Popular ScaleUp! KC program welcoming area applicants
September 9, 2015 | Bobby Burch
ScaleUp! Kansas City is now accepting applications from area entrepreneurs that hope to boost their businesses through mentorship and a strong network of peers.
The program, which is now in the midst of its second class, welcomes about 15 businesspeople that aim to push their firm’s revenue past $1 million annually. ScaleUp! KC connects entrepreneurs with mentors, peers and resources to grow their businesses.
Operated by the University of Missouri-Kansas City Innovation Center, the program’s third cohort will be accepting applications until Nov. 23 and will begin in January.
“We know it’s important to attract and recruit companies to Kansas City, but growing our own [and] helping our homegrown businesses scale is critical to strengthening our economy, creating jobs and improving lives,” said Maria Meyers, director of the UMKC Innovation Center. “ScaleUP! KC wraps vital resources around Kansas City entrepreneurs who already know success and want to build bigger, better businesses right here in Kansas City. We’re energized that so many entrepreneurs — 32 to date — are using the program to strengthen their businesses and to create economic impact.”
ScaleUp! KC director Jill Meyer said that the program has made a significant impact on the entrepreneurs’ businesses since its January 2015 start.
Jowler Creek Vineyard & Winery recently received a loan to add a 6,000 square-foot facility to triple its footprint and increase production by more than 300 percent. El Padrino Apparel and Soccer Nation in June won the Kansas City Kansas Chamber of Commerce’s Small Business of the Year award.
“It’s been quite impressive to see the progress these companies have made in such a short time,” Meyer said in a release.
To be accepted into the program, entrepreneurs must lead a company that’s at least two-years-old, drive annual sales between $150,000 and $750,000, have a market that can generate more than $1 million in revenue and the determination to exceed that mark.
Click here to learn more about those now in the program.
Featured Business
2015 Startups to Watch
stats here
Related Posts on Startland News
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…
Homegrown Resonate Pictures cultivates corporate market through creative risks
The same creative energy reverberating through cities like Los Angeles, New York City and Portland can be found in Kansas City, said Marc Havener, the filmmaker behind Lawrence-based Resonate Pictures. His message for fellow creatives: “We can make this back home.” After 10 years on the sets of blockbuster movies like “Pirates of the Caribbean,”…
Happy Food gathers ingredients for nationwide grocery platform, meal-locating app
Happy Food Co. has grown beyond distributing flavorful meal kits through small, standalone coolers at Kansas City-area Price Chopper and Hen House locations, said chef and co-founder Kiersten Firquain. The 2017 Startland Under the Radar startup has now developed a software platform — in partnership with retailers nationwide and 75 local vendors — to enable grocers…