News

Lava Dreams; photo courtesy of Stellar Image Studios

Artist Q&A: KC musician Lava Dreams brings fans to their feet with her original rhythms

By Tommy Felts / January 30, 2021

Music gives people an outlet to feel, dance and express themselves, shared 27-year-old musician, Lava Dreams. She’s dreaming of doing the same.  Hailing from Kansas City, Julia Hamilton grew up surrounded by music and officially became a solo artist in 2018, now performing as Lava Dreams. In 2020, she released her EP, “GOOD ENERGY +…

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Missouri Gov. Mike Parson, 2021 State of the State Address, photo courtesy of the State of Missouri

Missouri could put $1M back into startup support after COVID killed most-recent funding

By Tommy Felts / January 29, 2021

A budget plan released this week by Gov. Mike Parson includes a $1 million allocation for the Missouri Technology Corporation — a popular public-private initiative boosting startups that saw its investment efforts defunded last year because of COVID-19-related shortfalls. “It is important that we continue to follow through on key investments in workforce development and infrastructure,”…

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BetaBlox relaunching its popular demo day as part of documentary-style reality TV show

By Tommy Felts / January 29, 2021

BetaBlox is adding more reality to its demo day — pushing the entrepreneur incubator’s hotly anticipated event to the summer and retooling the format as documentary-style vignettes that feed into casting for a full-season reality TV show. “This opportunity is a win-win-win,” said Weston Bergmann, founder and lead investor at BetaBlox, in a message to entrepreneurs…

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Brooke Mullen, Sapahn

Pipeline pitch winner sells practical business moves (and leather) with socially conscious ethos

By Tommy Felts / January 29, 2021

Brooke Mullen’s ability to pivot with silky smooth ease helped the Lincoln entrepreneur build a bridge to surging revenue in 2020, as well as win best pitch Thursday during a showcase of Pipeline’s latest fellowship class. “With a lot of our business being direct-to-consumer and actual live events, we had to completely change as all…

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ScaleUP! Kansas City Cohort 11

Meet 20 scaling companies making the leap with ScaleUP! KC’s latest small biz cohort

By Tommy Felts / January 28, 2021

Successfully scaling entrepreneurs take the time to work on their businesses — rather than just in them, Jill Hathaway said, emphasizing the transformative power ScaleUP! Kansas City brings to the 20 top-tier business owners newly participating in its 11th cohort. “This intensive program has had a profound impact on the small businesses it serves during the…

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