Tag: KC Collective

Milad Ghasempour and Jannae Gammage, The Market Base

2021 Startups to Watch: The Market Base launches on-demand into a new era of e-commerce

By Tommy Felts / January 13, 2021

Editor’s note: Startland News selected 10 Kansas City firms to spotlight for its annual Startups to Watch list. The following is one of 2021’s companies. Click here to view the full, ranked list of Startups to Watch — presented by sponsors Husch Blackwell and the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. You don’t live through a year like 2020 and…

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Kwinton Scarborough, PawCon X; Pat McLoughlin, Digs; Elango Thevar, Neer; and Kim Naramore and Jillian Carlile, TravelHive, Pitch & Pint: KC Collective

Pitch & Pint: KC Collective unveils founders competing in real-time April 30 pitch event

By Tommy Felts / April 22, 2020

While COVID-19 wreaks havoc across the globe, Kansas City entrepreneurs already are proving their resiliency, said Donald J. Hawkins. “They’re still grinding, iterating, and finding ways to make things happen,” said Hawkins, co-organizer of the KC Collective founder network, as well as co-founder of Griffin. “In addition to working on their own businesses, they’re diving…

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Firsthand from a founder: Applying for a SBA disaster loan? Come prepared with startup financials

By Tommy Felts / March 24, 2020

Editor’s note: The opinions expressed in this commentary are the author’s alone. Serial entrepreneur Bo Lais is the founder of Lula, co-founder of the KC Collective founder network, and a current fellow in Pipeline Entrepreneurs. This op-ed is part of Startland News’ ongoing coverage of the impact of Coronavirus (COVID-19) on Kansas City’s entrepreneur community,…

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Donald Hawkins, KC Collective; STARTLAND's Innovation Exchange

Ecosystem builder on Mayor Q’s budget cuts: Startup support helps fill potholes too

By Tommy Felts / February 21, 2020

Startup support is an investment — not just a cost to the city, a leading ecosystem builder said Thursday following a proposed KCMO budget that would reduce funding for groups aiding KC’s emerging innovators and risk-takers. “Go around to meet the entrepreneurs, understand their stories — see how we max out our credit cards to hire…

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Erin Papworth, Navit

Are venture-seeking women, minority founders at an unfair disadvantage in KC?

By Tommy Felts / December 19, 2019

Editor’s note: The following is the second in a series of analyses of Startland’s list of Kansas City’s Top Venture Capital-Backed Companies. On stage with a handful of men, Erin Papworth faced a dilemma. The founder of Nav.It — one of the startups to recently complete Fountain City Fintech’s second accelerator cohort — found herself fighting…

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