What's the Startup?!

Sprocket WKY: Connecting Communities, Mentors, and Opportunities Across Western Kentucky

• Sprocket • Season 2 • Episode 8

Share episode

In this episode of What’s the Startup?!, we’re joined by Maggie Choate, Sprocket’s newest team member, to celebrate the launch of the Sprocket WKY platform. Maggie, who has been instrumental in turning this vision into reality, shares the heart and purpose behind this groundbreaking initiative designed to empower entrepreneurs across Western Kentucky.

We discuss:

•What the Sprocket WKY platform offers: From mentorship and education to job opportunities and community connections.

•Why it matters: How this platform is breaking down barriers to bring resources and innovation to all 22 counties in the region.

•The features that make it a game-changer: Including the Mentor Deck, Job Board, and free educational curriculum.

If you’re ready to explore how Sprocket WKY is transforming entrepreneurship in Western Kentucky—or curious about how you can get involved—this episode is packed with inspiration and actionable insights.

Tune in now to hear how Sprocket WKY is connecting communities, mentors, and opportunities—and visit sprocketwky.com to dive into the platform today!

Thank you for tuning in to this episode of the Sprocket Podcast! If you’re ready to dive into the world of startups and innovation, visit us online at Sprocket WKY to learn more about our mission and how we support entrepreneurs like you.

Ready to check out the space? Book a tour with Tiffany, our Community Coordinator!

Got a business idea? Apply for a mentorship session with one of our experienced mentors!

Stay connected and join our growing community on Instagram for the latest updates, inspiration, and behind-the-scenes looks at what’s happening at Sprocket.

Let’s turn your ideas into reality—together!

Sprocket is proud to be supported by Team Kentucky, the Commonwealth's Cabinet for Economic Development. Learn more about their initiatives and resources at ced.ky.gov.

Kaylan:

Hello, Maggie. Hello. Welcome to the podcast. Thank you. Introduce

Maggie:

us to you and your role here. Yeah. So my name is Maggie Choate. I have been around at Sprocket for a little while now. I am primarily the grants and university person, so I help Sprocket with grant writing. I've been doing a lot of the grants that we work on, do a lot of the reporting, and I've also helped Sprocket with a lot of the projects that we're working on and events that we do. And Things like that. I picture

Kaylan:

you behind the scenes, putting all the Lincoln Logs into place, making sure that everything is in its right spot, and, fitting into the grooves nicely. Yes. I admire that so much about you, that your brain is able to work in the details

Maggie:

I'm really good at taking somebody's brain dump or taking somebody's vision and then explaining to you how you're going to make that happen. So I think a great example of that is the pitch competition. I feel like we all had a vision for that and getting it to that vision was a lot of fun and it was really cool.

Kaylan:

One of the things that I wanted to talk to you today about was where Sprocket is heading in this coming year. One of the big initiatives that we're rolling out in 2025 is the sprocket West Kentucky platform. Introduce us to what this platform is and the heart behind it.

Maggie:

Yeah. So, if you haven't already heard sprocket for the new year is launching a brand new platform. And we're doing this thanks to a USDA rural business development. And the heart behind that grant and the heart behind the platform was that we we serve 22 counties in western Kentucky. We do not just serve Paducah. And I think people have it in their minds that we're just a co work space and that you can come and you can work in person and that's about it. And we are that and we love our space and it's beautiful, but the heart behind Sprocket is not just. It's not just a co work space, but it's to help build and scale and grow businesses in the tech economy. And so, we wanted to build this platform because we wanted to offer our resources for the whole region. And we wanted everyone in the region to basically understand that we're a free resource for you and we want to be able to help you build a business, scale a business, grow it. And especially in this digital economy that we're in now and so, that's the heart behind the platform, and, and it's completely free to use for anyone, and all you do is you just log on, and you have access to all of the resources that we have. Yeah,

Kaylan:

I think that's a good point that you bring up. People think of us as just a co work space. Maybe we help out with some entrepreneurs, but we are a non profit, so we offer so much more. resources, education, mentorship, all for free for people in over two dozen, about two dozen Western Kentucky counties. So the region we serve is quite large. You mentioned the platform itself. Let's dig a little deeper into what this platform is going to offer. So you can find it at sprocketwky. com. When you log on to this platform, what will you experience?

Maggie:

So when you log on to this platform, you are going to really see the heart of Sprocket for the region and what we have for the region. And so we're going to have our podcast is going to be featured on there. We'll have blogs and stories of what's going on in the region as a whole. What are some stories we want to celebrate, what are some partners that are helping us do what we're doing? Because we can't do what we're doing without the valuable partners in each of our counties. And so, the blog is really going to highlight that and then on the resource side of it, we are going to have our mentor network. So you're going to be able to access a full directory of all of our mentors who are here to help you primarily. They're going to want to help you on your goal and your vision for your business and for your company. We have them filtered by their expertise. And so you can search somebody in healthcare, you can search somebody in agriculture, you could search somebody in AI. Government contracting, different things like that. Do you need to build a business model? We have people who can help you do that. And so that's really the mentor network and the mentor deck. That's the heart behind that. And then we also are going to have a job board. Sprocket WKY job board. And it is primarily for tech enabled tech. And innovative companies meaning that your business and your company is primarily centered around innovation, technology the digital space. And so, that job board is meant to be able to have a home and a hub for West Kentucky companies and West Kentucky jobs. And to highlight that I know a lot of jobs get lost on large platforms like Indeed and and so that's our way of trying to filter that down and help you just highlight your company and basically gives you a stamp of we're, we're proud of you and the work that you're doing and we want to support that and also be a place where people who are seriously looking for jobs can come and find high quality jobs that are going to give them the stuff they need to grow their careers as well. And then, also, we're going to have curriculum and a community forum for anyone. The curriculum will be free to use, so whether that's you want to learn about market research and customer discovery, or you want to learn about the legal side building a business or the finance side we're going to have courses and things for you to access there as well as a community forum so you can meet your fellow entrepreneurs, fellow community members and actually talk to them and pick people's brains.

Kaylan:

I think what this platform does so well is that up until now we have had this amazing network of mentors and education, but this kind of put structure to it and takes it to the digital space. So all you have to do is log onto this platform, you'll log on and create a free account. And that allows you to go into your dashboard and access all of these free resources like the job board and the mentor deck and access the education platform and it's all in one spot so everyone can create an account and now have access on a dashboard to all of these resources that up until this point have just existed and we've, we've done the job of connecting people to all these things. And so now you, no matter where you are in Western Kentucky can log on and access all these amazing resources.

Maggie:

Yeah, absolutely. That's exactly the heart behind it is. We're constantly having to think, okay how can I help this person, or how do I get to the people that need help, because I think it goes both ways. We don't know who needs help. And so I think that's going to be a great way for us to be able to reach people and for people to reach us.

Kaylan:

Who is the perfect person to utilize this platform? How do they know if this is for them?

Maggie:

That's, that's good. anybody who has an idea to start A business can come on there as well. The mentor is a great place to get started. Find a mentor that fits the idea that you have and they're going to be the ones who's going to be able to help you move along your journey to the next step. And then same thing for seasoned business owners. We We want to help you get investment. We want to help you get sales and define customers. Anybody can use it, whether you're in college and just want to get your foot in the door of the workforce. You can log on and book time with some of our mentors. Our mentors are really, really helpful in that space as well. Not just for building a business, but also for how do I build a career? How do I leave college and do this workforce life. So you could you could go on there for that purpose and you can also go on there for the job board and the sense of we have High growth companies on there that are looking for someone to whether be their intern or independent contractor or a full time employee so you as a college student can come on there and find those resources just for that alone and so, I think a lot of times Sprocket also can get stuck in that we're only for newbies, but we're also for seasoned business owners as well. We, we want to help you Keep growing and keep scaling. And I know as a seasoned business owner, you get busier and busier and busier, but we also want you to know that we're here to help you in that as well.

Kaylan:

There's mentors for all different stages of the startup journey. And no matter who you land on, they'll be able to know who you need to talk to next. Right. Or they'll be able to share here are the three things that I think you need to work on next. And you can take that and like, let's say your mentor says you need to work on your marketing plan. Well, you can type in marketing into the mentor deck and find the several people who are experts in AI marketing and customer discovery, social media marketing, and you can book calls with all those people and learn what you need to do next. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And then, we don't want you to just talk with these mentors and just have a long list of to dos. We want to support you from there and that's where the education, the courses come in, helping you put legs to the work that you need to do. Yeah. And get it done.

Maggie:

Yeah. And, and it's not just a platform of things you need to do, but it's also, like I said earlier, a place where we want to celebrate you too. Like, if we're just, If we're saying, hey, this person's putting in a lot of work and they're, they're growing their company and they're, they're meeting with mentors and they're, they're hiring and they, they had this really big win and we want to celebrate you for that. So that's also something important to understand too, is like, we not only want to help you and give you resources, but we also want to celebrate you and your wins. And the big things that you're doing in our community. Yeah, you can become

Kaylan:

a regional success story, you can be a guest on the podcast this is a, I think the platform, what it does well and what it's going to do well is put faces and names to all of these stories throughout Western Kentucky and make us all aware of each other and build the ecosystem stronger.

Maggie:

Yeah, yep, exactly. Exactly. That was pretty good. Well thanks, Maggie. Yeah, you're welcome.