Fostering Inland Startups
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| Kim Zentz has turned Spokane’s SIRTI from just another government agency into a dynamic business incubator, with success stories numbering among its clients. |
Kim Zentz’s business cards should list “Problem Solver” as
her official title. That, after all, is what she has successfully done time and
again during her 25-year career. And that’s what she’s doing now for a
state-funded agency in Spokane with the mission of nurturing startup companies,
particularly in eastern Washington.
“I am drawn to multidimensional business challenges,” says
Zentz, executive director of SIRTI (Spokane Intercollegiate Research and
Technology Institute). “I love to see a problem and, no matter what it takes,
try to rally the people involved to solve it.”
Her current position at SIRTI, the only organization of its
kind in the state, has given her plenty of problems to tackle. Although the
Inland Northwest region produces a great deal of innovation—particularly in
areas like energy and health care—the area has been less successful at
nurturing venture capital-backed companies. Only by creating more successful
startups, Zentz says, can the region generate more innovation, more technology
spin-offs and more jobs. “It is one of the key benefits of establishing a
healthy innovation ecosystem in any community,” says Zentz.
Among SIRTI’s recent successes is Pacinian, a company that
pioneered a technology for keyboards on touch screens that gives tactile
feedback. Users have the sensation of typing on a real keyboard, while the
small size and power efficiency of the keyboards make them desirable. The
company recently received a multimillion dollar order from a major notebook
computer manufacturer and signed a development agreement with a leading gaming
company. “They [Pacinian] are hitting on all cylinders and are at the right
place at the right time,” says Zentz.
Local leaders are effusive in their praise of the
organization under Zentz’s leadership. “SIRTI plays a very useful role in the
Inland Northwest in that it brings together people, ideas, technologies, facilities
and investors. It is a great clearinghouse and matchmaker for the region,” says
Len Jessup, director of the Center for Entrepreneurial Studies at Washington
State University. “Kim came in at a time when things were very topsy-turvy, and
she has been a great stabilizing force, by team building and providing a sense
of direction.”
SIRTI was established in 1994 with the goal of helping the
region transition from a natural resource-based economy to one with a larger
proportion of knowledge-based companies. But for many years, the organization
fell far short of achieving its goals. Although it has a campus near downtown
Spokane that offers entrepreneurs office space
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