We’ve had a blast so far and can’t wait to meet the next group of innovators!
The ignitor idea accelerator launched in January 2022 and culminated on March 14th with a final pitch night where participants got to present their idea to a live audience and receive feedback on next steps.
Throughout the 8 weeks, innovators got to learn and connect with speakers from the local entrepreneurial ecosystem who shared insight with the group on their own personal highs, lows, and lessoned learned along the way as an entrepreneur in Wichita.
Twelve community members took part in the first cohort of the ignitor program. This group has shown exciting progress, with one person registering their company as an LLC, another planning to launch in March 2023, one applying for a local startup competition as their next step, a participant partnering with a community business for backing to make their idea possible, and multiple prototypes and strategies built along the way as well!
The cohort plans to follow their ideas past the program, with ignitor helping participants turn a concept into a plan, get comfortable talking about their business, and grow with their peers along the way.
Alex Mohr is preparing to launch the first phase of his healthy fast food venture, NuTree, and was featured in the Wichita Eagle! Using his 8 weeks in the program to accelerate a concept he’s had for years, Alex plans to test out menu items at local farmer’s markets this summer.
ignitor is a pre-seed accelerator through Wichita State University’s Office of Innovation and New Ventures and is funded in part by an EDA grant.
