News

Tiny TV Classics by Basic Fun!

KC inventor, toy maker put classic TV shows, movies at your fingertips

By Tommy Felts / July 29, 2021

Makers and inventors only have an instant to capture the public’s imagination and pull them into a product, John Boucard said.  “I gravitate toward working on things that haven’t been done before,” the founder and CEO of Tesseract Ventures shared. “There’s the ‘moment of astonishment’ for children and consumers who are delighted by our tech.…

Read More >
Image illustrates a pre-production Mark II, the Mark II is not yet in production

Fund Me, KC: Invest in Mycroft’s open-sourced, privacy-respecting voice assistant

By Tommy Felts / July 29, 2021

Startland News is continuing its “Fund Me, KC” series to highlight area entrepreneurs’ efforts to accelerate their businesses or lend a helping hand to others. This is an opportunity for business owners and innovators — like Kansas City artificial intelligence startup Mycroft AI — to share their crowdfunding stories and potentially gain backing from new…

Read More >
Tom's Town canned cocktails

Tom’s Town cracks open canned cocktail opportunity: ‘We’re not a bubble factory in a can’

By Tommy Felts / July 29, 2021

People love drinking cocktails, but specialty creations can be intimidating to make, said David Epstein, announcing a new line of canned premium cocktails from the Crossroads-based distiller. “The pandemic ushered in a lot of at-home-drinking, and I think people simply loved the taste,” said Epstein, co-founder of Tom’s Town, describing a renewed thirst for convenience…

Read More >
J. Rieger & Co. Electric Park rendering, GastingerWalker&

J. Rieger plans to relight ‘Electric Park’ in the East Bottoms, sling boozy snow-cones, cocktail floats

By Tommy Felts / July 27, 2021

A new 11,000-square-foot outdoor space is set to open this fall at J. Rieger & Co., the historic East Bottoms-based distillery, with an homage to one of Kansas City’s brightest but nearly forgotten eras. The Electric Park Garden Bar — featuring a completely open-air patio bar and an adjoining atrium that will serve as an…

Read More >
HI-HERImpact pitch competitors: Anita Koul, Kufukaa; Deb North, YES! Athletics; and Lisa Ragan, Safely Delicious

Women-led ventures vie for $50K in pitch competition with more than prize money on the line

By Tommy Felts / July 26, 2021

Finalists in this week’s debut HI-HERImpact pitch competition say the virtual event offers Kansas City’s female social entrepreneurs an opportunity to tell their stories — and potentially score pivotal funding. “Winning it would be life changing for me, my business and the team of people working for Safely Delicious in so many ways,” said Lisa…

Read More >