulge a lot of information about the proposals. But we can say that they are extremely exciting and full of innovation from technology-based solutions, to new ways of thinking about a problem to addressing issues that are currently gaps in the community. Most address issues within education, income and health while others …well, you’ll have to wait and see,” said Frederick.
Making KERNEL pop
To bring a new initiative like KERNEL into existence is no small feat. However, sometimes all it takes is just an idea, or kernel, if you will, that starts in the recesses of someone’s mind that others help nurture until one day, POP!, groups come together to make it the program that it is. ““One of the investors that is a part of Cowtown Angels reached out to me suggesting that I should meet TD Smyers, executive vice president/chief operations officer and chief development officer of United Way of Tarrant County, to learn about KERNEL,” said Jorge Varela, director of TechFW. “When TD and I met, we spoke about the mission and vision of our organizations and we realized that both organizations are seeking a positive impact to our society – the difference was in “how” we approached giving back to society and United Way had taken a huge step our way – meaning towards entrepreneurship. We felt that by supporting KERNEL we are on mission, providing our years of expertise in helping launch and grow companies to improve the standard of living. United Way and TD Smyers gets it and we want to be part of that mission.”
For Hayden Blackburn, director of IDEA Works FW, working on the KERNEL project seemed a natural fit for their organization. “As someone driven by and passionate about positive social change the idea of KERNEL immediately resonated with me personally,” Blackburn said. “At IDEA Works FW we have the pleasure of working with change-makers and innovators day in and day out and Fort Worth is home to an amazing amount of them. From working with entrepreneurs on their business models to partnering on business plan competitions and filling gaps in the local offerings, KERNEL falls right in our wheelhouse and we are excited to partner on the initiative.”
Where do jobs fit in?
As those cities that bring fresh, innovative ideas will be the ones that continue to grow and be successful in our information-based society, collaborative programs like KERNEL can be used to help provide workers with quality jobs that have a robust future. Groups like TechFW, which offers programs that range from working with very early stage inventors through development of a path to market to providing exposure to angel investment groups like Cowtown Angels and IDEA Works FW, which is a mixed-industry incubator that focuses on job creation and entrepreneurial development, are helping to strengthening Tarrant County’s entrepreneurial ecosystem. And that’s exactly what they want to be known for - being entrepreneurial, not high-tech. “Looking at just Fort Worth for tech is too narrow as it is too small a geographic region and too narrow a definition of “tech.” For example, when we talk Silicon Valley we are actually referring to a large area spanning multiple cities,” said Varela. “A better parallel would be Tarrant County, which is where KERNEL is focused. If you look at Tarrant County you see that startups are very active. Tarrant County and Fort Worth have been smart to not try to be “like Austin” or “like Silicon Valley” as that would continue to place us in a position of following not leading. It is interesting that the first life science company in Texas to go public in over a decade started at TechFW and is based in Tarrant County. The second, interestingly enough, was founded by TechFW Executive Director Darlene Boudreaux. I would argue that Tarrant County and Fort Worth are leaders in entrepreneurship.”
While the application deadline for this year’s KERNEL program is over, please visit http://unitedwaytarrant.org/kernel for more information and next year’s deadlines. For more information on TechFW and IDEA Works FW, please visithttp://techfortworth.org/ and http://ideaworksfw.org/
If you would like to attend the KERNEL pitch event, named KERNEL LIVE, it will be on Wednesday, November 2nd, 2016 at Four Day Weekend in downtown Fort Worth. “This will be a Shark Tank-like event where some of North Texas’ brightest minds will present to community investors solutions to solve critical issues affecting our community. A decision will be made at the end of the night where one person or organization will be chosen to receive a minimum of $10,000 as seed money to help grow their social innovation. The event will feature live presentations, live entertainment, food and beverages and will be a very exciting evening! Ticket information will be available soon and we ask that everyone check out our website at unitedwaytarrant.org/KERNEL for more details in the coming weeks,” said Frederick.
This story was originally published September 23, 2016 at 3:14 PM with the headline "In Pursuit of Profession: Can KERNEL keep the area job scene popping?."