Tag: Melissa Roberts

KCSourceLink All-Star Voting Winners

All-Star voting winners: E-Day at the K celebrates KCSourceLink, its network (Photos)

By Tommy Felts / June 19, 2018

KCSourceLink’s Entrepreneur Day at the K heralded the work of the support organization’s sprawling network of partners. But the tailgate party at Kauffman Stadium didn’t let founder Maria Meyers go unnoticed. Reading from a proclamation announcement marking Monday as “KCSourceLink Entrepreneur Day” in Kansas City, Missouri, Nathan Kurtz, entrepreneur advocate at the Ewing Marion Kauffman…

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Melissa Roberts, Enterprise Center in Johnson County

KCultivator Q&A: Melissa Roberts talks tough (love), hot milk soup and mansplaining

By Tommy Felts / May 15, 2018

Editor’s note: KCultivators is a lighthearted profile series to highlight people who are meaningfully enriching Kansas City’s entrepreneurial ecosystem. The KCultivator Series is sponsored by WeWork Corrigan Station, a modern twist on Kansas City office space.Expertise requires experience, said Melissa Roberts. “I’ve had so many diverse roles and I’ve taken something from each of them,” the political…

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Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation startup growth

Is government helping startups enough? Founders feel isolated, Kauffman survey finds

By Tommy Felts / March 13, 2018

Early stage entrepreneurs struggle with the technical steps to getting started, a new Kauffman survey found, and founders don’t believe the government is helping them. The prevailing sentiment that entrepreneurs view themselves as isolated from assistance is understandable, said Melissa Roberts, vice president of strategy and economic development at the Enterprise Center in Johnson County.…

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Kauffman survey

Kauffman survey: Women more critical of their own early-stage entrepreneurial efforts

By Tommy Felts / March 13, 2018

Women entrepreneurs are more likely than their male counterparts to grade their performances harshly during the first year of business, though that tendency typically fades over time, according to a new survey by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. It often is about approaching the venture a realistic viewpoint, said Jeff Shackelford, executive director of Digital…

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Beyond borders: Federal grant equips KC to build regional $5M seed fund

By Tommy Felts / October 2, 2017

Pushing aside the Kansas-Missouri “border war,” a bi-state effort has earned a federal grant that will help create a $5 million fund for startups, which could begin investing as early as 2018. The Enterprise Center in Johnson County announced Monday it secured a $150,000 Economic Development Administration Seed Fund Support grant. The grant — which…

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