A talent-driven approach to economic development
Three learnings from the Tulsa experiment. Here’s what we’re digging into at Opportunity Miami.
This is the Feb. 22, 2022 edition of the Opportunity Miami newsletter, which we send every Tuesday. Click here to subscribe to get our weekly updates in your inbox.
On last week’s PivotMIA conference stage, moderator Scott Galloway looked at the three panelists sitting beside him and observed that they’re all very upwardly mobile professionals — who have each chosen to live in Miami.
Next to Galloway were Jon Oringer, Shutterstock founder and co-founder of Pareto Holdings; Alexandra Zatarain, co-founder of Eight Sleep; and Shu Nyatta, managing partner at SoftBank Group International. All three moved to Miami in recent years.
“There is a migration that is historic that is taking place in Miami,” said Galloway, a well-known commentator and Pivot podcast host with Kara Swisher.
During the COVID wave, many people thought anew about where they want to live and work, presenting new opportunities for Miami that could have ripple effects long after the pandemic has receded. It’s a critically important shift because successful startup ecosystems and growing economies are built on the ability to attract and nurture talent.
This raises the question: how can we drive talent attraction at a large scale, over the long term, when there aren’t galvanizing moments like a global pandemic?
With this in mind, I’m reflecting on three takeaways from my recent trip to Tulsa, Okla. As I mentioned in last week’s newsletter, with Miami riding high, it’s somewhat odd to take cues from other cities. But there’s always lessons we can learn, and a fascinating experiment is playing out in Tulsa.
The George Kaiser Family Foundation (GKFF), with a $5 billion endowment, is spending millions annually to build an equitable, innovative, job-creating startup ecosystem from the ground up. At the heart of it is a systematic effort to build stand-alone organizations tasked with attracting remote workers, connecting people to jobs in Tulsa, and making a big push to propel a diverse range of entrepreneurs. Each is part of what Ben Stewart at GKFF calls a “talent driven approach to economic development.”
1) Targeting remote workers. Three years ago, GKFF launched Tulsa Remote, an organization seeking to take advantage of the fact that more people can work jobs from anywhere.
To be eligible for the program, you must have full-time remote employment or be self-employed outside of Oklahoma. In return, newly-arrived remote workers get $10,000 cash, free desk space at a co-working facility, assistance in choosing an apartment, and connection to the community through events and meetups.
It’s resulted in some 1,500 people moving to Tulsa, with many new arrivals bringing someone with them. More than 90 percent of arrivals have stayed. One in four arrivals come from California, and ten percent are from New York. And now they’re expanding — planning for more than 1,000 new arrivals this year.
To do it, they’re making real investments in people. Tulsa Remote has a 24-person team focused on everything from marketing the program, recruiting prospects and making sure people have a great experience.
Michael Basch, who himself moved to Tulsa from New York City in 2018 to work at GKFF, came up with the idea for the program. Cash has been the attention-getter, Basch said, but “it’s the community component that is the real special sauce.”
2) Connecting talent with opportunity, at scale. In 2020, GKFF launched inTulsa. This effort is focused on connecting people to Tulsa jobs. Its mission: connecting innovative companies and diverse talent to help Tulsa become a “vibrant and inclusive community.”
Currently, it has a talent pool of 7,000 people in Tulsa, each with an inTulsa staff member assigned to them to help land the job they want — and to help employers find them. While many cities, including Miami, have resources like job fairs and job listing boards, few have set up organizations with a systematic, day-to-day approach that’s proven both durable and effective.
Indeed, what’s unique here is the size of the commitment. Like Tulsa Remote, inTulsa is set up as a stand alone organization and has a staff of nearly 20, each with the sole focus of finding connections between Tulsa’s employers and job seekers.
3) Making real investments in inclusion. A third piece of Tulsa’s talent-led economic development effort is a specific focus on Black founders. This is particularly meaningful in Tulsa, which was once home to one of America’s most prosperous Black communities and the location of one of the worst race massacres in the U.S.
Last week, GKFF announced the launch of Techstars’ first accelerator focused specifically on Black and brown founders. Techstars is one of the leading accelerators in the world. Under this plan, they will partner with Build in Tulsa, which GKFF previously set up to support Black founders. The inaugural program will kick off in August.
“This is one more sign that the spirit of Black Wall Street is alive and well in Tulsa,” said Ashli Sims, managing director at Build in Tulsa.
In Miami, as we think about ways to create organizations that drive real inclusion, better connect workers to jobs, and attract remote workers, we’d be smart to keep an eye on Tulsa’s progress — and perhaps bring their ideas here.
As always, we want to hear from you. Email us at next@opportunity.miami or engage with us on social media. Please invite friends to subscribe to this newsletter here.
Hope to see you,
Matt Haggman
Opportunity Miami
@matthaggman
