Nikki Overfelt Chifalu
Reporter, Startland News
Nikki brings to Startland News both community journalism and entrepreneurship experience and she loves being able to tell the inspiring stories of fellow creatives and risk-takers.
Before joining Startland News, she worked for over 10 years writing and editing for daily newspapers in Lawrence, Topeka, Duluth, Minnesota, and Park Hills, Missouri. She took a short hiatus from journalism to pursue her dream of becoming a pastry chef and starting her own baking business.
Recent Articles by Nikki Overfelt Chifalu
Why NMotion gives founders (without a startup) $100K and tells them to forget their assumptions
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. LINCOLN,…
Build Trybe outgrows incubator mode, taking over Maker Village KC to train at-risk youth in trades
When Nick Ward-Bopp launched Maker Village KC more than five years ago near Martini Corner, he never dreamed the maker space would incubate a program for at-risk youth that ultimately would build beyond it. Set up in a once-vacant Midtown building he rehabbed with co-founder and longtime friend Sam Green, the space started as a…
West Coast accelerator for women taps second wave of Kansas City tech founder talent
Kansas City is in the pipeline now, as the FourthWave Accelerator for women in tech recently selected a local founder for its cohort for the second consecutive year. After her own valuable experience with the accelerator in 2021, Carlanda McKinney, founder of Bodify, encouraged her fellow Pipeline fellow Terri Foudray, founder and CEO of ConvIOT,…
These brothers brought artisan Mexican designs to the streets of KC; now Pancho’s Blanket is opening a Crossroads shop
A handmade Mexican garment company led by brothers Jonathan and Joseph Garvey is quickly making the leap from First Friday pop up to Crossroads storefront — announcing the debut of a permanent home for the shop next week. Pancho’s Blanket — which partners with artisans in Tlaxcala, Mexico, to design and make wool jackets, blankets,…
KC inventor’s untimely death leaves legacy of fearlessness, unfinished vision
Paul Francis pioneered fitness tech for NASA, commercialized it with Bowflex, then raised $4 million on Kickstarter: How the OYO founder’s unexpected death this month cut his storied entrepreneurial journey short — but left a lasting impression on the people who worked alongside him. Former colleagues are remembering the late Paul Francis as a uniquely…
Pitches and peaches: Hy-Vee awards $30K piece of the $50K prize pie to family-run cobbler company
Denisha Jones sweetened Hy-Vee’s OpportUNITY Inclusive Business Summit and pitch competition this week with her ready-to-bake cobblers. Her pitch (and peaches) secured the $30,000 grand prize. “Every time Thanksgiving comes around, I always crave my grandmother’s cobbler. During the pandemic, I was unsuccessful in finding a cobbler as good as my grandmother’s, so I went…
New VP, investments among strategic scale-up efforts at Overland Park healthcare startup
ModRN Health has dramatically accelerated over the past year, said CaRessa Hutchinson, detailing moves that include more patients, new funding and the addition of an on-call expert in fast-growing startups. With more than 80 clinicians (nurses and doctors) on its team, the Overland Park-based virtual primary care solutions company is now providing family healthcare, plan…
His fitness app pays users to workout, but what they really want is body transformation, founder says
Jasper Sanders founded Deposit The Work to incentivize users to stick with their fitness goals, he shared, but now he’s emphasizing accountability with the app’s latest feature. “The whole idea behind CoachConnect+ is providing a platform for individuals who are stuck on their fitness journey, unsure on where to start, [or] don’t know how to…
KC capital implants cattle tech startup with fuel to scale, expanding IVF labs, headcount
Livestock production has seen a remarkable transformation since Kerryann Kocher was growing up on her family’s sixth-generation farm in northeast Iowa, the Vytelle CEO said. Instead of just selecting the cow that looks best and bringing in the neighbor’s bull for breeding, as she remembers it, Kocher and Vytelle — a Kansas City-based precision livestock…
Google’s $100K ‘stamp of approval’ for PlaBook reads like validation for KC-built edtech startup
Kansas City expatriate PlaBook is set to receive $100,000 from Google’s initiative to provide funding to Black-led startups. But for Philip Hickman, it’s not just about the funding, he said. It’s also a credibility boost. “We were happy to receive an investment from Google,” the edtech startup founder said. “It’s a stamp of approval to…