Tag: Mark Launiu

Startup synergy: Native Hemp Co opening retail store in former downtown MADE flagship store

By Tommy Felts / July 3, 2019

A grand adventure awaits Kansas City-baked Native Hemp Co., as the cannabis company reaches new heights and sets up shop with its first retail location.  “I have a family all across the world now and it’s been so much fun,” Rich Dunfield, founder of Native Hemp Co., said of the company’s trajectory and success ahead…

Read More >

MADE MOBB building streetwear experience, empire with new Crossroads retail store

By Tommy Felts / June 4, 2019

MADE MOBB’s growing footprint in Kansas City isn’t because of luck, said Mark Launiu, as the streetwear apparel company plans to open its third retail location in July. “If I’m honest with you, this is hard. It’s a lot of work to push the brand and reflect the culture,” said Launiu, co-founder of MADE MOBB/MADE…

Read More >
The Distrikc, AbdulRasheed Yahaya, Michelle Richmond, Ryan S. Harvey, Mark Launiu, Deaunte Thomas, Wesley Hamilton, and Darion Moore

The Distrikc founders: We’re not waiting on outsiders to save our brothers and sisters

By Tommy Felts / May 10, 2019

It’s time for members of Kansas City’s largely unseen and forgotten communities of color to take control, said Wesley Hamilton, one of the organizers behind The Distrikc. “We speak so much about KC, but people forget whole groups of people — I’m talking Troost to Main, East Kansas City, South Kansas City,” he said. “We want…

Read More >
Kritiq spring show

‘Starting to bloom’: Kritiq spring show debuts Sunday highlighting KC fashion scene by design

By Tommy Felts / April 25, 2019

Jo Hartley might be different from the typical designer featured this weekend at The Kritiq Fashion Show. She’s also the type of creator who organizers of the Kansas City runway experience want to brag about — the type they credit with helping grow the fashion show that’s been organized each fall the past four years.…

Read More >
Nipsey Hussle Kansas City

‘Heartbreaking but empowering’: Nipsey Hussle’s life, death inspire entrepreneurs to action

By Tommy Felts / April 11, 2019

The Marathon will continue, Wesley Hamilton said, echoing tens of thousands of mourners now pledging to keep alive the transcendent entrepreneurial spirit of rapper-turned-community leader Nipsey Hussle. Hamilton, founder and executive director of the KC-based nonprofit The Disabled But Not Really Foundation, was among a dozen or more Kansas City entrepreneurs in Los Angeles Thursday…

Read More >
[adinserter block="4"]