Minority-Led Stories
A place to belong: Business model built to shatter intimidation lifted City Gym through COVID’s heaviest season yet
Ahead-of-the-curve thinking helped keep City Gym strong in the early days of COVID-19 when the weight of the pandemic dropped on people-focused industries. “We lost a fair amount of members — maybe they couldn’t financially afford it anymore, maybe they didn’t feel safe,” said Hailee Bland Walsh, founder and owner of City Gym in Waldo….
BacklotCars developer balances work, school and helping recover 33,000 pounds of food for the hungry
Behind the scenes of BacklotCars’ historic $425 million exit deal, one of the Kansas City company’s top developers is feeding innovation in his home country, said Josh Parsons. Pablo Ulguin — a full-time senior software developer at BacklotCars who also is completing night school in Uruguay to earn a degree in computer science and learn…
New in KC: Why Jackie Nguyen hit the brakes on acting to open a mobile coffee cafe
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. Click here to read more New in KC profiles. Lifting the curtain on the region’s first Vietnamese coffee traveling cafe, Jackie Nguyen is…
How Shelley Cooper hopes to turn her telehealth remedy into an appointment for ‘Unicornville’
No shows mean no dough — but SureShow means cash flow, Dr. Shelley Cooper rhymed, laughing. “I’m supposed to be really professional and that sounds kind of goofy, but you know, if it makes people remember … ” joked Cooper, founder of SureShow by Diversity Telehealth, in a rare moment of downtime as she prepared for…
KC performer appointed UN Young Leader, extending Battery Tour’s energy worldwide, says AY Young
Singer-songwriter-street performer AY Young has a new stage for his unique message, announcing Friday the Kansas City artist’s appointment as one of the United Nations’ 17 Young Leaders for Sustainable Development Goals. “I’ll be honest, I was like, ‘It’s about time,’” Young said, laughing. “I’ve powered over 800 concerts using renewable energy; I’ve been getting…
