Latest Stories
Collaboration Awaits: Blacktech Weekend aims to connect black innovators with a lasting network
The most important aspect of Blacktech Weekend’s return to Kansas City Friday: connecting individuals from different segments of the entrepreneur cityscape, said Denayja Reese. “Across industries, we want them to collaborate with each other and continue to build community as well as bring in folks who are outside of the community into the fold,” said…
New in KC: BacklotCars funding round lures Windy City tech talent back 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. Click here to read more New in KC profiles. As Kansas City’s startup scene came online in 2012, Lindsey…
Lawrence-based Sweet Jane magazine offers safe space for women to get candid about cannabis
Satisfying her own curiosity, Katy Ibsen penned an article on cannabis opportunities for publishers. “There were niche magazines being published, there were B2B magazines being published, there was ‘High Times’ and ‘Dope,’” Ibsen, now founder, editor and publisher of Sweet Jane magazine, said of her research for the piece. A 10-year publishing vet with a…
Cannabis founder’s advice: Weed out the bad seeds; run green startups like real businesses
Cannabis might seem like it presents a Wild West frontier for entrepreneurs looking to strike green, said Michael Wilson, but would-be founders must cultivate a plan grounded in common sense — and the law. “In the industrial hemp or marijuana space, if you want to build a successful business, run it like a real damn…
Show Me Hyperloop: Missouri panel confident it can win route with $300M+ test track
If Missouri wants to win the race for a Virgin Hyperloop One route connecting Kansas City and St. Louis, the Show Me State must foot the bill for a 12- to 15-mile test track that could cost taxpayers, the state and private partners more than $300 million, according to a new report. “This initial segment…
Cyber threats and opportunities: Why did 50+ KC schoolgirls get a peek at Fishtech’s high-security campus?
You never know when an opportunity will find you, Alex Vendetti told a group of Kansas City high school girls touring the Fishtech Group cybersecurity campus. “I was a hairstylist before this,” Vendetti, a project manager at Fishtech, told groups of students making their ways through the cybersecurity startup’s sprawling Martin City facilities Friday. The…
Emoji My City launches its hometown emoji keyboard with winks to iconic Kansas City
Kansas City scenes from the Kauffman Center to 18th and Vine. Winks to local trends and celebrities. A playful push puts whimsical KC in the mobile devices of hometown fans and visitors alike. And it comes courtesy of the team that helped rebrand Kansas City’s now-iconic logo in 2013. In the age of digital marketing,…
Walkin and Rollin, KC maker community treat kids with limited mobility to custom Halloween costumes
The children in Reese Davis’ preschool class were often standoffish around him. “He was the only kid they knew in a wheelchair,” recalled his father, Lon Davis, founder of Walkin and Rollin Costumes — a Kansas City-based non-profit that builds costumes for kids in walkers and wheelchairs, free of charge. “They didn’t really know how…
Digital Sandbox KC selects diverse health, AI and filmmaking startups for latest funding
The latest trio of Digital Sandbox KC companies pushes the proof-of-concept program deeper into Johnson County with a new Overland Park partnership. “This group showcases the wide spectrum of businesses assisted by the Sandbox, from a data platform for creative filmmakers and studios, to improved patient care in asthma, to biologics in regenerative medicine,” said…
Woman-led PEPPR sets table for simplified event planning with platform cooked in KC kitchens
A veteran of the restaurant industry thanks to her family’s long-simmering connections to Kansas City kitchens, Lyndsey Gruber stood as a woman on her own Wednesday at 1 Million Cups. “It’s just me,” Gruber, CEO and founder of PEPPR, told Startland News before the event, which served as a mid-point of Women’s Empowerment Week and…
