Minority-Led
Leading the new LaunchKC Health Accelerator is Don Peterson’s way of giving back to a community that opened its arms to his family nearly 30 years ago, he said. “I’m proof that we can accomplish the entrepreneurial dream right here in KC and feel like it’s my duty to pay that forward,” said Peterson, a…
Whether directing a contemporary indigenous stage performance, covering the Beatles classic Elanor Rigby with a pan flute and charango for TEDxKC or creating a diatonically-tuned bendy-straw, Amado Espinoza understands the importance of fully committing to a pursuit. “For me, being a professional musician means when you dedicate your entire life to music,” he said. A…
Everything has to ship, said Jy Maze. From the microphone in her hand to the stool where she sat to the shoes on the Maze Freight Solutions founder’s feet, it all comes with mileage and a cost, she said. Her woman-owned, Overland Park-based, third-party freight logistics startup itself was packed in 2017 when Maze decided…
Only 56 percent of students who began college in 2012 actually graduated within the next six years, said startup founders Claudia Recchi and Carolina Recchi. The sisters’ own struggles as first-generation U.S. college students reinforced the challenge posed by such statistics, they said, prompting them to found EdSights, a startup using artificial intelligence to collect…

