Minority-Led

The Popper drips with KC: Why this award-winning brand won’t quit ‘until the aliens on other planets know’ his city 

By Tommy Felts / October 27, 2022

Walter Edwin is better known as the Popper, but it might as well be “KC,” he said. His love for Kansas City has inspired both his music career and award-winning apparel business. As a performer, he’s rapped about his hometown on his singles “I’m KC” and “For the City,” and as a collaborator on Tech…

10 finalists vying for ‘Fan Favorite’ in AltCap Your Biz competition; Here’s how to vote

By Tommy Felts / October 27, 2022

AltCap’s marquee GEWKC competition for emerging entrepreneurs is returning in November, but fans of the businesses can cast votes now to determine a $2,500 “fan favorite” winner at the coming pitch event. Ten finalists for the AltCap Your Biz competition were announced this week. The live pitch day is set for Nov. 17 at iWerx…

Miss KC’s Parade of Hearts? You’re in luck: Popular citywide art returning in 2023, 2024

By Tommy Felts / October 26, 2022

Kansas City’s “Parade of Hearts” is set to return in 2023 — and 2024 — after the wildly popular, city-spanning art installation, regional pride campaign and fundraiser placed more than 150 unique artist-created hearts throughout the metro. The publicly displayed art pieces quickly became destination points across the city with Kansas Citians and visitors embarking…

Black Pantry expands nationally through online shop; founder works to set new standard for buying Black

By Tommy Felts / October 22, 2022

Kansas City’s premier boutique for Black-owned essentials always had its sights set on building a national identity, said Brian Roberts, but he needed to prove himself and his business on the local level first.   “A lot of people were pushing me in the beginning to go the website direction, but I didn’t want to do…

LaunchKC finalists: Meet 13 tech startups vying for six $50K grants in rebooted competition

By Tommy Felts / October 22, 2022

A revived LaunchKC grants competition is set to return in mid-November with more than a dozen companies vying for $300,000 in non-dilutive funding. Finalists were announced Friday. The 13 Kansas City companies selected to compete Nov. 15 were narrowed from more than 90 applicants, said Becca Castro, strategic initiatives manager at the Economic Development Corporation…