Kansas City Chief Dontari Poe challenges students, startups with new contest
December 9, 2016 | Meghan LeVota
Veteran Kansas City Chief Dontari Poe is hosting a competition that bridges young Kansas Citians and entrepreneurship.
Set for Dec. 13 at Think Big Coworking, Poe Man’s Challenge will pair nine local startups with 30 Kansas City high school students and pitch the companies to a panel of celebrity judges, including Poe and his teammates. Participating students will receive coaching from startup founders and then pitch the company as if it is their own.
Poe said he’s excited to acquaint more young Kansas Citians with entrepreneurship.
“It’s important that kids get exposed to what startups are all about. It will put them in a good position,” Poe told Startland News. “I feel that they’ll be ahead of me, at my age, if they start now. … Even if they never do a startup, learning how to pitch is an important life skill. We are always pitching ourselves for all sorts of things.”
Poe recently made his first tech investment in Lab Sensor Solutions, a company based in Redwood City, Calif. He hopes that Poe Man’s Challenge will inspire students to gain an entrepreneurial mindset in students, thus making an impact in Kansas City.
Mark Nolte, the founder of Start Talking, said he’s participating in the event to help educate the next generation of entrepreneurs.
“The more these students can learn now, the better they will be prepared to be entrepreneurs,” he said. “I hope we will see more events like this in Kansas City in the future.”
Below are the participating Kansas City area startups. To learn more or to purchase tickets for the event,click here.
- 2020 Adventures
- Blooom
- Dreams KC
- FEWDM
- Idle Smart
- PreScreend
- Start Talking
- The Selling Company
- Super Dispatch
2016 Startups to Watch
stats here
Related Posts on Startland News
WATCH: KCK-raised R&B artist emerges from the ruins of vulnerability to ‘touch people’s souls’
For Alanzo McIntosh Jr., exploring his voice means journeying through the KCK native’s roots, along with themes of self-doubt and self-discovery, and a deep connection to the struggles faced by Black and brown people across the globe — and here at home, he shared. “I wanted to make music that spoke to the soul and spoke…
Loud is in season: How one designer plans to yell their angrily sewn message during KC Fashion Week
Dustin Loveland channeled love — and anger — into a debut spring and summer collection that premieres soon at Kansas City Fashion Week 2023. “I’ve had to deal with a lot of anger from the past couple of years for a variety of reasons,” said Loveland, a non-binary freelance designer and sewer in Kansas City.…
They started their own businesses; now these young founders are widening the pipeline to entrepreneurship for their peers
Aidan Hall felt the support of Kansas City’s entrepreneurial ecosystem when he launched what would become KC Handmade Goods as an eighth grader, he said; years later, the young business owner is working to pay that feeling forward. An Iowa State freshman and Shawnee Mission West graduate, Hall got his start selling duct tape wallets…
Lay off costly corporate conferences: Jewell Unlimited touts mobile-first microlearning in minutes
A learning agency funded by William Jewell College is bringing a fresh approach to professional development, hoping to curate the “unregulated mess” of digital information into mobile-first microlearning modules that will empower workers and help them advance their careers. “Every single thing throughout human history that has ever been learned and codified, it’s already available…