Austin Barnes
Recent Articles by Austin Barnes
After recently announcing it would award $100,000 for education startups, the Lean Lab on Thursday unveiled the five entrepreneur teams that represent its third cohort. The non-profit for the first time opened its fellowship program to accept international teams, reaping it more than 50 applications — some from as far as Iran and Bulgaria, said…
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Nerds abound in Kansas City. Or at least the Nerdery’s local expansion seems to indicate as much. The software design and development firm has added 14 staffers in the last 18 months and is now launching another hiring spree. The Minneapolis-based firm — which opened a Kansas City office in late 2014 — plans to…
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Hundreds of hardcore techies are gearing up for one of Kansas City’s largest gatherings of developers. The eighth-annual Kansas City Developers Conference is expecting more than 1,300 attendees from regional corporations, startups and universities on June 22. With a focus on building the Kansas City community, the conference features loads of workshops, panel discussions and…
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Editor’s Note: Dan and Gina Schmidt agreed to share their experience of how startup life has changed their relationship and family. Check in Thursday to hear Gina’s perspective. Opinions expressed this commentary are the author’s alone. Being a husband, father and founder has stretched me in ways I never would have imagined. At…
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It’s been in Kansas City only four months, but LaunchCode is already making an impact. The St. Louis-based non-profit organization arrived in February to grow Kansas City’s tech sector by organically building its pool of talent. LaunchCode helps educate locals with an interest in changing careers to work in tech, and then connects them with…
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Destructive economic and social policies in Kansas compelled Pathfinder Health Innovations’ move to the Show Me State, its founder wrote in a blog post critical of state leaders. A tech service provider for people with autism, Pathfinder received tax incentives for its border hop to Missouri but Pathfinder CEO Jeff Blackwood said the move also…
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Kansas City-based software startup WonderWe hopes to tap a specific market for its new faith-based crowdfunding platform. Launched in early June, WonderWe combines faith-based values, the latest in crowdfunding tech and new proprietary features to “be one of the leading names” in crowdfunding, said Dominic Ismert, founder of WonderWe. The platform currently accepts fundraisers for…
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Editor’s note: Katie Boody is a co-founder of The Lean Lab, a Kansas City-based education incubator that helps educators create and implement innovative ideas in schools to help students. The Lean Lab co-founder Carrie Markel contributed to this piece. Opinions expressed in this commentary are the author’s alone. Both the schools I taught at are…
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Local efforts to inject innovation into education received a boost Friday as The Lean Lab announced fellows in its incubator program will earn seed capital for their projects aimed at disrupting traditional learning. Founded in 2013, The Lean Lab welcomed five new teams of fellows from around the nation for its incubator, which develops…
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A local tech founder is transforming his Kansas City, Kan., home to eventually become the area’s next incubator program. Sports Photos founder Brandon Schatz recently launched the “Kansas City Startup Home” to host entrepreneurs and innovators from around the world. While it’s now serving as an Airbnb destination for techies, Schatz said in the next…
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