Startups Stories
KC’s MixTape Monkey curates 11 million users through hip hop streaming service
Taking a long sigh, an underground mixtape mogul logs off from a live Q&A session with customers. Inside his two-bedroom downtown Kansas City apartment, Mark Serrano stares out a window overlooking the corner of 12th and Walnut streets. “Online I have this huge community, itʼs overwhelming,” said Serrano, referencing his staggering global user base of…
UMKC-powered tech could help visually-impaired Kansas Citians see via artificial intelligence
Gharib Gharibi is driven to succeed by a desire to pay it forward, he said, riding a high from his startup’s first-place, $20,000 win at UMKC’s Regnier Institute Venture Creation Challenge. “They helped us transform our technology from the computer lab to the real world,” Gharibi, founder of DeepLens and a UMKC PhD student, said…
$18M buyout of TomboyX shares shows investing in women pays off, says Women’s Capital Connection
Women are winning in Kansas City, said Kelly Sievers as 24 members of Women’s Capital Connection receive their return from an $18-million buyout of their shares in a Seattle woman’s startup. “They’re getting a great infusion of capital to grow even more and we also still have money in the company because we invested a…
Bungii launches on-demand hauling in Chicago; quirks of new markets steering KC startup’s agility
Bungii is quickly seeing results in the third-largest U.S. city, as the sharing economy startup leaves its tire prints on yet another market. “It’s early, but we are seeing very positive KPIs [key performance indicators] from the Chicago launch. It’s our fastest-growing record to date,” said Ben Jackson, co-founder of Bungii, which was founded in…
ShotTracker partners with entire NCAA conference, taking shot at potential in-game analytics
The game is all about proliferating ShotTracker’s technology, said Davyeon Ross, announcing a new partnership with the Mountain West conference to spread the Kansas-born stats-and-analytics tech further across collegiate basketball. Ross’ goal: nothing short of overhauling sports. “The Mountain West continues to stand out for being a pioneer in adopting the latest cutting-edge technologies,” the…
