Latest Stories
Events Preview: Verge Pitch night, Yael Hochberg
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. Are you hosting a relevant community event? Feel free to add it to the FWD/KC calendar for increased exposure. Once your event…
VR startup EON Sports lands pro Japanese baseball team
Kansas City-based virtual reality company EON Sports snagged its first international client. The firm has partnered with the professional Japanese baseball team Yokohama DeNA Baystars and will bring its 360 baseball training simulator to the athletes this 2017 season. Founded in 2013, the firm developed a mobile, virtual reality platform to help football and baseball…
Former U.S. Labor official Chris Lu: KC can teach Trump how to create jobs
Editor’s note: Chris Lu served as the U.S. Deputy Secretary of Labor during the Obama Administration, and he is now a Senior Fellow at the University of Virginia Miller Center. The opinions in this commentary are the author’s alone. For all of Donald Trump’s bluster about his job creation abilities, this week will provide one of…
National tech event series Verge coming to Kansas City
A national tech event firm that aims to cultivate community excitement and awareness around innovation is set to launch in Kansas City on March 14. Verge has selected Kansas City as its next locale for its monthly pitch event series in which the firm will host tech startups that will present their firms to a…
TechAccel hops in $3.2M round for Lincoln-based ag tech firm
Kansas City-based TechAccel is joining an investment round in a Nebraska agriculture tech firm that aims to improve crop yields. The area venture firm is among a group of investors in Lincoln-based Epicrop Technologies Inc., which raised a total of $3.2 million in its Series A round, which was led by North Forty Ventures. TechAccel…
Roasterie founder Danny O’Neill takes historical look on Midwest coffee culture
Editor’s note: In partnership with the KC Greats podcast, hosted by Scott Parman, Startland News hopes to offer its audience more avenues to learn about entrepreneurs in Kansas City. Opinions expressed in this commentary are the author’s alone. In this episode, Roasterie founder and CEO Danny O’Neill answers the question: Why coffee? In the early…
Jeff Shackelford: Here’s how to land Digital Sandbox funding
When it comes to pitching their startups, most Kansas Citians err on the side of selling themselves short. At least that’s what the Digital Sandbox KC’s Jeff Shackelford told a crowd Tuesday at an event helping community members who are interested in pitching to the incubator-style program. Launched in 2013, Digital Sandbox has supported a…
The education system is broken — these Kansas Citians want to fix it
As you may remember or have experienced with your own child, there seems to come a point in one’s educational journey where kids ask themselves — what’s the point? The answer has always been, so that you can get good grades, to get into a good college to then get a good job. The problem with…
What’s Kansas City doing at SXSW 2017 this year?
March is about to get weird. Startland News is once again returning to the weirdness of Austin, Texas, for the annual insanity that is the SXSW Conference. Like last year, we’ll be venturing to the Lone Star State to report on the Kansas City contingent at arguably the nation’s top conference for innovative ideas: South-by-Southwest…
Olathe-based Flow Forward raises $1M for vascular device
After completing a preclinical study, Olathe-based Flow Forward Medical nabbed another round of capital for its vascular device. The firm raised another $1 million from a group of unnamed, individual investors, bringing the firm’s total raised to $7 million. Flow Forward created the AFE blood pump system, which is designed for temporary use to quickly…
