Putting Connection in Action

Launch Week

I met Taylor Eubanks last fall. I think it was early October.

At the time, she was the Director of Small Business and Entrepreneurship for the State of Kansas. She reached out through the Midwest House website—one of those messages that could’ve easily stayed a polite intro call and nothing more. She wanted to learn what we were building. We talked about the Midwest. About entrepreneurship. About how state governments show up (and don’t) for founders. We said, we should do something together sometime—the kind of sentence you mean sincerely but don’t yet know how serious it will become.

A few weeks later, I learned that Taylor was also the co-chair of the National Entrepreneurship Leaders Network for Right to Start with our pal Ben Marchionna, Michigan’s first Chief Innovation Officer. That’s when the connection really clicked for me.

We were deep into planning the Midwest House Summit in December. I reached back out and said, you should come to Michigan. We’ll get you on stage and talk about the role of state government in a startup ecosystem—its potential and its limits. She was in.

Ben, unfortunately, was going to be out of the country so we tagged our other pal, (and former Midwest House collaborator) Alison Todack, in for the conversation. Taylor proposed a panel called “Fund It Like a Founder: Funding Startup Ecosystems Through Innovative Models.” It was exactly the right energy—practical, a little provocative, and grounded in lived experience. We were off.

Then, about a week before the Summit, Taylor called me.

“I have to tell you something,” she said. “I just lost my job at the State of Kansas. Do you still want me to come?”

Without missing a beat, I said, “yeah, of course.”

Partly because she’s brilliant and honest and exactly the kind of leader these conversations need. But also because the moment itself said something important. This panel was already about the pros and cons of state government involvement in startup ecosystems. The fact that an innovative leader could lose her role in the middle of doing that work wasn’t a detour from the conversation—it was the conversation.

She was grateful. And then she said something else.

“By the way, I’m working on something you might be interested in.”

She started describing an idea she was trying to bring to Kansas: using the global bond market—the largest pool of capital in the world—to unlock dramatically more financing for small businesses in the run-up to the World Cup. Not a grant program—an infrastructure play. A way to connect community lenders, small businesses, and capital markets at real scale.

She asked, almost casually, “Do you have room for another panel?”

As chance would have it, a speaker had canceled earlier that day.

“Yeah,” I said. “Who are you thinking about?”

That’s when she told me about Chris White and the National Bankers Association Foundation. About an Economic Mobility Bond Initiative they were actively building. About a model that could change how capital flows into local economies—not just in Kansas, but anywhere willing to do the work.

Somehow that conversation—born out of a website inquiry, a lost job, and a last-minute opening on a Summit agenda—has become one of the central pillars of what we’re building in 2026.

And that’s the point of this post.

For most of our history, Midwest House has been known as a convener.

We bring people together and create a density of ambition. We host the rooms where founders meet investors, where leaders compare notes with operators, where ideas get sharpened through proximity. That work matters. In a region as fragmented as the Midwest, convening is not a “nice to have.” It’s foundational.

But there’s the potential - and maybe the need - for more.

The challenges facing our ecosystems have never been just about visibility or connection. They’re also about infrastructure. About whether small businesses and startups are capital-ready. About whether the right kind of capital is willing to take the kind of risks that founders need. About whether we have the systems in place to support businesses across the “capital continuum” (new buzzword warning!)

What the Taylor & Chris conversation surfaced for us—and what the Summit made undeniable—is that convening isn’t the end goal. It’s the sensing mechanism and a necessary first step to action.

After the Summit, things moved quickly.

The Economic Mobility Bond model received interest from a number of longtime partners of ours. Folks wanted to hear more. At the same time, Taylor and I started talking about what it could look like if Midwest House “got turned all the way up.”

A plan was hatched. Taylor took a new job as Chief Strategy & Partnerships Officer with Midwest House! What had started as a World Cup thing - is now a Midwest thing. The Midwest Economic Mobility Bond Initiative, a partnership between the National Bankers Association Foundation, Midwest House, and our partners.

5 years. $5 Billion in additional capital available to small businesses in the region. Turning the HOUSE ALL THE WAY UP.

In 2026, we’re still doing our thing. We’ll still be in Austin in March. We’ll still be co-hosting trips with the Midwest Founder Exchange, working with StartMidwest, launching our House Pass Membership, and hosting (2) Summits!

We’re adding to that a core mission: to fan the flames of this initiative, and to bring it every corner of the region.

That means we’re heading to the World Cup in KC in June. We’ll be at Tech Chicago Week and Summerfest TechAI and Black Tech Week. We’ll also be at the UP 200 in Marquette Michigan and all kinds of similar events where folks are coming together to celebrate their community. We’re using gatherings as on-ramps into systems. As places where infrastructure is introduced, stress-tested, and adopted. We’re moving from one-off moments to repeatable frameworks.

Kansas to Michigan to the Midwest. A phone call to a panel discussion to an Initiative.

That’s the pattern. That’s the power of connectivity and regional collaboration. And like so much of our work, it started with someone reaching out, a conversation worth having, and the willingness to say yes when the moment presented itself.

You’ll be hearing a ton more about our plans for the year, Austin, and the Midwest Economic Mobility Bond. For now, though, start getting ready.

Midwest ‘26 is coming.

LAUNCH WEEK DETAILS

Midwest Economic Mobility Bond Info Session Detroit - 1/20
Jefferson Hub (Detroit)
Lunch session
RSVP: https://luma.com/event/manage/evt-TDIROedvETQICZJ

Midwest House 2026 Launch Celebration Detroit - 1/20
Little Caesars Global Headquarters
4-6:30pm
RSVP: https://luma.com/MWH2026Launch

Midwest House 2026 Launch Celebration Grand Rapids - 1/21
Start Garden at Bamboo GR
5-7pm
RSVP: https://luma.com/07lzch0y

A Midwest House Salon Dinner on Economic Mobility
featuring Christopher White of the National Bankers Association Foundation & Taylor Eubanks of Midwest House - 1/22
at The Sovengard in Grand Rapids, MI
6:30-8:30pm
Tickets (dinner and drink included): https://luma.com/vuwmyyr3

Midwest House: House Pass Membership Launch - 1/26

https://www.midwesthouse.org/housepass