News

Austin Wilson, UrbanLeap

New in KC: GovTech startup leader goes remote, relocating for KC costs with West Coast pay

By Tommy Felts / October 3, 2019

Editor’s note: New in KC is an ongoing profile series that highlights newly relocated members of the Kansas City startup community, their reasons for a change of scenery, and what’ they’ve found so far in KC. Click here to read more New in KC profiles. Kansas City’s got two things going for it: a growing…

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Investing in women

Advice for women founders: Be ‘tough as balls’ but don’t fear asking for help, panelists say 

By Tommy Felts / October 2, 2019

Want to rise to the top? Stop limiting yourself to gender roles in the workplace, declared Jene’ Hong.  “I didn’t see people as male or female,” Hong, told a crowd gathered for Startland’s Innovation Exchange: Investing in the Power of Women.  “I started off in accounting — everyone was male. I was taught to curse…

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Tim Schaffer, AREA Real Estate Advisors; and Basel Bataineh, Somera Road

Downtown innovation district: Developers envision 30-story Lightwell project as its own startup hub

By Tommy Felts / October 2, 2019

It’s possible the Lightwell building’s exterior hasn’t been cleaned since 1977, joked Tim Schaffer as he walked a vine-wrapped rooftop terrace that overlooks downtown Kansas City.  “It was totally unintentional, the way it came together,” Schaffer, president of AREA Real Estate Advisors, said of the multi-million-dollar office redevelopment project that’s quickly evolved into what Schaffer…

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Ben Hammes, Social Afterlife

Lifting the burden: Social Afterlife oversees social media accounts of lost loved ones

By Tommy Felts / October 1, 2019

Receiving a birthday notification on a social media platform is a common source of angst for Ben Hammes’ customers, the founder of Social Afterlife said.   “We handle the memorialization or removal of social media for the deceased on behalf of the family,” Hammes said, explaining his startup. “This helps the family with dealing with the…

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Doug Tree, Staychill

Hilly KU campus inspires ‘back sweat’ innovation for Startup Weekend KC team

By Tommy Felts / October 1, 2019

If more entrepreneurs were willing to invest a little sweat alongside virtual strangers, they’d carry an even larger number of cutting-edge startups to success, Tyler Sherman said. “In two days, we have a product that I feel comfortable enough to say we’ll roll with,” Sherman, a participant in the recent Techstars Startup Weekend, said of…

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