Startups

Michael Wilson, United American Hemp

Cannabis founder’s advice: Weed out the bad seeds; run green startups like real businesses

By Tommy Felts / October 29, 2019

Cannabis might seem like it presents a Wild West frontier for entrepreneurs looking to strike green, said Michael Wilson, but would-be founders must cultivate a plan grounded in common sense — and the law. “In the industrial hemp or marijuana space, if you want to build a successful business, run it like a real damn…

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Kansas City Public Schools High School Girls Cybersecurity and Technology Summit, Fishtech Group

Cyber threats and opportunities: Why did 50+ KC schoolgirls get a peek at Fishtech’s high-security campus?

By Tommy Felts / October 26, 2019

You never know when an opportunity will find you, Alex Vendetti told a group of Kansas City high school girls touring the Fishtech Group cybersecurity campus.  “I was a hairstylist before this,” Vendetti, a project manager at Fishtech, told groups of students making their ways through the cybersecurity startup’s sprawling Martin City facilities Friday. The…

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Emoji My City Single Wing Creative

Emoji My City launches its hometown emoji keyboard with winks to iconic Kansas City

By Tommy Felts / October 26, 2019

Kansas City scenes from the Kauffman Center to 18th and Vine. Winks to local trends and celebrities. A playful push puts whimsical KC in the mobile devices of hometown fans and visitors alike. And it comes courtesy of the team that helped rebrand Kansas City’s now-iconic logo in 2013. In the age of digital marketing,…

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Reese Davis as Ant-Man with "Ant-Man" star and Overland Park native Paul Rudd

Walkin and Rollin, KC maker community treat kids with limited mobility to custom Halloween costumes

By Tommy Felts / October 25, 2019

The children in Reese Davis’ preschool class were often standoffish around him.  “He was the only kid they knew in a wheelchair,” recalled his father, Lon Davis, founder of Walkin and Rollin Costumes — a Kansas City-based non-profit that builds costumes for kids in walkers and wheelchairs, free of charge.   “They didn’t really know how…

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Digital Sandbox KC cohort; Mario Pabaroue, Len Frye and Brandon Dunlap, FilmDove Inc.; A.J. Mellott, Ronawk LLC; and Sunti Wathanacharoen, Pulmonaer Analytics LLC

Digital Sandbox KC selects diverse health, AI and filmmaking startups for latest funding

By Tommy Felts / October 24, 2019

The latest trio of Digital Sandbox KC companies pushes the proof-of-concept program deeper into Johnson County with a new Overland Park partnership. “This group showcases the wide spectrum of businesses assisted by the Sandbox, from a data platform for creative filmmakers and studios, to improved patient care in asthma, to biologics in regenerative medicine,” said…

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