Tech startup wants to bring Sunshine, electricity to hurricane victims

17° 73° Innovation Co. founder Conner Hazelrigg launched a crowdfunding campaign Wednesday to provide disaster relief to Puerto Ricans affected by Hurricane Maria. In response to the island’s electricity shortage, the tech startup wants to deploy its Sunshine Box, a portable solar-charging station that can charge 10 devices at a time. The technology is designed…

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5 startups enjoy growth, connections with KCMO innovation partnership

Although the government may be pegged as resistant to change, Kansas City Mayor Sly James wants to flip the script. “On a city level, we aren’t having much help from the state and federal governments sometimes,” James said at the Innovation Partnership Program demo day on Monday at WeWork Corrigan Station. “But, we still have…

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Program commercializing classroom tech spurs 29 startups, dozens of jobs

A Kansas City program is making strides in its efforts to commercialize local, university-cultivated ideas. In the past four years, KCSourceLink’s Whiteboard2Boardroom program helped create almost 100 jobs and facilitated the creation of 29 new startups, according to a recent progress report. Those companies also generated nearly $16 million in follow-on funding, helping to fuel job…

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KC startups nab first, second place in national contest

Two Kansas City startups recently reigned supreme in UPS’s inagural Midwest X-Port Challenge. Mobility Designed, a medical device company from Prairie Village, Kan. that is also a 2016 LaunchKC grant finalist, won first place. The startup has garnered international attention thanks a viral video featuring their futuristic crutches. Mobility Designed CEO Liliana Younger said that…

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Conner Hazelrigg’s Sunshine Box lights up the dark in Haiti

Conner Hazelrigg, 23, never considered herself an entrepreneur. A few years ago, she was a student at William Jewell College, keeping herself busy playing tennis and basketball, and working towards a double major in physics and math. “I always wanted to do something with engineering and architecture — I loved science,” Hazelrigg said. “But I…

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