Startups

Joni Cobb, Pipeline, photo by Lane Hickenbottom

Climbing mountains in the Midwest? Exiting Pipeline leader eyes next big challenge

By Tommy Felts / September 21, 2019

A desire to move mountains is driving Joni Cobb to move on from Pipeline — her family of 13 years.  “I’ve been thinking about it for many years … not because I don’t love what I do. I love what I do [with Pipeline],” said Cobb, president and CEO of the Midwest-based accelerator and entrepreneur…

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Tina Peterson, Sprint Accelerator

KCultivator Q&A: Tina Peterson turned a career stop into a platform to accelerate dozens of startups

By Tommy Felts / September 19, 2019

Editor’s note: KCultivators is a lighthearted profile series to highlight people who are meaningfully enriching Kansas City’s entrepreneurial ecosystem. The KCultivator Series is sponsored by Plexpod, a progressive coworking platform offering next generation workspace for entrepreneurs, startups, and growth-stage companies of all sizes. Living in Kansas City couldn’t have been further from Tina Peterson’s mind…

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Sprint Corporate Accelerator Program

Sprint, DFA open applications for parallel programs within 2020 Corporate Accelerator

By Tommy Felts / September 19, 2019

When one of Kansas City’s most popular corporate accelerators returns in the spring, its cohort will be more meaningfully defined and tailored to its twin partner industries — 5G mobile technology and agtech/dairy food products, said Ari DeGrote. “We are looking at these two programs as being separate, but parallel — this will really help…

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Show Me Jobs report: Young firms created 44,000 jobs, drove majority of Missouri hiring in 2018

By Tommy Felts / September 18, 2019

Startups created more than 44,000 jobs in Missouri in 2018, accounting for nearly 80 percent of all new jobs in the state, according to a new report from MOSourceLink. The Show Me Jobs report is a broader version of a similar report focused on the Kansas City market. MOSourceLink, a nonprofit resource provider for entrepreneurs…

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Lesa Mitchell, Techstars Kansas City

Techstars Kansas City returning in 2020, fully funded by globe-spanning seed accelerator

By Tommy Felts / September 18, 2019

Techstars believes in Kansas City’s potential because of its proven track record, said Lesa Mitchell, announcing the 2020 return of the seed accelerator to the City of Fountains following a brief hiatus. “I am the luckiest person on the face of the Earth because I’m again going to run what we call a horizontal program,…

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