Profiles

Launch Health Accelerator 2019 cohort

Women-led Kansas City companies fuel Launch Health accelerator’s first cohort

By Tommy Felts / September 11, 2019

Healthcare needs an overhaul and four Kansas City-area companies are among those poised to disrupt the industry as part of the first Launch Health Accelerator cohort, explained Jeremy Tasset.  “Through the health accelerator, we were seeking companies with fresh ideas that give rise to improving care and lowering costs that can be readily integrated into…

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PayIt iKan

PayIt’s iKan app named a finalist in Fast Company 2019 Innovation by Design honors

By Tommy Felts / September 10, 2019

Kansas City’s PayIt isn’t just worthy of investment — its foundational technology continues to win awards alongside the likes of Nike, Microsoft and Mastercard, said John Thomson. Fast Company honored iKan — a PayIt-powered app that allows Kansas residents to pay vehicle registration renewals, renew their driver’s license (the country’s first-ever mobile driver’s license renewal service),…

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Green Bee Tea Towels

From maker to CEO: Green Bee founder turned KC resources into a brand buzzing online, in stores

By Tommy Felts / September 7, 2019

When the inventory of vintage goods Rena Krouse sold online started to dwindle, her entrepreneurial roots helped her recreate history.  “I grew a huge Instagram following and they would get irritated when I would run out of certain things,” Krouse, CEO of Green Bee Tea Towels, said in explanation of how her maker’s journey began. …

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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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