Some like it hot: KC named top startup town
August 6, 2015 | Bobby Burch
You’re hot, Kansas City, and it’s not just your sweltering summer heat.
Entrepreneur Magazine recently named Kansas City — Mo. and Kan. — as one of nine “hot startup cities” that are outside of San Francisco and New York City.
Although Kansas City is also known for its tech prowess, the magazine largely noted the City of Fountains as a foodie town that concocts a variety of specialty foods. Entrepreneur reported that since 2013, 71 new food companies launched in the area.
“Krizman’s House of Sausage has been selling ethnic sausages and knockwurst to Kansas City locals since 1939,” the article reads. “It’s one of the city’s growing number of specialty-foods businesses—including bakeries, breweries, distilleries, candy-makers and, of course, bottlers of barbecue sauce. Driving this growth are three local food-business incubators, including the Farm to Table Kitchen housed at the famed City Market, designed to help ‘foodpreneurs’ connect with mentors, commercial kitchens, collaborative infrastructure, marketing awareness and the greater Kansas City food community.”
Other cities on Entrepreneur’s “hot startup cities” list are Salt Lake City, Baltimore, Nashville, Sacramento, Minneapolis – St. Paul, Houston, Boston and Los Angeles.
Featured Business

2015 Startups to Watch
stats here
Related Posts on Startland News
KCultivator Q&A: April Boyd-Noronha opens up on access to technology, authentic change
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 WeWork Corrigan Station, a modern twist on Kansas City office space.Awakening education and business potential while in your pajamas is an unexpected side effect of rapid technological advancement, said April…
KC Pinoy parks restaurant in West Bottoms, plans fiesta of Filipino flavors
KC Pinoy’s new spot on Genessee Street in the West Bottoms was an opportunity that just fell into Chrissy Nucum’s lap, said the owner of the Filipino food truck turned brick-and-mortar restaurant. “I wanted something where there’s a sense of community within whatever area we choose,” said Nucum. “When the West Bottoms Kitchen decided to…
Curb appeal attracts investors to $850K round for real estate tech firm RealQuantum
A year of steady growth will help Kansas City real estate tech firm RealQuantum end 2018 with the close of its first round of seed funding — securing $850,000 in investments, revealed Mark Davis. “We closed a couple of times actually — people just kept showing up at the last minute wanting in,” Davis, RealQuantum’s…
Battery Tour energizes Sunshine Boxes with global vision to power developing economies through music
AY Young’s recent Battery Tour generated enough money to send two of 17° 73° Innovation Co’s Sunshine Boxes to Haiti — the first step in a partnership between the two ventures with common goals, the energetic founder said. “[We] just realized that we were trying to kind of do the same thing as far as…
