Opinion Stories
(S)heStarts: Define yourself and your startup on your own terms
At a recent One Million Cups gathering at the Kauffman Foundation, Little Hoots founder Lacey Ellis discussed lessons learned since launching her company. It had been almost a year since she first presented at the pitch event, and one of her primary lessons is sound advice for startup founders. “When you’re first starting out, you’re…
Funding roundtable: ‘You can’t fake it’ and more funding advice from KC founders
Your company is steadily growing, but it looks like you’re nearing a plateau. Perhaps your startup is doing just fine, but a well-heeled competitor just entered your market and slapped a target on your customers. Or maybe you’ve got a solid idea but little dough to get it off the ground. Regardless of the case,…
Subjective language is making your elevator pitch completely forgettable
Your elevator pitch is the single most important communication of you or your business and why you are relevant. Last month I wrote about how you can use your elevator pitch — or 20-second summary of your business — as a litmus test to determine if you are creating your own market or if you…
Social reaction: Kansas City discusses whether it’s ‘too nice’
Is Kansas City too nice? That question recently provoked a lively discussion amongst the Kansas City entrepreneurial community, eliciting thoughtful responses on the merits and disadvantages of the area’s candor. Startland News compiled some of those comments below that we found on our website in what will mark a new focus that aims to stimulate…
Startup Families: Teenage tech tribulations are a lesson in patience
Running a tech startup and working on a new innovation can prove to be challenging for anyone. But running a tech company with millenials in your home can be pure torture when that technology is on a teen’s favorite appendage: a smartphone. I’ve spent the early days of building my company, Video Fizz, at our…
