Newly launched Dare to Venture competition set to award $30K in micro-grants
January 15, 2020 | Startland News Staff
Participants in a series of select entrepreneurship courses this winter will be eligible to win a total of $30,000 in micro-grant awards thanks to the Urban Business Growth Initiative.
Funded by the City of Kansas City, Missouri, and administered by the UMKC Innovation Center, the new Dare to Venture Micro-Grant Competition is expected to feature numerous prizes with a top winner earning at least $5,000.
“A $5,000 prize can make a world a difference to a business owner who has already done the groundwork to build their dream,” said Carmen DeHart, senior director of entrepreneurial education at the UMKC Innovation Center. “We want this competition to support, spotlight and even spark the work and courage that goes into being an entrepreneur.”
The prizes are grants with no equity component, DeHart emphasized, and judging falls to peers — fellow entrepreneurs who’ve shared the journey of entrepreneurship and continued education.
Dare to Venture also rewards entrepreneurs who have already invested in their entrepreneurial education by taking a multi-session, 30-hour+ entrepreneurship class, getting a coach (a part of the class) and building their peer network, she said. And finally, judging falls to peers — fellow entrepreneurs who’ve shared this journey of entrepreneurship and continued education.
Mishawnda and James Mintz, Urban Business Growth Initiative alumni
The competition is open to all UBGI scholarship-funded graduates — past or current — of the center’s 30-hour+ entrepreneurship courses who currently live in or whose businesses are located in Kansas City, Missouri. Graduates of extended entrepreneurship courses that start in late January and February 2020 also are eligible to enter the competition.
Click here for a list of qualifying entrepreneurship courses.
Contest applications open March 15, 2020.
Click here for a full competition description, timeline and rules.
Click here to apply for a UBGI scholarship, which can bring the cost of classes down to $75.
Winners will be announced at a city-sponsored event May 7 during the U.S. Small Business Administration’s National Small Business Week.
“The micro-grant competition is an idea generated through startup community participation in the City Budget Speakeasy public input sessions,” said Rick Usher, assistant city manager of the City of Kansas City, Missouri. “It’s exciting to see this come to fruition through our partnership with the UMKC Innovation Center.”
Featured Business
2020 Startups to Watch
stats here
Related Posts on Startland News
Married puppeteers had a hand in reviving iconic Mr. Rogers characters for film; now they’ve returned to KC (with their studio)
Puppeteers are often anonymous, but Spencer Lott — and his wife and business partner, Grace Townley — are stepping into the spotlight to start their own creative studio, they shared. The Lawrence-based couple — who built the puppets used in the Tom Hanks film “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood” about the life of TV’s…
Show-Me Honeywell: How this high-security KC tech campus became a one-day classroom for Missouri school leaders
A group of Missouri educators, counselors and administrators took a summer trip across the state to visit notable companies and learn firsthand about relevant career pathways for their students, detailed Brian Crouse. Among the behind-the-scenes looks: a rare glimpse into the work at Honeywell Federal Manufacturing & Technologies, which manages the U.S. Department of Energy’s…
PHKC awards $25K to Alchemy Sandbox winners; It’s amazing when someone understands your vision, founder says
Year one challenges can be difficult for entrepreneurs to swallow, James Thomas noted, but he’s raising a cup to the first anniversary of Brain Freeze Mobile Daiquiri Shop with validation and a splash of funding. Two days after completing The Porter House KC’s fourth small business development cohort and competing in its finale competition, Thomas…
After his eye-catching KCI installation took flight, Willie Cole had 100+ horns leftover; He kept building
Willie Cole didn’t choose to be an artist. It’s always been part of him. “I think I was an artist in a previous life,” said the contemporary American sculptor, printer and perceptual engineer. “When I was 3 years old, my mom found me drawing in the kitchen, and since then, my family always said I…