Startups

Mycroft Mark II

Mycroft hits crowdfunding goal in hours, raises $400K for Mark II

By Tommy Felts / February 27, 2018

Mycroft’s Mark II crowdfunding campaign raised eight times its goal — and the tech firm is still counting. The Kansas City-based startup set out to raise $50,000 on Kickstarter and garner support from early adopters for its voice assistant product Mark II — similar to Amazon’s Alexa, Apple’s Siri or Microsoft’s Cortana. Mycroft “blew through”…

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Monarchs collection, Cherry

Negro leagues’ only three women players inspire ‘Beauty of the Game’ by KC designer Cherry

By Tommy Felts / February 27, 2018

Toni Stone, Connie Morgan and Mamie Johnson — the only three women to play in the Negro baseball leagues — remain an inspiration to female entrepreneurs in male-dominated industries some 50 years later, said Thalia Cherry. “It’s still important for us to carve out a great space for ourselves, a great niche, and do the…

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Matt Burgener, Blooom

Blooom CEO switch better allows Costello to ‘evangelize’ high-profile KC startup

By Tommy Felts / February 22, 2018

Following a “tremendous” year of growth, Blooom officials said Wednesday that upward trajectory requires a new leader at the helm. Co-founder Chris Costello, who has served for the past five years as chief executive officer, has stepped down and moved into a new role as chairman of Blooom’s board of directors. Matt Burgener, the company’s…

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MADE Urban Apparel

MADE’s Heartbreak Kids splits design silence on tension with Charlie Hustle

By Tommy Felts / February 20, 2018

Streetwear is about making a statement, Vu Radley said, and the Heartbreak Kids collection says more than words alone could express. “It’s an attitude. Pushing out statements without censoring yourself,” said Radley, co-founder and creative director for MADE Urban Apparel. “We say it how it is in our designs.” For the Heartbreak Kids capsule, which…

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Lesa Mitchell, Techstars Kansas City

Techstars’ Lesa Mitchell: Non-sexy sectors are ripe for disruption

By Tommy Felts / February 19, 2018

Editor’s note: The opinions expressed in this commentary are the author’s alone. In the process of looking for a new crop of companies to invest in on behalf of Techstars Kansas City, I thought I should highlight the type of companies I think are undervalued and critical to our economy. In 2017 we invested in…

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