Meghan LeVota

Recent Articles by Meghan LeVota

Program commercializing classroom tech spurs 29 startups, dozens of jobs

A Kansas City program is making strides in its efforts to commercialize local, university-cultivated ideas. In the past four years, KCSourceLink’s Whiteboard2Boardroom program helped create almost 100 jobs and facilitated the creation of 29 new startups, according to a recent progress report. Those companies also generated nearly $16 million in follow-on funding, helping to fuel job…

Events Preview: Monitoring financial performance

There are a plethora of entrepreneurial events hosted in Kansas City on a weekly basis. Whether you’re an entrepreneur, investor, supporter, or curious community member — we recommend these upcoming events for you. Weekly Events Preview The Budget Series: Monitoring Financial Performance When: Dec. 1, 10:30 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. Where: Enterprise Center of Johnson…

Kansas City’s slow, steady entrepreneurial growth nabs No. 23 ranking

For the second year in a row, Kansas City maintained its rank as No. 23 out of 40 metros in entrepreneurial activity, according to the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation’s 2016 Main Street Entrepreneurship report. The annual report covers the rate of business owners, established small business density, survival rate and more. These metrics are calculated…

Report: Area Latino business ownership surged in 2015

Latino business ownership is on the rise in the Kansas City area, according to a recent study. While area entrepreneurial activity has largely remained steady, the percent of Latinos that own businesses in Kansas City considerably increased from 2014 to 2015, according to the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation’s Index of Main Street Entrepreneurship. Now just…

Events Preview: Happy Thanksgiving!

There are a plethora of entrepreneurial events hosted in Kansas City on a weekly basis. Whether you’re an entrepreneur, investor, supporter, or curious community member — we recommend these upcoming events for you. Weekly Events Preview KC Roundtable When: Nov. 24, 7:30 a.m. – 9:00 a.m. Where: Eggtc KC Roundtable is in existence to provide…

Area investors, entrepreneurs urge for meaningful connectivity

As Global Entrepreneurship Week wrapped up, Startland News marked the celebration Thursday with its second Innovation Exchange event. In partnership with Think Big Partners, the Innovation Exchange offers news junkies context and behind the-scenes details to stories they read in Startland. The conversation covered what innovators, corporations and investors can do to make Kansas City’s…

Super Dispatch founder Bek Abdullayev delivers trends in trucking

Editor’s note: This content is sponsored by LaunchKC but independently produced by Startland News. Technological advancements are bringing significant change to nearly all industries — and trucking is no different. Autonomous vehicles, machine learning and the Internet of Things are just a few of the trends on which Super Dispatch founder Bek Abdullayev has his…

KCK no longer on list of America’s worst connected cities

Despite a politically divided metro and world, progress is happening in Kansas City, Kan. In 2014, the National Digital Inclusion Alliance rated the city as the 8th worst connected city in the nation. Thanks to recent census data, those numbers have been updated and things are looking up for Kansas City, Kan. The initiative released…

Three local GEW events you don’t want to miss

Global Entrepreneurship Week is coming up quickly and there are some events you won’t want to miss. From Nov. 10 to 22, Kansas City will celebrate the global celebration along with more than 160 participating countries. Global Entrepreneurship Week was launched by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation in 2008 with the intent to inspire millions…

MECA Challenge pushes area students to think more entrepreneurially

Editor’s note: Startland News is an affiliate organization of MECA Challenge, both of which are operated by CEED LLC.  A competition that challenges students to solve startups’ business problems is gaining traction in Kansas City. MECA Challenge is an entrepreneurial problem-solving contest for high school- and college-aged students that aims to transform education and produce…