News

Splitting time between student, entrepreneur lives earns Splitsy co-founder top UMKC honor

By Tommy Felts / February 10, 2022

Recognition as UMKC’s Student Entrepreneur of the Year is a reminder that innovators often begin early, said Brad Starnes, one of Kansas City’s most-talked-about emerging young startup founders. “When I was about 8 years old, I submitted a drawing to an engineering firm,” said the co-founder of Splitsy, a bill splitting app that launched its…

Why this KC esports startup is betting on a gambling app to scale into new NFT, cryptocurrency levels

By Tommy Felts / February 9, 2022

The Kansas City Pioneers became the first professional esports organization to step into the head-to-head gaming and gambling sphere thanks to its pairing with PLLAY Labs — an AI-based wagering platform. “We see this partnership as a tremendous opportunity to tap into a community of folks who love competition — and then inject the KC…

Can tech save the family farm? E-commerce farmers market plants seeds in Kansas City

By Tommy Felts / February 8, 2022

An Indianapolis-based startup is planting seeds of change it hopes can enhance the ways growers and producers get their products into the hands of customers. Kansas Citians are harvesting from it in bushels.  “This is definitely a business of passion for me,” Nick Carter said, recalling his upbringing and days spent on his family’s farm…

‘Everybody at TripleBlind is better than me,’ founder says as top startup’s global team firewalls groupthink

By Tommy Felts / February 8, 2022

Startup companies are on a continual mission to create, define and own the category in which they operate within, Riddhiman Das noted, and to do so — startup founders must build a proficient team.  “If you’re not the category-defining company, then it’s not as big a win. Categories are typically defined at the global level,…

First bite of Tyler Shane: This spicy new pairing with Westport favorite Café Corazón has cacao lovers going nuts

By Tommy Felts / February 5, 2022

‘I want people to sit down and really have a moment with their chocolate’ When Tyler Shane bites into a piece of chocolate, all of her senses come alive to fully indulge in the experience. “Food, for me, is almost like a religious experience,” she said. After spending seven years at Christopher Elbow Chocolates, the…