Minority-Led Stories

Co-founders Cornell Gorman, Christopher “LOKC” Stewart, and Brandon Calloway, Generating Income For Future Generations (G.I.F.T.), cut the ribbon of the nonprofit's new business center on Prospect Avenue

A gift for KC’s East Side: Business center beats developers to Prospect, offering one-stop shop for entrepreneurs

A new full-service business center and coworking space on Prospect Avenue will do more than just fill the former Blue Hills Community Services building — better fulfilling its goal to create a clear path to economic prosperity and wealth, said Brandon Calloway. “It’s always been the right time for a business center to open on…

Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin, Dolly Parton, and Dabney Coleman in a promotional photo for "9 to 5"; photo courtesy of 20th Century Fox

‘9 to 5’ exposed sexism, toxic gender roles at work; 40 years later, has much changed beyond the price of a cup of ambition?

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. The minds of women and marginalized employees are still being used without credit more than 40 years after Dolly Parton, Lily Tomlin, and Jane Fonda starred in a…

David Biga, Particle Space; Shelley Cooper, Diversity TeleHealth; Tyler Bolz and Will Strout, DataSource; and Nikil Ragav, inventXYZ

11 emerging KC startups hit the road for Omaha pitch; one winner drives home with $25K

Editor’s note: Husch Blackwell is a financial sponsor of Startland News, though this report was produced independently by the nonprofit newsroom. More than a third of competitors at the coming Get Started Omaha premier pitch event are expected to represent Kansas City innovation on stage April 6 — vying for $25,000 in prize money against…

Penny Dale-McCant and Myron McCant, KD Academy

$4M dream childcare center opened on Prospect as planned; why the 24/7 KD Academy is struggling to fill its beds

Penny Dale-McCant built a childcare model — and a $4 million expansion of her KD Academy brand with her husband, Myron McCant — unlike anything else in the region, she said. Today, however, the center serves only a third of its intended capacity: a product of pandemic trends that have limited staffing. “I’m just proud…

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…