Startups

Hays Bailey, SHEQSY, and Luke Anear, SafetyCulture

SafetyCulture acquires safety app for decentralized frontline workers who often go it alone

By Tommy Felts / April 6, 2022

A global workplace operations company with its U.S. headquarters in Kansas City on Tuesday announced the acquisition of SHEQSY, a cloud-based lone worker safety app — a move meant to address an underinvestment in frontline processes, enablement, and emerging technologies, said Luke Anear. “Frontline workers make up 80 percent of our global workforces,” said Anear,…

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Nick Smith, Saile

Startup embraces ‘digital labor’, creating personalized robots for tedious tasks — beginning with cold calls

By Tommy Felts / April 2, 2022

Salespeople spend too much time searching for emails, making cold calls and setting up meetings — leaving less energy for comprehensive conversations and closing deals, said Nick Smith. His solution: robots for salespeople or, as he calls them, “Sailebots.”  “One day I had a revelation that there could be a tool for these mundane tasks.…

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EquipmentShare, Columbia, Missouri

Forbes names EquipmentShare to list of best startup employers for third straight year

By Tommy Felts / April 2, 2022

Startland News’ Startup Road Trip series explores innovative and uncommon ideas finding success in rural America and Midwestern startup hubs outside the Kansas City metro. This series is possible thanks to the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, which leads a collaborative, nationwide effort to identify and remove large and small barriers to new business creation. COLUMBIA,…

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Garrett Amundsen, "Once Upon A Startup," and Parker Graham, Finotta

‘How a startup becomes a superstar’: Finotta launches real-time podcast as KU freshman gets inside the mind of its founder

By Tommy Felts / March 29, 2022

Most business podcasts tell the stories of those who have reached massive success, Garrett Amundsen said, but Finotta’s premier podcast is set to flip the switch — sharing the fintech startup’s journey as it unfolds. “When people listen to our podcast, they’re going to be able to track the success and growth of the company…

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Velodyne Lidar team at the SXSW Innovation Awards in Austin

Innovative tech honored at SXSW has potential to save lives in KC, govtech founder says

By Tommy Felts / March 26, 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. AUSTIN — A tech company from Silicon Valley’s largest city is unleashing a new era of smart infrastructure technology for the world in motion — and Kansas City…

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