Woman-led

‘You’re not just a fan; it’s your livelihood!’ KC makers’ work featured in Chiefs’ playoffs trailer

By Tommy Felts / January 27, 2024

The NFL playoffs tease a new season of creativity for Kansas City makers like Johnny and Michele Dawbarn — especially when the Chiefs’ success starts the clock on new opportunities. The couple behind Collective EX, sewKC, and HITIDES Coffee (all within their symbiotic studio space in the East Crossroads) recently helped design several items featured…

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Tech workforce program championed by former Chiefs star graduates its first KC class

By Tommy Felts / January 27, 2024

An education initiative recently launched in Kansas City not only focuses on lifting up young people from low-income backgrounds and helping them succeed in the high-tech sector, said pro football hall of famer Will Shields: it upends a cycle of decline and replaces it with building blocks. i.c.stars, headquartered in Chicago, launched in Kansas City…

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Build-A-Bear founder joins VFA’s board, lauding group as an ‘onramp’ to entrepreneurship for overlooked young professionals

By Tommy Felts / January 27, 2024

ST. LOUIS — A hometown founder and entrepreneurial icon is joining the board of one of the region’s premiere work placement opportunities for early-career professionals. Maxine Clark, founder of Build-A-Bear Workshop — the teddy-bear-themed retailer she launched in 1997 in St. Lous — is the latest appointment to the national board of directors for Venture…

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Leveraging KC’s resources: How the right people at the right time can unlock a startup’s potential

By Tommy Felts / January 27, 2024

The level of collaboration seen in Kansas City’s entrepreneurial ecosystem is unmatched by peer communities, said Jill Meyer, noting it’s not a phenomenon that developed by accident. And it takes transparency and trust, she added. “There is a lot of work that resource partners do to make sure that our companies and our founders have…

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Looking for investors? A startup’s first ask shouldn’t be for money, leading VCs say

By Tommy Felts / January 26, 2024

Most startup founders think of funding as transactional, Darcy Howe shared, but it’s actually relational. “You’ve got to have relationships with people long before they’ll fund and that includes angels and all the others,” the KCRise Fund founding managing director told a crowd gathered at UMKC’s Bloch Executive Hall for Startland News’ Kansas City Startups…

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