News Stories

Cerner

KC tech powerhouse Cerner sells to Oracle in $28.3B deal; buyer says it will grow local presence

Months of speculation officially came to an end Monday as Kansas City-headquartered Cerner announced its exit to Oracle — the global cloud giant’s largest-ever acquisition at $28.3 billion in equity value. The largest private employer in the Kansas City metro, Cerner’s medical records solutions have developed over the course of four decades into a transformational healthcare…

Annie Austen; photos courtesy of Annie Austen

Annie Austen reinvents herself as a KC jewelry maker without tarnishing her influencer brand

To reshape her 2020 “blahs and feelings,” social media lifestyle influencer Annie Austen picked up a pair of pliers. She’d been collecting jewelry-making kits for years — but never committed to putting the jump rings, clasps, charms, and other pieces together. An Etsy shop launched with her younger brother, Matthew, changed everything, as the two…

Close-up of the Kansas City illustrated map by Mario Zucco, Kansas City Puzzle Company

Their KC company didn’t sell a single puzzle during the pandemic; today the best-sellers need restocked ASAP

The puzzle finally fits together this holiday season for Tim and Stefanie Ekeren as the couple discovers the missing pieces that kept Kansas City Puzzle Company boxed on the shelf for more than a year. The small business, based in Mission, Kansas, offers a line of 10 puzzles, most featuring Kansas City-area landmarks or illustrations…

Idle Smart team: Kaley Lester, Brayden Jensen and Andrew Smith

How a KC partnership helped Idle Smart avoid a cold start that could’ve stalled its recovery

Editor’s note: The following story is sponsored by Academy Bank, a Kansas City based community bank, and is part of a series of features spotlighting some of the bank’s startup and small business partners. Wasted time is wasted money — a notion at the forefront of Idle Smart, a Kansas City IoT tech company built…

Amy Goldman, The Brewkery, Lucky Elixir kombucha

This KC kombucha brewer brought back North America’s most mysterious tropical fruit; the time to taste it is ripe now

When the forest starts to smell like bananas, it means the pawpaws are ready for harvesting, Amy Goldman shared.  “I’d never heard of pawpaws until last year when one of our farmer friends brought us a bunch of them. We tried them in our kombucha, and it sold out so fast. It was incredible. But…