Minority-Led Stories

Madoka Koguchi and Jackie Nguyen, Cafe Cà Phê; 2021 AltCap Your Biz grand prize winner

KC’s first Vietnamese coffee shop brews $20K at AltCap Your Biz; other winners include an urban farm, development company and selfie studio

Cafe Cà Phê can now afford to build bathrooms in its anticipated brick-and-mortar coffee location, Jackie Nguyen teased on Instagram after being awarded the grand prize at the 2021 AltCap Your Biz: Pitch Competition. “The $20,000 will go toward helping build that out — getting new appliances, [hiring] new employees because we’ve outgrown our cart….

Gavin Dell, Hollywood Animation Academy; Shelly Cooper, SureShow; Jill and Justin Bertelsen, Crib Coaching; and Craig Boyle, What Duh Fog

Demo day alert: 13 new Comeback KC Ventures fellows set for debut on GEW KC stage

The first crop of Comeback KC Ventures fellows — entrepreneurs offering solutions from healthtech and edtech products to sports evaluations and an animation academy emerging in response to COVID-19 — is expected to highlight more than a dozen companies Thursday during a GEW KC innovation showcase. “The demo day will allow early participants in the…

Lisa Nguyen, Telehue Food

New in KC: Wichita-grown foodie whips up 4.5M TikTok, Youtube users with passion (and ramen) as her only guides

Editor’s note: New in KC is an ongoing profile series that highlights newly relocated members of the Kansas City startup community, their reasons for a change of scenery, and what they’ve found so far in KC. This series is sponsored by C2FO, a Leawood-based, global financial services company. Click here to read more New in KC profiles. Lisa Nguyen was five…

Roman Raya, Taco Tank

Streets to tableside eats: Taco Tank gets off the ground, rolling into Crossroads food hall

Streetside tacos are a thing of the past for Kansas City-stuffed Taco Tank, but a brick-and-mortar expansion into Parlor’s Crossroads food hall means the potential of its authentic, Mexican street food is just hitting the grill, Roman Raya said.  “We were sharing a kitchen before with four other food trucks as our commissary. It was…

Nia Richardson, KC Bizcare

Community Builders to Watch: Nia Richardson redefines city’s role in building wealth (and the freedom that comes with it)

Editor’s note: Startland News is showcasing six Kansas City changemakers from five local organizations in its inaugural Community Builders to Watch list. The following highlights one of the 2021 honorees, selected from more than 100 initial nominees by a panel of judges. Click here to view the full list of Community Builders to Watch —…