Minority-Led Stories

2026 AltCap Your Biz finalists: Easton Koch, BONICEL DENIM; Béty Lê Shackelford, Hella Good Deeds; Wesley Hamilton, INCLŪSIV Wellness; Keliah Smith, Keliah Dyann Art & Paper; DeMarkus Paul, Legacy Service Company; Madeline Johnson, Missouri Kansas Queer Law; Arden Pearson, Missouri Kansas Queer Law; Fred Neis, Rescue ID; Zoe Mays, Scream Queens; Erica Murff, The BeVel Barber Lounge; Casie Murff, The BeVel Barber Lounge; and India Clark Stewart, Your Healing Touch

‘Going bigger than ever before’: Meet the star finalists vying for $60K in AltCap Your Biz prizes

Nearly a dozen small businesses are set to compete this fall for $60,000 in prizes, AltCap Your Biz organizers said Friday, announcing 10 finalists in the expanded pitch competition’s 11th journey to the stage with Kansas City entrepreneurs.

Restaurateurs at Parlor KC ‘completely shocked’ by food hall’s planned closure

With just four days’ notice — and sitting on thousands of dollars in perishable food inventory — a half-dozen entrepreneurs with kitchens at Parlor KC said they were blindsided this week by a social media post announcing the food hall’s final hours.

Mayor calls legal challenge ‘unjust’ as city OKs replacement for minority-, women-owned biz support

Kansas City is moving ahead with a plan to replace its decades-old, but recently-disputed Minority and Women-owned Business Enterprise program with a new initiative focused on small and local businesses.

She’s using tech to rewrite the blueprint handed to girls; here’s what Maliha Khan told those who said ‘You can’t’

“I can have the career, I can have the married life, I can have the kids,” the founder and CEO of Khanect the Dots said. “And more importantly, I feel like it’s not just about me. I’m a walking representation of that for other girls, not just my own.”

KSHSAA partners with Lawrence startup to power high school camps, clinics, lessons

The Good Game’s just-announced team-up with the Kansas State High School Activities Association is designed to support a safer, more compliant and centralized approach to interscholastic activities, said founder Zarif Haque.