Startups

Michael Wilson, United American Hemp

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

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…

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?

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…

Emoji My City Single Wing Creative

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

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,…

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

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…

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

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…