Tag: Kansas City Pioneers

Exporting KC to the world: Esports leader revs come-from-behind global takeover amid World Cup’s big draw

By Tommy Felts / December 6, 2025

As the metro bundled up and showed out Friday, getting its latest taste of what the 2026 World Cup has in store, the Kansas City Pioneers dropped new heat — raising the thermostat on their commitment to seize the moment brought forth by the global gathering as a net for esports.  “Now is the time for…

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Pipeline adds top founders to its network: Meet 14 fellows tasked with building the Midwest together 

By Tommy Felts / February 7, 2025

The newest class of Pipeline fellows embodies the elite Midwest network’s founder-first focus on industry-agnostic collaboration and support, said Melissa Vincent, noting the power of tapping barrier-breaking perspectives to solve problems and build world-class companies side by side. “We have an incredible depth of entrepreneurs who are all focused on building high-growth, scalable businesses, but…

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Jeremy Terman turned a likely ‘no’ into a tech career; his advice: Don’t wait for permission to start

By Tommy Felts / October 15, 2024

The biggest risks are in doing nothing, said Jeremy Terman, encouraging entrepreneurship students at UMKC to take the plunge — even if at times the world might be telling them they aren’t ready. “You don’t have to be in a box. You don’t have to listen to what the rules are,” said Terman, an investor…

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KC Pioneers scored Kansas City a spot on the ‘gaming wave’; why this pro esports teams views its hometown as a championship asset

By Tommy Felts / September 27, 2024

In the globe-spanning esports market, most of the top competitive gaming teams keep their hometown — if they have one — ambiguous to the public. With the industry expected to touch 1 billion people worldwide by 2029 and players untethered to physical locations, it’s simply an unimportant biographical detail to many. And potentially limiting for others.…

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Meet customers where they are (and they’re on TikTok): Marketing experts urge startups to invest in brand building

By Tommy Felts / January 24, 2024

Like it or not, “TikTok remains king,” said Mikita Burton, encouraging startup founders to balance negative headlines about the video-sharing social media platform with its incredible potential for reaching their most-sought-after audiences. “We don’t just get to pick our customers’ favorite platforms, so you need to be where they are,” Burton, a social media strategist…

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