Tag: Toby Rush

Toby Rush explores venture studio concept to help startups avoid pre-seed mistakes

By Tommy Felts / February 26, 2020

Not enough founders in the pre-seed funding stage get the help they need to successfully build their emerging startups, said Toby Rush.  “How can you find, focus and accelerate people before they’ve raised money, before they’ve built their team, before they’ve made all of the mistakes that I’ve made plenty of times and that most…

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John Bertrand, Daupler, Techstars Kansas City 2018 Demo Day

KCRise Fund launches second fund; first investments in backstitch, Bungii, Daupler

By Tommy Felts / August 21, 2019

KCRise Fund today announced the launch of its second fund — KCRise Fund II — along with three new investments in high-growth, early-stage Kansas City tech companies. Backstitch, Bungii and Daupler are the latest startups to join the KCRise Fund family, and the first three portfolio companies for the new fund. All three are featured…

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Adam Blake, Zego PayLease

KC’s Zego acquired by San Diego firm; CEO’s smart home tech innovation to continue

By Tommy Felts / May 7, 2019

Two years after leaving the successful energy company he founded for the quick pace of startup life, Adam Blake is again making a big exit. His smart home technology firm, Zego, has been acquired by a San Diego-based leader in the property management industry, the startup announced Tuesday. Terms of the deal with PayLease were…

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Darcy Howe, KCRise Fund; Lesa Mitchell, Techstars KC; Melissa Roberts, Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, female entrepreneurs Kansas City

Even gatekeepers struggle to bring KC’s women-led companies in from the cold

By Tommy Felts / March 6, 2019

Female entrepreneurs are falling behind as a new generation of highly-scalable startups rises in the Kansas City, said Darcy Howe, reporting too few women-led firms even approaching KCRise Fund for investment. “My experience with those ‘Hey, I hear you have money’ calls that I do get [from female entrepreneurs] — many of them are not…

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Toby Rush, Zoloz, Ant Financial

Toby Rush on emerging blockchain: Layers of trust slowly building behind the scenes

By Tommy Felts / November 1, 2018

Much like companies’ web pages in the mid-1990s, blockchain isn’t yet consumer-ready, said Toby Rush. “But [development is] going to move at an accelerated pace,” said Rush, CEO of Zoloz and senior director of international technology investments at Ant Financial. “We’re over 20 years later from ’96, and I think you’ll see [blockchain] move and…

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