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Fund Me, KC: UMKC alums aim to transform recycled plastics into functional home décor

Recyclverse products

Startland News is continuing its “Fund Me, KC” series to highlight area entrepreneurs’ efforts to accelerate their businesses or lend a helping hand to others. This is an opportunity for business owners and innovators — like Nicole Dover and Tony Jordan, and their newly launched venture, Recyclverse — to share their crowdfunding stories and potentially…

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New in KC: Elizabeth Pishny treks from farming to human trafficking, Facebook to Google, Austin to KC

Editor’s note: New in KC is an ongoing profile series that highlights newly relocated members of the Kansas City startup community, their reasons for a change of scenery, and what they’ve found so far in KC. This series is sponsored by C2FO, a Leawood-based, global financial services company. Click here to read more New in KC profiles. While Elizabeth Pishny is…

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WATCH: Master craftsman builds on military career — a catalyst to avoid wasted opportunity

Tony Bien, Sandbox by Swell Spark

Tony Bien cuts lumber. He might even cut into a melon. But service in the Kansas Army National Guard taught the hands-on force behind Swell Spark’s in-house design workshop to avoid cutting corners. “I’ve been very blessed in my career with the Army and with what I am doing now,” said Bien, who serves as…

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Blockchain to beef: Why one serial innovator traded the slow pace of corporate life for another muzzle

Shekhar Gupta, MyAnIML, Blockchain Initiatives

Shekhar Gupta learned early that life comes with two approaches for overcoming challenges: accept the problem and move on or figure out a better way of solving it. The Kansas City serial entrepreneur has no shortage of ideas for finding solutions, but he keeps moving nonetheless. As COO of Blockchain Initiatives, Gupta has his hands…

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Meet six newly funded companies helping get KC’s economy ‘back on track’ with Digital Sandbox

Risa Stein, SeeInMe; Alex Burton and Leo Esposito, Bozt; Rebecca Simons, CuePlay; Michael Eichenseer, VRdojo; Jason Reid, KNIMO; and Jill and Justin Bertelsen, Bertelsen Education

Digital Sandbox funding is a game-changer for CuePlay — one of six companies selected for the proof of concept program’s latest cohort — said founder Rebecca Simons, who first launched the idea two years ago at Techstars’ Startup Weekend in Kansas City. “It allows us to finish the development of a beta app and get it…

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