Entrepreneurs discuss trials, triumphs with Athena League
September 17, 2015 | Ashley Jost
Embracing chaos and persistence.
Those were the two main themes that arose from Athena League’s Techweek event Thursday morning.
Athena League worked in conjunction with Techweek to host Hailee Bland-Walsh, owner and CEO of City Gym KC, and Jill Minton, founder and CEO of t.Loft, to speak to a crowd of roughly 100 about their trials and triumphs in entrepreneurship. Athena League is an organization that focuses on providing a community of support to female entrepreneurs.
Both women highlighted diligence, among other things, while talking about how they started with their respective businesses.
Bland-Walsh said she was raised in a house of entrepreneurs and was told from an early age that if she wanted something, she had to find a way to pay for it. A babysitting business and a college degree later, she applied the same mentality to her company.
“Entrepreneurship is a personality trait,” she said.
Let go of the idea of having a work-life balance, Bland-Walsh continued. Instead she said that businesspeople need to find work-life alignment and embrace the chaos that results from owning their own business.
Minton shared with the crowd at Union Station the sacrifices she made when launching a business.
“I had a great career… and when I started to dream about going out on our own, we had to make a decision to downsize our lives,” Minton said.
Her resilience appears to have paid off as t.Loft now has three locations that make health food and drinks. The company is planning to open another location soon in the Country Club Plaza.
To learn more about the Athena League and its VOX events, click here.
Featured Business
2015 Startups to Watch
stats here
Related Posts on Startland News
Report: KC is a tech hub but labor shortage is hampering growth
Each day, Kansas City is better positioning itself to be the Midwest’s tech hub. But for Kansas City to realize its full potential, tech leaders, policymakers and the community need to do more to cultivate homegrown talent, KC Tech Council president Ryan Weber said. “Attracting talent from another city is a very small game — and…
KC tech startup partners with Children’s Mercy to help diagnose, manage care
Kansas City-based Engage Mobile Solutions developed a mobile app assisting pediatricians at Children’s Mercy Hospital, treating children facing acute illnesses and injuries. The tech firm created “CMPeDS: Pediatric Decision Support” to provide healthcare professionals with evidence-based guidelines to manage patients who are facing acute illnesses such as infections, or children who are experiencing acute injuries,…
UMKC eyes ‘final four’ of Enactus contest attracting thousands of student entrepreneurs to KC
Kansas City will soon become the entrepreneurial epicenter for a national, collegiate competition and conference challenging young innovators to do good in their communities. From May 21 to 23, Kansas City will host more than 2,000 entrepreneurial college students for the Enactus United States National Exposition. Founded in 1975, Enactus challenges students from more than…
Kauffman VP hops on national TV to discuss gaps in entrepreneurship
The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation’s vice president of entrepreneurship recently took to national television to examine declining startup rates. CNBC recently featured Victor Hwang to discuss the trend in declining startup rates, including generational gaps, cultural shifts, limited access to capital and the impact of regulations. “It’s hard to pin it down exactly,” Hwang told…