Startups

Matt Condon and Ed Enyeart, Bardavon

Talent off the charts: Bardavon recruits another former Cerner exec to build team equipped for rapid expansion

By Tommy Felts / July 8, 2021

To keep growing in the workers’ compensation industry — as well as expand into commercial healthcare and beyond — Bardavon Health Innovations needs an even stronger team at the top, said Matt Condon.  “I think Bardavon is going to be a bigger, more important company than we first anticipated,” Condon, founder and CEO of Bardavon,…

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A.J. Mellott, Ronawk

Olathe biotech startup represents Kansas in MassChallenge’s 50th accelerator program

By Tommy Felts / July 8, 2021

More than 3,000 startups across the world applied to the 2021 MassChallenge accelerator program with Olathe-based biotechnology lab Ronawk earning one of the 229 slots to participate, shared A.J. Mellott. “[MassChallenge] has a really good reputation for accelerating companies that are in the startup mode and growing,” said Mellott, who co-founded Ronawk in 2019 with…

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Stephanie Cummings, Please Assist Me, center, winner of the 2019 HERImpact DC pitch competition; Photo by My Bella Images LLC

Ford opens door to July 29 pitch competition, $50K in prizes for women entrepreneurs

By Tommy Felts / June 28, 2021

The Ford Motor Company Fund is bringing a new pitch competition — and $50,000 in prizes — to Kansas City this summer as part of its effort to boost women social entrepreneurs. Announced during the final moments of last week’s HI-HERImpact virtual entrepreneurship summit for Kansas City, the planned July 29 competition is part of a national…

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Katie Mabry van Dieren, Shop Local KC

How Shop Local KC’s new Main Street storefront crafts opportunity for makers, Midtown

By Tommy Felts / June 25, 2021

Main Street isn’t just a bridge connecting the Country Club Plaza to downtown Kansas City, Katie Mabry van Dieren said, detailing how she hopes her new retail gift and flower shop in Midtown will shatter stereotypes — along with showcasing makers. “Midtown has really been divested,” Mabry van Dieren said Wednesday afternoon from the Shop Local…

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Jannae Gammage and Milad Ghasempour, The Market Base, center, with their mothers at the Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce Small Business Celebration

‘What we’re doing matters’: On-demand marketing startup honored as top ‘emerging’ KC business

By Tommy Felts / June 25, 2021

A never-give-up attitude and an appreciation for every opportunity that comes their way continues to fuel the founding duo behind Kansas City-built The Market Base.  “We’re just glad to be recognized for our relentless pursuit,” Milad Ghasempour, co-founder and COO, said moments after the startup was named Emerging Business Award winner by the Greater Kansas…

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