Startups

Founder Problems: Podcast captures the ‘messy middle’ you don’t see on entrepreneurs’ highlight reels

By Tommy Felts / February 13, 2025

A new Kansas City-based podcast is skipping over the fairy tale stories of founding a startup; instead diving straight into the messy parts, the hosts shared. Founder Problems — hosted by local entrepreneurs Sarah Schumacher, Zach Oshinbanjo, and Lee Zuvanich — is embracing the aspects of starting and running a business that no one wants…

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Digital health startup aims to save medical providers time while bringing down cost of AI tech

By Tommy Felts / February 11, 2025

CarePilot is on a mission to bring AI and automation to smaller medical clinics that don’t always have access to cutting-edge technology, shared founder and CEO Joseph Tutera. The Overland Park-based startup’s ambient AI technology — designed to help those smaller practices operate more efficiently — captures patient-provider interactions in real time, automating administrative tasks…

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‘People pay for value’: How a young mom’s plan to hold passion tight drives her baby apparel side hustle

By Tommy Felts / February 11, 2025

Coming from a family of business owners, Riley Rhoads knew she wanted to pursue entrepreneurship: starting her own business — but with a goal to help others, the founder of Hold Tight Baby said. “When I hear people talk about, ‘Oh, I want to be an entrepreneur; I want to start and own my own…

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Pipeline doubles-down on diverse voices: Meet its new class of Pathfinder entrepreneurs

By Tommy Felts / February 7, 2025

Programs built to support emerging founders who are primed to break through — despite entering entrepreneurship from a different starting point — have never been more needed, said Melissa Vincent, announcing the newest class of Pipeline Pathfinders. “In today’s climate, programs like Pathfinder are not just valuable — they’re essential,” said Vincent, CEO of Pipeline…

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Pipeline adds top founders to its network: Meet 14 fellows tasked with building the Midwest together 

By Tommy Felts / February 7, 2025

The newest class of Pipeline fellows embodies the elite Midwest network’s founder-first focus on industry-agnostic collaboration and support, said Melissa Vincent, noting the power of tapping barrier-breaking perspectives to solve problems and build world-class companies side by side. “We have an incredible depth of entrepreneurs who are all focused on building high-growth, scalable businesses, but…

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