Startups

Chris Goode, Ruby Jean's Kitchen and Juicery

Wonder no more: Ruby Jean’s taking juice to Troost

By Tommy Felts / September 13, 2017

Thirty years after Chris Goode’s grandmother helped drop him off for daycare at Operation Breakthrough on Troost Avenue, the entrepreneur is expanding the juicery that bears her name — Ruby Jean’s — to a site less than a block away. “It’s crazy how life comes full circle,” said Goode, Ruby Jean’s Juicery founder. “I’m 33 now…

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5 startups enjoy growth, connections with KCMO innovation partnership

By Tommy Felts / September 12, 2017

Although the government may be pegged as resistant to change, Kansas City Mayor Sly James wants to flip the script. “On a city level, we aren’t having much help from the state and federal governments sometimes,” James said at the Innovation Partnership Program demo day on Monday at WeWork Corrigan Station. “But, we still have…

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With fund now slashed, LaunchKC alumni say MTC vital to early success

By Tommy Felts / September 12, 2017

PopBookings probably wouldn’t be in business today without the early support — and more critically the investment dollars — of the Missouri Technology Corporation, Erika Klotz said. “It really allowed us to do more quicker,” the PopBookings co-founder and CEO said. “For any startup, speed is everything. It allowed us to get credibility right out…

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Photo gallery: With a Boulevard in hand, Techweek pours into KC

By Tommy Felts / September 12, 2017

Hundreds of techies, innovators and entrepreneurs converged in Kansas City for the third annual Techweek KC conference, which launched Monday and runs through Friday. The Chicago-based conference series, which focuses on innovation and entrepreneurship, returned to the City of Fountains for a five-day conference, expo and festival. It is one of nine such events across…

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Greitens eyes private investment dollars to fill MTC budget gap

By Tommy Felts / September 12, 2017

A new, privately-managed innovation fund could replace a popular startup investment program that was dramatically slashed for 2018 amid Missouri’s budget crunch. The potential strategy change comes as a suggestion from the Hawthorn Foundation’s report to Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens, following the months-long work of an innovation task force charged with assessing the current state…

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