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Southeast Kentucky has been searching for new avenues of employment since the coal industry began a downturn many years ago. Entrepreneur opportunities are one option, and BOOM KY is helping area students learn the skills required to take advantage of such opportunities.
According to the BOOM KY website at https://boomky.org, the BOOM KY mission is “to partner with school districts to teach entrepreneurship, guiding students to launch startups. We are dedicated to cultivating a pipeline of young entrepreneurs who will drive economic growth and create the next generation of leaders in our communities.”
Kyle Wilson, BOOM KY CEO, talked about the organization during a recent interview.
Originally from Bell County, Wilson is acutely aware of the economic situation in southeast Kentucky.
“I’ve been really close with an innovation hub in Lexington,” Wilson said. “In 2020, I wanted to take this same model that’s worked in Lexington for 20 years and bring it to the communities in eastern Kentucky.”
Wilson went over some of the details of launching BOOM KY and the goal of guiding students to launch their own startup companies.
“It started off with just one school, Bell County was the test pilot,” Wilson said.
According to Wilson, there is still a lot to be done to help startups in the region.
“We don’t really have a pathway or a system in place for startups to be created and work out of or a pipeline to fuel that growth,” Wilson explained. “We started up not knowing what it was going to look like, and in three or four years we figured it out.”
The program has grown rapidly.
“The first year was Bell County,” Wilson said. “Year two went from one school to seven. Year three was 18 school districts and now we’re at 45 (school districts) all across the state.”
The program started out in eastern Kentucky but has spread across much of Kentucky.
“We’re in Bowling Green, Louisville, Elizabethtown, all across the state,” Wilson said.
Wilson explained once a school district is onboard, the process moves forward.
“First is we partner with the school district,” Wilson said. “We’re getting startups going in the schools. The second part is to open innovation hubs.”
Wilson mentioned he is in the process of opening a hub in Williamsburg, where he resides.
“We’ve got one open in Booneville,” Wilson said. “I’ve met with (Harlan County Judge-Executive Dan Mosley) in Harlan, we’d love to get a hub location there.”
The BOOM KY program has been operating in Harlan Independent School District for two years, and one year at Harlan County School District, Wilson explained.
“We’ve got two startups in particular to talk about, one in each school,” Wilson said. “There are more coming, but two have received funding to get their startups going. The one in Harlan Independent (School District) is called ‘Dragon Drive In.’ It’s a movie theater project they’ve opened up downtown for outdoor movies…the one at Harlan County (School District) is going to be ‘Mobile Essentials.’ It’s going to be an online business selling high quality cell phone accessories.”
Wilson mentioned there are additional ventures planned.
“They’ve done a couple runs already of Dragon Drive In in downtown Harlan,” Wilson said. “Mobile Essentials is about to launch.”
Wilson pointed out new business is needed to help retain southeast Kentucky’s population.
“We’ve got to do something different,” Wilson said. “We’re all about partnering with local leadership to make it happen.”
BOOM KY has also partnered with the Rockefeller Foundation on an AI project.
“We are launching an Artificial Intelligence tool next month called BOOM GPT,” Wilson said. “There’s nothing like it in America. We are really excited to offer this. This will be for all students, so no matter what you’re interested in…you will have a personal assistant 24/7 to guide you in bringing your start up to market.”
Wilson added BOOM KY was started to help southeast Kentucky but may grow to include other states in similar economic situations such as West Virginia. He also mentioned a public meeting in Harlan may be happening soon.
“We want to have a town hall meeting in Harlan County,” Wilson said. “I want to coordinate with (Harlan County Judge-Executive Dan Mosley) on that as well as the school districts. But we will have a town hall meeting to really get the whole county behind this. With the whole county behind it, leadership behind it, and startups happening…it’s going to change the whole county.”
For more information, go to https://boomky.org.