Techstars leader brings Bay Area savvy and global connections back home to KC

It was natural for the gurus at Techstars to reach into San Francisco’s startup scene. They needed a leader for Kansas City’s newest business-nurturing program.

Here’s the surprise. They chose a transplanted Kansas Citian.

Lesa Mitchell, who left the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation for San Francisco three years ago, is back in town. She’s returning to launch and run Techstars Kansas City as its managing director.

Techstars runs intense, 90-day programs to accelerate the development of early-stage companies. It ran the Sprint Accelerator here for three years.

Mitchell’s return brings a one-woman hub to Kansas City’s entrepreneurial ecosystem. She has built an enviable list of contacts during her career path and entrepreneurial life.

Just ask Bob Litan, the former vice president of research at the Kauffman Foundation who is now practicing law. He has called Mitchell a “human LinkedIn” with the emphasis on human.

“There is no one I know who has a better real network of people who she knows and has worked with in various capacities — not just a virtual connection on an internet platform — than Lesa Mitchell,” Litan said.

And Kansas City stands to benefit. Mitchell plans to call in some tabs.

KC cred

Techstars found Mitchell in San Francisco, but her Kansas City roots run deep.

She recruited for Ewing Kauffman’s Marion Laboratories in 1982. She stayed through mergers that led to Marion Merrell Dow, Hoechst Marion Roussel and Quintiles.

Working, usually, someplace else.

“I’m like the only person that’s lived in Kansas City for a long time who’s never had a job in Kansas City. Every job I’ve ever had, people have sent me on airplanes somewhere else,” Mitchell said last week at a Techstars Kansas City kickoff event in Union Station.

Assignments meant a year in France, a year in Germany, two years in New Jersey and time in North Carolina. When Mitchell started her own company in 2000, global travels continued, including South Africa.

“I kept the Kansas City husband, the kids, the house, the whole bit,” said Mitchell, whose two children and four stepchildren are grown. “My children were little, and I was traveling on an airplane all the time.”

Mitchell responded by joining the Kauffman Foundation in 2003, where she was able to be home more often even while continuing to build her network here and abroad.

Lesa’s lapse

Then, Mitchell had that three-year lapse. San Francisco’s startup culture called and she answered in 2013.

“I wanted to plant myself there and figure out what was in the water and figure out how I could take advantage of that network,” she said.

While there, she helped connect Jase Wilson. He’d started Neighborly in Kansas City a year earlier with a mission of making it easier for citizens to fund civic projects where they live. Neighborly struggled to find everything it needed. Mitchell’s contributions were introductions that led to Neighborly’s own move to San Francisco.

The move showed what Mitchell does for a community, and the topic came up at the Union Station event.

“I unfortunately took Neighborly from you to San Francisco, which is now a wildly successful company. I don’t want to do that again,” she said.

Last gig

Like many in the startup world, Mitchell is a dynamo.

Busy at her scale means keeping five email addresses to help focus the firehose of back and forth that comes with a global contacts list.

Officially, she doesn’t start the Techstars job until January, but already she is shopping for program space that it will be used only for each year’s 90-day program.

Techstars needs room for 10 startup teams with two to four members each. And presentation space. And it needs to be flexible, as Mitchell will need to move stuff around. And it has to be in Kansas City, accessible to people without cars.

Mitchell, 56, also said the Techstars accelerator in Kansas City will be her last gig.

That wasn’t a retirement notice. She’s ready to nurture startups for a decade, here in Kansas City.

“This is why I traveled the world, to learn about how to do this,” Mitchell said.

This story was originally published October 28, 2016 at 11:37 AM with the headline "Techstars leader brings Bay Area savvy and global connections back home to KC."