Posts by Tommy Felts
Startup Road Trip: Patent-packed PowerBox puts productivity at the press of a button
Startland’s 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 the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, which leads a collaborative, nationwide effort to identify and remove large and small barriers to new business creation. PITTSBURG, KANSAS…
Read MoreKauffman, ECJC: Stagnant US entrepreneurship is a diversity issue that throwing money at Big Business won’t fix
Women, people of color, and rural residents remain punished by systemic barriers to starting businesses, said Wendy Guillies in a nationwide call to action that unites powerful Kansas City entrepreneurism advocates. “America’s economy is out of balance. We’ve got businesses that have become too entrenched and powerful, while people and communities across America are being…
Read MoreKCultivator Q&A: Tin Ho skewers failure, beetle larvae on path to building stronger founders
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 Plexpod, a progressive coworking platform offering next generation workspace for entrepreneurs, startups, and growth-stage companies of all sizes. Startup challenges aren’t limited to products and processes, said Tin Ho. “My…
Read MoreEliminate the wait: JoCo-based DashNow offers diners mobile pay, check-splitting tech
Joseph Layne was tired of waiting. Seated at a busy restaurant, he stirred the mental ingredients for DashNow, a mobile-based service allowing diners to pay-and-go without waiting on a server to swipe a credit card or make change. “I realized I had been sitting there 10 minutes [waiting for the bill], while there was a…
Read MoreWar-torn Myanmar to North KC: Documentary gives taste of immigrant entrepreneur’s refugee journey
Kansas City’s culture is increasingly shifting to include and highlight immigrant entrepreneurship, said Danielle Lehman, though the true impact is still largely unappreciated. “I think there’s a disconnect between people who are enjoying the food [from immigrant-owned restaurants] and you’ll see a picture on instagram, but they never get to know the people that make…
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