ScaleUP! KC welcomes 16 new entrepreneurs to the program
June 7, 2017 | Meghan LeVota
On Wednesday ScaleUP! KC welcomed 16 new entrepreneurs into its incubator program’s sixth cohort.
To qualify, ScaleUP! companies must be in business for at least two years, generate annual sales of between $150,000 and $750,000 and have the potential to reach to $1 million in sales. Startups from the latest cohort represent industries such as software development, healthcare, construction, consulting, cleaning services and more.
Since its launch in 2015, the program has cultivated 77 business owners’ skills. Alumni have gone on to expand facilities, raise capital, launch products and hire more employees.
Jill Meyer, program director of ScaleUP! KC, said that the program has proven to be impactful for the Kansas City entrepreneurial ecosystem.
“ScaleUP! KC has been—and continues to be—such a critical program for Kansas City’s small business entrepreneurs, those businesses, research shows us, that create jobs and fortify our local economy,” 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.”
Funded in part by the U.S. Small Business Administration, ScaleUP! America awarded the University of Missouri-Kansas City one of the first program contracts nationwide.
On May 30, the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation announced that ScaleUP! KC was one of the eight recipients of its KC Accelerator Challenge, awarding a grant to the program.
“Winning this award will help ScaleUP! further strengthen the success of our alumni with continued coaching and peer mentoring and help us reach deeper into the KC community to support the growth of KC’s small businesses,” Meyer said in a release.
Here are the members of ScaleUP!’s sixth cohort:
- Thomas Assel, Assel Consulting LLC,
- Chris Ayala, First Response Construction LLC
- Cristina Betts, MD HomeCare, LLC
- Sheryl Briggs, ClassApps LLC
- Dawn Cramer, Cramer Capital Management,
- John Crum, Crum Cleaning
- Kathy Gates, The Running Well Store
- Chris Goodwin, Insurance Pros
- April Kramer, Apple Pie Painting
- Nick Lewman, Matai Services
- Elizabeth McFadden, Novella Brandhouse Group, Inc,
- Mani Raman, Yotabites Consulting LLC
- Sara Noble, Noble Designs, Inc.
- Brendan O’Shaunghessy, Ocean & Sea
- Jennifer Rosenblatt, MusicSpoke
- Lori Worthington, Right Angle Advisors
2017 Startups to Watch
stats here
Related Posts on Startland News
Andy Stoll: Entrepreneurial ecosystem answers aren’t inside the Kauffman Foundation
Editor’s note: This content was sponsored by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation but independently produced by Startland News. Acting in a Bollywood film. Pie making on Armenian television. Cooking on a dude ranch in Australia. Sewing in a dress factory in Bangkok. Farming maize in Zambia. Each revealed a lesson and mission for Andy Stoll.…
Rx Savings secures $18.4M funding round, nears 2 million members
An $18.4 million funding round is the prescription Rx Savings Solutions needs to expand its fight against a crippling, yet common ailment, said Michael Rea. “Everyone in the nation has the same problem — high drug costs — and most people don’t know there are options to save money,” said Rea, founder and chief executive…
Before prime time: Did Amazon’s 1999 arrival in Kansas deliver on hype?
In 1999, Amazon — still in its infancy — meant only two things to most consumers: low-priced books and CDs. But for one small town in Kansas, residents believed the online retailer had the potential to be a game-changer for their economically depressed, rural community. “People in Coffeyville were practically doing cartwheels in the streets,” said…
FCC head: Repealing net neutrality will boost innovation, investment; startups disagree
The Federal Communications Commission is preparing to eliminate regulatory rules that prohibit internet service providers from interfering with consumers’ access to web content. FCC chairman Ajit Pai announced in a Wall Street Journal op-ed that the regulatory body will vote Dec. 14 to repeal 2015 Obama-era regulations. That regulatory model, referred to as Title II,…