Pipeline

By Dane Stangler

The Pipeline program for entrepreneurs has been one of the most influential and effective entrepreneurship programs in the United States.

That statement is not made lightly. Entrepreneurship education and training programs have proliferated in the United States and across the world over the past decade. The Kauffman Foundation has spent tens of millions of dollars in grant support for many programs during that time. Pipeline has been of the best of those grants — for entrepreneurs, for the regions in which they operate, and for our own learning at Kauffman.

Pipeline, which like Kauffman is based in Kansas City, connects high-potential entrepreneurs to peers and mentors. The network that develops between the entrepreneurs is invaluable to them during their journeys. Peer learning can be more valuable to entrepreneurs than other types of learning, and Pipeline facilitates this. Mentorship is a key ingredient in successful entrepreneurship, and Pipeline’s national network of mentors is a tremendous resource.

We at the Kauffman Foundation have learned a great deal from our interactions with Pipeline, and we expanded our support in a second grant to Pipeline in 2014. We are honored to have helped Pipeline expand from Kansas only to the surrounding states of Nebraska and Missouri.

Now, through its new Module in Ireland, Pipeline’s benefits will be taken across the Atlantic., thanks to the support of the Irish National Foundation for Entrepreneurship (INFE). During its week-long program in Ireland, Pipeline will help connect American and Irish entrepreneurs, and introduce other champions to the program. The resulting connections will help entrepreneurs from both countries, and the networks that emerge will last beyond this one week.

Just as Kansas City and the surrounding region have reaped the value of Pipeline over the last several years, so too can Ireland build on this initial Module and create a similar network of entrepreneurs and mentors. This will strengthen the growing entrepreneurial ecosystem in Ireland — the support of INFE will be key to this work.

The Kauffman Foundation is delighted to welcome INFE as a partner in supporting Pipeline, and we look forward to seeing its benefits redound to Ireland just as they have in the United States.