And then there was one: Blooom the sole local firm left in national pitch contest
November 17, 2015 | Bobby Burch
Financial tech startup Blooom is the lone Kansas City-area company to advance in the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation’s “One in a Million” pitch competition
Out of an initial field of more than 350 companies, the Leawood-based firm advanced to the final round of five in the foundation’s pitch contest. The competition, which will conclude the morning of Nov. 18 during Global Entrepreneurship Week, will award $10,000 to one startup that previously participated in the foundation’s 1 Million Cups program.
The other four startups to advance in the contest are: SwineTech of New Sharon, Iowa; Upsie of Minneapolis, Minn.; DryBox of San Antonio, Texas; and My Solar of Los Angeles, California. Two other Kansas City-area companies — Idle Smart and AEGLE Palette — failed to advance to the final round of five.
A star-studded lineup of businesspeople from around the nation will be judging Blooom and the other four startups. Judges in the competition’s final round of five startups are: Marcelo Claure, CEO of Sprint; Nicole Glaros, chief product officer of Techstars; and Paul Kedrosky, managing partner of SK Ventures.
Kansas City Mayor Sly James will present the first-place team the grand prize of $10,000, while second- and third-place winners will receive $5,000 and $1,000, respectively.
The Kauffman Foundation will be providing a live stream of the competition 9 a.m. Wednesday.
Featured Business
2015 Startups to Watch
stats here
Related Posts on Startland News
Cloud platform Packet opens KC office after $25M funding round in New York
New York-based Packet’s newly established Kansas City office is expected to take full advantage of the area’s wealth of tech talent, said Ihab Tarazi. “There is actually a very good technical base in Kansas City — so here’s validation of that,” said Tarazi, chief technology officer at the cloud infrastructure firm committed to “building a…
Fast track Missouri Hyperloop: Bipartisan support for 670-mph travel builds speed
It isn’t just a pipe dream. The arrival of bipartisan state and federal support for high-speed, cross-region travel means the much-anticipated Missouri Hyperloop project continues to shoot forward, Ryan Weber said. “For businesses, this could be a huge opportunity to create a new industry, attract new businesses and leverage a much larger workforce,” Weber, KC…
Skip restaurant lines (and downloading another app) with text-based ordering
In an increasingly automated world, American consumers are experiencing app exhaustion while continuing to need innovative solutions to address daily pain points like waiting in lines at their favorite restaurants, said Eric Tucker. “People are tired of downloading apps,” said Tucker, founder of KC-based Digital Baron, which delivers Skip, an app-less mobile and pay platform.…
Cleaner, more durable design: Future of construction is already Built, says Andrè Davis
Built Interior Construction is “precision-cutting” cities of the future by injecting innovation into the slow-moving construction industry, said Andrè Davis. “The challenges in our industry is that construction methods are so archaic,” said Davis, business development executive at the Kansas City interior construction firm, founded in 2016 by Russ Branden, David Anderson, and Mark Brandmeyer.…