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The State of Entrepreneurship in Tulsa, Oklahoma
November 17, 2016
Presented by Natalie Deuschle, Elizabeth Frame Ellison and Meredith Peebles of
the Lobeck Taylor Family Foundation
Abstract: This report contains a 2016 update on the State of Entrepreneurship in Tulsa,
Oklahoma and acts as a follow up to the report titled “The State of Entrepreneurship in Tulsa,
Oklahoma” published by the Lobeck Taylor Family Foundation on November 16, 2015.
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Dear Tulsans:
It is my great honor to present the third annual State of Entrepreneurship Report. The first year
of the report brought together a diverse group of entrepreneurs and service providers who
made a commitment to grow the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Tulsa. This led to the Lobeck
Taylor Family Foundation founding Cultivate918, a grassroots organization that meets monthly
to celebrate entrepreneurship and strengthen the entrepreneurial community. Now in its third
year and listed in the 2016 survey as one of the most commonly used community resources,
Cultivate918 is led entirely by entrepreneurs and features fantastic events that focus on the
needs of entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial opportunities for specific industries in Tulsa, along
with a weekly newsletter that promotes entrepreneurs and events in town.
The most leveraged resource in 2016, according to the survey, was another resource co‐
founded by Lobeck Taylor Family Foundation: 36 Degrees North. George Kaiser Family
Foundation, The Tulsa Regional Chamber, Tulsa Technology Center and several other
entrepreneurial service providers, Tulsa companies and institutes of higher education joined
together to serve as Tulsa’s basecamp for entrepreneurs by offering programs, workspace,
events and general support to entrepreneurs in Tulsa. Open for almost a year, 36 Degrees
North has already welcomed over 4800 unique visitors, hosted more than 270 events and has
over 200 members representing 80 Tulsa companies.
In January of 2016, Lobeck Taylor Family Foundation also launched Kitchen 66, a kick start
kitchen incubator for food entrepreneurs in Tulsa. When applications opened in late 2015, the
Kitchen 66 team hoped for 25 applicants. Instead, they received almost 100 applications
representing food concepts from all over the world. Now serving its second “batch” of food
entrepreneurs, Kitchen 66 is helping education food entrepreneurs about the business of food,
providing affordable and legal commercial kitchen space, and creating a network of distribution
to get the products from Kitchen 66 to customers. In 2018, Kitchen 66 will expand into Market
66 on Route 66, a food hall and market providing artisan food and drink products made in
Oklahoma to locals and tourists alike.
The Lobeck Taylor Family Foundation and Tulsa Community College also changed the format of
the Startup Cup, rebranding it the Startup Series and altering the programming to serve more
entrepreneurs and creating additional points of entry with increased opportunity for mentoring
and feedback. The Startup Series culminated in a demo day during Global Entrepreneurship
Week during which startups pitched live to a panel of judges for a chance to win the Grand
Prize of $15,000. In 2017, Lobeck Taylor Family Foundation will take over Startup Series
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keeping the same format but changing some of the categories to encourage social innovation
and enterprise and female entrepreneurs.
As always, there is much to be done as we continue to support entrepreneurs in Tulsa.
However, I am incredibly proud of the accomplishments we made in 2016 and the way the
community is working together to build a culture of support for entrepreneurs. I look forward
to watching our programs grow and expand as we focus on strengthening our national reach,
working with elected officials on supporting entrepreneurship and seeing more startups open
their doors in Tulsa in 2017.
As always, thank you for your feedback, participation, and support as the LTFF team drafted,
distributed, and analyzed the 2016 survey and State of Entrepreneurship report. Special thanks
to the incredible LTFF team of Meredith Peebles and Natalie Deuschle. You are making a
difference in Tulsa and we are forever in your debt!
Happy entrepreneuring,
Elizabeth Frame Ellison
CEO, Lobeck Taylor Family Foundation
Founder, Cultivate918
Founder, Kitchen66
Founding Partner, 36 Degrees North
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Table of Contents:
Introduction pg. 5
Physical Infrastructure pg. 8
Promoting Culture pg. 10
Support Services pg. 13
Mentors pg. 15
Human Capital pg. 16
Finance pg. 19
Access to Markets pg. 21
Research and Development pg. 22
Policy
State and Local Government pg. 24
Federal Government pg. 28
Conclusion pg. 30
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Introduction
The dictionary defines “entrepreneur” as a person who organizes and manages any enterprise,
especially a business, usually with considerable initiative and risk. Under this definition, Chris, a
chef who spent years perfecting his cherry pie recipe and is finally ready to open his first bakery
featuring homemade pies is an entrepreneur, as is Hillary, the engineer at the University of
Oklahoma who just filed patents on a technology that tests for Alzheimer’s disease. In fact, this
definition seems to encompass any business owner (and even some non‐business owners) and
since entrepreneurs like Chris and Hillary need very different kinds of help, some experts have
chosen to further classify entrepreneurship into two categories: Small to Medium Enterprises
and Innovation Driven Enterprises.
Chris’s bakery is an example of a Small to Medium Enterprise (SME) characterized by the
smaller, regional market he serves with traditional business ideas and limited competitive
advantages. Chris will succeed if he can properly develop his business model and pricing, and if
there is demand for his baked goods. If he’s successful, Chris may hire employees and even
open additional locations in the region. SMEs are the lifeblood of Tulsa’s economy and creating
SMEs is critical to moving people out of unemployment, especially when the economy suffers.
These jobs are particularly important for individuals with relatively low levels of education and
skills, although SMEs also do create a small number of jobs for skilled professionals. “A form of
self‐employment, SMEs give people the opportunity to work independently and use their skills,
particularly in times when large, established companies are laying off workers. On the other
hand, SMEs are, as their name suggests, small! Many SMEs in the United States and Europe
only employ a founder and a spouse, or just a handful of workers.”1
Hillary’s Alzheimer’s test, on the other hand, is an example of an Innovation Driven Enterprise
(IDE). Although Chris’s decision to open a bakery is moderately risky, Hillary’s business is highly
risky and chances are that (like so many high‐tech entrepreneurial startups) she will fail,
creating no jobs at all. On the other hand, if she succeeds, she will create tens to hundreds of
jobs for PhDs and master’s‐level graduates in chemistry, engineering, and business. She also
might create manufacturing jobs and sales jobs around the world.2 Unlike Chris, Hillary must
think globally and work to create a competitive advantage for her innovation that will take it
1 Aulet, Bill, and Fiona Murray. A TALE OF TWO ENTREPRENEURS: Understanding Differences in the Types of
Entrepreneurship in the Economy Bill Aulet and Fiona Murray (2013). May 2013. Web. Nov. 2016.
<https://real.mit.edu/documents/AuletMurray_KauffmanPaper_a‐tale‐of‐two‐entrepreneurs.pdf> 2 Aulet, Bill, and Fiona Murray. A TALE OF TWO ENTREPRENEURS: Understanding Differences in the Types of
Entrepreneurship in the Economy Bill Aulet and Fiona Murray (2013). May 2013. Web. Nov. 2016.
<https://real.mit.edu/documents/AuletMurray_KauffmanPaper_a‐tale‐of‐two‐entrepreneurs.pdf>
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worldwide. Hillary’s potential economic impact is much larger than Chris’s, but her likelihood
of success is also much lower.
Both SMEs and IDEs are vital components of a healthy and flourishing entrepreneurial
ecosystem, but they cannot be treated identically. While Chris needs mentorship, advice and
access to business coaching and a small amount of startup capital before he has potential to
realize gains, Hillary likely will require greater investment to develop her competitive advantage
and access global markets at scale. External capital is a mainstay of IDEs when compared to
typical SMEs. External capital can be venture capital, but today’s market‐savvy IDE
entrepreneurs also are using angel funds, strategic partners, crowdfunding and other sources of
external capital. Hillary’s needs revolve much more around early access to capital and global
access to markets. IDEs have the distinct advantage of creating high level jobs and auxiliary
employment for those with lower skills. Beyond the immediate jobs they create, as Enrico
Moretti has argued in the New Geography of Jobs, IDEs have a job multiplier effect, creating
five jobs for every direct IDE job.3 In Massachusetts, the Biotechnology Council calculated that
for every biotechnology job created directly by a biotech‐focused IDE, five auxiliary jobs are
created.4
However, since the risk is so high, Hillary is less likely than Chris to succeed in providing any jobs
at all. Thus, while it is important to support IDEs because of their potential for the creation of
hundreds of direct jobs, it is just as important to support people launching and growing SMEs
because their likelihood of success is much higher, and supporting fifty SME entrepreneurs like
Chris could equal the same amount of job creation with less risky capital investment than an
IDE business like Hillary’s.
SME entrepreneurship matters in Tulsa because small and medium sized businesses have an
outsized impact on our local economy: the majority of Tulsa businesses, eighty‐four percent in
fact, are small, local businesses with fewer than ten employees. That amounts to 44,000
businesses that add $4.9 billion of gross product to the economy, provide over 100,000 primary
jobs and add $1.8 billion to our city’s payroll every year.5 Tulsa has seen several SME victories
in businesses like the McNellie’s Group: a restaurant company that started as one pub
downtown in 2004 and now has expanded to over a dozen locations in Oklahoma and Arkansas.
Consumer Affairs is one IDE in Tulsa that has experienced great success, growing to 180
3 Moretti, Enrico. The New Geography of Jobs. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2012. 4 “President Obama, the 111th Congress, and Biotechnology: Working Together Today to Ensure a Healthy
Tomorrow,” Massachusetts Biotechnology Council, 2009,
<http://www.massbio.org/writable/files/Policy/mbc_white_paper_2009.pdf. 5 Tulsa Metro Chamber "A Guide for Entrepreneurs." Web. Nov. 2016.
<http://ww3.tulsachamber.com/upload/file/Tulsa%20Metro%20Chamber/Entrepreneur%20Guide%202011.pdf>
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employees and expecting to add fifty to one hundred more in 2016.6 Nurturing our small
businesses as they start and expand is vital to maintaining and expanding SMEs, and creating a
more cohesive entrepreneurial ecosystem by breaking down silos, increasing collaboration and
developing strategic partnerships between colleges and universities and entrepreneurs will to
pave the way to increase support for IDE entrepreneurs.
2016 ushered in big changes for Tulsa’s entrepreneurial ecosystem that supports both SMEs
and IDEs. January brought the grand opening of both 36 Degrees North, a physical space for
entrepreneurs and providers of support resources to convene in Tulsa, and Kitchen66, an
incubator for food entrepreneurs with rentable commercial kitchen space. Both of these
spaces only served to further the city’s growing entrepreneurial culture and increase the
cooperation among entrepreneurs and the services that exist to help them. Because of this
increased collaboration, more entrepreneurs are availing themselves of support services,
attended workshops and networked with one another. More entrepreneurs than ever are
attempting to raise money to fund their startups, while investors are increasingly seeking ways
to invest in homegrown, early stage companies.
At the same time, broader economic factors have also encouraged new entrepreneurial
activity. Fear of losing stalwarts of Tulsa employment like Williams Company by acquisition or
bankruptcy and the continued decline of the oil and gas market made Tulsans think long and
hard about taking advantage of our assets as experts in advanced manufacturing and our ideal
geographical location in the center of the United States. This will hopefully serve to advance
business to business testing and allow for collaboration between large, established
corporations and beta testing startups. Tulsa elected a new Mayor in June whose campaign
affirmed his commitment to supporting startup culture in Tulsa. All in all, Tulsa has taken
several positive steps to grow our entrepreneurial ecosystem in 2016.
The Lobeck Taylor Family Foundation is pleased to present its annual State of Entrepreneurship
Report, a reflection on the progress and goals for the Tulsa entrepreneurial community. As a
way to track progress year over year, the report follows the eight traditional domains of an
entrepreneurial ecosystem identified in the first report, including: Physical Infrastructure,
Promoting Culture, Support Services, Human Capital, Finance, Access to Markets, Research and
Development and Policy. Within each domain, the report will highlight progress made,
opportunities for improvement, and where appropriate, best practices from around the
country, for consideration.
6 Morgan, Rhett. "ConsumerAffairs Settles into New Downtown Digs." Tulsa World 24 Mar. 2016: Tulsa World.
Web. Nov. 2016.
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Physical Infrastructure
In January 2016, 36 Degrees North opened its doors as the basecamp for entrepreneurship in
Tulsa. The ceremonial coffee mug toast on January 25th between 36 Degrees North founders:
the George Kaiser Family Foundation, Tulsa Regional Chamber and Lobeck Taylor Family
Foundation and the newly named Executive Director Dustin Curzon represented more than a
collective partnership welcoming entrepreneurs home. It was a celebration of a completed call
to action from the 2014 State of Entrepreneurship Report that recommended Tulsa should
“consolidate efforts to build a mixed‐use facility” for entrepreneurs complete with not only
coworking space, but also classrooms and conference rooms.7 In ten short months, 36 Degrees
North has welcomed over 4800 unique visitors through its doors, hosted more than 270 events
and boasts over 200 members representing more than 80 companies. 36 Degrees North was
also cited as the most utilized resource in 2016 with almost seventy percent of survey
respondents having visited for coworking, meeting with a mentor or to attend a workshop or
meetup.
Tulsa’s food entrepreneurs also found a place to call home in 2016 when Kitchen66 launched its
business incubator and took up residence in the Sun Building downtown. With more than 9000
square feet of rentable commercial kitchen and café space, the newest culinary visionaries have
space to test their recipes and receive candid customer feedback by hosting a pop up dinner
and selling in a market day or at the café. Almost sixteen percent of survey respondents
indicated that they had utilized Kitchen66 this year.
In mid‐October, an additional coworking space opened its doors. Savage Space has a vision “to
create and grow a community of innovators, entrepreneurs, and creative freelancers who
redefine Tulsa.”8 In the last two years, the community has seen spaces open across town,
serving all kinds of entrepreneurs. Whether a creative in South Tulsa at The Hive, a foodie
downtown at Kitchen66 or a budding entrepreneur in midtown at The Bridge or downtown at
36 Degrees North or Savage Space, there is a space for everyone in Tulsa.
It wasn’t just the new places on the block making an impact in 2016. The Fab Lab and The
Forge, the most established of the physical spaces, continued to expand their programming and
services offered and are consistently at physical capacity. Thirteen and eighteen percent,
respectively, of survey respondents utilized these two resources this year.
7 “Tulsa’s Entrepreneurial Landscape Report.” 12 May 2014 <http://cultivate918.org/wp‐
content/uploads/2014/09/Tulsas‐Entrepreneurial‐Asset‐Map‐5.12.14.pdf> 8 "Savage Space | Tulsa Coworking Space." Savage Space. Web. 25 Oct. 2016. <http://savagespace.co/>.
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Tulsa has excelled in the last several years at creating and maintaining spaces where
entrepreneurs of all disciplines, community partners and service providers can collide to create
a more vibrant ecosystem. In 2017, we look forward to that trend continuing as these newly
established spaces deepen their roots and impact in the community, the established spaces
continue to thrive and we welcome new spaces to the community.
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Promoting Culture
The last two editions of this report stated the need to foster greater collaboration amongst the
entrepreneurial community in Tulsa. When the first edition of this report was published in
2014, there was little communication between entrepreneurial stakeholders. Since then,
individuals and firms have successfully come together to breakdown silos that exist within the
ecosystem, which has led to greater cohesion within the entrepreneurial community.
Celebrating success is an important element of building a strong entrepreneurial culture and in
2016 there were many successes worth celebrating. Thumbtack Journal named Tulsa the best
city for women entrepreneurs to start a business in 2016.9 Community resources for women
entrepreneurs, such as Tulsa Women’s Business Breakfast, Girls Who Code and Women’s
Coworking Day at 36 Degrees North, helped create this hospitable environment. Tulsa food
entrepreneur and member at Kitchen 66, Remmi Smith, received national attention when she
appeared on the Food Network’s Chopped: Teen Challenge. This past year also saw companies
such as Los Angeles‐founded, Wabi Cycles and The Audio Planet relocate to Tulsa.
Several programs brought new young entrepreneurs into the fold. One of the Tulsa Startup
Series competitions was open only to K‐12 students. Twenty‐two students, ranging from
elementary to high school age, submitted a sixty‐second pitch video highlighting their business
idea. Five students were selected to pitch live in front of a judging panel and the winner took
home $2500 to launch their business in addition to a three‐month membership to 36 Degrees
North and a dedicated mentor for that time. In the summer of 2016, a non‐profit called Girls
Who Code, whose mission is to close the gender gap in technology by building the largest
pipeline of future female engineers in the United States, hosted a week long coding camp for
young girls at 36 Degrees North. Kitchen 66 partnered with a local high school to introduce a
group of students to innovation and the entrepreneurial mindset through a workshop and
hands on learning. Scholarships to Success continued to support high school entrepreneurs by
offering awards for tuition to a postsecondary institution for those students running a business
of their own or developing an idea for one.
As shared earlier in the report, physical infrastructure is a vital component of improving
entrepreneurial culture. Since the 2015 report was published, three new hubs for
entrepreneurs have opened, 36 Degrees North, Kitchen 66, and Savage Space. These spaces
9 "Best Places for Women to Start a Business in 2016 ‐ Thumbtack Journal." Thumbtack Journal. 20 Sept. 2016.
Web. Oct. 2016. <https://www.thumbtack.com/blog/women‐business‐2016/>.
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provide new opportunities for entrepreneurs to not only connect with each other but also with
resources carefully curated to bolster their success.
Opportunities to connect with fellow entrepreneurs and share best practices allow
entrepreneurs to support and learn from one another. In past reports, we learned that there
was not a central place to identify such opportunities. Now, Cultivate918 and The Forge send
weekly letters that highlight entrepreneurial happenings in Tulsa. 36 Degrees North also has a
weekly letter as well as a substantial calendar of events that is updated monthly. The majority
of people who completed this year’s survey shared that they felt connected to the
entrepreneurial community and to help strengthen it, they had participated in events,
mentored someone, offered services pro bono and joined a coworking space. In fact, out of the
120 people who took the survey, fifty‐three percent had attended an entrepreneurial event
within the last week, reflecting improved promotion of these events to the community.
When reviewing the entrepreneurial culture of an ecosystem, it is important to observe its
socio‐cultural and industry diversity. Research shows that diversity drives creativity, innovation
and productivity in entrepreneurship.10 One study, which investigated links among socio‐
cultural diversity, innovation, entrepreneurship, and sales strategies in businesses between
2005 and 2007, found that companies with diverse management are more likely to develop
new product innovations than are those with unvaried teams and that diversity is especially
important for accessing international markets.11
The majority of the 120 survey respondents ranked Tulsa’s diversity of culture in the
entrepreneurial community as neutral followed closely by those who ranked it as diverse.
Similarly, respondents described the diversity of industry in the Tulsa entrepreneurial
community as neutral followed by diverse. Reviewing these survey responses, it is clear that
there is room to improve the diversity in Tulsa’s entrepreneurial ecosystem. To increase
diversity and thus Tulsa’s entrepreneurial competitiveness, stakeholders should develop
organized efforts to support a wider variety of entrepreneurs and encourage participation from
more sectors.
10 Rodríguez‐Pose, Andrés, and Daniel Hardy. "Cultural Diversity and Entrepreneurship: New Evidence." VOX,
CEPR's Policy Portal. N.p., 4 Dec. 2014. Web. Oct. 2016. <http://voxeu.org/article/cultural‐diversity‐and‐
entrepreneurship‐new‐evidence>. 11 Nathan, Max, and Neil Lee. "Cultural Diversity, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship: Firm‐level Evidence from
London." Economic Geography 89.4 (2013): Web. Oct. 2016.
<http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/store/10.1111/ecge.12016/asset/ecge12016.pdf?v=1&t=ivk0rh64&s=3de5a50ff34
77f42b07ac5f0ead64d49a552b6d0&systemMessage=Wiley Online Library will be unavailable on Saturday 26th
November 2016 from 07:00‐11:00 GMT / 02:00‐06:00 EST / 15:00‐19:00 SGT for essential maintenance. Apologies
for the inconvenience.>.
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Overall, the creation for a shared vision within the entrepreneurial community has advanced
and progress continues to be made in unifying the existing community. However, in the coming
year, stakeholders should continue efforts to increase diversity in the entrepreneurial
community. Looking forward to even greater collaboration, stakeholders should agree on a
shared vision of what a vibrant entrepreneurial ecosystem looks like in Tulsa and how success
should be measured. They should measure their collective impact and develop a shared
learning agenda, which will enable them to access and repurpose lessons learned and prioritize
efforts to fill gaps.
To spark the conversation on convening stakeholders to strengthen Tulsa’s entrepreneurial
ecosystem, the Lobeck Taylor Family Foundation and 36 Degrees North will co‐host an event
featuring Greta Schettler, an expert on economic development and entrepreneurship, in the
first quarter of 2017. Greta is Vice President of WeConnect International, the world’s largest
certifier of women owned businesses and is the former Senior Economic Policy Advisor to the
Office of Global Women’s Issues at the US Department of State. Greta was responsible for
elevating women’s economic participation as a U.S. foreign policy priority and made
groundbreaking efforts on economic participation in the G20, the G‐7, the Trans‐Pacific
Partnership and the Global Entrepreneurship Summit. She also has considerable experience
working across a variety of industries as a consultant in the United States, South America, the
Middle East and Africa.
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Support Services
The 2014 Entrepreneurial Landscape report presented the robust network of business support
services that exist for the Tulsa entrepreneurial community including incubators, bootcamps,
contests, mentors/advisors and professional services but noted poor communication as a
hindrance to these resources being maximized. The Help Desk, powered by 36 Degrees North,
was cited in the 2015 State of Entrepreneurship Report as a potential solution to this problem.
Launching at the end of 2016, the Help Desk lives on the 36 Degrees North website and
provides quick access to a list of available resources in Tulsa. Separated by category, i.e. funding
and industry groups, an individual can select a resource to learn more about the organization
and also contact the resource directly. Additionally, if the resource needed is not listed, a form
is embedded in the Help Desk that can be completed for 36 Degrees North to review and then
connect the person to an organization in their partner network.
While disseminating information on available resources continues to be an ongoing area of
improvement, we do know that ninety‐five percent of 2016 survey respondents indicated that
they utilized one or more business support resources this year. With almost seventy percent of
those surveyed indicating they had leveraged this resource, 36 Degrees North was the most
used resource this year. Rounding out the top five were 1 Million Cups with fifty‐nine percent,
Cultivate 918 with thirty‐seven percent, i2E with twenty‐three percent and SCORE with twenty‐
two percent.
A resource lacking for the Tulsa community, per the previous reports, was a nationally
recognized accelerator program. The 2015 State of Entrepreneurship Report specifically
mentioned the benefit for Tulsa to connect to an accelerator like BetaBlox in Kansas City and in
2016 BetaBlox expanded to its first city and selected Tulsa for that expansion thanks to a
partnership with Oklahoma Innovation Institute. Lead investor for BetaBlox, Weston Bergmann,
views Kansas City and Tulsa as sister cities for entrepreneurship and sees potential for a
pipeline of funding, talent and resources between the two. BetaBlox opened applications for its
first batch of companies in August 2016 receiving forty‐five applications and ultimately
selecting fourteen to begin the program in October 2016.
In 2016 we saw an increase in services for non‐traditional entrepreneurs. In addition to
Kitchen66, an incubator for food businesses, we saw several programs for artists of all kinds in
Tulsa. National program Artist INC was offered in Tulsa in the spring, providing twenty‐five local
artists ranging from visual artists to musicians the opportunity to learn the business of art
including marketing, finance, law and technology. In addition to teaching participants how to
sustain their art, the program connects artists to local and national art business resources to
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create a larger art community. Additionally in 2016, the George Kaiser Family Foundation’s
Tulsa Artist Fellowship brought twelve visual artists from across the United States to Tulsa to
enhance its already flourishing local art scene. These fellows are provided an annual stipend in
addition to free housing and studio workspace for up to three years as they immerse
themselves in Tulsa’s local art community. Looking forward to 2017, the fellowship is expanding
to include writers ranging from screenwriters to poets in addition to visual artists. Of the twelve
fellows from 2016, seven have decided to stay in Tulsa for a second year of the fellowship.
The Tulsa StartUp Series updated the format of its competition in 2016 to better serve
entrepreneurs across all disciplines. The bi‐monthly pitch competitions created more entry
points for participation and therefore more opportunity to be awarded both a monetary prize
and mentorship opportunities through both i2E and TCC. Furthermore, this format provided
additional opportunity for entrepreneurs to practice pitching, both on video and live, and
receive beneficial feedback from judges specializing in their industry on how to take their pitch
to the next level. These bi‐monthly pitches spanned all industries, from tech to physical product
to food and retail. Culminating in a Demo Day during Global Entrepreneurship week, five final
companies representing the food, tech and creative industries have been selected to pitch live
for over $20,000 in prize money.
This year the entrepreneurial community in Tulsa made great progress in providing both
national and local programming to accelerate entrepreneurs of all kinds to their next phase of
business. In 2017 Tulsa should continue to recruit programs with this focus, targeting specific
and often underserved segments of the community like veterans and women. For example,
Chicago based incubator Bunker Labs aims to integrate veteran entrepreneurs into the existing
entrepreneurial ecosystems in their communities and support them through education,
mentorship and funding opportunities. The City of Atlanta is supporting women owned
businesses in their community through their new Women Entrepreneurship Initiative (WEI).
WEI incubates fifteen companies for fifteen months while providing workspace, building
community, creating mentor networks and curating valuable educational programming.
An additional program that could greatly benefit the Tulsa entrepreneurial community is an
industry specific accelerator. The Sprint Accelerator in Kansas City and the Global Insurance
Accelerator in Des Moines are two great success stories in our region. The Global Insurance
Accelerator specifically was started by eight insurance companies that annually contribute
funding to the program, a portion of which is used as seed money for the teams in the cohort
and the remaining funds are utilized for program costs. Teams focusing on insurance
technology solutions are recruited from across the globe to spend one hundred days in Des
Moines participating in the accelerator. Upon completion, many of the teams elect to stay in
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the Des Moines area to launch their company. With established industries including
manufacturing and energy in Tulsa, there is great potential to be realized by existing businesses
and entrepreneurs alike by introducing this opportunity into the ecosystem.
Mentors
The Tulsa community certainly recognizes the importance of mentorship and advising as it
relates to the success and vibrancy of the entrepreneurial ecosystem. Many programs and
organizations including The Forge, Kitchen66, BetaBlox, i2e, SCORE and Tulsa StartUp Series
imbed formal mentoring as a primary element of their programs. While forty‐six percent of
entrepreneurs in the 2016 survey had a mentor in the past year, up from thirty‐six percent in
2015, we know there is still work to be done in this space.
Of the fifty‐four percent of entrepreneurs that did not have a mentor in 2016, sixty‐five percent
indicated that they would have liked one. Additionally, when asked which element of business
support services were an obstacle to current operations of their business, the most cited
obstacle among entrepreneurs surveyed was access to consultants and advisors with forty‐
three percent. The most significant reason for this being an obstacle was neither qualification
nor affordability rather it was the ability to find these individuals that proved most difficult. By
providing formal office hour opportunities with subject matter experts in the community on
topics ranging from accounting to legal to human resources, 36 Degrees North has taken some
steps to begin solving for this issue, but there is opportunity community wide for progress in
this area.
While individual programs and organizations are excelling in offering mentorship, advising and
consulting to members and participants, there still exists a need for the broader community to
provide support and structure around mentorship. As more physical spaces that support
entrepreneurship open in Tulsa, informal mentoring will naturally follow. However, the
ecosystem could benefit significantly from a formalized process being established in 2017 for
the community as a whole that connects prospective mentees to those individuals willing to
mentor.
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Human Capital
In the 2015 Report, it was noted that “the second‐most cited obstacle for Tulsa in the survey
was the lack of software developer talent.”12 Results from the 2016 survey were consistent as
sixty‐three percent of entrepreneurs that cited they had a human capital obstacle to current
operations of their business specified that obstacle to be availability of skilled workers. When
asked what could be done to improve those obstacles, responses centered on increasing the
number of available developers, continuing to offer and expand coding bootcamps and to
connect the startup community to local universities for a talent pipeline.
While the dearth of quality developers in Tulsa continues to be an observed obstacle, many
organizations are working to overcome it. In 2016, several new tech groups started up including
Tulsa Data Science, Tulsa JS, Tulsa Ruby, TulsaPy and OK Game Developers. Averaging between
fifteen and thirty attendees each at their monthly meetups, these organizations are growing
the tech community in Tulsa and providing opportunity for developers to grow and hone their
skills.
One existing organization, the Tulsa Web Devs, supported the Tulsa developer community
through their biweekly meetups‐ one meeting and one hack night each month‐ that each
averaged forty‐five attendees. Another fixture organization, Code for Tulsa, continued to
support the developer community and community at large in 2016. While solving for civic
problems, developers are provided an opportunity to use their existing skills and learn new
ones from their peers. For example, this year Code for Tulsa created a student friendly guide to
Tulsa Transit’s bus system as part of the #TPSRIDES partnership between Tulsa Public Schools
and Tulsa Transit. A new website will be launched and an email guide sent to all students in
December 2016. Additionally, the organization is working with the City of Tulsa to redesign the
city’s open data portal. The 2016 200 OK conference hosted at 36 Degrees North received over
one hundred speaker submissions and ultimately selected thirteen presenters from Oklahoma,
Texas, Missouri, California and New York. The event sold out with one hundred attendees.
In addition to continuing to grow the developer community in Tulsa in 2016, increased
opportunities for targeted education for developers were made available. OK Coders continues
to be a valued resource in Tulsa hosting four bootcamps that trained over forty‐four
participants in HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Angular, Node and Mongo in the last two years. Tech
Talent South also hosted a two‐week code bootcamp in the spring designed for beginners
interested in learning to code. The bootcamp, Pop Up Code, taught five participants Ruby on
12 “2015 Tulsa State of Entrepreneurship.” 13 Nov 2015 <https://medium.com/@lobecktaylorff/2015‐tulsa‐state‐
of‐entrepreneurship‐5fa8ecbd0af7#.l4t23w8ib>
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Rails, HTML, CSS and Twitter Bootstrap among other programs. While progress continues to be
made in the quantity and quality of these educational opportunities, Tulsa should continue to
seek programs that equip software developers for immediate employment with existing and
startup companies locally recruiting this skillset.
The developer community continues to make strides in Tulsa year after year, but the largest
perceived gap exists between the universities and the startup community seeking developer
talent. As seventy percent of Tulsa entrepreneurs cited in the 2016 survey that they recruit all
of their talent locally, this pipeline is of the utmost importance.
In 2016, the Oklahoma Innovation Institute (OII) launched a new workforce development
program addressing the need to build and retain a stronger talent pool of technical employees
and to create visibility to interesting high‐growth companies in Tulsa. OII’s new Work in Tech
program is a targeted intervention to build a stronger connection between area universities and
hiring technology‐based companies. Work in Tech was started as a result of local companies
identifying a perceived lack of a talent pool as their primary concern for growth in region, while
consequently hearing lack of employment opportunities as the number one reason for students
leaving Tulsa after graduation. OII brought together leadership from university partners
through its Tulsa Research Partners program to help address this critical issue. Each of the six
universities in this partnership (The University of Tulsa, the University of Oklahoma‐ Tulsa,
Oklahoma State University‐Tulsa, Tulsa Community College, Oral Roberts University and
Northeastern State University) recruited their top fifteen students who had the required skillset
that did not currently have a job offer and were interested in staying in Tulsa. Seventy‐five
students met with the CEO’s of four local technology companies for a reverse pitch event where
the CEO’s sold the students on why they should stay in Tulsa and work for their organizations.
As the event was a success for both the companies and the students, OII is identifying
additional industries in Tulsa with high impact jobs where they can replicate the methodology
in 2017.
The Mine, a social innovation fellowship run by the University of Oklahoma’s Center for the
Creation of Economic Wealth (CCEW), is honing in on this issue with one of their two fellowship
projects for 2016‐2017. Partnering with Techlahoma, five Mine fellows are spending nine
months exploring how to create a pipeline of coders from kids to adults in Tulsa. In order to
achieve their ultimate goal of developing a strategy for execution, the fellows will benchmark
national models for coding education pipelines and research both the needs and interests of
underserved populations in regards to coding. While this effort is certainly a significant step
toward solving for this gap, undoubtedly it is only one step as part of a much larger initiative.
18
The Commons in Milwaukee, WI, an entrepreneurial skills accelerator for college students, has
an excellent model for creating engagement between higher education partners, existing
businesses and the startup community. In each cohort students are split into two groups‐ one
half works on corporate challenges presented by program sponsors and partners while the
other half tackles startup challenges which are startup ideas generated by the students
themselves. The accelerator has created a large mentor network comprised of over 130
professionals from both education and industry and has active cross disciplinary student
participation from more than twenty local universities and colleges. Tulsa could greatly benefit
from creating this general pipeline of innovative and entrepreneurial thinkers into its
workforce.
19
Finance
As stated in previous reports, access to capital remains a major challenge for startups in Tulsa.
Eighty percent of entrepreneurs surveyed this year said that the early stage investment market
in Tulsa was at least a moderate obstacle to the current operations of their business. The two
most common current finance obstacles for operations to their business were equity finance
and access to grants. Although there is room to improve finance options for Tulsa startups,
noteworthy progress has been made.
A new early stage capital opportunity was introduced to Oklahoma entrepreneurs this year
through i2E’s Oklahoma Angel Fund, which invests in companies with high‐growth potential
that require capital to assist with proof of concept and scaling, introducing new products, and
expanding into new markets. This $2,500,000 fund focuses on early to growth stage companies
in Oklahoma as well as other states in the region. The Oklahoma Angel Fund differs from i2E’s
other funds in that it is comprised entirely of private dollars raised from individuals, family
offices and foundations throughout the state of Oklahoma. Since its launch in April 2016, the
fund has invested in three companies, all of which are based in Oklahoma. The maximum
investment per company is $250,000 and i2E hopes to invest in eight to ten companies within
the first two to three years.
Fifty‐four percent of surveyed entrepreneurs said they attempted to raise capital in 2016, which
is more than double the amount reported in 2015. The most common source they attempted
was friends and family. Thirty‐eight percent of those who attempted to raise outside capital
were successful and the average amount raised was $119,000. Half of the respondents who
successfully raised outside capital received some Oklahoma investment dollars, the most
common sources coming from Tulsa Economic Development Corporation and friends and
family.
The average gross revenue for entrepreneurs’ companies in 2016 was $141,000 and their total
average revenue since founding was $267,000. Of the sixty‐five companies who took the
survey, fifty‐two were less than five years old and sixty‐two of the sixty‐five companies had less
than ten employees. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) FORM D filings show that
non‐oil and gas technology companies in Tulsa raised $622,000 so far in 2016. Two‐thirds of
these companies were tenants at either The Forge or 36 Degrees North.
Dustin Curzon, 36 Degrees North’s Executive Director, shared his observation that many
companies are beginning to use convertible notes, an investment tool often used by seed
investors investing in startups who wish to delay establishing a valuation for the startup until a
20
later round of funding or milestone. Convertible notes are structured as loans with the
intention of converting to equity, which removes the necessity of reporting debt capital.13 It is
important to note this trend as it is possible additional 2016 capital was raised by Tulsa
startups, but not reported.
In last year’s report, we suggested that the community create an educational investor and
entrepreneur series focused on early stage funding. Another recommendation in 2015 was the
development of a program that connects entrepreneurs with appropriate funding. Similarly, the
report encouraged a program that focuses not only on the development of products but also
the funding of the development of the products. Although conversation continues to highlight
these financing needs, there is no progress to report.
The Lobeck Taylor Family Foundation has identified two finance gaps to address in 2017. The
first gap is the one that exists for entrepreneurs seeking small amounts of start up capital. Food
entrepreneurs, for example, often struggle to procure bank loans or other traditional means of
startup funding. For those wanting to start food carts or have an idea for a packaged product, a
micro loan of only $10,000 can make the difference in accelerating their business to the next
level or scrapping the concept all together. The Foundation is researching potential solutions to
this obstacle and looks forward to taking steps to solve for this in the new year.
The second finance gap the Lobeck Taylor Family Foundation will focus on exists within Tulsa’s
creative economy. Creative startups are essential to economic development and community
vitality. They create jobs, new services and products and inspire innovation. They can safe‐
guard cultural heritage, strengthen a community’s cultural identity and improve quality of life,
thus achieving inclusive economic development that is rooted in people and place.14 While it
can be difficult for small enterprises to obtain startup capital, it can be even more challenging
for creative startups. Realizing the economic and social potential of supporting the creative
economy in Tulsa, the Lobeck Taylor Family Foundation is exploring a creative economy fund to
give small grants to enterprises that have a creative triple‐bottom line, which includes the
pursuit of artistic or cultural expression, financial profit and positive social impact.
13 "Convertible Note | Examples and How It Works." SeedInvest. 15 Sept. 2016. Web. Oct. 2016.
<https://www.seedinvest.com/blog/startup‐investing/how‐convertible‐notes‐work>. 14 Creative Economy Report 2013 Special Edition. Rep. United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), 2013.
Web. Oct. 2016. <http://www.unesco.org/culture/pdf/creative‐economy‐report‐2013‐en.pdf>.
21
Access to Markets
Access to markets is consistently one of the top challenges startups face. This year, survey
respondents most cited access to local markets as an obstacle to current operations of their
business followed by availability of market information, access to national and international
markets. Entrepreneurs who completed the survey shared that business to business (B2B) and
business to consumer (B2C) referrals as well as sharing aggregate market information could
mitigate the challenges they face in accessing markets.
Growing corporate involvement in Tulsa’s entrepreneurial ecosystem is crucial to increase B2B
transactions. The Forge Tulsa, a business incubator, startup hub and coworking space, is taking
the lead in facilitating B2B referrals through Beta Pen, a program projected to launch in Q2 of
2017 that will offer Tulsa‐based companies and organizations the opportunity to commit to
making a difference in advancing local startup companies by providing access to the testing of
their products and services in a corporate environment. 36 Degrees North will also focus on
enhancing corporate involvement in Tulsa's entrepreneurial ecosystem in 2017.
To improve access to local aggregate market information, community partners should work
together to make this information easily accessible to entrepreneurs. Scaling up Beta Pen’s
model and 36 Degrees North’s efforts to increase corporate involvement is a good strategy to
make a larger impact on expanding the local market for Tulsa startups. Additionally, the
entrepreneurial community should promote Tulsa entrepreneurs and programs on a national
level, which would help increase market access by widening the pool and giving more credibility
to Tulsa businesses.
22
Research and Development
For many reasons, capitalizing on the research being done at our exceptional institutions of
higher education and turning them into high quality Oklahoma jobs is challenging.
Commercializing research is not the first priority of these institutions, it’s educating students.
Accordingly, allocating funding and other resources to the process of commercializing this
research is also not a priority. Coupled with the reality that it’s also costly, and frankly cost
prohibitive at many times, to streamline this process, one begins to understand the limitations
of higher education to prioritize or execute well on this tech transfer process.
The University of Chicago is structured in such a way that its process, Technology
Commercialization and Licensing (TCL), is managed by the Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship
and Innovation. The Polsky Center also directs an accelerator, operates an innovation fund of
more than $20 million and runs a coworking space and fabrication lab open to students, faculty
and entrepreneurs in the broader community. As the Polsky Center is the university expert on
both the commercialization process and the entrepreneurial community, it has poised itself to
most efficiently and effectively support researchers with transforming their product or
technology into a viable business. The undertaking to streamline and execute this process was
certainly costly, however, the results are effective as they have “launched more than 90
research‐based startups, enabling faculty, students and researchers to apply their technologies
to critical problems impacting society.”15
While much less formal, but far more economical, universities have an opportunity to create
this pipeline for their researchers by spending more time engaged with local entrepreneurs in
their community. Whether having an office at 36 Degrees North, a coworking membership at
The Bridge, or attending some of the monthly developer meet‐ups in Tulsa, universities can
begin to develop the network and partnerships required to support the commercialization
process simply by meeting the people in the community that have the skillset to develop the
technology and those that have the business savvy and drive to be a company founder.
Understanding the limitations faced by higher education institutions, in 2016 the Oklahoma
Innovation Institute (OII) also made big strides in creating a process to support
commercialization and technology transfer out of the university campuses. OII is leveraging the
strong relationships through its Tulsa Research Partners which includes the University of Tulsa,
the University of Oklahoma‐ Tulsa, Oklahoma State University‐Tulsa, Tulsa Community College,
Oral Roberts University and Northeastern State University, to build a community engagement
15 Faculty and Researchers | Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation | The University of Chicago. Web.
Nov. 2016. <http://polsky.uchicago.edu/page/faculty‐and‐researchers>.
23
tool for accelerating projects both on and off university campuses. The OII platform will act as a
community asset map for high‐tech entrepreneurship and research collaboration while
providing a resource for teams to identify solutions to barriers keeping them from progressing.
The OII platform will leverage community engagement to identify project needs and curate the
appropriate resources for the project at the right time. Whether its equipment needed that one
campus in their network has or a funding source that they can make a match with, OII is
overlaying this platform with existing academic and research infrastructure to complement
rather than reinvent. OII was awarded a grant from the Economic Development Administration
(EDA) and additionally procured matching funding that has progressed the creation of this
platform to the prototype stage with an anticipated alpha launch in early 2017.
24
Policy
State and Local Government
The United States has a startup problem that encompasses how many startups are being born,
where those births take place and the demographics of who gets to participate in the startup
economy. Recently released data from the Census Bureau show that startups are reaching all‐
time lows when it comes to their share of both the U.S. business community and total
employment.16 The total number of new startups has also declined even as the economy grows
larger and larger. Only 404,000 new firms were created in 2014, compared to an annual
average of 498,000 from 1977 to 2008. To put that into perspective, in 1977 the U.S. economy
generated ninety‐five startups per $1 billion of GDP. By 2014, that ratio had fallen to only
twenty‐five startups.17
The United States not only needs more new businesses in more regions, but it also needs to
expand access to entrepreneurship as a career path. According to the Census Bureau's newly‐
released Annual Survey of Entrepreneurs, African Americans owned only two percent of the
nation's companies with employees in 2014, and women owned only twenty percent.18
Women and minority entrepreneurs have historically received less than ten percent of the
country’s venture capital.19 For every nine men that raise equity financing to start and scale
their business, only one woman does.20 A less entrepreneurial economy is one with fewer
opportunities to achieve the American Dream. EIG’s Distressed Communities Index21 found that
business openings, job growth and economic well‐being are intertwined down to the zip code
level.22 Mayors must be at the vanguard of making U.S. entrepreneurship more
16 "Latest Census Data Confirms Stagnation in U.S. Startup Landscape." Economic Innovation Group, 08 Sept. 2016.
Web. Nov. 2016. <https://medium.com/@InnovateEconomy/latest‐census‐data‐confirms‐stagnation‐in‐u‐s‐
startup‐landscape‐14eefcd68919#.r3lfjfj7p>. 17 Lettieri, John. "Mayors Must Be Policy Entrepreneurs." Kauffman.org. 17 Oct. 2016. Web. Nov. 2016.
<http://www.kauffman.org/blogs/growthology/2016/10/mayors‐must‐be‐policy‐entrepreneurs>. 18 United States Census Bureau. Nearly 1 in 10 Businesses With Employees Are New, According to Inaugural Annual
Survey of Entrepreneur. 1 Sept. 2016. Web. Nov. 2016. <http://www.census.gov/newsroom/press‐
releases/2016/cb16‐148.html>. 19 Hay, Timothy. "Female‐, Minority‐Run Startups Have Tougher Fundraising Road, Study Says." Web log post. The
Wall Street Journal. 30 Oct. 2014. Web. Nov. 2016. <http://blogs.wsj.com/venturecapital/2014/10/30/female‐
minority‐run‐startups‐have‐tougher‐fundraising‐road‐study‐says/>. 20 Coleman, Susan, and Alicia Robb. High Growth Women‐Owned Businesses' Access to Capital. Rep. no. SBAHQ‐
13‐Q‐0A6. The National Women's Business Council, 3 Apr. 2014. Web. Nov. 2016.
<https://www.nwbc.gov/research/high‐growth‐women‐owned‐businesses‐access‐capital>. 21 "Distressed Communities Index ‐ Economic Innovation Group." Economic Innovation Group. Web. Nov. 2016.
<http://eig.org/dci>. 22 Lettieri, John. "Mayors Must Be Policy Entrepreneurs." Kauffman.org. 17 Oct. 2016. Web. Nov. 2016.
<http://www.kauffman.org/blogs/growthology/2016/10/mayors‐must‐be‐policy‐entrepreneurs>.
25
demographically and geographically inclusive. In tackling America’s startup problem, mayors
should emulate entrepreneurs themselves: be bold, move quickly and embrace new ideas.
Perhaps the most important change in local policy for Tulsa in 2016 will be the swearing in of
Mayor‐Elect GT Bynum. Elected in June, Bynum will be sworn in as 40th Mayor of Tulsa in
December. During his campaign, Mayor‐Elect Bynum was quick to note that the days of a city
being able to count on a few major employers to always be there are over, pointing out that in
1958, the average S&P 500 company had a lifespan of sixty‐one years but by 2012, it was only
eighteen years.23 The increased velocity of creative destruction, Bynum believes, is an
opportunity to educate its workforce and foster entrepreneurial activity to create new jobs that
will propel our local economy forward.
Bynum will create direct access between entrepreneurs and the Mayor’s office by officing out
of 36 Degrees North once every month. He will also re‐launch the Economic Development
Commission which was shuttered under the previous administration, acknowledging that the
sum of all wisdom in Tulsa on economic growth does not stop at City Hall.
Refreshingly, Mayor‐Elect Bynum also pledged to prioritize entrepreneurship as an economic
development strategy and prioritize education to foster greater entrepreneurial activity. As
Mayor, Bynum will have an uphill battle to reinvest in public education as the Oklahoma state
government decimated the education budget by fifteen percent. The state common education
budget lost $58 million and higher education lost $153 million during the 2016 legislative
session. Although the Legislature gave itself an extra $9 million (or an increase of 184 percent),
the state’s two job creating arms: the department of commerce, tourism and workforce
development and Oklahoma Center for the Advancement of Science and Technology (OCAST)
lost about $2 million each. OCAST is the state’s only investment in science, advanced
technology and future economic development, and its budget has nearly been cut in half in the
last eight years.24
The 2014 State of Entrepreneurship Report referenced multiple studies concluding that
government’s role in fostering entrepreneurship should focus on the “levers in its wheelhouse:
leadership, communication and regulation.”25 Mayor Bynum’s commitment to foster
23 Creative Destruction Whips through Corporate America. Issue brief. Innosight Executive Briefing Winter 2012,
Feb. 2012. Web. Nov. 2016. <https://www.innosight.com/wp‐content/uploads/2016/08/creative‐destruction‐
whips‐through‐corporate‐america_final2015.pdf>. 24 Meacham, Scott. "Scott Meacham: Legislature Cuts Job Creators OCAST, Commerce." Tulsa World 5 June 2016:
n. pag. Web. Nov. 2016. 25 “Tulsa’s Entrepreneurial Landscape Report.” 12 May 2014 <http://cultivate918.org/wp‐
content/uploads/2014/09/Tulsas‐Entrepreneurial‐Asset‐Map‐5.12.14.pdf>.
26
communication between entrepreneurs and the city will be a breath of fresh air for startups in
Tulsa who feel unheard and underappreciated.
Regulation presents an excellent opportunity for improvement under Bynum’s administration.
The Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation at Harvard Kennedy School is the
preeminent voice for innovation in government and has excellent white papers and case studies
that advocate for collaboration between city departments and streamlining licensing and
permitting to assist entrepreneurs. For example, the City of Boston published permitting and
licensing processes online in a searchable portal called “Permit Tracker”, including the pertinent
contact information, timeliness for completion at each stage, cost and number of procedural
steps related to each process on their City’s website. To those who have never applied for a
permit or license, the topic of reforming the permitting process may seem unnecessary, but for
those who spend weeks or months reaching out to different departments (and often receiving
contradictory information), understand how vital this reform could be for economic growth as
“a labyrinth‐like permitting process is a huge barrier to growth for entrepreneurs who are
starting small businesses.”26 This process is easier for big developers who have been through
the process, but it is often a death knell for small startups whose greatest asset is their time.
Along with streamlining processes using technology, Boston is also using data analysis and
performance management to increase improvement, resulting in a seventy‐five percent
increase in on‐time permit issuance (up from fifty‐six percent in March 2014), 12,500 more
permits issued in the year following implementation and a decrease in backlogged building
complaints from 3,500 to 212!27
The City of Denver is using technology to provide an online roadmap for small businesses to
use when launching a business in the City and County of Denver. The process, from planning
to celebration, is captured in twelve steps that are explained in two pages. Checklists are
posted online and in multiple languages and small businesses can track requirements and
progress as well as submit online.28
In 2014, Chicago appointed a Special Deputy for Regulatory Reform to liaise between the
Mayor’s Office, city agencies, small businesses and residents. This Deputy is responsible for a
26 "Streamlined Permitting & Licensing." Data‐Smart City Solutions. 18 Feb. 2015. Web. Nov. 2016.
<http://datasmart.ash.harvard.edu/news/article/streamlined‐permitting‐licensing‐599>. 27 Lawrence, Alex. "How Boston Is Making Permitting and Licensing Easier." Data‐Smart City Solutions. 20 Jan.
2015. Web. Nov. 2016. <http://datasmart.ash.harvard.edu/news/article/how‐boston‐is‐making‐permitting‐and‐
licensing‐easier‐621>. 28 "How Denver Is Getting Its Regulatory Reform Project Back on Track." Data‐Smart City Solutions. 30 Oct. 2014.
Web. Nov. 2016. <http://datasmart.ash.harvard.edu/news/article/how‐denver‐is‐getting‐its‐regulatory‐reform‐
project‐back‐on‐track‐555>.
27
“regulatory look back” to review Chicago’s municipal code with an eye to eliminating outdated
regulations and ordinances and to advocate on behalf of small businesses when problems arise
and ensure small business recommendations and feedback are incorporated into the
development and implementation of city priorities.29
One tangible example of complicated and outdated policy in Tulsa revolves around licensing for
food trucks. Mobile food vending dates back to as early as 1866 with the creation of the
“chuckwagon” to feed roaming cattlemen in Texas. With the ability to market through social
media, the comparatively low startup cost and the advantage of mobility, food truck popularity
has exploded in the 2000s. According to a 2012 forecast by Intuit Inc., the food truck industry is
projected to account for approximately $2.7 billion in food revenue by 2017, making it a
substantial player in the foodservice industry. As food trucks have grown in popularity, many
city officials wrestle with how to update regulations to mitigate any negative externalities. For
many cities, existing regulations applied to mobile food vendors were originally narrowly
defined for ice cream and hot dog vendors. In Tulsa, starting a food truck requires an
application to the Tulsa Health Department (with fee), a fee paid to the state health
department, a city permit, an inspection, an application to the Oklahoma Tax Commission and
sometimes more, depending on the type of food truck and how much is prepared on the truck
versus a licensed commissary kitchen (which requires an additional application and licensing
inspection and has to be repeated if the business changes kitchens).
Tulsa should look to Boston for an example on streamlining licensing and permitting for food
trucks. Since food trucks became popular in Boston’s dining scene in 2011, the City has been
active in promoting the industry’s growth while focusing on ensuring a healthy and sustainable
industry. Boston established an Office of Food Initiatives and the Boston Food Truck Initiative
to streamline the permitting process and bring healthy food trucks hosted by the city to food
deserts. To help food truck vendors navigate the process of starting up a food truck business,
the city has an Office of Food Initiatives as well as a Mobile Food Truck Committee. As required
by ordinance, the Mobile Food Truck Committee includes representatives from the Department
of Public Works, the Transportation Department, the Inspectional Services Department, the
Police Department, the Fire Department, the Director of Food Initiatives, and the Assessing
Department who collaboratively review and approve food truck applications. Since 2012, the
City of Boston has implemented a Live Lottery to provide new and existing mobile food vendors
with equal access to all city‐approved public sites. In 2015 vendors entered into a lottery to
select from over 500 shifts available for the upcoming vending year, which begins April 1, 2015.
In Tulsa, City Parks are off limits for food trucks, except for a lucky few. When other food trucks
29 "Case Study: Chicago Licensing and Permitting Reform." Data‐Smart City Solutions.19 Mar. 2015. Web. Nov.
2016. <http://datasmart.ash.harvard.edu/news/article/case‐study‐chicago‐licensing‐and‐permitting‐reform‐647>.
28
inquire about providing food service at popular parks without existing food service, like Turkey
Mountain, they are told the Parks Department is not capable of regulating food trucks in the
parks. Implementing a lottery system for food trucks in Tulsa parks could be a great
opportunity for Tulsa to embrace the food truck scene and increase visits to our city parks.
Many of these cities with more progressive food truck policies piloted their streamlined
programs with solutions created at hackathons or roundtable discussions with small business
owners and entrepreneurs. Tulsa’s regulatory maze could certainly benefit from streamlining
the process and developing an online checklist for better understanding which permits a
startup needs and how much they cost, as well as the average time it takes to receive them.
“More and more, we are counting on cities to deliver smart solutions to big challenges ‐‐ and
increasingly, city governments are counting on entrepreneurs to birth those solutions in their
locations. Local government shows lots of promise for serving as efficient crucibles for
learning how we make the path easier for those doers and makers of things in our local
communities.”30 Entrepreneurs and The City of Tulsa alike would benefit greatly from
increasing communication and cooperation between City Hall and entrepreneurs and
streamlining regulatory and permitting processes and bringing them online.
Federal Government
In his 2016 State of the Union address, President Obama remarked “we’re in the middle of the
longest streak of private‐sector job creation in history.” More than fourteen million new jobs
were created in the last few years: many by startups and small businesses, many out of
necessity (as was the case during the recession) and many because of a growth in technology.31
Perhaps the largest boost to entrepreneurs during President Obama’s term grew out of the
nearly $1 trillion from the two American Reinvestment and Recovery Acts that played a major
role in assisting depressed regions and bolstered the economic health of small business
owners.32
30 Ortmans, Jonathan. "Cities as Labs for Entrepreneurship Policy." Kauffman.org. 12 Jan. 2015. Web. Nov. 2016.
<http://www.kauffman.org/blogs/policy‐dialogue/2015/january/cities‐as‐labs‐for‐entrepreneurship‐policy>. 31 Arora, Rohit. "Rating The Obama Years For Small Business Growth." Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 13 Jan. 2016.
Web. Nov. 2016. <http://www.forbes.com/sites/rohitarora/2016/01/13/rating‐the‐obama‐years‐for‐small‐
business‐growth/2/#521fd28b6d38>. 32 Quittner, Jeremy. "How Small Business Owners View the President's Economic Legacy." Inc.com. 02 May 2016.
Web. Nov. 2016. <http://www.inc.com/jeremy‐quittner/small‐business‐week‐economic‐legacy‐of‐obama‐
administration.html>.
29
Also in 2016, the U.S. Department of State and Kiva, the world's largest crowdfunding platform
for loans, have joined forces to launch the Women's Entrepreneurship Fund, which aims to help
crowdfund loans to one million women entrepreneurs over the next five years. The Fund has a
special focus on women entrepreneurs in the growth phases, offering loans greater than the
average microfinance loan. To date, an estimated $500,000 has been pledged with
commitments from corporations and foundations.
Although the 2015 State of Entrepreneurship report celebrated the change to crowdfunding
rules under Title III of the JOBS act, the reform did not go into effect until May of 2016 so it is
still too soon to tell if it is increasing the number of early stage, high risk investments. However,
some states, like Illinois, have chosen to adopt their own, less stringent standards for
crowdfunding (operators of crowdfunding portals can choose whether to work under federal
law or relevant state law) with hopes to encourage local investment in small businesses like
restaurants by patrons and neighborhood advocates.33 Oklahoma could greatly benefit from
adopting a law like Illinois’ state equity crowdfunding law that went into effect in January as a
means to increase local investment in early stage startups.
33 Elahi, Amina. "New Federal Crowdfunding Rules Give Companies Another Tool to Get Cash."
Chicagotribune.com. 16 May 2016. Web. Nov. 2016. <http://www.chicagotribune.com/bluesky/originals/ct‐title‐iii‐
crowdfunding‐illinois‐bsi‐20160516‐story.html>.
30
Conclusion
Reflecting on 2016, much was accomplished to add to the momentum propelling Tulsa’s
entrepreneurial community forward. More people were mentored and attempted to raise
startup capital this year than the one before. A new angel fund was created as a pipeline for
developer talent from the universities to local employers. Doors opened at new spaces aiming
to create community and programs launched with the goal of helping entrepreneurs accelerate
their businesses to the next level. Creative entrepreneurs and student entrepreneurs alike
found new opportunities geared for them specifically. More than 150 people applied to local
incubator programs and the Mayor‐Elect committed to coworking with entrepreneurs once a
month. The entrepreneurial community should be proud for all it accomplished in 2016 and
remain committed as it looks ahead to the new year.
In 2017, the Tulsa entrepreneurial community has the opportunity to make a significant impact
by working to:
‐ Identify prospective companies within an industry to support an industry specific
accelerator
‐ Increase sociocultural and industry diversity
‐ Recruit and/or create programs to support underserved entrepreneurs including women
and veterans
‐ Formalize a process to connect prospective mentees to individuals willing to mentor
‐ Provide programs that equip software developers for immediate employment with
existing and startup companies locally
‐ Promote Tulsa entrepreneurs and programs on a national level to help increase market
access by widening the pool and giving more credibility to Tulsa businesses
‐ Connect academic researchers to the entrepreneurial community to turn their ideas into
viable businesses
‐ Streamline licensing and permitting for food trucks
‐ Increase communication and cooperation between city hall and entrepreneurs
‐ Streamline regulatory and permitting processes and bring them online
‐ Pursue legislation like Illinois’ state equity crowdfunding law that increases local
investment in early stage startups
‐ Create an educational investor and entrepreneur series focused on early stage funding
‐ Explore alternative funding strategies including creative economy and micro loan funds
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