Startups

Jackie Nguyen, founder and owner of Cafe Cà Phê, and her team accept first-place honors in the James and Rae Block Kansas City Startup Awards at the Regnier Venture Creation Challenge

UMKC pitch contest puts Cafe Cà Phê closer to Jackie Nguyen’s big goal; winners range from students to emerging startups

By Tommy Felts / April 30, 2022

The University of Missouri-Kansas City continues to brew innovation — and the return of its Regnier Venture Creation Challenge (RVCC) Friday poured proof, offering more than $88,000 in critical cash prizes to percolating ventures that spill far beyond its classrooms.  “I moved to Kansas City from Washington D.C. over the summer and I started following Cafe…

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Analysts speak during the HCS Major Kansas City 2022, a bracket-style Halo tournament, at the Kansas City Convention Center

Halo championship arrives downtown as KC-built esports team ‘pioneers a dynasty’

By Tommy Felts / April 29, 2022

KC Pioneers gain support of Chiefs, Charlie Hustle and other hometown household names for its #MyCity campaign as Kansas City hosts major esports tournament  It’s time to showcase Kansas City’s esports and tech community on a global scale, said Mark Josey — and what better way to do so than with a worldwide tournament hosted…

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Avatar for hire (in a few years): Gamified career platform helps kids explore their future in the workforce

By Tommy Felts / April 26, 2022

It’s a powerful question asked in classrooms every day, Jessica Munoz Valerio said, recalling her own experience with the common prompt and how tapping into and gamifying it could change lives.  “When my daughter was young — as early as 5 years old — she got asked, ‘What do you want to be when you grow up?’”she…

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Sandy Kemper, C2FO

C2FO helped women-, minority-owned biz access nearly $2B in 2021 alone; why that slice of $200B is set to grow as company approaches $1T funded

By Tommy Felts / April 26, 2022

Customers of C2FO have accessed more than $200 billion in working capital, the company announced, touting its wide-ranging successes and highlighting pandemic-era growth that has solidified its place as a world leader in the financing space — and a pace-setter for deploying capital to underserved businesses.  “From Day 1, C2FO has worked to fill the…

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BIOLO hits the scoreboard at Children's Mercy Park

Sporting KC teams with homegrown company to bring biodegradable straws to the Cauldron

By Tommy Felts / April 26, 2022

Sporting Kansas City announced Tuesday a multi-year partnership with BIOLO as the official home compostable straw of Sporting Sustainability. Founded in 2020 and headquartered in Kansas City, BIOLO manufactures bags, mailers and straws that are proudly made in the USA with Nodax – a revolutionary polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) biopolymer certified to biodegrade in soil, marine and…

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