Think Big Partners announces new initiatives at Gigabit Challenge event

The 16 teams that pitched business plans at the finale of the Gigabit Challenge on Wednesday weren’t the only ones to introduce big ideas at the event. Think Big Partners, the Kansas City, Mo.-based early-stage business incubator and startup accelerator that put on the Gigabit Challenge, took the opportunity Wednesday to introduce some new projects…

Herb Sih, the managing partner of Gigabit Challenge organizer Think Big Partners, announced several new objectives for his company at the finale of the Gigabit Challenge on Wednesday.

The 16 teams that pitched business plans at the finale of the Gigabit Challenge on Wednesday weren’t the only ones to introduce big ideas at the event. Think Big Partners, the Kansas City, Mo.-based early-stage business incubator and startup accelerator that put on the Gigabit Challenge, took the opportunity Wednesday to introduce some new projects of its own.

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Before Gigabit Challenge awards were doled out to conclude the daylong program, Herb Sih, the managing partner of Think Big Partners, stepped to the podium to announce some of his company’s objectives for 2012. Think Big’s Allison Way details all of them in a post on the Think Big Partners blog. Below, we provide a few of the highlights from Sih’s announcement.

Think Big Nation

Think Big is launching an effort it hopes, Sih said, will “fundamentally change how entrepreneurs build profitable companies.” Think Big Nation is the the umbrella under which all efforts of Think Big Partners will operate.

“Think Big Nation is about connecting entrepreneurs to innovation opportunities, to the right people to work in them, to the funders who want to back them,” Sih said. “This is our recipe for entrepreneurial success. This is the network we believe that can make a lot of sense.”

Conferences

Think Big is looking to take its eponymous conferences nationwide. Think Big conferences launched in 2010 and have been held in Kansas City and Baltimore. Sih said Think Big is currently in talks with as many as 14 other cities interested in hosting the events. “We are looking for and in discussion with other groups,” Sih said, “and we hope we can help spread this across the country.”

KCCowork

Think Big is teaming with Five Elms Capital of Prairie Village, Kan. to launch KCCowork, a coworking space that will open its doors in Prairie Village this fall. It’s the second coworking space in the Kansas City area for Think Big, which also runs bizperc in the Crossroads District. 

Sih said he’s bullish on the idea of Think Big joining forces with funders to oversee coworking spaces. “I think (it’s) a trend,” Sih said, “that we can make sense all across the country. … We are looking to partners with other organizations soon to do the same as we build out the Think Big network.”

Accelerator

Think Big will sponsor its first accelerator class, which will be made up high-growth startups — including some from The Gigabit Challenge (left) — working alongside Think Big Partners. Sih didn’t offer many details on the accelerator other than to say it will be different from Y Combinator and TechStars and that it will involve a trip to Silicon Valley to get startups in front of coastal investors.

Sih said more details on all of Think Big’s new initiatives will be available next week at thinkbignation.com.  

For more on the finale of the Gigabit Challenge, see our story from Wednesday: “SEIN Analytics takes top prize in Gigabit Challenge

Here’s video from the Gigabit Challenge. Tune in at the 27:00 mark to hear Sih deliver the Think Big Parters’ announcements.

Image and video credits: Photos of Herb Sih and Gigabit Challenge winners from the Kansas City Public Library on Flickr. Video from Digital Evolution via Ustream.

This story is part of the AIM Archive

This story is part of the AIM Institute Archive on Silicon Prairie News. AIM gifted SPN to the Nebraska Journalism Trust in January 2023. Learn more about SPN’s origin »

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