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Explore the world of business and entrepreneurship in Wichita. Learn from local business owners from a variety of industries as they share their experiences with hosts and Evergy leaders, Don Sherman and Ebony Clemons-Ajibolade, who are also small business owners. You’ll learn how they have built and grown their companies and the challenges and opportunities they encountered along the way. This podcast is brought to you by the Wichita Regional Chamber of Commerce and is powered by Evergy.
Ep45_JoshOedingMaryBethJarvis
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Don and Ebony: [00:00:00] Welcome to another exciting edition of the WCBA powered, of course, by Evergy. First, thank you for listening. Don't forget to like us love us. Share us. We truly appreciate you checking us out. Today we are excited and I have to step back. We are super excited, super excited to have NXTUS in the house. What do I owe this pleasure?
I mean like the sun is shining down on me.
We have, you know, two of my favorite peeps, Josh. And Mary Beth. Welcome.
Josh Oeding / Mary Beth Jarvis: Thank you so much. Awesome to be here
Don and Ebony: So glad you are. So, Josh, and we're going to talk to you as well. Mary Beth, but I am curious Josh, last time I saw you, you were not with NXTUS, right? Tell us about a little bit about who you are for our listeners and how you got over to NXTUS
Josh Oeding / Mary Beth Jarvis: Yeah. Thanks so much for having us and giving us a chance to tell a bit of the NXTUS story. So I'm Josh Oeding, I'm the president and CEO of NXTUS, for those of you that have been in the community a while formerly called E2E, a movement that started in kind of the 20 14, 20 15 timeline.
I'm from Wichita, for, for folks that are in the area. Like I, I, I started in at like in Hayesville, I went to USD 2, 5, 9. I went to Andover schools. I went to Roseville schools. I went to Wichita State. So I say like, other than some parts of westside, Wichita, like I'm one of you I'm from here. And, and something that happened to me early on that I look back on that made me a little bit.
Was, I got like a, a Commodore 1 28 computer and like the fourth grade. And, and I was kind of a poor kid and getting a computer, expose me to technology at a time when it just made me a little different than a lot of folks in the Midwest or a lot of folks my age. And when I look back now, this confluence of technology and innovation and entrepreneurship, I've just been a pretty big theme.
both my personal life as well as my professional life. So, you know, I think if you've had entrepreneurs on the show, they always did something as they were kids. So for me, it was sports cards, buying, selling, trading sports cards, moved into a window washing business that I had while I was in college to kind of pay some of the bills.
Josh Oeding / Mary Beth Jarvis: But then I really started to get some exposure to technology. I was a entrepreneurship undergrad at WSU in 99. So kind of the height of that.com. and, and was able to kind of get a flavor and a taste for technology. And, and then ultimately spend a little bit of time at Koch industries where I really got to go deep into, innovation and technology, and to kind of close the story off with how I ended up with E2E, a woman named Trish Braystead, who frankly, has been a ahead of her time with some of the things she's been doing with innovation and technology and startup.
Set me down in the spring of 18, I believe and said, I have a role for you. You need to come do something. And at the time I was working at Koch, frankly, having the time of my life. And she told me this story of this entity that was called E2E, that had really been formed by a group. Local active engage business leaders that just thought we had lost our entrepreneurial mojo and said, we got to do something about it.
Our community's not growing. Our wages are not growing. Our talent is leaving and their, you know, their cure for that ailment was more entrepreneurship. And so that became E2E and it was about to come into a rebirth scenario and she said, you need to come do it. And I looked her in the eye and said, I don't think I can do it.
I'm really all in, at Koch, I've been here for a decade. so how can I help you? What will you do if I can't, you know, and she said, well, we might have to shut it down because we've kind of been through this. We've done a search, really don't have any money in the bank and we need the right leader.
And I'll tell you right in that moment. Kind of very humbly looked at myself and said like, this is me. I mean, I, I started with I'm from here. I'm one of y'all I believe technology, I believe innovation and entrepreneurship or how, you know, kind of communities can, can add some prosperity to themselves [00:05:00] in ways they don't have. And I made the leap.
So here we are now it's been three and a half years. Mary Beth joined midway through. and we're having a lot of fun.
Don and Ebony: I bet. I mean, that is a story. right there.
That's a story.
When you said Commodore, she tried, Ebony tried to act like, she didn't know what that was. what that
it was, a computer. We'll just say that it was a computer that had a floppy disc.
Josh Oeding / Mary Beth Jarvis: If you remember the big floppy, it
Don and Ebony: Oregon trail disk, you used that. Yeah.
Josh Oeding / Mary Beth Jarvis: You got it. Yes.
Don and Ebony: Okay. Well, I, you know, before we go on to Mary Beth, You used to trade sports cards, that was, that was the thing like baseball.
Josh Oeding / Mary Beth Jarvis: Football, basketball. I would go to,
Don and Ebony: Garbage pail kids.
Josh Oeding / Mary Beth Jarvis: Well, I did have those too, they didn't have the value that they have now, but, you know, I was, I moved around a lot as a kid, so, big Denver Bronco fans, the John Elway, rookie cards, the king Griffey Jr.
Rookie cards. And that was my thing. Unfortunately, I got rid of them all a long time
Don and Ebony: Man, if you still have those whoo
Josh Oeding / Mary Beth Jarvis: That's right.
Don and Ebony: Mary Beth.
Josh Oeding / Mary Beth Jarvis: Hi.
Don and Ebony: So how did you get over to NXTUS?
Josh Oeding / Mary Beth Jarvis: Well, it's interesting. I mean, as you guys know, and I sorta like Josh's phrase sort of the personal and the professional, you know, intersection, for me, that personal and professional intersection is I just have a real passion around this community. Being all that it can be. over the course of the last few decades in between, you know, raising kids and doing all the stuff you gotta do at home, I've been able to really get more and more engaged in that.
And some of that was while I was spending my 15 years out at Koch industries as the face of Koch with the chamber, with, you know, with other organizations, some of that was on my own becoming a nerd community, volunteer for organizations like the YMCA or the, go visit Wichita and. with, with NXTUS, as I was transitioning away from, the wish tough festivals organization, NXTUS was kind of as Josh portrayed it just a really well-suited opportunity.
And. I, I credit one of our community's great connectors, Shelley pitcher with community foundation. she basically got Josh and I talking, cause we've not met during the times are our Koch careers overlapped. And, and we just started sat down and I, you know, it was an opportunity to take my engagement and investment and interest in the business community of this region and help that business community.
Think differently, focus differently and engage differently with young companies. So, you know, Josh and I believe strongly that the future success of this region is highly dependent on us becoming even more involved in the innovation economy. we need existing businesses and community organizations to use tomorrow's tools, not yesterdays to be early adopters, not last adopters of.
Up and coming, you know, things that are gonna help us operate, you know, work harder, not work smarter, not harder, on some of our most pressing issues, whether those are in businesses or they are in community organizations. And from where we sit the young entrepreneurs or the entrepreneurs, starting young companies in these tech enabled realms, these startup, ups are the ticket to tomorrow's economy and to the growth of our community and to helping really, really smart people like we have in leadership, in business and in community organizations. work with tomorrow's tools, to do better on behalf of their own businesses, their customers, and the community at large.
And so, I, my last day at festivals was August 15th and my first day at NXTUS was August 16th and I'd really already sort of gotten up and running, you know, through that transition time. And we're just excited. I mean, NXTUS has one purpose in life.
And that is to help young companies grow, to help entrepreneurs, the founders and the teams that are solving tomorrow's today's problems with tomorrow's solutions.
And we do that with a variety of things. We work to connect them with resources that they need. So connections, capital there's, you know, investing in an engaging. With a monetary and a momentum building, you know, participation in these young companies, we need to do that more and better in our region. and then customers, you know, what, what young companies need is, an understanding of a path to, and in some cases, a little bit of matchmaking with perspective customers.
And we try to do that. we primarily focus on kind of high potential business tech enabled, you know, that sort of traditional startup. But boy, there's not an [00:10:00] entrepreneur in this town that walks through our doors or gives us a call that we won't make the right connection or provide them with, you know, a resource.
So we are for all, entrepreneurs and founders, but programmatically, we do have a little bit of an, of a focus on those that have a tech foundation to what they do.
Don and Ebony: And I say this a lot. you mentioned about Wichita losing this mojo entrepreneurially. I say that. a lot. Have you thought about how long did we lose our mojo? And when did we, did we, when did we start it back up or have we really ramped, it back up?
Josh Oeding / Mary Beth Jarvis: Oh goodness. I mean, can we be both at the same time? I think, I mean, that's, I'm one of those that, you know, loves the community is proud of the accomplishments, the momentum, the winds, and at the same time, Has a very high sense of urgency for us to, to move faster. and so I think it's ebbed and flowed, and I think what is, is maybe some other communities have gotten right faster than we have is just the pace of change.
so, you know, we have pockets, you know, one of the stories that I've paid attention to in love is just like kind of the local, like microbrew scene that kind of came out of nowhere. One of the things I love about it is how collaborative they are and how they work with each other. I think there's a lot of really interesting lessons learned there.
you know, I think some communities have, have kind of been embraced, what you would call stem, you know, so the science technology, engineering, math have really figured out ways to, to be kind of a little budding hotbed of starting some of those businesses that have. Maybe a higher propensity to raise some outside capital in general, they're going to be, you know, be positioned to retain some of the talent coming out of the university, frankly, add jobs and wage, at a, at a higher wage than an average might be in the community a little faster.
Josh Oeding / Mary Beth Jarvis: So I think there are some other communities that are knocking that out a little faster than we are, but at the same time, I mean, I think we'll talk a little bit about what we're doing with NXTSTAGE what's been going on with Wichita's startup week. Think there's a lot of wins in the community. but I think we need a heck of a lot more.
So I, and, and I'm probably one of those people, like we'll never arrive from my perspective. There will never be a there, there, when we get to the top of the mountain, we'll need to keep pushing even harder,
Don and Ebony: How would you define success and what you guys are doing? I mean, how do you measure that? How do you define it?
Josh Oeding / Mary Beth Jarvis: Yeah, I think there's I'll I'll let you fill this in. I think there's two things that we think a lot about. And as kind of the leader of the organization with an organization whose aim is to improve the community, we really have two scorecards. One is how are we doing as a team, as a staff? I mean, four and a half employees, I don't know, organization, I'm the leader of that organization.
So making sure our bills are paid, we have key strategies and roadmaps in place that the team is fulfilled and is growing. So you have a bit of a scorecard and 60. For our own organization. And we would measure those things and, you know, the number of pilots that we facilitate between our corporate partners and entrepreneurs, that kind of capital that we get deployed, the number of rounds of investments we make through our investments into groups.
So we have some really tangible measures, both organizationally as well as our outcomes,
But, but really the scorecard is like, what's the health of the innovation and startup community of the community. And that's frankly that one's a little hard to look at because it's, long-term in nature. I mean, many things that are well outside of our control or influence.
And so it's a great day. Any day we get introduced to a new entrepreneur. however we get introduced to them. you know, we wanna, we want to meet them. We want to connect them in any ways that we can, You know, other milestones w w will be that when she and I are on, you know, a podcast like this in the future, that a company that was born and grown and started in Wichita, we could point around the corner and it has a 10 story building full of a thousand employees.
And it's the physical representation of innovation and entrepreneurship that was started and grown here. I mean, so that's the real long-term, you know, wins. They just, they just take. I miss anything. No, not at all. I, you know, when you look around at other cities, other communities, other states that are, that are focused intently on building this many people call it an ecosystem of entrepreneurship.
that's, you know, for anyone that doesn't like that term, you know, we'll just, we'll, we'll spin past it, but really what we look at it as, a real team sport, right? Like this is going to take. players that do other things full time and players that do this full time to really throw their weight behind.
Josh Oeding / Mary Beth Jarvis: And, you think about it as different facets, you know, education. And, you know, sort of the spark behind, innovation and entrepreneurship that comes out of, you know, whether it's WSU or Newman or friends or other universities, even down to high school and elementary school, you know, so all of that sort of entrepreneurial mindset education, you look at organizations like JIA are empowered.
I mean, all of that, you know, sort of contributes to the volume of entrepreneurial willing. [00:15:00] in our young people in, you know, in our existing citizenry. And then you think about the, those folks that need to be in a broad sense, making the environment ripe for growing more new young businesses. The chamber is a giant player in that respect, greater Wichita partnership.
and then you get into folks that are added in a more, you know, sort of, dedicated and granular way, whether that's NXTUS, whether that's, you know, Christina Long and the create campaign, you know, so we, we all try to collaborate across this coalition and I'll tell you the way we think about it. We look at our assets as a community, as a region, we look at our gaps as a community and as a region.
Josh Oeding / Mary Beth Jarvis: And we look at those through the eyes of individual stories, you know, individual entrepreneurs that, you know, need help or that have struggled, but we also try to step, take a step back and compare ourselves to other markets. So, we have the opportunity to help individually. Well, also on a broader scale building programs that will be fuel for a greater number and greater variety of entrepreneurs that look around and go, yeah, I could thrive here.
I could try that. There'll be support systems. My, you know, the risk I take and the blood and sweat that I put into it has a chance. I can find the talent that I need to grow my team. So, you know, it's tendering, you know, the, the environment in a way that again, takes folks, at the big picture and takes folks at the real granular, get me that first meeting with someone, give me that initial advice kind of level.
Don and Ebony: So, I'm sorry. You know, We have to find ways to, to build our entrepreneurial community. Right?
And we have to be innovative in that thought process as well. and you mentioned your programming. Can we talk a little bit about programming and what it is? that you offer to specifically help these young entrepreneurs?
Josh Oeding / Mary Beth Jarvis: Without a doubt. So, maybe to build it from the ground up. So the four of us, if, if we want this community to thrive and that we think that entrepreneurs are kind of a, an outsized element of success of what is going to, or drivers of success, we can't just make entrepreneurs pop up out of the ground, but we can work together to build things that if there is someone who's thinking of taking the leap or someone has started a business, and is it a scaling.
There are things that we can build physically work on every day that will help them along that way. So when we look at those entrepreneurs, we say they need capital. They need customers, they need talent, and then they need a heck of a lot of stuff. I mean, you have a lot of small business owners that, that are, you know, are part of your chamber efforts.
Like they need real estate, they need insurance, they need mental help and therapy, shoulders to cry on coaches and friends. They need all that stuff.
So we just say capital, we can build some programs there, customers, we can build some programs. There are talent. We can build some programs there. So I'll start maybe with capital pass off to you for the customers.
we run, an angel investment syndicate it's called accelerate venture partners, a V P I C t.com. And, I don't love the description, but I think it's the fastest way to describe it. You know, shark tank without the makeup and the cameras, essentially, we, Engage, you know, really local, active, engaged business leaders that, are looking to invest in and support kind of the next generation of entrepreneurs.
Josh Oeding / Mary Beth Jarvis: And at the same time, we meet with entrepreneurs that are raising capital to scale and grow their businesses. And we throw a little monthly get togethers where we put the entrepreneurs on a stage.
And frankly, you know, give them an opportunity to tell their story. maybe they have some open roles in addition to the capital that they're looking for.
you know, you have customers in the room, you have potential go-to-market partners in the room. so we've been running that since November of 2018. I think we'll send, you know, kind of what we'll make investment number 11 or 12 and the next month. So I think that'll be 12 investments in nine companies for getting close to three and a half million bucks in the last.
well, not even quite three years yet. So,it's, it's kind of, programmatically how we think about getting capital mobilize. And frankly, when we think big kind of like bend the, the shape of the risk capital continuum in the community, to, to really show a vision that. You know, if you have kind of the thought to go start a new business, or you've started a new business that needs some capital to grow generally in your, in a technology world, the financial markets like lending a traditional loan is really not quite a fit for you.
Josh Oeding / Mary Beth Jarvis: So you need some equity and risk capital. So that's AVP. and frankly, people can just go to the website and apply. And we're meeting with folks all the time, trying to get the right match for then who to put in front of. Yeah. And it's interesting. AVP is, is a matchmaker. It really does sort of make a market for connections between folks who are willing to put a little capital behind exciting high potential young companies, and then those who need it.
And so we, we are interested in diversifying our reach and base of both. So we want more and different entrepreneurs that didn't know AVP existed, and that was even environment.
I mean an avenue could to come find us and apply to present in front of the group and get [00:20:00] funding. But we also want folks that might be in a little bit of a give backstage or, which is a terrible phrase, cause you're actually investing and you hope to get back.
but who might have. The energy to get engaged with some earlier stage investments, with some higher risk capital, to give a young company, a fighting chance at scaling up and, and to be a part of their success train, or to be a shoulder to cry if it goes the other way. But, so I think that's neat because we try to do that very same thing for young companies, with regard to helping their customer journey, meaning we try to make markets, we try to match make from both sides of the.
we run a program called NXTSTAGE, which, we've been doing for a couple of years now that is primarily designed to be a matchmaking competition or service between young companies with tomorrow's tools to offer and more established companies or community organizations that frankly need to learn how to speak startup, to push their innovation journeys farther faster.
and so we, you know, we, we've done this in a couple of different industry areas, including community technology, health, community vibrancy, ed tech, you know, what are some of the things that are constraining the growth and smooth operations of our community organizations? Can technology tools help. And we try to form, you know, as sort of a matchmaker between those.
Josh Oeding / Mary Beth Jarvis: So the young companies grow and, you know, the, the old school folks in community organizations and companies, they may be wake up tomorrow thinking differently about how they could solve problems and who they could partner with and how collaboration with these, you know, these outsized engines of change and innovation, you know, could, you know, could help push their organizations.
Don and Ebony: She was talking about me. Oh, well, you know, I try not to look at you, but that's okay.
Well, on that note, friends, it's time to hear a word from our sponsors. We'll be back with Mary Beth and John.
Welcome back friends. We are here with Mary Beth Jarvis and Josh Oeding from NXTUS. And we're hearing a little bit about what they do to make our community better. So we just got done talking a little bit about NXTSTAGE. Can you tell us a little bit about a week you just finished up?
Josh Oeding / Mary Beth Jarvis: I'll tell you, these are exciting times, in the world of NXTUS and specifically, NXTSTAGE, we actually had, the culmination of our most recent, pilot competition. This one focused on financial technology. I mean, when I, the way I think about it, is this, region is probably just exactly the right size and has the potential to be.
you know, really a leader in the area of proving out new technologies, right? If could the air capital of the world become the pilot capital of the world, meaning in various industry areas and community technologies, could we be, could we just put out a plant, a flag in the ground and put out a sign that says innovations welcome.
Josh Oeding / Mary Beth Jarvis: We'll give them a world for you. And with regard to financial technology, we've got local partner banks that are doing exactly. they have helped us curate groups, global applicants, but curated down to the most promising finalists with technologies, most likely to add value for our regions, banks and financial institutions.
things that help improve the customer experience in this world of nobody walks into a bank. you know, they do it all digitally or things that help them operate smarter or things. And this year's crop of finalists had an amazing array of, of capabilities designed to help. The folks in the community that have been largely unengaged in banking and financial services, they've either opted out or they just aren't involved in the modern sort of credit or banking industry.
Josh Oeding / Mary Beth Jarvis: And there's lots of them, how, how can they be better served? And frankly, technology is, you know, is the key to a lot of that. And [00:25:00] so we had 107 total competitors this year, 12 of which were our finalists group. Amazing, diverse, exciting group. 92% of our finalists had either. ethnic minority or female founders, just a super, a rich array of life experiences that are coming to the table to offer these financial tools and our local banks, credit unions, and financial services companies got to look at them and, and have the chance now to work with them.
So to be. Pilot adopters, right. To run a program, to deploy their technologies. And, and we just, we want that drum beat to continue to spread. So it was, it was exciting. you know, whenever you can get 12 entrepreneurial teams in from all over the country, to integrate with our local startups, our local entrepreneurs and our local businesses, you really end up with a shot in the arm with regard to innovation, energy, and entrepreneurship.
Don and Ebony: If I can interject real quick, did that 92% surprise you?
Josh Oeding / Mary Beth Jarvis: In this particular realm of technology a little bit, because the financial technology world, you know, one might assume a, was less diverse than that. When we brought in a group of community health and vibrancy technology, finalists, that was that diverse. That didn't surprise me as much, but what I love is that there's folks with their own.
You know, human stories, stepping up to solve problems, even in an industry as old and established as banking and finance with an eye towards diverse customers, diverse community members and the future. And it just it's so energizing to work, you know, with, with problem-solvers like that. I think what you said at the end is that like entrepreneurs of the world today are so smart at starting with solving a real problem.
It's the, there is still a lot of man. We built this great tech, let me go find somebody in the world who will buy this product, or who, who, where this, this research really will be commercialized and used in the world. But so many entrepreneurs are really, really good at starting with real problems to solve.
And increasingly a lot of the problems are right in front of our face. There are things that we've dealt with on a day-to-day basis. And so people are highly passionate about. Solving those problems and frankly, building businesses to solve those problems. And what's interesting if you keep playing it out is the talent of the world loves to work for those kinds of companies.
It's very mission driven. It's very purposeful, oftentimes their problems that they themselves and their communities dealt with. So it's a talent competitive advantage when you're building some of the kinds of businesses that she's talking about and that we've experienced.
Don and Ebony: Excellent. That's awesome. I mean, I'm getting excited just hearing everything that you guys are talking about and because you have a mission to make Wichita better, right? And make businesses better and connecting them. So tell me what can Wichita do for you? What can we do in the community to help you?
Where do I start? So I think there's a couple of ways. So maybe we'll put you in a couple of different buckets. if you're, if you're an experienced, engaged business leader, you know, of, of, of a well-established company, perhaps you should look at being an angel investor and, in our accelerated venture partners, angel syndicate, maybe mentorship.
for some of these earlier stage companies is, is, you know, a great fit and a great place to plug in. if you're already a small business, you know, leader or small business owner, but you're at the early stages of high growth. well, we would ask is push harder, you know, keep going, look at the world and look at the globe as your customer base, and knock on our door and let us know if we can help.
Josh Oeding / Mary Beth Jarvis: Perhaps we can make some connections for you. that could be through the angel investment syndicate. It might be through kind of the NXTSTAGE partner program that we build, or it might be just some of our education and bootcamps. If, if you. Kind of have that idea. You're not sure if you're an entrepreneur, find the right people to engage that will both encourage you, but also be a bit of an accountability partner for you to go.
You've had this idea for a few years. Like how, how could you get started? And in most instances that does not mean, taking the highest risk or raising the capital or leaving the current role. So if you're, if you're thinking about it get started. and then I think finally, you know, we, we run a 5 0 1 C3, and so if there are corporate partners out there that are looking for sponsorship opportunities, if there's folks that are looking for their philanthropic endeavors to, to help build kind of the, this, this bridge between kind of the public and private, that's a core part of what we do. and then finally we love feedback too. Like tell us what we're missing. along the way. Yeah, I think I would add two things. The first is with respect to those businesses that might want to get involved with us.
It was funny, both Josh and I kind of think about it this way. We, we want our business community to think about entrepreneurship and innovation, not with that. Pat, pat on the head. You know, I'll buy a table at your event and support. That's awesome. Great. Buy a table. Awesome. But [00:30:00] really it's more about powering innovation in your own business and in your community by getting engaged, you know, with, with what we do.
And so it's about your innovation journey and your talent journey and your community's journey, not just, you know, kind of that sort of, you know, marketing community relations, exposure of, you know, quote unquote supporting entrepreneur. And here's a great example of that. So this is my second thought.
we recently had the first ever, which toss started. And it was, NXSTUS was a partner in that, but the real energy behind it was a small, but mighty group of young entrepreneur or of, of, of entrepreneurs in our community with their own young companies, their own business journeys, their own sweat and blood, you know, being dispensed every day to, to grow, their venture.
Josh Oeding / Mary Beth Jarvis: Yeah. But they turned and looked at each other and said, why not create something that has interesting programming that builds networking and community that celebrates the energy of entrepreneurs. And, so they, they organized the first ever, which does startup week, big companies like Koch industries and others and Cox communications and others got involved to support it.
we had, you know, the Lieutenant governor and others, you know, of, of relevance. we heard the entrepreneurial journeys of folks like the camera rhinos and, and, you know, so it was, it was just that like, and our NXTSTAGE financial technology culmination, our innovation showcase was a part of that week.
Josh Oeding / Mary Beth Jarvis: So, if you're individually looking for how you can get involved, the answer is help build that momentum. Right. NXTUS does this 12 months of the year. So you don't have to wait for next fall's Wichita startup week, which we hope will be amazing as the second annual. but get involved to help build the support system, help build the programming, help build the environment, both real and perceived.
So that folks thinking about taking that leap and taking the risk of starting a new business can look around and feel like they really could thrive and really have a shot at school. In our community growing, you know, the next big, the next big businesses.
Don and Ebony: Love all of that. And just, you know, as we are wrapping up .For people who need a little more help with some specifics.
So for a company like the one that we may work at, or other ones, what are specific steps that I can take, small steps maybe, because that's a whole paradigm shift in thinking of how corporations can help entrepreneurs.
But how we can look at our own model of business and innovate? Because we've been doing it for over a hundred years. Right? And so, what does that look like?
Josh Oeding / Mary Beth Jarvis: So I think in, you know, I'm going to make an assumption that your leadership team has kind of key business strategies already at play across the organization that. Perhaps changing the user experience or the way in which you engage your user base, perhaps in ways, which you think about attracting and retaining talent inside the organization, there might be basic, you know, kind of cost take out measures or targets inside of big companies.
All of those present opportunities to engage with. The smaller earlier emerging companies that offer solutions and all those spaces, you can certainly go to your large incumbent providers who you might think of in any of those areas, but they also give you a great place to come to a group like us and say, okay, we're, we're working on, you know, the ways in which our
Customer base pays their bills. And today we're sending them in the mail and, and, you know, we have these, these lags, but we're really looking at digital ways in which to do that. Our incumbent providers it's like ABC solutions. We were really wondering if it could look like this, we go find startups around the world that are doing those kinds of things.
We see a harder push for someone that works for an established company to got to go. The whole business has a plan for the year. That's going down this line, let me go do something that's completely unrelated to that to get this new innovation started. You're just making a little harder on yourself, right?
If you can find ways in which your organization is already moving and then, you know whether or not you, you work with us or otherwise, those can be the best bridges to immediately tuck in and do some simple experimentation. Doesn't have to have huge budgets, budgets aligned with it, but you really didn't.
Going to be a whole lot of knowledge exchange between the startup community and your large enterprise. And then really interesting things can grow out of that.
Don and Ebony: Conversely, somebody is coming in with an idea, how do they contact you?
Josh Oeding / Mary Beth Jarvis: Well, they find us don't, they? Yeah, I mean, hello@nxtus.io is a fast way to do it, but, we're all easy to find.
nxtus.io is our website and you can reach all of our contact information there.
Don and Ebony: And
Josh Oeding / Mary Beth Jarvis: You know, the great news is that any of us can, can, can brainstorm with you and get you connected to the right resource or the next next step.
Don and Ebony: Are you on tik tok yet?
definitely on Twitter. definitely on LinkedIn, definitely [00:35:00] on, you know, the broader internet, but I don't
Don and Ebony: Not hearing, not hearing tik tok.
Josh Oeding / Mary Beth Jarvis: Yeah.
Don and Ebony: Tik tok?
Josh Oeding / Mary Beth Jarvis: No, no, not, not playing that game yet.
Don and Ebony: She said, yet. She said, yet, there is hope.
Josh Oeding / Mary Beth Jarvis: Follow your lead.
Don and Ebony: God, you'll never be waiting. We'll be waiting. We appreciate you folks being on the show. Now, it's time for a little bit of fun. we're going to do the word association. I want to do. And I like this because I want to answer from each one of you. I want to see how aligned or
Josh Oeding / Mary Beth Jarvis: Josh goes first.
Don and Ebony: not aligned you are. So Ashley, one question. I mean Ashley, one word. you gave me one word back. It's not wrong cause it's your word. Ready?
Josh Oeding / Mary Beth Jarvis: Ready.
Don and Ebony: Okay. Leader
Josh Oeding / Mary Beth Jarvis: Yeah. I was going to say servant,
Don and Ebony: okay. college
Josh Oeding / Mary Beth Jarvis: Shockers.
Don and Ebony: You going with that?
Josh Oeding / Mary Beth Jarvis: No, I got to go with Irish. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. They need all the mojo they can get from their fan base right now.
Don and Ebony: beverage
Josh Oeding / Mary Beth Jarvis: refreshing. Sparkling. Yeah.
Don and Ebony: They went down there.
Josh Oeding / Mary Beth Jarvis: taking the bait, man
Don and Ebony: I want to hear a scotch.
bourbon.
Crown
Josh Oeding / Mary Beth Jarvis: Yep.
Don and Ebony: That's cool. Entrepreneur.
Josh Oeding / Mary Beth Jarvis: Oh, force of nature. Yeah. Game changer.
Don and Ebony: Nice. Nice. failure,
Josh Oeding / Mary Beth Jarvis: Oh, not as bad as you think it is learning experience.
Don and Ebony: Yeah Wichita.
Josh Oeding / Mary Beth Jarvis: Potential exactly the same word I was
Don and Ebony: Oh, they're aligned
Josh Oeding / Mary Beth Jarvis: yeah.
Don and Ebony: Hero.
Josh Oeding / Mary Beth Jarvis: Man.
Don and Ebony: Did you ever know?
Josh Oeding / Mary Beth Jarvis: So many hero. Yeah, I'll just go thematic again with, I, I just love people that are willing to take a blank sheet of paper and try to fill it in and, and, you know, uplifting a community along the way. So I, I wouldn't go specific, but anybody who's a passionate problem solver.
I call it hero
Don and Ebony: Chamber
Josh Oeding / Mary Beth Jarvis: Man. Center of mass, right? Like the, the center of gravity around which momentum can, can continue to just build . Yeah, I think back to, you know, potential for Wichita, I think that this is like one word association. I'm giving a sentence, you know, chamber plus the startup community equals, a lot more than what we have right now.
So I think it's back to potential.
Don and Ebony: Nice family.
Josh Oeding / Mary Beth Jarvis: Ah, geez. That's everything. Yeah, I'm about to be a grandma. So my, my focus on family is pretty profound right now.
Don and Ebony: vacation.
Josh Oeding / Mary Beth Jarvis: What's We all work from home. We always all always work. Is that it? Jeez. Yeah,
Don and Ebony: last but not least fun.
Josh Oeding / Mary Beth Jarvis: Oh, this.
Yeah. I mean, feeding off the energy of what we do is truly fun.
Don and Ebony: Excellent. We Truly, appreciate you folks from, yes, this has been a wonderful conversation. Thank you for stopping by. we look forward to all the success that you'll continue to have, and please let us know how we. can help everyone who they've given you. The site, they given you the channels to reach them. So make certain that you do. So,
tik tok coming soon. I don't know about that. However, please make sure you like our podcast make certain that you share it and leave comments as to who you'd like to hear from next till next time.