News Stories

Lisa Ragan family, Safely Delicious

OP-baked Safely Delicious takes big bites of allergy-free snack market amid pandemic

Some of the most unconventional entrepreneur stories offer the sweetest flavors, said Lisa Ragan, detailing how diet restrictions and divorce combined to drive her deliciously disruptive Overland Park-based company forward. “You can’t have one foot in, one foot out,” Ragan, founder of Safely Delicious, said of what it’s taken to scale the allergy-friendly snack line…

Grab me a stick of butter too? How a KC-built group shopping app could eliminate needless grocery runs

The COVID-19 pandemic clearly isn’t going anywhere until the arguing stops, said Jason Wadsworth.  “Mask-wearing has become political and that’s just so disheartening,” said Wadsworth, vice president of engineering at MobileUp Software. “These times are unprecedented and I really hope that as a community, we can stop arguing and just come together to work it…

Soulcentricitea on Troost

Tea shop on Troost finds its flavor at the intersection of herbal serenity, cultural activism

Kansas City’s air is thick with revolution and restoration, contemplated Nika Cotton.  “In the social and cultural climate, it’s really a time that people are rising up. The systems are changing. We’re talking about the abolition of police departments, the abolition of the industrial prison system — really exciting things,” Cotton said amid a flurry of…

Brendan Waters and Jon Ruiz, EB Systems

Startups fighting COVID: Black & Veatch taps 18 for Coronavirus response accelerator

Four months after an unprecedented pandemic struck the Midwest, partners from more than a dozen startups, established businesses and universities are set to pitch their solutions for developing and deploying emerging technologies to fight Coronavirus. KC-area startups EB Systems, InnovaPrep, Motega and MySidewalk are among 18 members of Black & Veatch’s IgniteX COVID-19 Response Accelerator,…

Dan Smith, The Porter House KC

Heartland Challenge: Meet Kauffman’s 17 grantees (and the projects getting funded)

The only way to regain lost momentum in the Heartland’s cities and rural areas: work together to develop, catalyze, and expand inclusive programs and strengthen regional ecosystems, said Melissa Roberts Chapman. A new portfolio of 17 grantee organizations is up to the challenge, she added. “Entrepreneurship represents an opportunity for this region to reverse a…