Katie Bean
Recent Articles by Katie Bean
Injuries pushed this dancer from the stage to his startup; ClassKid keeps his craft in the spotlight
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. TOPEKA — A career as a professional dancer only momentarily upstaged Austin Roberson’s childhood ambitions to become an inventor, the Kansas startup founder said. Roberson — the entrepreneur behind ClassKid,…
University launching effort for Native small biz, focused on ‘Indianpreneurship,’ resilience
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. LAWRENCE, Kansas — A Kansas university is looking forward to developing indigenous and minority entrepreneurs through a new program funded by the U.S. Small Business Administration. Haskell Indian Nations University…
Cornstalks to cardboard: This KS company is turning farmers’ trash into sustainable fiber packaging
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. WILLIAMSBURG, Kansas — One small town just south of I-35 in Franklin County — population 390 — soon will become home to a new world headquarters, said Mark Majors. Williamsburg’s…
Nonprofit founded to equip K-9 officers with bulletproof vests goes viral thanks to four-legged artists
LAWRENCE — What began as a problem keeping Emily Fawcett up at night has grown into a tail-wagging nonprofit effort recently featured on “The Kelly Clarkson Show” — all thanks to a viral social media post showcasing a Kansas police dog painting instead of panting. Fawcett, whose background is in animal welfare, was asked in 2020…
Proof is in the spending: CEO-to-CEO Challenge yields results in diversifying supply chains
Editor’s note: The following story was sponsored by KC Rising, a regional initiative to help Kansas City grow faster and more intentionally, as part of a campaign to promote its CEO-to-CEO Challenge on supplier diversity. When she started researching the institutional knowledge at MMC Corp. about working with diverse suppliers, national purchasing director Kelli Fraas found the process was…
Plot builds momentum as its new-to-market tool digs into construction communications tech gap
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…
Spring in the face of ‘doom and gloom’: KC Can Compost grows green infrastructure while expanding its own footprint
The market for commercial composting services goes well beyond restaurants hoping to dispose of food scraps — a welcome discovery for Kristan Chamberlain, who saw such specialized demand disintegrate in 2020 amid a pile of bad news for struggling eateries. Today, KC Can Compost has helped divert more than 1.4 million pounds of waste from…
Trees might fall, but this duo’s salvaged, custom hardwood pieces are crafted to stand the test of time
Jay Norris and Nick Bianco witnessed an unexpected sight when dropping off debris from the remodel of their KCK warehouse — a discovery that would add new rings of life to their budding custom hardwoods business. “We see a bulldozer pushing trees into the dump, and we were like, ‘What the heck is going on over…
They fought to end Lee’s Summit’s neon ban; now they’re relighting a grinning, spinning Katz face in KC
How a Lee’s Summit duo is reviving eye-catching signs of KC’s past The iconic face of Katz Drug Store — the famed retail operation that grew from the streets of Kansas City to eventually become CVS — is set to return to its hometown thanks, in part, to a pair of unlikely neon sign restorationists. …
New in KC: How Travis Kelce lured Pennsylvania startup inventXYZ (and its team) to Kansas City
Editor’s note: New in KC is an ongoing profile series that highlights newly relocated members of the Kansas City startup community, their reasons for a change of scenery, and what they’ve found so far in KC. This series is sponsored by C2FO, a Leawood-based, global financial services company. Click here to read more New in KC profiles. Nikil Ragav’s journey to…