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Editor’s note: KCultivators is a new, lighthearted profile series we’re kicking off to highlight people who are meaningfully enriching Kansas City’s entrepreneurial ecosystem. Check out our feature on Prep-KC CEO Susan Wally and community builder Donald Carter. If you live or work in downtown Kansas City, you’ve likely seen Robert Manigold. The “Ambassador of Awesome”…
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There are a plethora of entrepreneurial events hosted in Kansas City on a weekly basis. Whether you’re an entrepreneur, investor, supporter, or curious community member — we recommend these upcoming events for you. Are you hosting a relevant community event? Feel free to add it to the FWD/KC calendar for increased exposure. Once your event…
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The leader of an area nonprofit focused on making Kansas City a digital leader will be offering his broadband expertise to a Federal Communications Commission committee. KC Digital Drive managing director Aaron Deacon was recently appointed to a group within the Federal Communications Commission’s Broadband Deployment Advisory Committee. Deacon’s group — Competitive Access to Broadband…
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While he takes pride in his roots, Priest Hughes said it saddens him to see a staple of life — fresh food — become so difficult to attain in parts of Kansas City. Over the course of a decade, Hughes has noticed several grocery stores in his neighborhood close at an alarming rate. Purchasing fresh,…
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Less than a year after its launch, Kansas City-based truck-sharing app Bungii is gaining significant traction. In addition to expanding its platform from only Kansas City to include Lawrence, Bungii has tapped hundreds of users that temporarily need a truck to haul their stuff. Led by two recent college graduates, Ben Jackson and Harrison Proffitt, Bungii’s on-demand…
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National startup activity grew slightly in 2016, a consecutive three-year improvement that reached pre-Great Recession levels, according to the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. However, in the long-term view startup activity is still in decline when compared to the 1980s, the 2017 Kauffman Index of Startup Activity found. Victor Hwang, vice president of entrepreneurship at the…
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It’s not just a feeling. Momentum in Kansas City’s startup community continues to grow, according to new data from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. The Kauffman Index of Startup Activity found that for the third consecutive year, entrepreneurial activity in the Kansas City metro has grown. The index — which presents entrepreneurial trends nationally, at…
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Kansas-City based invention competition Make48 is becoming a nationally-televised program in September. The inaugural season of Make48 will be featured on more than 200 public television stations via American Public Television, reaching about 70 percent of U.S. households. Founded in 2015, Make48 challenges inventors to build a product over a weekend. For the show, however,…
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A Kansas City startup is going pro. On Tuesday, Just Play Sports Solutions announced it will partner with seven professional WNBA teams — the Atlanta Dream, Chicago Sky, Connecticut Sun, Dallas Wings, LA Sparks, Seattle Storm and Washington Mystic. The teams represent the firm’s first foray into professional sports’ clients. Founded in 2014 by two…
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A new Lenexa-based tech firm aims to make training for track and field athletes more precise. Founded in 2015, LED Rabbit is an electronic pacing system that can attach to or overlay any track. The product uses LED lighting to move a marker around a track, offering runners an indicator of what their pace needs…
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