ScaleUP! KC announces eighth cohort of firms eyeing serious growth

August 24, 2018  |  Startland News Staff

2018 ScaleUP! Kansas City cohort

The ScaleUP! Kansas City program has welcomed another large batch of growing companies hoping to accelerate their businesses.

ScaleUP announced Wednesday that it accepted 17 Kansas City area companies into its ranks, offering the firms mentorship, resources and connections.

The new cohort of entrepreneurs represent varied industries, such as IT, wellness, landscaping, education, architecture and more, said Jill Meyer, program director of ScaleUP! KC. Including the latest group of businesses, ScaleUP! Has helped 126 companies grow through its free program, amplifying their economic impact in the region, she added.

Year after year, we see that ScaleUP! KC is such a vital program for the city’s small business owners — and you can see that in the numbers,” Meyer said.

With two cohorts per year, the program helps qualified businesses with revenues above $200,000 reach their expansion goals by leveraging and expanding existing proven programs, synergies and connections in the Kansas City region, according to ScaleUP!

ScaleUP! is funded through a grant from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation and administered by the UMKC Innovation Center.

Here’s more on the 17 business leaders now in the ScaleUP! program.

startland-tip-jar

TIP JAR

Did you enjoy this post? Show your support by becoming a member or buying us a coffee.

2018 Startups to Watch

    stats here

    Related Posts on Startland News

    Brandon Love, Crumble Co

    Wonka of Wax: Dark times melt into quirky joy for Brandon Love’s Crumble Co

    By Tommy Felts | December 15, 2017

    With scents as varied as “Lavender Lemonade” and “Drunken Unicorn,” Brandon Love’s Crumble Co. burns in a unique — Love would say “joyful” — space within the candle market. A wide grin spreads across the 21-year-old founder’s face as he notes the name of the wax melt spreading aroma throughout his loft apartment at One…

    Football tech startup Lazser Down scores big with NCAA championship game

    By Tommy Felts | December 14, 2017

    When two out-of-state foes face off Saturday at Children’s Mercy Park, the NCAA Division II Championship game will still host a hometown team. The title game — between West Florida University and Texas A&M University-Commerce — features local tech created by Lazser Down, a Kansas City-based startup that created a new down marker system that uses…

    Gerald Smith

    Plexpod acquires Think Big Coworking, expanding KC footprint

    By Tommy Felts | December 14, 2017

    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…

    Carlanda McKinney, Raaxo

    Raaxo takes shape after pivot from Aphrodite Bra Co’s body scan concept

    By Tommy Felts | December 13, 2017

    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.’…