Listen: From Brazil to Kansas City, furniture entrepreneur shares journey

March 28, 2017  |  Startland Staff

Editor’s note: In partnership with the KC Greats podcast, hosted by Scott Parman, Startland News hopes to offer its audience more avenues to learn about entrepreneurs in Kansas City. Opinions expressed in this commentary are the author’s alone. 


In this episode, host Scott Parman welcomes the founder of Freedom Companies Carol Espinosa. 

Carol Espinosa

Hailing from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Espinosa attended the University of Kansas for Creative Writing. Her path unexpectedly led her to working at a local office furniture dealership. After seven years on the job, Espinosa eventually opened her own independent office furniture firm Freedom Companies.

Espinosa shares how she managed to break into an established industry as a newcomer as well as her trek to becoming an American citizen.

Learn more with the podcast below.

Tagged
Featured Business
    Featured Founder
      [adinserter block="4"]

      2017 Startups to Watch

        stats here

        Related Posts on Startland News

        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…

        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…

        KCMO slashes fees for outdoor dining permits, launches dining trail for grant winning projects

        By Tommy Felts | September 12, 2025

        Kansas City has officially eliminated outdoor dining permit fees, reducing the cost from $850 to zero, thanks to the momentum created by a city-led initiative to encourage investment in outdoor dining experiences, city leaders announced this week, unveiling new plans to promote funded businesses and their projects.  Launched in 2024, the Outdoor Dining Enhancement Program…

        World Cup will produce KC small biz millionaires in just weeks, leaders say, but it’s only the start

        By Tommy Felts | September 12, 2025

        Kansas City can’t look at the World Cup in 2026 as one big event where businesses are going to make good money for a while, and then everything goes back to normal, said Wes Rogers.  “This has to be the beginning of the next chapter of our city,” the 2nd District Councilman for Kansas City,…