Woman-led

Meet the competition: AltCap Your Biz unveils finalists for pitch event, $60K in awards

By Tommy Felts / September 23, 2025

A popular fall pitch competition for emerging entrepreneurs is returning to Union Station in November with AltCap today announcing 10 finalists for $60,000 in cash prizes — ranging from Kansas City’s first mobile matcha cart to specialty wellness retailers and a dog toy innovator. “The AltCap Your Biz Pitch Competition is so much more than…

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Roz audits its path to $2.15M in early funding; how KC helped this AI startup scale its potential

By Tommy Felts / September 18, 2025

A series of funding wins is boosting a Kansas City startup’s efforts to automate the most complex — and tedious — parts of compliance work, drawing from the co-founder’s own pain points and resources from a server-full of local entrepreneur support initiatives.  With $2.15 million in funding under its belt so far, Olathe-based Roz — which…

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She scored music on Netflix and LA’s star-studded stages; now BodaciousThang is getting vulnerable in KC

By Tommy Felts / September 16, 2025

When Cheyenne Jolene steps on stage in the shoes of her alter ego, the singer-songwriter’s voice carries both raw emotion and unapologetic truth. Performing as BodaciousThang, Jolene blends R&B, hip hop, rock, and soul into what she describes as “genre bending” music. Her songs are steeped in authenticity and storytelling, offering listeners intimate glimpses into…

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SNAP cuts are ‘worse than they look on paper’: Food access advocates warn shelves could go bare overnight

By Tommy Felts / September 16, 2025

Chef Shanita McAfee-Bryant doesn’t mince words about perceptions of the hungry Kansas Citians she serves daily through her award-winning culinary social venture. “These are the people who — if you listen to the rhetoric — are deemed ‘lazy,’” the founder of The Prospect KC’s NourishKC Community Kitchen told Startland News. “We know the narratives being…

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LISTEN: Fermenting a clean future through products from meat alternatives to skin creams and baby formula

By Tommy Felts / September 13, 2025

On this episode of Startland News’ Plug and Play Topeka founder podcast series, we chat with Francesca Gallucci of Natáur, a Baltimore-based biotech company that’s reimagining how essential nutrients are made. Combining synthetic biology, metabolic engineering, and eco-friendly fermentation, they’re producing bio-based taurine (and other naturally occurring sulfur compounds) without relying on petroleum. Gallucci takes…

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