All Stories

Lay off costly corporate conferences: Jewell Unlimited touts mobile-first microlearning in minutes

By Tommy Felts / March 2, 2023

A learning agency funded by William Jewell College is bringing a fresh approach to professional development, hoping to curate the “unregulated mess” of digital information into mobile-first microlearning modules that will empower workers and help them advance their careers. “Every single thing throughout human history that has ever been learned and codified, it’s already available…

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Meet the six competitors pitching for $50K in funding in HERImpact’s return to Kansas City

By Tommy Felts / March 1, 2023

Editor’s note: 1863 Ventures is an advertiser with Startland News, though this report was produced independently by the nonprofit newsroom. The competition slate is set, as a half-dozen of Kansas City’s most promising emerging social entrepreneurs prepare to pitch for $50,000 in a public, shark-tank-style event for women founders. The live pitch event is set…

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Web3 startup led by one of KC’s best-known exited founders redeems $2.5M pre-seed round

By Tommy Felts / March 1, 2023

Redeem, a blockchain agnostic connectivity layer for Web3 that leverages phone numbers to send, receive and redeem utility NFTs, announced Wednesday its $2.5 million pre-seed funding round ahead of its launch, led by veteran blockchain investor Kenetic. The round also includes local venture firms Flyover Capital and KCRise Fund. Funding is expected to be used…

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Only one side of the tracks: Omni Circle opens entrepreneurs ‘space to become or build their personal freedom’

By Tommy Felts / March 1, 2023

Startland News’ Startup Road Trip series explores innovative and uncommon ideas finding success in rural America and Midwestern startup hubs outside the Kansas City metro. This series is possible thanks to Go Topeka, which seeks economic success for all companies and citizens across Shawnee County through implementation of an aggressive economic development strategy that capitalizes…

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How Kansas City’s new airport terminal became a sprawling art gallery for 28 diverse creatives

By Tommy Felts / February 28, 2023

Every major milestone in Kathy Minhsin Liao’s life has been marked by travel, she shared, making airports synonymous with transition. “My [art]work at the new terminal is called ‘Hello and Goodbye,’ and it touches on my personal experience of the fluidity of travel. When you’re at the airport, you’re in that limbo space of thinking…

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$2M in federal funds secured for Disney’s forgotten ‘cradle of Hollywood animation’ in KC

By Tommy Felts / February 28, 2023

A decades-long effort to redevelop Walt Disney’s original Laugh-O-gram animation studios at 31st and Forest, along the Troost corridor, will receive $2 million in federal funding, as officially announced last week by Congressman Emanuel Cleaver II. The influx of funding should generate “momentum” to raise the remaining money needed to complete the project, said Gary…

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KC’s Westside neighborhood awarded $1M from feds to reconnect community split by I-35

By Tommy Felts / February 28, 2023

A newly announced $1 million grant is expected to help reestablish a Kansas City neighborhood that was cut off from itself and opportunity thanks to past transportation infrastructure decisions — part of a $1 billion plan to right what many call a decades-long wrong largely perpetrated against historic communities of color. In a first round…

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‘Work to support our innovators is never done’: NXTUS leadership transition follows massive impact expansion

By Tommy Felts / February 28, 2023

WICHITA — NXTUS, a nonprofit working to connect startup founders with community resources, capital and customers, on Tuesday announced a top-level leadership change while celebrating milestones in the rollout of its work to help innovators and entrepreneurs grow “companies of significance” in Kansas. Mary Beth Jarvis, who joined Wichita-based NXTUS as executive director in August 2019,…

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KC restaurants await flyers at the new terminal; here’s what it took to get ready

By Tommy Felts / February 27, 2023

Editor’s note: The following story was originally published by KCUR, Kansas City’s NPR member station, and a fellow member of the KC Media Collective. Click here to read the original story or here to sign up for KCUR’s email newsletter. When the new Kansas City International Airport terminal opens Tuesday, it’ll be a new chapter for more than 20 local businesses who…

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Novel Capital, Pipeline join forces to help members gain easier access to evasive non-dilutive capital

By Tommy Felts / February 27, 2023

A fintech startup launched by two veteran founders is extending its services to members of the elite Pipeline network in a bid to make non-dilutive capital more accessible to startups across the region. Novel Capital, an Overland Park-based fintech growth platform that helps B2B businesses accelerate their growth, recently announced plans to help companies led…

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