Startups Stories

Scale team at their Columbia office. Photo courtesy of KatFour Photo Commercial

Scale accelerator brings international talent to Columbia, reveals eight startups in first cohort

Startland News’ Startup Road Trip series explores innovative and uncommon ideas finding success in rural America and Midwestern startup hubs outside the Kansas City metro. This series is possible thanks to the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, which leads a collaborative, nationwide effort to identify and remove large and small barriers to new business creation. COLUMBIA,…

Melissa Vincent, Pipeline Entrepreneurs

Why underserved founders shouldn’t patiently ‘wait their turn’; Pipeline Pathfinder applications close Nov. 9 

Editor’s note: Pipeline is a financial supporter of Startland News. Pipeline’s new Pathfinder program is accepting applications through Nov. 9. Click here to apply. Proof points long used to indicate a startup’s readiness to scale or raise capital favor white, male-led companies, said Melissa Vincent, stressing traditional markers like even a founder’s ability to dedicate…

Eric Goeken, CTO, and Laura Steward, founder and CEO, VideoFizz

Startup’s tech hits Hallmark shelves with video greeting cards; partnership ‘worth the wait’

Kansas City creative giant Hallmark’s newly announced line of video greeting cards is more than a one-of-a-kind product innovation — it’s the outcome of an extended startup partnership that was years in the making, Laura Steward said. “In 2015, we won a Launch KC grant,” recalled Steward, founder and CEO of Kearney, Missouri-based VideoFizz, describing the…

Sharmil Desai, Menufy

Menufy sale scales HungerRush to more than 500 workers, 20,000 restaurants, KC co-founder says

Growth isn’t new to the menu for Menufy’s Leawood based team, said Sharmil Desai, noting the online platform for restaurants had grown to 140 employees before its freshly announced acquisition by HungerRush. “I can’t think of any point when Menufy has not been adding and expanding,” Desai, co-founder and CEO of Menufy, told Startland News….

Leawood-based online restaurant platform Menufy acquired by hungry Houston cloud company

A rapidly scaling Leawood tech company that helped dozens of Kansas City restaurants, as well as eateries across 3,000 other cities, survive the pandemic has sold to a Houston-based cloud software provider for the restaurant industry. Menufy’s vast online food ordering platform and network is expected to be incorporated into the HungerRush 360 cloud POS…