News Stories

Keven Fryer, KC Velocity

KC Velocity launches as re-imagined Lee’s Summit accelerator goes metro-wide

An entrepreneur-backed support organization for early stage founders and business leaders across Kansas City went live this week — the culmination of an intensive rebranding campaign for an accelerator previously geared specifically to Lee’s Summit. “KC Velocity is focused on matching growing businesses with experienced, invested experts in a variety of essential capacities including finance, accounting,…

WATCH NOW: Kansas City Community Builders to Watch

   Join Startland News for a celebratory broadcast that showcases the work of six local leaders with exceptional stories of community impact.  This mid-day broadcast — streaming at 11:30 a.m. as part of Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW) — features a musical performance by Golden Groves. This edition of Startland News Reports is presented in partnership with Fishtech Group….

Gavin Dell, Hollywood Animation Academy; Shelly Cooper, SureShow; Jill and Justin Bertelsen, Crib Coaching; and Craig Boyle, What Duh Fog

Demo day alert: 13 new Comeback KC Ventures fellows set for debut on GEW KC stage

The first crop of Comeback KC Ventures fellows — entrepreneurs offering solutions from healthtech and edtech products to sports evaluations and an animation academy emerging in response to COVID-19 — is expected to highlight more than a dozen companies Thursday during a GEW KC innovation showcase. “The demo day will allow early participants in the…

Parker Graham, Finotta

How Finotta emerged from 2020’s perils with a leap of faith, $3M investment banked

The through line of Parker Graham’s startup journey so far: resiliency. “People like to joke that cockroaches just don’t die,” laughed Graham, reflecting after his fintech company, Finotta — more pheonix rising than cockroach surviving — recently closed a $3 million seed funding round and completely changed the makeup of its team. “I feel like…

Lisa Nguyen, Telehue Food

New in KC: Wichita-grown foodie whips up 4.5M TikTok, Youtube users with passion (and ramen) as her only guides

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. Lisa Nguyen was five…