Woman-led

Healium’s mental fitness wearables earn innovation award from world’s largest tech show

By Tommy Felts / November 15, 2021

A Columbia-based startup’s patented technology that brings wearable biometric data to life via virtual and augmented reality apps has earned a major industry honor, announcing Healium’s selection for a 2022 Innovation Award from the Consumer Technology Association. The awards program is an annual competition honoring outstanding design and engineering in 27 consumer technology product categories.…

Read More >
Pabst entry logo at 9th & State

Some mysteries at historic 9th & State might never be solved — and bar owner Heather Hamilton is OK with it

By Tommy Felts / November 13, 2021

Feeling invincible is a thing of the past, Heather Hamilton said, revealing a diagnosis that stopped her in her tracks and poured a change of perspective for the West Bottoms bar owner.  “Knowing that I’m gene-positive for Huntington’s disease has made me even more motivated to make a difference,” Hamilton said, noting the disease has…

Read More >
Madoka Koguchi and Jackie Nguyen, Cafe Cà Phê; 2021 AltCap Your Biz grand prize winner

KC’s first Vietnamese coffee shop brews $20K at AltCap Your Biz; other winners include an urban farm, development company and selfie studio

By Tommy Felts / November 11, 2021

Cafe Cà Phê can now afford to build bathrooms in its anticipated brick-and-mortar coffee location, Jackie Nguyen teased on Instagram after being awarded the grand prize at the 2021 AltCap Your Biz: Pitch Competition. “The $20,000 will go toward helping build that out — getting new appliances, [hiring] new employees because we’ve outgrown our cart.…

Read More >
Gavin Dell, Hollywood Animation Academy; Shelly Cooper, SureShow; Jill and Justin Bertelsen, Crib Coaching; and Craig Boyle, What Duh Fog

Demo day alert: 13 new Comeback KC Ventures fellows set for debut on GEW KC stage

By Tommy Felts / November 9, 2021

The first crop of Comeback KC Ventures fellows — entrepreneurs offering solutions from healthtech and edtech products to sports evaluations and an animation academy emerging in response to COVID-19 — is expected to highlight more than a dozen companies Thursday during a GEW KC innovation showcase. “The demo day will allow early participants in the…

Read More >
Lisa Nguyen, Telehue Food

New in KC: Wichita-grown foodie whips up 4.5M TikTok, Youtube users with passion (and ramen) as her only guides

By Tommy Felts / November 9, 2021

Editor’s note: New in KC is an ongoing profile series that highlights newly relocated members of the Kansas City startup community, their reasons for a change of scenery, and what they’ve found so far in KC. This series is sponsored by C2FO, a Leawood-based, global financial services company. Click here to read more New in KC profiles. Lisa Nguyen was five…

Read More >