Meghan LeVota

Recent Articles by Meghan LeVota

Report: KC is a tech hub but labor shortage is hampering growth

Each day, Kansas City is better positioning itself to be the Midwest’s tech hub. But for Kansas City to realize its full potential, tech leaders, policymakers and the community need to do more to cultivate homegrown talent, KC Tech Council president Ryan Weber said. “Attracting talent from another city is a very small game — and…

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UMKC eyes ‘final four’ of Enactus contest attracting thousands of student entrepreneurs to KC

Kansas City will soon become the entrepreneurial epicenter for a national, collegiate competition and conference challenging young innovators to do good in their communities. From May 21 to 23, Kansas City will host more than 2,000 entrepreneurial college students for the Enactus United States National Exposition. Founded in 1975, Enactus challenges students from more than…

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Techstars KC is moving into WeWork Corrigan Station

Techstars Kansas City on Monday announced the location of its new accelerator facility. Starting July 1, the accelerator group will set up shop on the 5th floor of WeWork Corrigan Station. The 40,000 square foot coworking space is located in the heart of the Crossroads Arts District, piggybacking off of the district’s entrepreneurial momentum. “If…

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KCultivator Q&A: Prep-KC CEO Susan Wally on environmentalism, horseback riding, urban edu

Editor’s note: KCultivators is a new, lighthearted profile series we’re kicking off to highlight people who are meaningfully enriching Kansas City’s entrepreneurial ecosystem. Check out our first profile with Donald Carter here.  You may know Susan Wally as CEO of the education nonprofit Prep-KC, a member of KC Rising’s Human Capital committee or as a board…

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The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation

Kauffman, UMKC symposium hopes to inspire and challenge social entrepreneurs

To spur more socially-minded ventures in the metro, the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation and University of Missouri-Kansas City are teaming up to host the fifth-annual Midwest Symposium on Social Entrepreneurship. Set for May 15 and 16, the two-day event will welcome about 125 attendees from the region, offering workshops, panel discussions and speakers. Tony Luppino,…

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Study: St. Louis, Springfield, KC earn high marks for cities to startup

Though still performing well on a national level, Kansas City, Mo., was recently rated as the third-best large city in Missouri for founders to start a business, according to a recent study. Personal finance website WalletHub found that St. Louis and Springfield are the No. 7 and No. 11 best large cities to start a…

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Listen: KC transportation leaders examine Smart City, Hyperloop, smart pavement

Judging by the popularity of our recent Hyperloop One coverage, the future of transportation has become a hot topic in the metro. It’s crazy to imagine that, in the near future, we may be living in a world of subsonic rail travel, smart pavement and autonomous vehicles. But before we get too excited about the…

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New Lean Lab approach hopes to better position ed tech startups

With applications now open for the incubator’s fourth cohort, the Lean Lab hopes a pivot in its approach will foster more savvy education startups. Offering office space, mentorship, direct access to area school systems and up to $35,000 in support, the Lean Lab will soon select five promising education tech startups from around the world…

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For its KC intro, WeWork plans event series to connect

In efforts to pump up the Kansas City community prior to its launch, WeWork announced KC Connected, an event series at its new Corragain Station coworking space. The first event is  May 10 and aims to get local entrepreneurs prepared for the coworking giant’s global grant competition, the Creator Awards. “Our goal is to help…

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RideKC builds Uber-like app for Kansas Citians with disabilities

For Kansas City residents with disabilities, it’s difficult to rely on bus schedules to get from place to place — even with paratransit options. Starting May 1, Kansas City residents with disabilities will have access to an on-demand option. The Kansas City Area Transportation Authority recently developed the ride-hailing app RideKC Freedom On-Demand, which will start…

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