News Stories

Mid Coast Modern illustration by Elyssa Bezner

Shop small: Five buys at Westport’s Mid Coast Modern to help support KC makers

Editor’s note: Startland News explored Mid Coast Modern’s Westport storefront as part of the newsroom’s five-part holiday gift guide that identifies locally made goods and supports the call to shop small. Click here to read the multi-day gift guide as it develops. Westport streets aren’t filled with as much cheer in 2020, Matt Bramlette said, entering…

Courtney Lane, Never Forgotten

Victorian hair artist resurrects dead art form; talks representation for asexual, disabled communities

For as long as Courtney Lane can remember, she’s had a fascination with the ways people memorialize their deceased loved ones, the Kansas City hair artist said. “I had a family who didn’t shelter me from the concept of death,” Lane recalled. “When I was 5 or 6 years old, my grandmother took me on…

Riddhiman Das, TripleBlind

TripleBlind earns strategic investment from Accenture to jump into $500B market faster

A newly announced strategic investment is expected to boost a high-profile, pre-seed Kansas City startup’s bid to help enterprises harness the potential of sensitive data. Terms of the deal between Dublin-based Accenture and TripleBlind were not disclosed Wednesday, but the investment by the global professional services firm marks a significant step forward for TripleBlind as…

Tesseract Ventures interactive T-shirts

Off the rack: Tesseract’s next wearable robot tech — interactive tees with embedded intelligence

It wouldn’t be a Tesseract Ventures original if it lacked hard-wired flair, John Boucard said, showing off the metro’s leading robotics startup’s newest creation — interactive tees.  “What we’ve developed is some embedded intelligence inside the textiles,” Boucard, founder and CEO, said in a recently released video showing four T-shirt styles — which represent the…

Only made in KC: Sandlot Goods revives iconic ‘KC hat’ with 25-step, felt-to-field production

The classic, Baldwin-style KC hat is back in the game — boasting a newly drafted team of makers and a modern twist on its otherwise traditional look, Sandlot Goods announced.  “With most major hat manufacturers moving their production overseas, there is a space and a need for a classic, American-made ball cap,” said Chad Hickman, founder…