Kentucky Chamber Launches Initiative to Strengthen Kentucky’s Entrepreneurial Economy

Kentuckians start new businesses at some of the highest rates in the region, but the state trails its competitors in turning those startups into jobs and long-term growth.

The Kentucky Chamber announced a new statewide initiative last week to examine Kentucky’s entrepreneurial economy and identify opportunities to strengthen entrepreneurship, business growth, and job creation across the Commonwealth. Start Here, Grow Here: Strengthening Kentucky’s Entrepreneurial Economy was unveiled during testimony before the Interim Joint Committee on Economic Development and Workforce Investment.

Start Here, Grow Here is a new research initiative led by the Kentucky Chamber Center for Policy and Research. The initiative will include a series of community listening sessions on entrepreneurship and small business development, conducted by the Chamber in partnership with JPMorganChase later this fall. The Center will publish its findings from its independent research and these community listening sessions in a final report next year.

“Strong, stable jobs are essential to maintaining a healthy Kentucky economy,” said Jill Wilcox, Kentucky Market Executive for Commercial Banking, J.P. Morgan. “That’s why JPMorganChase is proud to invest in the Kentucky Chamber’s Start Here, Grow Here initiative. Supporting the research and community listening sessions will help identify ways to strengthen entrepreneurship and help more businesses grow and scale for long-term economic strength across Kentucky.”

“Kentucky’s long-term economic strength depends on our ability to foster innovation, support entrepreneurship, and ensure businesses have the opportunity to grow and succeed,” said Kentucky Chamber President and CEO Ashli Watts. “While our Commonwealth has made important strides in creating an environment where entrepreneurs can start a business, we have an opportunity to strengthen the ecosystem that helps those businesses scale, create jobs, and build lasting economic prosperity.”

Kentucky Chamber Vice President of Policy Dr. Charles Aull presented the initiative to legislators at a committee hearing last Thursday. He told lawmakers that the initiative will combine research, data analysis, and community engagement to better understand Kentucky’s entrepreneurial landscape and identify opportunities to support business growth.

“There is a tremendous amount of opportunity in entrepreneurship in Kentucky,” Aull said. “There is a lot of momentum there. There is a lot of good infrastructure there. But we need

to figure out how we can ignite this and make Kentucky a stronger entrepreneurial economy.”

By one measure, Kentuckians are among the more entrepreneurial people in the region. The Kauffman Foundation’s rate of entrepreneurship, which tracks the share of the population actively starting new businesses, shows that Kentucky ranks fourth among Southeastern states and 14th nationally.

Despite those strong startup rates, Kentucky ranks 48th nationally in the Economic Innovation Group’s Index of State Dynamism, a measure that considers how frequently companies are created, expand, contract, or leave the market. More dynamic economies generally experience greater job growth, innovation, industry diversity, and resilience.

Aull said the data suggests Kentucky’s greatest opportunity lies in helping more businesses grow and scale after they launch.

“If we are trying to grow more jobs in the state, a lot of that is going to come in the form of entrepreneurship,” Aull said.

Aull highlighted two opportunities he believes deserve particular attention.

The first is rural Kentucky, where data gathered by scholars at the University of Kentucky show business applications increasing and innovation activity occurring. He pointed to this as a strategy to bring job growth into areas where traditional economic development has been more complicated.

The second is what Aull described as a coming “silver tsunami” among Kentucky business owners. More than half of the state’s owner-employers are now 55 or older, according to U.S. Census data, raising questions about what happens to locally owned businesses when their owners retire. He noted that this creates opportunities for entrepreneurship-through-acquisition—where aspiring entrepreneurs buy an existing business and grow it instead of starting a whole new enterprise.

Blue North Executive Director Dave Knox, who also testified before the committee, further discussed entrepreneurship through acquisition as a potential opportunity to help preserve and grow existing Kentucky businesses. Knox cited estimates that roughly 190,000 Kentucky business owners are expected to retire in the coming years, while many lack a formal succession plan.

Knox also highlighted recent growth in new business filings and emphasized the importance of helping more startups develop into high-growth companies that create jobs and attract investment. He pointed to efforts in states such as Tennessee, Alabama, and

Louisiana, which have established statewide organizations focused on supporting entrepreneurs and scaling startups.

Both Aull and Knox credited the General Assembly for significant pro-entrepreneur progress in recent years, including reductions to the individual income tax, regulatory streamlining, new funding for entrepreneurial programming and infrastructure, and legislation designed to make Kentucky more attractive to outside investment.

The Chamber’s Start Here, Grow Here initiative, Aull said, is intended to build on that foundation and identify ways Kentucky can better support entrepreneurs, business growth, job creation, and long-term economic competitiveness.