Listen: From Brazil to Kansas City, furniture entrepreneur shares journey
March 28, 2017 | Startland Staff
Editor’s note: In partnership with the KC Greats podcast, hosted by Scott Parman, Startland News hopes to offer its audience more avenues to learn about entrepreneurs in Kansas City. Opinions expressed in this commentary are the author’s alone.
In this episode, host Scott Parman welcomes the founder of Freedom Companies Carol Espinosa.

Carol Espinosa
Hailing from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Espinosa attended the University of Kansas for Creative Writing. Her path unexpectedly led her to working at a local office furniture dealership. After seven years on the job, Espinosa eventually opened her own independent office furniture firm Freedom Companies.
Espinosa shares how she managed to break into an established industry as a newcomer as well as her trek to becoming an American citizen.
Learn more with the podcast below.

2017 Startups to Watch
stats here
Related Posts on Startland News
Plexpod acquires Think Big Coworking, expanding KC footprint
Plexpod isn’t playing. Amid Kansas City’s competitive coworking market, Plexpod is doubling down with the acquisition of Think Big Coworking’s 1712 Main Street location, Plexpod founder Gerald Smith said. The acquisition adds more than 30,000 square feet of space to Plexpod’s already large footprint in the area and forges a new partnership between the two…
Raaxo takes shape after pivot from Aphrodite Bra Co’s body scan concept
Despite its use of body-mapping technology, Aphrodite Bra Company wasn’t the right fit for customers’ needs, said Carlanda McKinney, founder of the newly rebooted custom intimates company Raaxo. “Aphrodite had been stuck in the starting-up space,” she said. “We’d never really gotten enough sales or enough traction to say, ‘We’re launched,’ or, ‘We’re in business.’…
KC mom’s humble entrepreneurial journey draws on healing power of creativity
Huddled in her parents’ basement, between the cribs of her crying twin babies, Keliah Smith began to draw. She was unemployed and feeling emotionally drained. The relationship with her children’s father had soured. Her escape: the stylus and smartphone in her hands. The Kansas City mother drew what she didn’t see in the mirror, she…
