Photos: Innovation Exchange returns with Top KC Startups to Watch celebration
February 28, 2018 | Startland Staff
So … What’s your spirit animal?
Eleven startup founders and leaders joined Startland News and the Kansas City Startup Foundation on stage Tuesday for a rebooted Innovation Exchange experience — complete with casual conversation, jazz and few unexpected queries.
Saluting the Top Kansas City Startups to Watch in 2018, the rapid-fire, Q&A-style event showcased the innovative ideas behind the firms Startland thinks will be the year’s biggest newsmakers. Among the honorees were Plexpod, PayIt, Bardavon, Rx Savings Solutions, Swell Spark, Mycroft, Super Dispatch, Made in KC, RFP365, Ruby Jean’s Juicery, and Cambrian.
Plexpod’s Westport Commons coworking community literally set the stage for Innovation Exchange, with Startland and KCSF also tapping top startups Ruby Jean’s Juicery for food and drinks for about 175 guests, and Swell Spark for commemorative plaques for the honorees.
Huge thanks to our sponsors of the Innovation Exchange, including the Brain Family, NBKC, Polsinelli, GXP Investments, Plexpod and Think Big Partners.
Watch for details on the next Innovation Exchange, coming in March! In the meantime, enjoy photos from Tuesday’s event below.
Cheers!
Featured Business
2018 Startups to Watch
stats here
Related Posts on Startland News
Proof is in the spending: CEO-to-CEO Challenge yields results in diversifying supply chains
Editor’s note: The following story was sponsored by KC Rising, a regional initiative to help Kansas City grow faster and more intentionally, as part of a campaign to promote its CEO-to-CEO Challenge on supplier diversity. When she started researching the institutional knowledge at MMC Corp. about working with diverse suppliers, national purchasing director Kelli Fraas found the process was…
Her new role is reenvisioning one of KC’s most iconic events for entrepreneurs; how Callie England is shaking up GEW
Callie England misses the life of an entrepreneur, she shared, but her new role with the UMKC Innovation Center — and GEWKC — allows her to stay in the game without being on the field. As of January, the veteran Kansas City startup founder is responsible for managing the branding and marketing initiatives of the…
Sand volleyball tourney for early-career professions works to ‘Spike the Stigma’ on mental health
Joining the workforce is no walk on the beach, said Mark Potts, but give him and his teammates a few hours in the sun and sand on a Saturday afternoon and it could be. “Nobody is on their journey alone,” said Potts, president of the Go Further Foundation, explaining the organization’s purpose and its goal…
Sailes closes $5.1M investment round led by STL firm, with KCRise Fund, Wichita VC
The foundation for Sailes has always been solving difficult problems for sales teams, said Nick Smith; the success of a Series A funding round for the startup will power new tools toward that goal. “Everyone is on this AI hype train, and we’ve been for AI for a while. But it’s not just about using…