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
90 on the Clock with Mighty Handle
90 on the Clock with Mighty Handle By John McGrath, KCPT, and Bobby Burch, Startland News Ed’s Note: Flatland and Startland News have partnered to highlight Kansas City’s innovators and entrepreneurs, all in 90 seconds. This is the fifth and final episode in the series. Think of Mighty Handle as your digital defender. No, Mighty Handle is not anti-virus…
Gooding: Create your own market — don’t compete in someone else’s
“It’s a $100 million dollar industry, all I have to do is capture 1 percent of that market and I’ll make a million dollars.” After working with hundreds of startups, I have heard this statement countless times. This way of thinking is held by many business owners regardless of their industry, background or target market.…
From Mizzou to Spike TV, Tommy Saunders’ ab rollers hit national stage
Tommy Saunders is serious about fitness — one glance at his eight-pack and pythons for arms makes that clear. But the Kansas City entrepreneur is also serious about business, a fact he plans to prove as part of a reality-competition series debuting Tuesday on Spike TV. A former University of Missouri football standout, Saunders recently…
Blooom co-founder dissects $4M raise
Financial tech firm Blooom recently snagged one of the Kansas City area’s largest funding rounds in months. QED Investors from Alexandria, Va., led Blooom’s $4 million Series A round, which also included investments from DST Systems Inc., Commerce Ventures, Hyde Park Venture Partners and UMB. The Leawood-based firm plans to use the funds to hire new sales…