Startups Stories
Voice of the Chiefs offers advice for startups: Stay hungry, humble and pointed toward your goal post
WICHITA, Kansas — Don’t settle for one winning season, Mitch Holthus — the longtime voice of the Kansas City Chiefs — told a group of startup founders, encouraging entrepreneurs to keep pushing forward before they find themselves hitting a professional plateau. “You celebrate milestones, but you don’t stay there,” said Holthus, comparing the average lifespan…
Drug side effects could kill you; meet the KS lab team using DNA testing to save patients
A clinical reference laboratory in Olathe is working to make DNA testing for genetically optimized medications more routine and accessible in healthcare, Dr. Ziyan Pessetto shared. Sinochips Diagnostics — founded in 2019 by Dr. Jiawu Song, along with Pessetto and Dr. Andrew Godwin — was conceived with the vision to make pharmacogenomics (PGx) an integral…
InvestMidwest releases startup lineup for April conference; KC companies set to pitch
Eight Kansas City startups are among 40 companies selected to pitch in April at InvestMidwest — reflecting not only a diversity of founder representation, but a wide range of agriculture, health, and digital technology innovations from across the Midwest, said Claire Kinlaw. “The caliber of talent and innovation among the chosen companies is truly remarkable, and…
Quick studies: These Kansans just left their college careers for $500K (and a crash course in startups)
When a friend encouraged Aditya Joshi and Varun Verma to apply for the Y Combinator accelerator program, the Wichita natives didn’t expect to land an interview, they shared — much less get accepted. “Truly, all we had was this idea and a couple of months under our belt of just talking to different folks,” Joshi…





