Startups Stories

Parlor KC

Big food hall concept Parlor KC plans fall opening in Crossroads

Parlor KC, a collaborative food hall now under construction in the Crossroads Arts District, hopes to serve as a laboratory and incubation hub for area chefs and restaurateurs. Eyeing a fall opening in the east Crossroads, Parlor will offer chefs and restaurateurs a physical space to test dishes and concepts on diners that want variety…

lowest-cost small cities

Looking for nation’s lowest-cost small cities for startups? No. 9’s in the KC metro

A Kansas City suburb finds itself among the top 10 lowest-cost small cities for starting a business, according to a new nationwide report. Raytown, Missouri, lands at No. 9 on the ranking by personal finance website WalletHub — just below Cape Girardeau, Missouri, at No. 8. The rest of the top 10 is filled by…

Raja Ramachandran, Ripe.io, Sprint Accelerator

Video: Check out 8 elevator pitches from this year’s Sprint Accelerator companies

With a cohort of companies ranging from artificial intelligence to organic ice cream sandwiches, Sprint Accelerator demonstrates its strength by creating an environment where founders and their teams can learn and develop alongside disparate forms of innovation, Doug Dresslaer said. “They’ve all started realizing they can work together — they’re all on the same side,”…

With 400 teams and counting, coaches and founders agree: Just Play Solutions is a ‘no-brainer’

One of Kansas City’s fastest-growing sports-fitness startups, Just Play Solutions, posted a 225-percent revenue increase headed into 2018, its co-founder said. “That type of growth just doesn’t happen all the time,” said Austin Barone. Just Play’s mobile and web app platform specializes in workflow management for football, basketball and — most recently — lacrosse coaches….

Jennifer Lapka, Rightfully Sewn

Video: Rightfully Sewn threads ‘United Nations of Sewing’ concept into fabric of Crossroads

A new studio space in the heart of Kansas City’s creative community will thread the needle for expanding capacity for Rightfully Sewn to help diverse, at-risk women, as well as support its nonprofit mission, said Jennifer Lapka. The program, which trains women to be seamstresses for local designers through a two-year experience, is set to…