Woman-led Stories

Carlanda McKinney, Bodify

Bodify joins Tulsa accelerator with $70K investment, ‘knocking down a lot of dominoes’

One of Kansas City’s most tenacious founders is in the midst of an intensive, six-month accelerator aimed at bringing her fashion tech startup to revenue without decreasing her ownership stake in the company. “Follow-on investment is nice, but you don’t have a company without revenue,” said Carlanda McKinney, founder and CEO of Bodify. “For me,…

Fahteema Parrish, Parrish & Sons Construction

Watch: Meet the band of local contractors behind the development of Troost Village 

Editor’s note: The following story includes the second video in a four-part series taking a look under the hard hats at the Troost Village development, a $162 million project on Troost Avenue, the city’s longtime racial dividing line. Videos in this series are expected to debut on Startland News as the project unfolds. Click here…

How library advocates turned the page after COVID with a ‘tidal wave’ of online sales

Editor’s note: The following story is sponsored by Academy Bank, a Kansas City based community bank, and is part of a series of features spotlighting some of the bank’s startup and small business partners. Even a storied community resource relies on innovation for its survival, said Shanta Dickerson, noting classic trust and accountability also have…

Brit Estes, Jhy Coulter, and Jones Goldman, Devoured

Devoured chef designs oven-baked backyard pizza concept for pop-ups and beyond

An unexpected medley of events helped Jhy Coulter realize her career as a designer needed to end for her creativity to truly shine — through food, the emerging Kansas City chef shared. “Designing for others with all these limitations was just not fulfilling for me,” said Coulter, founder of Devoured — a pop-up pizzeria known…

Susana Bruhn, GUILDit

Advocate envisions Plexpod ‘art village’ rebuilding KC culture at the intersection of art, business

An arts advocate in Kansas City hopes to partner with one of the metro’s leading community coworking spaces to create a haven for nearly 1,300 art entrepreneurs. GUILDit announced Thursday plans to develop an art village within Plexpod Westport Commons — featuring coworking, studios, a theater, and gallery — with a goal to rebuild art…