All Stories

‘You’re not just a fan; it’s your livelihood!’ KC makers’ work featured in Chiefs’ playoffs trailer

By Tommy Felts / January 27, 2024

The NFL playoffs tease a new season of creativity for Kansas City makers like Johnny and Michele Dawbarn — especially when the Chiefs’ success starts the clock on new opportunities. The couple behind Collective EX, sewKC, and HITIDES Coffee (all within their symbiotic studio space in the East Crossroads) recently helped design several items featured…

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Tech workforce program championed by former Chiefs star graduates its first KC class

By Tommy Felts / January 27, 2024

An education initiative recently launched in Kansas City not only focuses on lifting up young people from low-income backgrounds and helping them succeed in the high-tech sector, said pro football hall of famer Will Shields: it upends a cycle of decline and replaces it with building blocks. i.c.stars, headquartered in Chicago, launched in Kansas City…

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Build-A-Bear founder joins VFA’s board, lauding group as an ‘onramp’ to entrepreneurship for overlooked young professionals

By Tommy Felts / January 27, 2024

ST. LOUIS — A hometown founder and entrepreneurial icon is joining the board of one of the region’s premiere work placement opportunities for early-career professionals. Maxine Clark, founder of Build-A-Bear Workshop — the teddy-bear-themed retailer she launched in 1997 in St. Lous — is the latest appointment to the national board of directors for Venture…

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Leveraging KC’s resources: How the right people at the right time can unlock a startup’s potential

By Tommy Felts / January 27, 2024

The level of collaboration seen in Kansas City’s entrepreneurial ecosystem is unmatched by peer communities, said Jill Meyer, noting it’s not a phenomenon that developed by accident. And it takes transparency and trust, she added. “There is a lot of work that resource partners do to make sure that our companies and our founders have…

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Looking for investors? A startup’s first ask shouldn’t be for money, leading VCs say

By Tommy Felts / January 26, 2024

Most startup founders think of funding as transactional, Darcy Howe shared, but it’s actually relational. “You’ve got to have relationships with people long before they’ll fund and that includes angels and all the others,” the KCRise Fund founding managing director told a crowd gathered at UMKC’s Bloch Executive Hall for Startland News’ Kansas City Startups…

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This meal is metal: Elephant Wings rocks concert of flavors with chef’s Indian fusion setlist

By Tommy Felts / January 25, 2024

Ameet Malhotra’s just-released cover of Indian fusion is fuel to the fire of that which diners’ desire, the chef and owner of Elephant Wings said. Newly opened this month at Parlor KC in the Crossroads, two of the restaurant’s popular menu items include Malhotra’s tikka masala poutine and the Bombay-mi — his version of the…

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How a pivotal hire from the world of sports and entertainment helped Crux-X shift sales strategy

By Tommy Felts / January 25, 2024

Investing in a sales team is frequently overlooked by companies as they develop their priorities for growth, said Melea McRae, noting just 97 percent of these ventures are leaving innovation on the table by ignoring this clear strategy to scale. Crux-Xcelerate (Crux-X), the sister company of Kansas City “un-agency” Crux KC, is tackling this challenge…

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NXTSTAGE taps trio of KC entrepreneurs to help their companies grow revenue, scale

By Tommy Felts / January 25, 2024

WICHITA — Three Kansas City startup founders are among 20 early-stage companies selected for the latest NXTUS program aimed at boosting innovation from within urban and rural areas throughout the state of Kansas. Joining the 2024 NXTSTAGE Customer Traction Cohort: Joy Broils, Hustle & Ground, Shawnee; Mark Lukenbill, Mpruv Sports, Basehor; and Crystal Webster, Sharing…

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Study with USDA researchers affirms startup’s AI-powered facial recognition for cows can detect sick animals

By Tommy Felts / January 25, 2024

A collaborative study between an Overland Park animal agtech startup and the U.S. Department of Agriculture successfully corroborated MyAnIML’s predictive ability to proactively manage devastating disease outbreaks in cattle production, the company announced this week. MyAnIML uses first-of-its-kind, proprietary facial recognition and deep learning technology to analyze cow muzzles — accurately predicting Infectious Bovine Keratoconjunctivitis…

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Tammie Wahaus, ELIAS Animal Health

KC startup’s bone cancer treatment for dogs earns ‘milestone’ USDA validation

By Tommy Felts / January 25, 2024

A decade of hard work by a veteran entrepreneur and her Olathe-based team has cleared a significant hurdle on the pathway to licensure as its first-in-class adoptive cell therapy for dog cancer gains a critical nod of approval from federal regulators. ELIAS Animal Health, a leading companion animal cancer therapeutics company, recently announced that the…

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