We set out to find the big picture; to understand the gap between what people think is true, and what’s actually true about tech in the KS/KC region. In part, we wanted to know how to encourage growth in the region, but we also wanted to understand – in real terms – how broad the regional opportunities really are.

Launched in JAN 2020, and updated in SEP 2021, with no sense that it would ever be ‘finished’ – this is what we’ve learned so far. We welcome your input.

Visibility matters – and visibility into our tech ecosystem is hard to come by. That creates 2 problems for growth.

Retaining talent. If our tech grads and technical workers can’t grok the total size and scope of the job market, they will believe their options are limited here. They will believe they need to move away to work on something cutting edge – and that just isn’t true anymore.

Importing talent. If prospective employees don’t see a thriving ecosystem, they won’t uproot their lives and families to move here. They need to know that if they move here, they won’t have to move again to find a second opportunity. For 2-career families, that concern is doubled.

If we don’t have accurate and impartial visibility into our ecosystem, we risk losing a lot of our home-grown talent and we make it harder for our companies to recruit and scale right here at home.

Startups bring job growth. Big companies grow, shrink or die. Net job growth for all existing big companies is … ZERO. We need to fund and foster both the startups and the ecosystems that feed them because they are the single best source of new employment in our region.

Finding the Data. We looked for accurate data on the region and found that most prior research fell short; either because it counted every company with IT support as a ‘tech’ company, or because it failed to take into account the difference between low and high skilled employment in tech. So we came up with our own slightly rough and ready method. Read the deck.