Proudly representing Kansas City, Mycroft wins national pitch competition
March 24, 2017 | Meghan LeVota
Mycroft AI made Kansas City proud at the Techweek National Launch Competition in Miami on Thursday by taking home the grand prize of $50,000.
As the one company representing Kansas City, CEO Joshua Montgomery said that this wasn’t just a win for Mycroft — it was a win for Kansas City.
“Kansas City won,” Montgomery said. “We are proud to represent the Kansas City startup community at the national level.”
Competitors at the national competition were comprised of one winner from each of Techweek’s regional competitions, 7 in total. In September, Mycroft — along with 9 other Kansas City firms — won a Launch KC grant, which was announced as a part of Techweek KC.
Although all ten Launch KC grant winners walked away with $50,000 in September, Mycroft was selected by Launch KC judges to represent Kansas City in Miami at the national finale.
A graduate of the Kansas City-based Sprint Accelerator, Mycroft has developed an open-source, artificial intelligence device to challenge Amazon Echo and Apple’s Siri.
The artificial intelligence firm is certainly on a roll in 2017 and this win only adds to its existing momentum. In February, Mycroft snagged a partnership with Jaguar Land Rover and will be employing its tech into future vehicles. This announcement came two weeks after Mycroft announced that it was selected into the Silicon Valley-based accelerator 500 Startups.
Montgomery himself recently moved to Silicon Valley to open up a second Mycroft office, yet he maintains the headquarters in Kansas City.
Montgomery stresses that Kansas City entrepreneurs do not need to move to Silicon Valley in order to be successful, unlike what the recent Bloomberg article suggests. He believes that Kansas City is a place where startups can thrive and said he owes all his success to the community.
“I wish that Bloomberg had the integrity to look into our startup scene more deeply,” Montgomery said. “Anyone can see that Kansas City is on an upward trajectory. Our startup scene is as good or better than any scene globally.”
2017 Startups to Watch
stats here
Related Posts on Startland News
KC, Chattanooga tap into gigabit speeds for film contest
Ready your cameras, Kansas City. You’re serving as lead videographer in a community film contest that engages creative types and leverages the area’s high-speed, gigabit Internet. Kansas City has partnered with the City of Chattanooga, Tenn., for the “Capture: A Community Filmmaking Project,” a 48-hour project calling on citizens and film professionals to create short,…
Digital Sandbox welcomes six new startups
Digital Sandbox KC recently accepted six area companies into its incubator program that assists businesses with specific projects. The organization, whose mission is to develop businesses and help them secure additional funding, welcomed companies ranging from food service and technology to education and health. Digital Sandbox invests up to $25,000 in its program’s companies. “The…
Reboot U revives tech talent for KC startup
A growing event photography company in Kansas City is looking to the past to find the tech talent it needs to build its future. SportsPhotos.com founder Brandon Schatz is a small-business participant in the Full Employment Council’s “Reboot U” program, which provides technology training for the chronically unemployed. Schatz’s company manages photos for sporting events,…
Product Hunt enters KC market, offers onboard for entrepreneurs
A popular international product discovery platform is hoping to engage more tech entrepreneurs in the Kansas City area. Product Hunt — a website that features new products such as apps, hardware and other tech creations — recently launched a series of meetings in Kansas City in hopes of garnering more products from the area for…