LaunchKC earns honors of its own, must still keep hustling, KC eco devo leader says
October 13, 2018 | Elyssa Bezner
Receiving the Bronze Excellence in Economic Development Award proves the real market value for programs like LaunchKC, said Drew Solomon.
Drew Solomon, Economic Development Corporation of Kansas City
The win has been energizing, said Solomon, senior vice president of business and job development at the Economic Development Corporation of Kansas City, which partners with the Downtown Council of Kansas City to make the program liftoff.
LaunchKC awards $500,000 to nine startups each year through its popular grant competition. Click here to read about this year’s winners — awarded Friday in Power & Light.
The program earned its own honor earlier this month from the International Economic Development Council, the world’s largest membership organization for economic development professionals, in Atlanta, Georgia.
“[The award is] validating, but there’s still a ton of work to do,” said Solomon. “We’ve got to keep hustling and doing all the things that we do.”
LaunchKC has awarded $1.5 million in funding to 29 startups to date, spanning a spectrum of tech-related industries, according to a press release.
“This year, our judges reviewed some extraordinary projects that advanced both communities and businesses,” said Craig Richard, 2018 IEDC board chair. “What we learn from each other helps us to grow and advance as a profession. We look forward to even greater participation from economic developers across the globe in the 2019 awards program.”
Click here to read more about how LaunchKC has impacted grant recipients.
Featured Business
2018 Startups to Watch
stats here
Related Posts on Startland News
Health scare forced KC’s colorful wax guru to get serious: ‘This is Crumble growing up with me’
Brandon Love is keeping his iconic, brightly-colored hair, but melting away distractions that could be holding back his already wildly successful, but evolving lifestyle brand, Crumble Co., he said. The first to go: Some of the eye-catching candle and wax product names that first caught customers’ attention because of their tongue-in-cheek innuendos and four-letter words,…
Insecure phones, devices creating largest-ever sensor grid (for China) in US homes, says Pepper cyber security report
As an industry, the state of cyber security is a “hot mess,” Scott Ford said candidly. “Frankly, its at a point where it ought to be concerning to everybody,” Ford, CEO of Pepper IoT, said in response to a new report that examines the state of the IoT space and released as part of a…
Missouri Hyperloop talk turns to motion sickness, comfort at high-speeds
But how will it feel? With the feasibility of a high-speed Missouri Hyperloop route connecting Kansas City to St. Louis in about 30 minutes now established, the conversation has shifted tracks to ergonomics, said Diana Zhou. Curious members of the public want to know more about the safety of the proposed transportation mode’s 600-plus-mph speeds,…
$300K Kauffman grant will keep no-cost LaunchCode coding classes in KC another two years
Sourced in community building through enhanced access to resources, a grant from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation will allow LaunchCode Kansas City to continue its training program for at least two additional years, the program announced Thursday. “It’s very exciting. We know that it’s, in part, through the vision of the Kauffman Foundation that LaunchCode…