Latest Stories
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…
InnovateKC: City pivots to startup-in-residence program to leverage local tech ingenuity
A new administration equals a new spin on established ideas, Nia Richardson explained, previewing the launch of Kansas City’s InnovateKC program. “I literally had a 45-minute conversation with [former city innovation officer] Bob Bennett before he walked out the door. He sent me an email with some notes and I had to pick it up…
KC-tested GoGetter uses AI to bring back human interaction in hiring talent (minus the middleman)
As a software contractor at Cerner for two years, Naga Rayapati saw more than 40 percent of his paycheck go into the pockets of middlemen, he said. “While the contractor puts in their heart and soul working for the company, these ‘preferred vendors’ reap the benefits,” said Rayapati, referring to third parties in the hiring…
Startup Road Trip: Patent-packed PowerBox puts productivity at the press of a button
Startland’s Startup Road Trip series explores innovative and uncommon ideas finding success in rural America and Midwestern startup hubs outside the Kansas City metro. This series is possible thanks to the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, which leads a collaborative, nationwide effort to identify and remove large and small barriers to new business creation. PITTSBURG, KANSAS…
Kauffman, ECJC: Stagnant US entrepreneurship is a diversity issue that throwing money at Big Business won’t fix
Women, people of color, and rural residents remain punished by systemic barriers to starting businesses, said Wendy Guillies in a nationwide call to action that unites powerful Kansas City entrepreneurism advocates. “America’s economy is out of balance. We’ve got businesses that have become too entrenched and powerful, while people and communities across America are being…
KCultivator Q&A: Tin Ho skewers failure, beetle larvae on path to building stronger founders
Editor’s note: KCultivators is a lighthearted profile series to highlight people who are meaningfully enriching Kansas City’s entrepreneurial ecosystem. The KCultivator Series is sponsored by Plexpod, a progressive coworking platform offering next generation workspace for entrepreneurs, startups, and growth-stage companies of all sizes. Startup challenges aren’t limited to products and processes, said Tin Ho. “My…
Eliminate the wait: JoCo-based DashNow offers diners mobile pay, check-splitting tech
Joseph Layne was tired of waiting. Seated at a busy restaurant, he stirred the mental ingredients for DashNow, a mobile-based service allowing diners to pay-and-go without waiting on a server to swipe a credit card or make change. “I realized I had been sitting there 10 minutes [waiting for the bill], while there was a…
