Government Stories

Samuel Morris, KC BizCare

Meet the people-first small biz advocate helping decode the language of entrepreneurship for KCMO

Editor’s note: The following profile on Samuel Morris, small business advocate for Kansas City, Missouri’s, KC BizCare Office is made possible by the office’s financial and programmatic partnership with Startland News. When the bell rang on Samuel Morris’ Kansas City teaching career, he knew he had to do something big as he stepped back out…

KCMO Mayor Quinton Lucas and Gov. Mike Parson, R-Missouri, talk before the announcement of Meta's new $800 million data center in Kansas City

Meta promises local jobs, impact; How its $800M plan could post growth (and disruption) to KC’s story

There’s more to Meta’s $800 million upload into Kansas City’s Northland than face value, company officials said Thursday, outlining plans for community impact that extends well beyond anticipated tech jobs.  “We have programs that help to equip people, schools, and organizations with the resources to build skills and increase the use of technology,” Darcy Nothnagle,…

2018 LaunchKC winners

LaunchKC grants competition gets boost toward relaunch with newly announced funding, MTC says

A popular grants competition that helped raise the profiles — and buoy the bank accounts — of dozens of Kansas City startups could be relaunching with renewed funding from the Missouri Technology Corporation, the agency announced Tuesday. LaunchKC was named one of seven organizations to together receive more than $1 million in grant funding to support…

Kansas City, Missouri, street and infrastructure improvements; photo courtesy of KCMO

Invest in small biz infrastructure, group urges city; They want $11M in KCMO budget for entrepreneur funding

Three years of working and waiting might be headed to an impasse for entrepreneur support advocates who’ve been lobbying the City of Kansas City, Missouri, for renewed — and dramatically enhanced — funding to boost startups and small businesses battered by the pandemic. “Everywhere we go, we’re asked ‘Kansas City is supposed to be the…

U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg speaking at SXSW; photo by Channa Steinmetz/Startland News

Climate change innovation, leadership must be built at the local level, Buttigieg tells SXSW

Editor’s note: The following story is part of Startland News’ coverage of the SXSW conference in Austin. Click here to read more stories from the 2022 trip. AUSTIN — The keys to solving climate change could already be in the ignition, Pete Buttigieg said, empowering a crowd of innovation leaders to sit in the passenger…