From his days serving in the military to his time working on Wall Street, Chris Kukk was fascinated by how people come together to build innovative things.

That fascination continued when the New Englander moved from western Connecticut to serve as the honors college dean at Longwood University in Farmville, Virginia. There, he saw up close how folks in rural areas had plenty of creative ideas, but few places to bring those novel ideas together. 

“It’s a different type of innovation happening in rural areas, one that hasn’t been fully tapped yet,” the Bronx native says, describing it as “a kind of farm sense, like a MacGyverism” that emerges out of necessity.

“In New York, if I needed a part, I could go to a neighborhood store on the corner or, god forbid, walk three blocks. But in most rural areas, there’s no local hardware store within walking distance. Farmers especially have to come up with innovative ways to fix a broken tool right then and there.”

That led Kukk to wonder.