GEWKC conversation: Black women are building tech — but are we building them?

Shelley Cooper, co-founder of SureShow; Jannae Gammage, CEO of The Market Base; Tammy Buckner, founder of Techquity Digital; and Carlanda McKinney, founder of Bodify

A coalition of organizations working to connect early-stage founders to critical resources — with an emphasis on equitable access — is shining the spotlight on Black women in tech during this week’s premier entrepreneurship event series, Global Entrepreneurship Week Kansas City. “Black women are launching businesses at the fastest clip of any racial group. Despite…

Read More

Rewriting the playbook: Team Cura positions Gen-Z student-athletes for ‘college of their dreams’

Karen Hughey and Rob Hughey, Team Cura

For student-athletes playing the long game with their academic and athletic careers, Team Cura enhances scholarship odds and increases college readiness, said Rob Hughey, detailing an online training program that exercises professionalism like a muscle.  “We want to make the process really streamlined,” said Hughey, who co-founded the Kansas City-based startup alongside his mother, Karen…

Read More

Missouri startup support funding gutted amid COVID; Advocates hope reversing course could fuel recovery

Mike Parson, Missouri governor; Discovery Design Truck & Manufacturing, St. Peters; Photo courtesy of the Missouri Governor's Office

It’s official: the 2021 budget for a popular public-private partnership that once infused millions into the Missouri tech and startup communities has been wholly defunded by the state as Gov. Mike Parson grapples with COVID-19’s continued economic fallout. But supporters of the Missouri Technology Corporation (MTC) hope Parson’s move — withholding all of the program’s…

Read More

‘Beacon of light’ — Meet four new Digital Sandbox startups that could reshape KC tech

Christopher Jones, MatchRite Care; Jeff Blackwood, PANDA Healthcare Technologies; Rob Hughey and Karen Hughey, Team Cura; and Juaquan Herron and Rodney McDuffie II, The Vendors Assistant; Digital Sandbox KC

Digital Sandbox KC’s latest quartet of funded companies will help Kansas City build a better, more inclusive startup ecosystem, said Jill Meyer. “We’ve always been keenly aware of the inequities in the tech ecosystem, especially for entrepreneurs of color,” said Meyer, who leads Digital Sandbox and is senior director of the Technology Ventures Studio at…

Read More