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
Brick by brick: How used LEGOs are making innovation more tangible for KC kids in need
Solopreneur Rhonda Jolyean Hale believes that all children deserve access to play — no matter their circumstances. As the Kansas City ambassador for the Pass the Bricks initiative, she’s working to build that reality by giving new life to donated LEGO bricks. “We take gently used LEGO bricks — not the stuff the dog chews…
Novel Capital teams with Crux KC to offer growth-focused marketing to early-stage tech companies
An exclusive partnership between two Kansas City-based innovators is expected to help remove a traditional financial hurdle to business growth, said Ethan Whitehill, president and chief strategy officer for the KC Chamber-lauded marketing firm Crux KC. The collaboration between Crux and Overland Park-headquartered capital provider Novel Capital is expected to offer B2B SaaS and tech…
Neighborhood smart cans help Kansas Citians save the planet from their kitchens
Newly introduced composting technology is already turning new ground in Kansas City, Kristan Chamberlain said, with more solar-powered compost cans arriving later this spring across the metro’s urban landscape. Her social venture, KC Can Compost, installed three of the devices in October — free to use for KCMO residents wanting to deposit their soil-making food…
Voodoo Volleyball bounces back in OP: Father-daughter duo doubles as new venture’s setters
Quinn Austin put several sports to the test as a preteen — racing from basketball practice to softball to volleyball. But she latched on to just one. “Volleyball. It was my sport. Everyone was having a good time,” she said. “We just loved the cheers — a cheer when we got a hit, a cheer…
