10 Kansas City Startups to Watch in 2021
January 13, 2021 | Startland News Staff
In a world disrupted, entrepreneurs are leading the charge — remaking their communities in the image of innovation and meeting a rising demand for solutions to real-world problems.
The future newsmakers assembled as part of Startland News’ Kansas City Startups to Watch in 2021 list are eager to reinvent. They’re simplifying over-complicated industries and blazing bold trails in critical sectors, from healthcare and GovTech to hospitality and even four-legged entertainment.
Celebrating the Startups to Watch in 2021
An in-depth interview special with the Startups to Watch founders will stream Jan. 27 in partnership with the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation and Plexpod. The one-time-only broadcast is produced by Stellar Image Studios.
Click here for tickets to the Jan. 27 premiere.
They’ve survived a global pandemic, bounced back in the face of an economic downturn, and found new inspiration to innovate in a decade that’s changed the way we live, learn, work and think.
Steps taken by these starters in the present day are sure to shape Kansas City’s tomorrow.
The path they walk isn’t new, but their approach promises a new course as they seek to build companies that meet the needs of an evolving community, strengthen the perception of the Plains and Midwest, attract capital at record rates and bring world class talent to the metro.
Choosing only 10 companies to highlight has never been more challenging. In fact, it’s our opinion that Kansas City entrepreneurs have never shown more hunger, making competition for the 2021 list the strongest to date. The final result isn’t a declaration of the best of the best. The Startups to Watch list is intended to spotlight companies the Startland News editorial team believes are among those best positioned to make headlines in the year ahead. The ranking, like the list itself, is subjective.
To those companies left unrecognized — we see you. Startland News maintains its mission to elevate all entrepreneurs through its non-profit news coverage, and you’ll be hearing from our reporters in the days, weeks and months ahead. We remain committed to reporting your stories as they unfold.
Email news@startlandnews.com to submit your tips directly to the Startland News assignment desk.
The 2021 Startups to Watch list was compiled through more than 70 hours of research and countless (virtual) conversations with community experts, funders and support organizations.
Ultimately, curation of the list relied on the honesty, openness and track record of founders.
The Startland News editorial team culled 50-plus semi-finalists from more than 200 nominations and newsroom-generated leads, narrowed that list to 30, and finally to the selected Startups to Watch class of 2021. This highly competitive process has assured us 2021 will be an impressive year of rebuilding with no shortage of progress in Kansas City’s bid to become the most entrepreneurial community in America.
The Kansas City Startups Watch in 2021 list is made possible by presenting sponsors Husch Blackwell and the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, though independently produced by Startland News.
Click here to check out Startland News’ 2020 list, or look back at our original predictions in 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019.
Founders: Riddhiman Das, Greg Storm
Founding year: 2019
Amount raised to date: Undisclosed
Noteworthy investors: Flyover Capital, KCRise Fund, Accenture Ventures, Purpose Built Ventures, Practical Venture Capital
Programs completed: Digital Sandbox KC
Current employee count: 16
Click here for a full profile on TripleBlind.
Riddhiman Das, TripleBlind
Founders: Ben Schultz, Hunter Browning
Founding year: 2015
Amount raised to date: $7.05M
Noteworthy investors: Five Elms Capital, Perceptive Equity
Programs completed: Pipeline Entrepreneurs, LaunchKC
Current Employee Count: 30
Click here for a full profile on LaborChart.
Hunter Browning and Ben Schultz, LaborChart
Founders: Leib Dodell, David Hensley
Founding year: 2016
Amount raised to date: $2M
Noteworthy investors: Purina
Programs completed: Pet Care Innovation Network | Powered by Purina
Current employee count: 80 (25 full-time, 55 part-time)
Click here for a full profile on Bar K.
David Hensley and Leib Dodell, Bar K
Founders: A.J. Mellott, Heather Decker
Founding year: 2019
Amount raised to date: $1.3M
Noteworthy investors: Undisclosed
Programs completed: NIGMS Sustainable Heartland Accelerator Regional Partnership Hub, Wichita State University Shockers Innovation Corps, UMKC E-Scholars, Digital Sandbox KC, Pipeline Entrepreneurs
Current employee count: 3 (2 FTE, and 1 part-time)
Click here for a full profile on Ronawk.
A.J. Mellott and Heather Decker, Ronawk
Founders: Dr. Shelley Cooper, Dr. Moe Hamid
Founding year: 2019
Amount raised to date: $60,500
Noteworthy investors: Digital Sandbox KC
Current employee count: 2
Click here for a full profile on SureShow.
Dr. Shelley Cooper, SureShow by Diversity Telehealth
Founders: John Bertrand, Ryan Rosenbaum
Founding year: 2017
Amount raised to date: $1.7M
Noteworthy investors: KCRise Fund, Techstars
Programs completed: Techstars 2018
Current employee count: 25
Click here for a full profile on Daupler.
John Bertrand, Daupler
Founders: Nomi Smith, Luke Landau
Founding year: 2019
Amount raised to date: $325,000
Noteworthy investors: Undisclosed
Programs completed: Pure Pitch Rally, Digital Sandbox KC
Current employee count: 7
Click here for a full profile on PMI Rate Pro.
Nomi Smith and Luke Landau, PMI Rate Pro
Founders: Sean Finley, Erik Anderson, Tanner Wiles
Founding year: 2015
Amount raised to date: Bootstrapped
Noteworthy investors: N/A
Current employee count: 6
Click here for a full profile on Scissors & Scotch.
Sean Finley, Tanner Wiles and Erik Anderson, Scissors & Scotch
Founders: Nick Bowden, Alexei Pozdnukhov, Brett Naul, Kael Greco
Founding year: 2019
Amount raised to date: $11M
Noteworthy investors: Innovation Endeavors, Firebrand, Rise of the Rest
Current employee count: 41
Click here for a full profile on Replica.
Nick Bowden, Replica
Founders: Jannae Gammage, Milad Ghasempour
Founding year: Late 2019
Amount raised to date: Bootstrapped
Noteworthy investors: N/A
Programs completed: Digital Sandbox KC
Current employee count: 5 employees, 13 contractors
Click here for a full profile on The Market Base.
Milad Ghasempour and Jannae Gammage, The Market Base
Check out previous lists of Kansas City Startups to Watch
Featured Business
2021 Startups to Watch
stats here
Related Posts on Startland News
City Market eats: Master roaster hopes hungry Kansas Citians will flock to Murmuration
A new eatery and cocktail bar that now shares a space with the popular City Market Coffee Roasters is designed to reflect a vision of bringing people together, fostering connection, and embracing the diversity that makes the City Market so special, said master roaster Nikole Ammer. Plus, the people are hungry — from day to…
Chamber showcase fills Union Station with real-life social networking for small biz owners
Entrepreneur Dane Moss likes to do things a little over the top, he shared Wednesday from inside the Grand Hall at Union Station, noting that simply handing out T-shirts and koozies to event attendees simply doesn’t fit his style. So for his first KC Chamber Small Business Celebration Candidates’ Showcase, Moss and his team from…
1 Million Cups relocating back to Kauffman Foundation, renewing weekly meetup’s energy, sense of purpose
After more than six years connecting entrepreneurs in Midtown, 1 Million Cups Kansas City is returning to its roots — relocating the weekly event series April 9 to the Kauffman Foundation Conference Center where the now-coast-to-coast morning meetup series first percolated. Changing the brew for the Wednesday entrepreneur pitch showcase came from the same voices…
Why the Savannah Bananas founder is coming back to KC (with a tip of his hat to winning leadership styles)
Jesse Cole isn’t afraid to reimagine the way things are done in business, he shared, and his brand of Banana Ball is paying off. In the past nine years, the ringleader of the Savannah Bananas — baseball’s answer to the trick ball-handling and exhibition athleticism of the Harlem Globetrotters — has gone from selling his…