,

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.

[pullquote]

Check out these stories from the previous 2018 ScaleUP! cohort

• CEO Raina Knox: Millennials don’t have a monopoly on startup momentum

• KC-based SouveNEAR vending machine startup prepping to scale up

• KC Shave Company cuts its own niche with blades of disruption

[/pullquote]

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.

Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Featured Business
    Featured Founder

      Startland News Staff

      2018 Startups to Watch

        stats here

        Related Posts on Startland News

        Frustrated by the fit, this traveler-turned-swimwear founder crafted 10 pairs himself; now his trunk show is going global

        By Tommy Felts | December 3, 2025

        Opening a popup swimwear store in one of Atlanta’s most upscale malls represented a surge of momentum for Tristan Davis’ high-end brand that began not on a beach or a runway, but in Kansas City’s tight-knit startup community. “We’ve gone from an idea in a handmade bathing suit to a high fashion mall in less…

        Harvesting opportunity: How a KC chicken chain turned a strip of parking lot into its latest ingredient

        By Tommy Felts | December 2, 2025

        Months before snow blanketed Kansas City this week, Todd Johnson transformed a weed-filled, unusable portion of parking lot at his Lenexa restaurant into a flourishing garden that serves up fresh produce used in kitchens at all three of his Strips Chicken and Brewing locations in Johnson County. In its first season, Moonglow Gardens — as…

        AI evolved faster than rules to protect people; this founder wants to code ethics back into the tech

        By Tommy Felts | December 2, 2025

        Amber Stewart sees what many overlook in artificial intelligence, she said: the human cost of unregulated technology that can manifest as anything from sexist and racist outcomes to outright theft from willing and unwilling members of the public. “I’m not afraid of the tech,” said Stewart, founder and CEO of GuardianSync. “I’m afraid of unfettered…

        A romantic hideaway (for you and a book): Entrepreneur’s heart for reading opens store on Independence Square

        By Tommy Felts | December 2, 2025

        America Fontenot didn’t plan to launch her new Independence bookstore on national Small Business Saturday — the busiest shopping weekend of the year — but renovation delays just kept pushing back the opening, she said. So while many small shops were offering Black Friday-adjacent deals to get customers in the front door, Fontenot’s The Littlest…