Startups

Local weight lifting tech firm Rack Performance lands $250K

A Lenexa-based tech company is racking up investment capital to further develop its weight room management software. Rack Performance recently raised $250,000 from local, private investors that will help the company advance the second version of its software. Rack Performance built a web-based, weight room and group fitness platform to help coaches and trainers efficiently…

FitBark wags its way into nationwide retailer

  Animal tech company FitBark is now selling its dog activity-tracking device in Target stores nationwide. The deal will place its product in front of millions of consumers each year at Target’s nearly 1,800 U.S. locations. FitBark’s animal tracking device will be featured among Target’s new “Connected-Life” section, which features other Internet-enabled products such as wireless…

Kansas City startup ‘walks the talk,’ bungee jumps

Sara Davidson doesn’t lightly espouse a message of fearlessness in business. And that’s why Davidson, the founder of Hello Fearless, is live broadcasting her jump off a cable car in Switzerland. Davidson is hoping to inspire other women around the world to conquer their fears not only with a live-streamed bungee jump — out of a…

RECAP: 1 Million Cups focuses on time with Mixtape, Flowh

There was a theme at today’s 1 Million Cups KC, and it was time. Two startups presented their businesses, both at different stages, and both in different industries, but both dealing with time — how we remember it and how we manage it. Mixtape founder Joel Johnson was first to present his firm, which created…

Katie Boody Carrie Markel Lean Lab

Lean Lab eyes $25K in national pitch contest

The Lean Lab, a Kansas City-based education innovation incubator, is hoping to strike gold in a national pitch competition in California. The organization on Wednesday will be pitching its model in the Teach For America Social Innovation Awards, an annual competition in which the Lean Lab hopes to snag a $25,000 prize. Lean Lab is the…