Claure, Bloch, Helzberg to discuss the entrepreneurial ‘grind’
August 24, 2015 | Bobby Burch
About 90 percent of startups fail.
And those that don’t must toil to walk the path of success. That grind to prosperity will be the subject of discussion during a speaking series that will feature titans of Kansas City entrepreneurship.
Kansas City’s Startup Grind — a program funded by Google for Entrepreneurs — aims to offer local businesspeople a chance to personally connect with successful entrepreneurs in their area. In coming months, the series will host such business behemoths as Sprint CEO Marcelo Claure, Helzberg Diamonds founder Barnett Helzberg, H&R Block co-founder Henry Bloch, Sherry Turner, executive director of the Women’s Business Center and Keith Molzer, general partner of Flyover Capital.
Turner will be the next featured guest at Startup Grind, set for Aug. 26 at Village Square Coworking Studio, 4436 State Line Road. Turner’s organization, the Women’s Business Center, helps women in the area find jobs, start businesses, get financing or invest in other businesses.
Startup Grind’s relaxed atmosphere allows attendees to more effectively network, which she said should attract young people hoping to make important connections.
“A casual environment that allows a healthy interactive dialogue between entrepreneurs and community leaders is vital to early stage companies,” Turner said. “This event is exactly what young entrepreneurs must participate in to make connections that can impact the viability of their ideas.”
Molzer, general partner of Flyover Capital said Kansas City continues to grow thanks in part to a sustained community enabling entrepreneurs to be successful. Events like Startup Grind help cultivate that community, he added.
“The entrepreneurial ecosystem in Kansas city has been building and thriving over two decades,” said Molzer, who will be a featured guest on Oct. 14. “With its great network of angel investors, entrepreneurial support organizations and exceptional talent, I think the ecosystem will continue to grow and prosper.
“Events like Startup Grind provide a great stage to showcase the best and brightest entrepreneurs and the elite business leaders that can impact our region’s entrepreneurial ecosystem,” Molzer added.
Other top speakers include Sprint CEO Marcelo Claure, who leads one of the nation’s largest wireless carriers, and previously operated Brightstar, a company he founded in 1997 that grew into a global business with more than $10 billion in revenue. Claure will sit down for a conversation on Sept. 23.
One of more than 185 programs worldwide, Kansas City’s Startup Grind has featured such speakers as C2FO CEO Sandy Kemper, FarmLink CEO Ron LeMay, Thing Big Partners Managing Partner Herb Sih, University of Missouri-Kansas City Chancellor Leo Morton and many others.
Featured Business
2015 Startups to Watch
stats here
Related Posts on Startland News
Need for speed: Mozilla awards $101K to local gigabit projects
The Mozilla Gigabit Community Fund announced it will award a total of $101,000 to fund six local projects that use gigabit technology to impact learning. The Gigabit Community Fund is a national partnership between the National Science Foundation, US Ignite and Mozilla. Locally, the fund partners with KC Digital Drive, whose goal is to leverage…
Firebrand Ventures joins $6.85M round in Des Moines startup
Continuing a streak of investments, Kansas City-based Firebrand Ventures joined a sizable investment in an Iowa-based payments processing startup. Firebrand joined six other venture funds in a $6.85 million funding round in Des Moines-based Dwolla, which builds applications that facilitate bank transfers, manages customers and verifies bank accounts. The round was led by Union Square…
Challenging the notion of ‘entitled millennials,’ Rise Fast empowers young people
When the economy took a turn for the worst in 2008, many millennials saw their parents and grandparents laid off by companies they’d been loyal to for years. Eze Redwood said that although it’s easy to gloss over the impact that traumatic events have on a generation’s psyche, young professionals carry the weight of this…
As engagement grows, KC Women in Technology gears up for 2017
Imagine if the next Mark Zuckerberg was a young female living in Kansas City. Despite an interest and aptitude in technology, imagine she walks into a popular clothing store and seeing a shirt that reads: “I’m too pretty to do math.” Subliminal messages such as this are not an uncommon occurrence for many young women.…