News

Topeka approves $5.9M for innovation campus, locking in key funding for animal health, ag hub

By Tommy Felts / May 14, 2021

Startland News’ Startup Road Trip series explores innovative and uncommon ideas finding success in rural America and Midwestern startup hubs outside the Kansas City metro. This series is possible thanks to the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, which leads a collaborative, nationwide effort to identify and remove large and small barriers to new business creation. Plans…

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World War II veteran experiencing a virtual Honor Flight using Healium and T-Mobile technologies

Healium partners with T-Mobile, transporting veterans to DC memorials via virtual Honor Flight

By Tommy Felts / May 12, 2021

Veterans living in rural America can experience the sights and sounds of the nation’s war memorials in Washington D.C. thanks to a Kansas City-area startup’s virtual reality technology, powered by T‑Mobile 5G. “We are losing our World War II veterans at a rate of hundreds a day, and sadly many may not live long enough…

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Jonathan O’Neil Cole, Pendulum Studio, and Tim Bowman, Compass Resources, Troost Village Development

Watch: Troost Village duo go behind the scenes of four-year development in historic East KC neighborhood 

By Tommy Felts / May 11, 2021

Editor’s note: The following story includes the first video in a four-part series taking a look under the hard hats at the Troost Village development, a $162 million project on Troost Avenue, the city’s longtime racial dividing line. Videos in this series are expected to debut on Startland News as the project unfolds. The finished…

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KC’s long-running online indie music magazine just debuted in print; why its founder saved advertising for the black-and-white page

By Tommy Felts / May 11, 2021

Flashy digital ads and gimmicky marketing schemes aren’t telling the stories (or singing the praises) of artists who run counter to Kansas City’s mainstream, said Aaron Rhodes, founder of a niche music magazine newly hitting the streets this spring. Readers shouldn’t be fooled, Rhodes said. His underground approach to ad sales for Shuttlecock Music Magazine…

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Leah Hermida, The Windmill KC

Leah Hermida brought coffee home to KCK; her Windmill KC cafe already needs more space

By Tommy Felts / May 8, 2021

In the shadow of the Kansas City skyline, new entrepreneurial energy is brewing in Wyandotte County, the childhood home of Leah Hermida.  “I knew the community really well,” Hermida said from her pandemic-opened, Turner-based coffee shop, The Windmill KC, noting she grew up in the city before eventually relocating to Overland Park. “I worked locally…

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