Maria Flynn

Pipeline announces award finalists, judges for the Innovators

The Kansas City-based Pipeline Entrepreneurial Fellowship announced Friday the award finalists and national judging panel for its annual awards, the Innovators. Formerly known as Innovator of the Year, Pipeline’s culminating event is set for Jan. 26, during which 13 fellows from the region will pitch their firms to the judges. Later in the day, the…

Joni Cobb and Pipeline took ‘a leap of faith’ that’s paying off

In 2006, Joni Cobb was busy coaxing Kansas business executives to apply for a program honing their leadership skills. Then a state-subsidized program, Pipeline would cultivate promising entrepreneurs that would tangentially grow the Sunflower State’s economy with their firms. Extolled as rigorous, the Pipeline sales pitch hit snags with its intensiveness and novelty. Skeptical entrepreneurs…