News Stories

Bunker Labs KC returns to deploy connections to veterans transitioning to entrepreneurship

Military members typically make incredible connections with comrades abroad, but when they return to the U.S. as veterans they often struggle to establish a worthwhile network, said Joe Crane. That sense of isolation can inhibit would-be entrepreneurs from breaking into the startup world. “It’s tough for veterans to connect,” said Crane, Bunker Labs’ city leader…

Chicken N Pickle at Prairiefire

Chicken N Pickle heading south: Prairiefire location to offer seasonal ice skating, curling

A new entertainment destination is slated for the final phase of Overland Park’s Prairiefire development with North Kansas City-based Chicken N Pickle targeting a fall 2020 opening. “Opening a second location in the area will allow us to share the love of pickleball with customers who have been requesting a location on the Kansas side…

Photo courtesy of VanDoIt

Adobe for adventure: KC’s VanDoIt offers affordable travel, housing solution nationwide 

VanDoIt is no sideshow venture for Brent Kline and his son-in-law, Jared McCauslin. The duo’s custom van and restoration business has a  partnership with Ford and customers motoring coast to coast. “We have a couple out of Tulsa, Oklahoma, and they are actually a traveling circus act — like, they are actually a circus act…

Kerri Thurston, C2FO

C2FO’s advice: Seek global capital, local startup partners (Top VC-Backed event photos)

Leawood-based fintech powerhouse C2FO didn’t raise nearly $300 million in capital by accident, nor without a strategy for selecting the right investors, Kerri Thurston told a crowd of founders, executives and investors gathered to celebrate the startups on Startland’s list of Kansas City’s Top Venture Capital-Backed Companies in 2019. “Focus on folks who can really…

Kathryn Golden, Enterprise Center in Johnson County

KCultivator Q&A: Kathryn Golden risks it all to laugh at life (but roommates are no joke)

Editor’s note: KCultivators is a lighthearted profile series to highlight people who are meaningfully enriching Kansas City’s entrepreneurial ecosystem. The KCultivator Series is sponsored by Plexpod, a progressive coworking platform offering next generation workspace for entrepreneurs, startups, and growth-stage companies of all sizes. A spoonful of sugar couldn’t help Kathryn Golden stomach the oddities she…