Startups Stories

Events Preview: SEMPO Cities, IoT Launch

There are a boatload of entrepreneurial events hosted in Kansas City on a weekly basis. Whether you’re an entrepreneur, investor, supporter or curious Kansas Citian, we’d recommend these upcoming events for you. WEEKLY EVENT PREVIEW   SEMPO Cities Kansas City When: October 29 @ 12:00 pm – 7:00 pm Where: Sprint Accelerator We’re excited to announce that…

High-profile judges for Kauffman contest includes Marcelo Claure, VCs

A star-studded lineup of businesspeople from around the nation will be judging 15 startups in the Kauffman Foundation’s One in a Million pitch contest. The competition, which will take place on Nov. 17 and 18 during Global Entrepreneurship Week, will award $10,000 to one startup that previously participated in the foundation’s 1 Million Cups program. Those evaluating…

As the Royals roll, this KC tech startup wants to develop its future pitchers

A local startup hopes to cultivate the next Wade Davis or Yordano Ventura with the help of its pitching technology. In early 2015, Kansas City-based Precise Play launched its digital pitch analyzer, which the company is selling to baseball academies, schools and private leagues. Precise Play founder Victor Villarreal said that his machine has been…

Sizzling startup Video Fizz to represent KC in national Techweek competition

After a sizzling summer, Video Fizz is continuing its hot streak with a growing investment round and a chance to win more funding at a national pitch contest. Founded by Laura Steward, Video Fizz in September won a $50,000 grant as part of the LaunchKC pitch competition. Video Fizz, an app that enables collaboration to…

Failure, fail

Listen: How does Kansas City regard failure?

In the entrepreneurial world, the word “failure” takes many definitions. For some entrepreneurs, failure is a badge of honor, while for others it’s taboo. Regardless, failure is a part of reality amongst startups and it’s a topic that’s been examined at length in Kansas City’s entrepreneurial community. KCUR’s Up To Date recently hosted Startland editor-in-chief Bobby Burch, Pipeline Inc….