Startups

Brandon Love, Crumble Co

Wonka of Wax: Dark times melt into quirky joy for Brandon Love’s Crumble Co

By Tommy Felts / December 15, 2017

With scents as varied as “Lavender Lemonade” and “Drunken Unicorn,” Brandon Love’s Crumble Co. burns in a unique — Love would say “joyful” — space within the candle market. A wide grin spreads across the 21-year-old founder’s face as he notes the name of the wax melt spreading aroma throughout his loft apartment at One…

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Football tech startup Lazser Down scores big with NCAA championship game

By Tommy Felts / December 14, 2017

When two out-of-state foes face off Saturday at Children’s Mercy Park, the NCAA Division II Championship game will still host a hometown team. The title game — between West Florida University and Texas A&M University-Commerce — features local tech created by Lazser Down, a Kansas City-based startup that created a new down marker system that uses…

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Gerald Smith

Plexpod acquires Think Big Coworking, expanding KC footprint

By Tommy Felts / December 14, 2017

Plexpod isn’t playing. Amid Kansas City’s competitive coworking market, Plexpod is doubling down with the acquisition of Think Big Coworking’s 1712 Main Street location, Plexpod founder Gerald Smith said. The acquisition adds more than 30,000 square feet of space to Plexpod’s already large footprint in the area and forges a new partnership between the two…

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Carlanda McKinney, Raaxo

Raaxo takes shape after pivot from Aphrodite Bra Co’s body scan concept

By Tommy Felts / December 13, 2017

Despite its use of body-mapping technology, Aphrodite Bra Company wasn’t the right fit for customers’ needs, said Carlanda McKinney, founder of the newly rebooted custom intimates company Raaxo. “Aphrodite had been stuck in the starting-up space,” she said. “We’d never really gotten enough sales or enough traction to say, ‘We’re launched,’ or, ‘We’re in business.’…

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Ben Rao, Bridge Space, Lee's Summit

Serial entrepreneur leverages past success for Bridge Space coworking project

By Tommy Felts / December 12, 2017

Bridge Space will be more than a coworking office, Ben Rao said. He hopes it will be the heart of Lee’s Summit’s blossoming entrepreneurial ecosystem. “My No. 1 goal is to accelerate entrepreneurs’ success,” said Rao, Bridge Space founder and a serial entrepreneur himself. “It’s an opportunity for me to build something that would make…

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