Funding

UMKC joins campus network’s student Entrepreneur Quest accelerator competition

By Tommy Felts / March 19, 2019

A final showdown of student startups has been set, as budding entrepreneurs from across the University of Missouri campus network compete for financial support. “It brings a lot of those best practices together from all four campuses and really showcases all the great work that’s going on in the system to promote entrepreneurship,” said Andy…

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Nounou

Mom-and-popping it: Nounou platform curates trusted babysitters for JoCo families

By Tommy Felts / March 19, 2019

Nounou Neighbors takes the fear out of the surprisingly cutthroat babysitting industry, said Molly Smalley, noting her online platform raised 200 percent client base growth in 2018. “As a mom, finding [a babysitter] is exhausting and friends never want to give you their sitter,” laughed Molly, founder of the Kansas-based babysitting service with her husband,…

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Packet Kansas City

Cloud platform Packet opens KC office after $25M funding round in New York

By Tommy Felts / March 14, 2019

New York-based Packet’s newly established Kansas City office is expected to take full advantage of the area’s wealth of tech talent, said Ihab Tarazi. “There is actually a very good technical base in Kansas City — so here’s validation of that,” said Tarazi, chief technology officer at the cloud infrastructure firm committed to “building a…

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Maranda Manning, Ryan Merket and John Fein, Firebrand Ventures

With new partner, Firebrand ramps up ‘founder-focused’ culture, aims to double fund

By Tommy Felts / March 11, 2019

Firebrand Ventures is the right culture fit at the right time, said serial entrepreneur Ryan Merket. Joining the Kansas City-based venture firm as a partner alongside John Fein, Merket brings a wealth of experience from his time at Facebook, Reddit and Amazon, as well as five years as an angel investor, he said. “Looking at…

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Neal Sharma, DEG exit

DEG execs reflect on $100M+ exit: Join an armada before success puts a target on your back

By Tommy Felts / March 7, 2019

Riding into battle solo won’t help a company win the war that is business, Neal Sharma told a crowd of ACG Kansas City members gathered to hear details behind the exit of homegrown marketing giant DEG. “One of the things we realized three years ago — about DEG — is it was a completely successful, self…

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