Minority-Led

The Prospect: ‘Cutthroat Kitchen’ winner on the move with chef-inspired workforce training

By Tommy Felts / April 16, 2019

Everyday consumers can elevate Kansas City through the simple of act of eating a meal, said Chef Shanita McAfee-Bryant. Her in-the-works non-profit urban eatery concept — The Prospect — caters to a marketplace hungry for culinary-oriented workforce development training: students looking for a window into entrepreneurship through cooking, said Bryant, 2014 winner of Food Network’s…

TEDxYouth@KC invites teens into pressing, real-world conversations, event emcee says

By Tommy Felts / April 12, 2019

Including teens in conversations about real world issues is the key element that will set Kansas City’s TEDxYouth@KC apart from other TED-branded conferences, said Kyra Colbert. “We’re going to be the future and if we don’t get involved now and we don’t get informed about what’s going on, how are we going to know what…

Blockchain KC event aims to put Kansas City on the map for crypto thought leadership

By Tommy Felts / April 11, 2019

Kansas City is running low on blockchain-fueled innovation, said Shekhar Gupta. “I want to see Kansas City as one of the top places where people think about blockchain,” said Gupta, chief technology officer of Overland Park-based SaaS firm Asuun, and organizer of the inaugural Blockchain KC conference. “I have a big map on my wall…

‘Heartbreaking but empowering’: Nipsey Hussle’s life, death inspire entrepreneurs to action

By Tommy Felts / April 11, 2019

The Marathon will continue, Wesley Hamilton said, echoing tens of thousands of mourners now pledging to keep alive the transcendent entrepreneurial spirit of rapper-turned-community leader Nipsey Hussle. Hamilton, founder and executive director of the KC-based nonprofit The Disabled But Not Really Foundation, was among a dozen or more Kansas City entrepreneurs in Los Angeles Thursday…

Inmate to business founder: Determination, Incorporated adds partner with lived experience

By Tommy Felts / April 10, 2019

Determination, Incorporated’s new partner in compassion places a new lens on the impact the prison-to-founder non-profit could have, said Kyle Smith. “I’ve gotten this non-profit this far, but I can’t do it alone,” said Smith, founder of Determination, Incorporated, which uses entrepreneurship to curate new opportunities for formerly incarcerated people, on the addition of his…