News

Royal Street Ventures, Kauffman Foundation announce KC University Venture Program

By Tommy Felts / March 28, 2017

The early-stage capital scene in Kansas City is getting a youthful shot in the arm. Designed to give Kansas City-area university students interested in entrepreneurship and private finance deep and real-world experience, the newly announced Kansas City University Venture Program aims to create a pipeline of experienced, young early-stage investors. Led by Royal Street Ventures…

Random act of kindness fueled by KC’s startup community goes viral

By Tommy Felts / March 28, 2017

Openness, willingness, humility, diligence and kindness. These are the words that Donald Carter would use to describe Kansas City’s startup community, which he said had a profound impact on his life perspective.  “(These values) are prevalent among all the people from the startup community I’ve met, which made a deep impression on me,” Carter said.…

Listen: From Brazil to Kansas City, furniture entrepreneur shares journey

By Tommy Felts / March 28, 2017

Editor’s note: In partnership with the KC Greats podcast, hosted by Scott Parman, Startland News hopes to offer its audience more avenues to learn about entrepreneurs in Kansas City. Opinions expressed in this commentary are the author’s alone.  In this episode, host Scott Parman welcomes the founder of Freedom Companies Carol Espinosa.  Hailing from Rio…

Report illuminates Google Fiber’s commitment to bridging the digital divide

By Tommy Felts / March 28, 2017

In 2016, Google Fiber provided 36,000 digital training hours in Kansas City— that’s one-third of the national sum. This information comes from the tech giant’s inaugural Community Impact report, which was published earlier this month. In the report, Google Fiber assessed the progress the firm has made toward closing the digital divide nationally. “From the…

Hundreds of investors, entrepreneurs heading to KC for InvestMidwest

By Tommy Felts / March 27, 2017

A midwestern venture capital forum that has led to over $1 billion in early-stage investments will convene in Kansas City on Tuesday and Wednesday, March 28 and 29. The 18th annual InvestMidwest conference aims to showcase the best early-stage, high growth tech companies in the region. The event regularly garners more than 300 attendees and…