News

$300K Kauffman grant will keep no-cost LaunchCode coding classes in KC another two years

By Tommy Felts / February 22, 2019

Sourced in community building through enhanced access to resources, a grant from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation will allow LaunchCode Kansas City to continue its training program for at least two additional years, the program announced Thursday. “It’s very exciting. We know that it’s, in part, through the vision of the Kauffman Foundation that LaunchCode…

New Kauffman indicators point to more fertile ground for startups on Missouri side of state line

By Tommy Felts / February 22, 2019

A new analysis of early-stage entrepreneurship over the past 20 years indicates a more welcoming environment for fostering startups has developed in the Show Me State. In a state-by-state breakdown released Thursday by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, Missouri outperformed Kansas across the board. Overall, Missouri’s scores showed climbing measures of entrepreneurship, while Kansas saw…

Friend That Cooks in-home personal chefs bake healthful cooking into families’ diets

By Tommy Felts / February 21, 2019

Champagne wishes and caviar dreams be damned, Brandon O’Dell quipped. Personal chefs are no longer a luxurious perk of the nation’s one-percent — all thanks to Kansas City-served startup Friend That Cooks. And as the market grows, so too does the repertoire of chefs at O’Dell’s startup, a weekly in-home meal prep service now operating…

Happy Food Co. modifies meal kit options to fit paleo, keto, Whole 30, vegan lifestyles

By Tommy Felts / February 21, 2019

If a company wants to create change, its leaders have to be unafraid of emerging trends, Jen Trompeter said as Happy Food Co. serves up a strategy that could help the company cook up new business with modified meal kits. “People are doing keto or they’re doing Whole 30,” Trompeter, said. “We have some [meal…

Omega Power Creamer founders turn keto craze into a million-dollar idea

By Tommy Felts / February 21, 2019

If it weren’t for the failure of a St. Louis tech startup where two friends found themselves working after college, their Kansas City-headquartered company might not exist today, pondered Greg Blome. “It kind of fell through and we were looking at [our idea] … we were trying for a long time to figure out a…