15 local companies selected for latest ScaleUP cohort

ScaleUp Kansas City announced Thursday the 15 entrepreneurs that were selected to the program’s latest cohort.

Since its launch in 2015, 62 local business owners have graduated from the four-month program, which offers immersive training for companies looking to scale.

“ScaleUP! KC has been — and continues to be — such a critical program for Kansas City’s small business entrepreneurs,” program director Jill Meyer said in a release. “It provides already successful business owners with the tools, coaching, peer mentors — and especially the time and guidance — to focus on effective strategies that will help them scale their businesses.”

ScaleUP! companies must have been in business for at least two years, generate annual sales of between $150,000 and $750,000 and must have the potential to reach to $1 million in sales.

Funded by the U.S. small business administration, ScaleUP! America awarded the University of Missouri-Kansas City as one of the first program contracts nationwide.

“When we talk about entrepreneurial development, empowering economic opportunities and ‘growing our own,’ ScaleUP! KC is what we mean,” Maria Meyers, the director of the UMKC Innovation Center, said in a release. “This program supports, develops and accelerates companies that create jobs and empower futures.”

Here are the members of ScaleUP!’s fifth cohort:

• J Brown, Structural Modeling & Analysis
• Shanita Bryant, Magnolia’s,
• Jessica Corbett, Hitched Planning + Floral
• Chris Goode, Ruby Jean’s Juicery
• Reggie Gray, H3Enterprises
• Gretchen Henry, ConsultUS Technology
• Marco Listrom, Valdes & Moreno, Inc.
• Delbert Olesen, Gold and More Jewelers
• Katie Petty, The Paw Wash
• Steve Pope, R2FACT Product Development
• Dawn Potts, H20 Window Cleaning, LLC
• Jorge Salazar, Salazar General Contractor, Inc.
• Heather Spalding, Cambrian
• Travis Thonen, Midwest Comfort Homes LLC
• Marisa Wiruhayarn, M-Power Enterprises, LLC