Minority-Led

Tech workforce program championed by former Chiefs star graduates its first KC class

By Tommy Felts / January 27, 2024

An education initiative recently launched in Kansas City not only focuses on lifting up young people from low-income backgrounds and helping them succeed in the high-tech sector, said pro football hall of famer Will Shields: it upends a cycle of decline and replaces it with building blocks. i.c.stars, headquartered in Chicago, launched in Kansas City…

Leveraging KC’s resources: How the right people at the right time can unlock a startup’s potential

By Tommy Felts / January 27, 2024

The level of collaboration seen in Kansas City’s entrepreneurial ecosystem is unmatched by peer communities, said Jill Meyer, noting it’s not a phenomenon that developed by accident. And it takes transparency and trust, she added. “There is a lot of work that resource partners do to make sure that our companies and our founders have…

This meal is metal: Elephant Wings rocks concert of flavors with chef’s Indian fusion setlist

By Tommy Felts / January 25, 2024

Ameet Malhotra’s just-released cover of Indian fusion is fuel to the fire of that which diners’ desire, the chef and owner of Elephant Wings said. Newly opened this month at Parlor KC in the Crossroads, two of the restaurant’s popular menu items include Malhotra’s tikka masala poutine and the Bombay-mi — his version of the…

Study with USDA researchers affirms startup’s AI-powered facial recognition for cows can detect sick animals

By Tommy Felts / January 25, 2024

A collaborative study between an Overland Park animal agtech startup and the U.S. Department of Agriculture successfully corroborated MyAnIML’s predictive ability to proactively manage devastating disease outbreaks in cattle production, the company announced this week. MyAnIML uses first-of-its-kind, proprietary facial recognition and deep learning technology to analyze cow muzzles — accurately predicting Infectious Bovine Keratoconjunctivitis…

Meet customers where they are (and they’re on TikTok): Marketing experts urge startups to invest in brand building

By Tommy Felts / January 24, 2024

Like it or not, “TikTok remains king,” said Mikita Burton, encouraging startup founders to balance negative headlines about the video-sharing social media platform with its incredible potential for reaching their most-sought-after audiences. “We don’t just get to pick our customers’ favorite platforms, so you need to be where they are,” Burton, a social media strategist…