All Stories

Isaac Collins, Austin Wilcox and Wondabeka Ashenafi, SERV Nutrition

‘Three guys of faith’ craft edible, dissolving protein pods with mission to SERV

By Tommy Felts / November 30, 2018

Infusing authenticity into a compound of faith and fearlessness helped a KC trio formulate the one-of-a-kind recipe for Kansas City startup SERV Nutrition. Now they’re positioning the soon-to-launch company to shake up the supplement space, said Austin Wilcox. “I was doing some laundry and threw a Tide Pod in after my workout, then ran upstairs to…

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Sofar Sounds

Sofar Sounds takes grassroots underground to resurrect the live music experience in KC

By Tommy Felts / November 30, 2018

Kansas City has a reputation as a home for talented artists, said Hank Wiedel, but restricted resources limit the potential for grassroots performers to reach a global — or sometimes even local — audience. Sofar Sounds — an international event series operating under the radar in the metro for two years — reimagines live shows by providing…

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Harris Park

Social entrepreneur’s Harris Park brings green and golf to blighted urban neighborhood

By Tommy Felts / November 30, 2018

A clean green park with an award-winning golf course not only raises the profile of the Ivanhoe neighborhood at 40th and Wayne — it changes the mindset of those who live there, said Chris Harris. The space — completed in August— was chosen by the American Society of Golf Course Architects for its Design Excellence…

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April Boyd-Noronha

KCultivator Q&A: April Boyd-Noronha opens up on access to technology, authentic change

By Tommy Felts / November 30, 2018

Editor’s note: KCultivators is a lighthearted profile series to highlight people who are meaningfully enriching Kansas City’s entrepreneurial ecosystem. The KCultivator Series is sponsored by WeWork Corrigan Station, a modern twist on Kansas City office space.Awakening education and business potential while in your pajamas is an unexpected side effect of rapid technological advancement, said April…

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Zach Pettet: It’s time to make some noise about KC’s secret bad ass investors

By Tommy Felts / November 30, 2018

Editor’s note: Zach Pettet is the managing director of Fountain City Fintech and a fintech strategist at nbkc bank, with which Startland News has partnered on a Dec. 6 Innovation Exchange event. Opinions expressed in this commentary are the author’s alone. Quiet wealth in Kansas City is a double-edged sword. The upside? You have to…

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KC Pinoy

KC Pinoy parks restaurant in West Bottoms, plans fiesta of Filipino flavors

By Tommy Felts / November 29, 2018

KC Pinoy’s new spot on Genessee Street in the West Bottoms was an opportunity that just fell into Chrissy Nucum’s lap, said the owner of the Filipino food truck turned brick-and-mortar restaurant. “I wanted something where there’s a sense of community within whatever area we choose,” said Nucum. “When the West Bottoms Kitchen decided to…

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Mark Davis, RealQuantum, at LaunchKC

Curb appeal attracts investors to $850K round for real estate tech firm RealQuantum

By Tommy Felts / November 29, 2018

A year of steady growth will help Kansas City real estate tech firm RealQuantum end 2018 with the close of its first round of seed funding — securing $850,000 in investments, revealed Mark Davis. “We closed a couple of times actually — people just kept showing up at the last minute wanting in,” Davis, RealQuantum’s…

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AY Young, Battery Tour, sunshine boxes

Battery Tour energizes Sunshine Boxes with global vision to power developing economies through music

By Tommy Felts / November 27, 2018

AY Young’s recent Battery Tour generated enough money to send two of 17° 73° Innovation Co’s Sunshine Boxes to Haiti — the first step in a partnership between the two ventures with common goals, the energetic founder said. “[We] just realized that we were trying to kind of do the same thing as far as…

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Daniel Fogarty, LaunchCode

LaunchCode leader: Your city never stood a chance of landing Amazon’s HQ2

By Tommy Felts / November 27, 2018

[Editor’s note: This guest column first appeared on the Silicon Prairie News tech and entrepreneurship blog. It is republished here with permission from the author, St. Louis-based Daniel Fogarty, vice president of growth at LaunchCode, which operates its workforce development program in Kansas City.] After months of waiting, it’s finally confirmed Amazon will split its…

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AbdulRasheed Yahaya, Local Legends Gaming

VIDEO: Local Legends makes brick-and-mortar play with new Westport gaming center

By Tommy Felts / November 26, 2018

A popular E-Sports startup plans to level up sooner than its founder ever envisioned — putting Local Legends Gaming on Main Street. But this time, it’s wheels up, said AbdulRasheed Yahaya. “We really want to introduce Kansas City to the big, E-Sports brand and how social [gaming] really is,” Yahaya said of his new brick-and-mortar…

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