Profiles

Mary Shannon’s two words to describe the complexity of supplier diversity: Competitive advantage

By Tommy Felts / April 21, 2022

Editor’s note: The following story was sponsored by KC Rising, a regional initiative to help Kansas City grow faster and more intentionally, as part of a campaign to promote its CEO-to-CEO Challenge on supplier diversity.  [divide] Don’t try to fake your way through diversity initiatives for optics, advised Mary Shannon, noting half-hearted commitment to efforts like supplier diversity —…

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Meet the people-first small biz advocate helping decode the language of entrepreneurship for KCMO

By Tommy Felts / April 1, 2022

Editor’s note: The following profile on Samuel Morris, small business advocate for Kansas City, Missouri’s, KC BizCare Office is made possible by the office’s financial and programmatic partnership with Startland News. [divide] When the bell rang on Samuel Morris’ Kansas City teaching career, he knew he had to do something big as he stepped back…

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$4M dream childcare center opened on Prospect as planned; why the 24/7 KD Academy is struggling to fill its beds

By Tommy Felts / March 23, 2022

Penny Dale-McCant built a childcare model — and a $4 million expansion of her KD Academy brand with her husband, Myron McCant — unlike anything else in the region, she said. Today, however, the center serves only a third of its intended capacity: a product of pandemic trends that have limited staffing. “I’m just proud…

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Dreamgirl hits the start button at SXSW; why the KC band tells its peers to break out of the Midwest

By Tommy Felts / March 19, 2022

Editor’s note: The following story is part of Startland News’ coverage of the SXSW conference in Austin. Click here to read more stories from the 2022 trip. [divide] AUSTIN — Dreamgirl describes itself as a family — a bit dysfunctional at times, but nonetheless family, members of the Kansas City-based band shared, laughing the morning before…

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Callie England’s latest venture has no name or website; When odds are you’ll die next week, you learn to prioritize, she says

By Tommy Felts / March 15, 2022

Sometimes hypothetical questions become all too real, said Callie England, a serial entrepreneur who frequently posed a speculative query to herself and clients: “If you were going to die next week, what decisions would you make?”  It was a question she was forced to answer honestly in July 2021, when the veteran Kansas City startup…

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