Tommy Felts
Editor-In-Chief, Startland News
Tommy is editor-in-chief for Startland News, a Kansas City-based nonprofit newsroom that uses storytelling to elevate the region’s startup community of entrepreneurs, innovators, hustlers, creatives and risk-takers.
Under Tommy’s leadership, Startland News has expanded its coverage from a primarily high-tech, high-growth focus to a more wide-ranging and inclusive look at the faces of entrepreneurism, innovation and business.
Before joining Startland News in 2017, Tommy worked for 12 years as an award-winning newspaper journalist, designer, editor and publisher. He was named one of Editor & Publisher magazine’s top “25 Under 35” in 2014.
Recent Stories by Tommy Felts
KC-based Contract Canvas earns finalist slot for WeWork Creator Awards in Nashville
Returning to WeWork’s Creator Awards to pitch Contract Canvas was a defining moment for Chris Brown, as well as the year-old legal startup, he said. “I worked harder on this pitch than perhaps any pitch I’ve ever given,” said Brown, hours after a flight back from meeting with Creator Awards judges in New York City…
First down for Healthy Hip Hop: Roy Scott teams with Champ for game-changing reboot
If it’s making money, don’t give up on it, said Roy Scott, rapper-turned-founder of Healthy Hip Hop. A new partnership with Champ System — a growing Kansas City sports apparel company with a popular hip hop-inspired mascot — will keep the performance- and tech-based startup in school gymnasiums and beyond as Scott’s company continues a…
Limited edition: Champ System carries sports apparel from the field to Westport
When the choice came down to quick, easy money or grinding out his own brand, Maurice Woodard played the long game. His payoff comes Saturday with the grand opening of Champ System’s first brick-and-mortar ChampZone storefront in Westport. “You’re going to look different because there’s such a limited amount that we’ll release,” he said, noting…
Photos: KC Coworking Day sings virtues of big ideas in startup spaces
KC Coworking Day is a celebration of people whose vision exceeds their circumstances, said Bob Martin. “If you’re an entrepreneur, and you have a vision, I hope your vision is so big that you’re uncomfortable sharing it with everybody — that there’s only a handful of people to whom you’re going to say, ‘This is…
’Cue new markets: Burnt Finger duo taking Kansas City BBQ to Home Shopping Network
The smokin’ popularity of Kansas City’s Burnt Finger BBQ has been less of an explosion and more of a slow char, said Megan Day — culminating in a new line of fully cooked barbecue products set to debut Aug. 14 on the Home Shopping Network. “Classic 10-year overnight success,” joked Megan, one half of the…
Aug. 9 KC Coworking Day celebrates the future of work — happening now in Kansas City
Editor’s note: The following content about KC Coworking Day is sponsored by the KC Coworking Alliance but independently produced by Startland News. After setting a world record in 2017 for the most people coworking in the same place, KC Coworking Day is set to return Aug. 9 with a party meant to spark even greater…
Emerging from failure: Doughnut Lounge founder gets raw among startup peers (IXKC photos)
Jake Randall’s “crazy dream” — a collision of craft, creativity and conversation contained in Westport’s Doughnut Lounge — was gone in a matter of 24 hours, he said. “I found out on Monday. And we closed on Tuesday,” Randall told a crowd of startup community peers this week at Startland’s Innovation Exchange. “I was embarrassed….
ShotTracker tech nets entry into NCAA Division 1 sports with Hall of Fame tourney
ShotTracker is advancing in the bracket of startup success, company officials announced Thursday, revealing their game-changing, sensor-based, stat and analytics tracking system will debut this fall at the 2018 NCAA Division I Hall of Fame Classic. In partnership with the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC), ShotTracker technology — which uses sensors in players’ shoes,…
Former high school rivals from MADE, Local Legends ‘Play It Forward’ in bid to revive South KC
Organizers of the Aug. 12 Play It Forward charity basketball game traded playful taunts as they approached the doors of the former Hickman Mills High School gymnasium. “They painted over your cougar,” said AbdulRasheed Yahaya, a Ruskin High School graduate, referencing the giant eagle logo affixed to the former Hickman facility that now is part…
Founder: RFP365’s new Client Discovery launch shows startup-corporate deals build stronger tech products
A new product module from RFP365 defies common perceptions about Kansas City corporations overlooking tech talent in the startup community, said co-founder Stuart Ludlow, announcing the launch of Client Discovery. “Traditionally, we always say that an RFP [request for proposal] involves two people,” he said, describing the product. “Someone writes an RFP and then a…