News

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

By Tommy Felts / September 5, 2019

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…

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Chicken N Pickle at Prairiefire

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

By Tommy Felts / September 4, 2019

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…

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Photo courtesy of VanDoIt

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

By Tommy Felts / September 4, 2019

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…

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Kerri Thurston, C2FO

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

By Tommy Felts / September 4, 2019

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…

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Kathryn Golden, Enterprise Center in Johnson County

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

By Tommy Felts / August 30, 2019

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…

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