Video: Foosball and whimsy are integral to the RFP365 ethos
April 4, 2016 | Bobby Burch
Kansas City foosball virtuoso Stuart Ludlow knows his way around the fútbol table.
With a strike rivaling a Black Mamba’s, Ludlow’s instincts and supple wrist on the foosball pitch puts to shame most any adversary. But perhaps equally as cunning is Ludlow’s savvy to integrate the table game into the workplace culture of RFP365, of which he’s a co-founder.
Founded in 2012, RFP365 created a software platform for issuers and receivers of requests for proposals — an often onerous process for organizations to solicit bids for commodities, services or assets. The company’s technology helps eliminate redundancies in the RFP process by providing streamlined tools to enable collaboration and improve workflow. It also allows RFP issuers to compare, track and monitor RFPs from respondents.
In 2015, RFP365 snagged the City of Kansas City, Mo. as a client, was named the 2015 “New Small Business of the Year” and raised $950,000 from regional angel investors.
As a small but quickly growing tech firm, RFP365 faces an ever-growing list of demands to juggle, creating stress that Ludlow and his co-founder, David Hulsen, aim to allay with foosball and a whimsical workplace. The company — which has seven employees and more than 200 customers in North America, Europe, Africa and Australia — recently moved to Kansas City’s Waldo District as part of an office expansion.
Check out the video below to learn more about the firm.

2016 Startups to Watch
stats here
Related Posts on Startland News
KC lands federal ‘Smart Cities Initiative’ grant
The White House announced a new ‘Smart Cities Initiative’ this week that will bolster the Kansas City tech community. The $160 million grant has a slew of moving parts, but one portion includes a $6 million grant from the National Science Foundation that 15 communities, including Kansas City, will benefit from. The exact amount each…
Pipeline accepting applications, heading abroad
Pipeline Entrepreneurs is welcoming applicants for its 10th fellowship class, which is now gearing up for a lively year of entrepreneurial education. Pipeline, an organization of powerful Midwestern entrepreneurs that conducts a fellowship each year, will be holding its development courses in Kansas City, St. Louis, Nebraska and Ireland. Pipeline CEO Joni Cobb said the…
Postmates launches on-demand delivery service in KC
Postmates is coming to Kansas City. Well, technically the San Francisco-based company is already here. The Kansas City area is one of 10 metros the on-demand delivery service is officially launching in on Sept. 17, but for those who have heard of Postmates and downloaded the app, the service is live. Similar to Uber, Postmates is organized through…
KC joins national STEM Ecosystem program
Kansas City was named one of 27 communities to pilot a national program aimed to boost the area science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM, ecosystem. There are still many unknowns following the announcement as community leaders involved wait for further direction from the STEM Ecosystem Initiative, but Science Pioneers executive director LeAnn Smith said…
