WWW arkcity.net

Photo by Foss Farrar click image to enlarge

By FOSS FARRAR
Traveler Staff Writer
reporter@arkcity.net

Winfield entrepreneur Todd Gentry pitched a line of self-heating or self-cooling sport stadium seating products to 15 Cowley County bankers and businessmen at a luncheon meeting Thursday at a Strother Field hangar.

They included five bankers and business people from Arkansas City.

But Gentry's purpose was not just to find local investors for his company, Inno-Labs based at the old Benny & Smith building. He also brought the investors together to stir up interest in forming a new Cowley County group of investors.

They would belong to a two-year-old group called Midwest Venture Alliance. The alliance now has 50 members from across the state. Most are from the Wichita and Pittsburg areas.

"We decided to bring MVA to other areas of the state," said Trish Brasted, founding member of MVA. "With our partners, we provide a lot of support throughout the state for entrepreneurial efforts."

MVA allows investors from different areas of the state to pool their money into a professionally managed organization, she said. Through Internet communication and face-to-face meetings, the group also alerts investors to sound investments in high growth companies.

So far, MVA has invested $2.6 million in five companies, Brasted said. Those five have raised $37.67 million collectively.

Brasted introduced Joni Cobb, president of KTEC -- Kansas Technology Enterprise Corporation -- one of MVA's partners. The two organization have separate funding mechanisms. KTEC is a public-private partnership established by the state of Kansas. MVA is a group of private investors.

"We are very supportive of entrepreneurship investment," Cobb said. She said KTEC partners with NetWork Kansas, another group that promotes entrepreneurship throughout the state.

MVA seeks to invest in companies at the second tier of investment, Brasted said. The first tier of investment comes from family and friends.

The group calls this round of investment the Kansas Angel Initiative.

"Angels are investing in the early-stage of venture market," she said. "Why do we do it? To grow jobs, keep our talent in Kansas, and our people in the region -- especially young people."

And to make money on the investments, she added.

MVA focuses on investing in innovative companies such as those that provide alternate energy, software, information technology and medical devices, she said. The group does not consider investing in oil and gas or retail businesses.

"We look at things that have high-growth potential and the ability to rapidly grow in scale," she said.

Brasted said today that the Cowley County participants seemed interested in forming an MVA chapter here. The next step is to help interested investors from the county to organize.

Those who attended the meeting provided her contact information, she said.

Shawn Reniker agreed with Brasted that people at the meeting were interested in forming a Cowley County chapter of MVA. Reniker is the chief operations officer of Inno-Labs.

"There's a good chance we'll see some action in Cowley County to support more entrepreneurial investment here," Reniker said.

Reniker added that Inno-Labs is a hybrid company that both develops its own products and serves as a broker for other inventors or entrepreneurs in the area.

"We want to help them in the early stages of their innovation when they haven't figured out where to go," he said.

Above: Cowley County business people attended the first meeting in this county of an investors group called Midwest Venture Alliance on Thursday at a hangar at Strother Field. Shown from left are Trish Brasted, founding member of MVA, Joni Cobb, president of the KTEC, and Winfield entrepreneur Todd Gentry.