Cue the palpitations: Bobby’s taking a (free) coding class

Only a few weeks in Kansas City, and LaunchCode is already making good on its promise to improve the area’s coding competency with a free, 16-week computer science course. And this mathematically-challenged, technically-inept journalist is going to do his best not to embarrass himself while attempting to learn the science of computing. Open to all…

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Sprint Accelerator firms hiring, offering meet-and-greet

2016 Sprint Accelerator

The new firms at the Techstars-led Sprint Accelerator program are already growing. While many are looking for interns, seven of the 10 mobile tech companies in the three-month accelerator are looking to hire staff. The companies, which entered the Kansas City-based accelerator on Feb. 22, each nabbed $120,000 in capital as part of the program,…

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Behavioral health startup announces acquisition, name change

autism behavioral therapy Pathfinder Health Services

Behavioral health tech firm ABPathfinder is blazing a new path thanks to a recent acquisition. In addition to a name change, the Overland Park-based firm announced Thursday that it purchased Phoenix-based Ensure Billing to beef up the company’s services. The new entity has rebranded to become Pathfinder Health Innovations. Acquiring an insurance billing company allows…

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New $20M fund supercharges VC dollars in Kansas City

In conjunction with a metro-wide effort to boost the area economy, Kansas City will soon have a new co-investment fund that aims to accelerate early-stage businesses. As part of the KC Rising economic initiative, the “KC Rise Fund” hopes to improve a common gripe in Kansas City’s entrepreneurial community that there’s not enough capital to…

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Cut the crap: How to discern worthwhile advice

In my early days as an entrepreneur, I ran into a lot of consultants who claimed to be “experts” and guaranteed they could help me out. Then I’d do some fact-checking and discover they were neither reliable nor experts, and their advice wasn’t worth the space in our email inboxes. In the last few years,…

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