Minority-Led

Last chance to nominate: KC-based nonprofit granting $40K to Black, Latinx changemakers  

By Tommy Felts / November 23, 2021

A new nonprofit organization is seeking nominations for changemakers in Kansas City’s Black and Latinx communities ahead of a Nov. 30 deadline. One individual will be awarded $20,000 in support of their efforts.  “We’re specifically targeting grassroot changemakers who don’t have any more than $250,000 in their annual operating budget. We really want to invest…

He wanted to post his pronouns on LinkedIn sooner, but first this startup founder had to come out to himself

By Tommy Felts / November 18, 2021

The word was simple — sprinkled into a potentially impactful email introduction last week with little fanfare — but for Lee Zuvanich, reading it felt like Christmas morning. His. “When I came out on LinkedIn this summer — with my pronouns and everything — it wasn’t really a choice,” said Zuvanich, a trans man who now…

Retaking the ‘entrepreneur’ label: ‘You need to have a good product, but ultimately it needs to be about more’

By Tommy Felts / November 15, 2021

In “The New Builders,” written by Times of Entrepreneurship founder Elizabeth MacBride and venture capitalist Seth Levine, the authors look at the landscape of entrepreneurship across America. In this excerpt — from Chapter 3: The Definition Of Success — the authors focus on Isaac Collins, a Kansas City entrepreneur who also faces and fights added obstacles…

KC’s first Vietnamese coffee shop brews $20K at AltCap Your Biz; other winners include an urban farm, development company and selfie studio

By Tommy Felts / November 11, 2021

Cafe Cà Phê can now afford to build bathrooms in its anticipated brick-and-mortar coffee location, Jackie Nguyen teased on Instagram after being awarded the grand prize at the 2021 AltCap Your Biz: Pitch Competition. “The $20,000 will go toward helping build that out — getting new appliances, [hiring] new employees because we’ve outgrown our cart.…

Demo day alert: 13 new Comeback KC Ventures fellows set for debut on GEW KC stage

By Tommy Felts / November 9, 2021

The first crop of Comeback KC Ventures fellows — entrepreneurs offering solutions from healthtech and edtech products to sports evaluations and an animation academy emerging in response to COVID-19 — is expected to highlight more than a dozen companies Thursday during a GEW KC innovation showcase. “The demo day will allow early participants in the…