Profiles

Drew Solomon, Economic Development Corporation of Kansas City; and Rodney Sampson, Opportunity Hub Kansas City

Atlanta-based Opportunity Hub announces plans for KC minority accelerator

By Tommy Felts / May 23, 2019

Opportunity Hub is about building strength in numbers, said Rodney Sampson, a feat that can only be accomplished in Kansas City through inclusive and intentional ecosystem building. “The bottom line is that it takes everybody to be a stakeholder at some level,” said Sampson executive chairman and CEO of Atlanta-based OHUB. “The thesis of a…

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Mark Serrano, MixTape Monkey

KC’s MixTape Monkey curates 11 million users through hip hop streaming service

By Tommy Felts / May 22, 2019

Taking a long sigh, an underground mixtape mogul logs off from a live Q&A session with customers. Inside his two-bedroom downtown Kansas City apartment, Mark Serrano stares out a window overlooking the corner of 12th and Walnut streets. “Online I have this huge community, itʼs overwhelming,” said Serrano, referencing his staggering global user base of…

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DeepLens mobile view

UMKC-powered tech could help visually-impaired Kansas Citians see via artificial intelligence

By Tommy Felts / May 21, 2019

Gharib Gharibi is driven to succeed by a desire to pay it forward, he said, riding a high from his startup’s first-place, $20,000 win at UMKC’s Regnier Institute Venture Creation Challenge. “They helped us transform our technology from the computer lab to the real world,” Gharibi, founder of DeepLens and a UMKC PhD student, said…

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Photo courtesy of Bungii

Bungii launches on-demand hauling in Chicago; quirks of new markets steering KC startup’s agility

By Tommy Felts / May 16, 2019

Bungii is quickly seeing results in the third-largest U.S. city, as the sharing economy startup leaves its tire prints on yet another market. “It’s early, but we are seeing very positive KPIs [key performance indicators] from the Chicago launch. It’s our fastest-growing record to date,” said Ben Jackson, co-founder of Bungii, which was founded in…

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Image courtesy of ShotTracker Mountain West

ShotTracker partners with entire NCAA conference, taking shot at potential in-game analytics

By Tommy Felts / May 15, 2019

The game is all about proliferating ShotTracker’s technology, said Davyeon Ross, announcing a new partnership with the Mountain West conference to spread the Kansas-born stats-and-analytics tech further across collegiate basketball. Ross’ goal: nothing short of overhauling sports. “The Mountain West continues to stand out for being a pioneer in adopting the latest cutting-edge technologies,” the…

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