Tag: Miguel Johns

KC-area startup nets $20K Kansas pitch tournament win with game-changing edtech

By Tommy Felts / March 22, 2025

WICHITA — The team at VU Scholarships left it all on the stage Friday, walking away as champions in the Gamechangers & Champions bracket bash — a high-intensity pitch competition running parallel to the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament in Wichita. By outlasting 31 other Sunflower State companies, the Roeland Park-based edtech startup earned $20,000 in…

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Still in the game: 16 startups advance in Kansas pitch tournament; courting a new style of seed funding

By Tommy Felts / March 17, 2025

WICHITA — And then there were 16. Monday’s pitch competition announcement served up sweet news for more than a dozen Kansas startups as local founders learned they’re advancing in the Gamechangers & Champions “Bracket Bash for Innovators and Angels” — a tournament-style event set to end with a $20,000 grand prize. The just-released list of…

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Roster filled: 32 Kansas startups march into Round 2 of tourney-style pitch competition

By Tommy Felts / March 12, 2025

WICHITA — Nearly three dozen Sunflower State startups are vying for $20,000 in prize money — and courting the attention of investors — as they advance to the second round of an innovative, state-backed pitch competition set amid the excitement of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament. NXTUS on Tuesday announced the initial 32 companies advancing…

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Miguel Johns, KingFit, DiabetesCare

Kansas startup founder, Pipeline fellow among finalists in NXTSTAGE healthtech competition

By Tommy Felts / July 26, 2021

Startland News’ Startup Road Trip series explores innovative and uncommon ideas finding success in rural America and Midwestern startup hubs outside the Kansas City metro. This series is possible thanks to the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, which leads a collaborative, nationwide effort to identify and remove large and small barriers to new business creation. WICHITA…

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Dr. Shelley Cooper, SureShow; Parker Graham, Finotta; Chris Jones, MatchRite Care; Lauren Lawrence, Stenovate; Nomi Smith, PMI Rate Pro; and Clarence Tan, Boddle

Meet the new class: KC’s top emerging founders power Pipeline’s latest high-profile fellowship

By Tommy Felts / February 12, 2021

Pipeline’s new class of fellows more accurately reflects the real diversity of the Midwest, said startup veteran Dusty Reynolds, introducing a virtual Pipeline audience to 13 entrepreneurs joining the group’s elite ranks. “This is an absolutely stacked class,” said Reynolds, co-founder of Omaha-based RaceNote, founder of HeavyNote, and Pipeline’s 2015 Innovator of the Year. “I…

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