Startups

Opportunity Hub

OHUB set to lose $1M+ in SXSW sunk costs, pivots to virtual experience; KC event plans in the air amid Coronavirus concerns

By Tommy Felts / March 13, 2020

Opportunity Hub is moving forward with a two-day virtual “Black and Hired” experience from its Atlanta headquarters after Coronavirus concerns prompted the cancelation of SXSW — where OHUB planned to spotlight members of its Kansas City cohort. Canceling the SXSW festival — which was expected to draw more than 400,000 to Austin over two weeks —…

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Jason Roberts, Strang Hall, Edison Factory

Cooking cash-free: Strang Hall leans into tech framework with its OP restaurant incubator 

By Tommy Felts / March 12, 2020

A cashless dining experience at Strang Hall is about more than efficiency, said Jason Roberts. It’s part of the Overland Park chef collective’s engrained tech framework. “It allows us to shut down the place super fast at the end of the day,” explained Roberts, Strang Hall CIO and principal at Edison Factory, the startup builder…

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Jody Brazil, Rich Mogull, and Mike Rothman, DisruptOps

DisruptOps raises $9M Series A with serial entrepreneur, cyber security veterans taming the cloud

By Tommy Felts / March 10, 2020

With security threats to cloud-enabled businesses outpacing the ability of most companies to respond, a fresh funding infusion is expected to help DisruptOps strengthen its team and its ability to react, said Jody Brazil. The Kansas City startup — a SaaS-based cloud security management platform that helps enterprises address the critical challenges of cloud security at…

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Fishtech, BacklotCars, Bardavon named to Forbes’ 2020 best startup employers list

By Tommy Felts / March 10, 2020

A trio of fast-growing Kansas City companies are among the 500 best startup employers in the nation, according to a new ranking from Forbes. Fishtech Group — one of Startland News’ Kansas City Startups to Watch in 2020 — lead the local honorees at No. 277 on Forbes’ list. BacklotCars was ranked at No. 339,…

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Image courtesy of Knoq

Scaling tech startup with door-to-door ‘Knoqers’ plans no-contact option amid Coronavirus

By Tommy Felts / March 10, 2020

A tech startup with offices in Kansas City and Boston plans to hire 200-plus “Knoqers” in 2020, but the company admits its growing army of door-to-door neighborhood representatives face an unexpected challenge this spring and summer: the spread of the Coronavirus. “Like everyone across the world, we have been closely following news about the Coronavirus…

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