Startups Stories
Overwhelmed, but not alone: How a KC serial entrepreneur helps Black founders move beyond side hustles and daydreaming
As Kira Cheree drove down I-70, headed west from Kansas City to Manhattan, Kansas, she recalled the years of work that put her in the driver’s seat and behind the wheel at that particular moment. “I started to notice this trend,” said Cheree, a serial entrepreneur, looking back on consulting work she’d done with Black…
Splitsy takes top prize in Regnier challenge, adding to emerging fintech startup’s spring bump
The Regnier Venture Creation Challenge doled out more than $65,000 in cash prizes to emerging startups this spring, culminating in Friday’s big win for an up-and-coming fintech app. “We had a great competition,” Bryan Boots, managing director of venture creation and assistant teaching professor at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, told Startland News. The annual…
SafetyCulture rides deeper into unicorn club with $73M round, reaching $1.6B valuation
The evolution from a checklist app into an operations platform for working teams is paying off for SafetyCulture, which Monday announced a massive funding round from the East Coast — pushing the unicorn company even deeper into the realm of startups valued at more than a billion dollars. Led by New York-based Insight Partners, the…
Made in KC goes West: Why the local-first retailer is opening a marketplace (with shuffleboard) in Lenexa
A newly announced Made in KC Marketplace at Lenexa City Center will make local goods — and the makers behind them — more accessible to a fast-developing piece of Kansas City, said Keith Bradley. “Part of our mission as a company is to make shopping local a habit,” said Bradley, co-owner of Made in KC, a…
Coffee for the culture: Porter House KC founders partner with Messenger to craft Black-owned coffee brand
Black Drip Coffee brewed from within a desire to bring coffee culture to historically disenfranchised and underserved communities, said Charon Thompson and Daniel Smith. “It’s more than coffee,” noted Smith, who co-founded the brand, Black Drip Coffee, as well as the Porter House KC with Thompson. “We always talk about breaking down barriers and creating…
