Silicon Prairie News

Kansas City Articles
SERIES

Prairie Portrait: Jason Arnold of NeighborWorks America

4292_38a9fc20ef_small June 12, 2012 by Michael Stacy

Kansas City Silicon Prairie News: In your short time with NeighborWorks America, what have you witnessed as far as what entrepreneurship can mean to a community in terms of the creation of jobs and wealth? | Jason Arnold: NeighborWorks is a very well regarded organization in the field of Community Development. Historically, the conversation has been about helping families achieve homeownership, which is seen as a first step towards economic and social stability. Today, under the U.S. CDFI fund, local organizations are providing access … read more

NEWS

One Week KC aims to promote city’s big entrepreneurial aspirations

4282_9320c5108f_small June 11, 2012 by Michael Stacy

Kansas City It's a week so chock-full of entrepreneurial activity that it can't be contained to just seven days. One Week KC, a series of events designed to inspire, educate and connect Kansas City entrepreneurs, kicks off June 18 and runs through June 26, featuring nine days of events aimed at celebrating and raising the profile of Kansas City's … read more

NEWS

In the fight for one life, Team Kris Miner hopes to save many

4266_3da05911a3_small June 8, 2012 by Danny Schreiber

Kansas City Over the past three weeks, Ken Miner, the director of national accounts at Overland Park, Kan. startup Front Flip, has been reaching out to friends for help – online and offline. In April, Ken's wife Kris (left) was diagnosed with Stage 4B Large Cell Lymphona, a very intrusive form of cancer that carries a life expectancy of 1-3 years. Doctors called for immediate, aggressive treatment, prescribing a stem cell and bone marrow transplant. The path to the … read more

NEWS

Kauffman FastTrac president pitches program in new Sketchbook

4268_a7e0c80d2e_small June 7, 2012 by Michael Stacy

Kansas City The latest installment of the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation's animated Sketchbook Series illustrates one of the Kansas City, Mo.-based foundation's own programs. In the Sketchbook video, which is entitled "Go Fast, Grow Fast" and was released on Friday, Kauffman FastTrac president Alana Muller describes the organization … read more

NEWS

Days after launch, hackathon app Qup gets GigaOm story, 350 users

4265_88f2ee8a71_small June 6, 2012 by Danny Schreiber

Kansas City The winner of the inaugural Hack the Midwest event is already showing that 24 hours can deliver a product that not only works, but also one that's polished enough one to gain press and users. "The response has been phenomenal," said Michael Bleigh (left), who built Qup (pronounced "queue up"), an app that sends email notifications for new videos on Netflix Instant. Bleigh, a fellow at Washington D.C.-based Intridea and a Kansas City resident … read more

NEWS

Angel Capital Group CEO Rachael Qualls to speak June 19 at Tech ESP

4264_f24e224f34_small June 6, 2012 by Michael Stacy

Kansas City Rachael Qualls, who's the founder and CEO of the angel investing network Angel Capital Group (ACG), will present June 19 at the fourth installment of Kansas City's Technology Entrepreneur Speakers Program (Tech ESP). The event will take place from 5:30-7 p.m. at the Country Club Plaza offices of Polsinelli Shughart (700 W. 47th St., Suite 700). Attendees are encouraged to register beforehand. Tickets cost $25 in advance and $30 at the door. Qualls has roots in the Kansas City area, and though The Angel Capital Group is based in Nashville its footprint includes Kansas City … read more

NEWS

Netflix app nabs top prize after 24 busy hours at first Hack the Midwest

4260_8cf27a0a85_small June 5, 2012 by Bob Specht

Kansas City If you were to guess the location of some Kansas City and the Midwest’s best developers and designers over the weekend, a golf course may not be your first choice, unless you knew about Hack The Midwest. Saturday morning nearly 100 hackers filed into the clubhouse of the Heartland Golf Club and set up shop to participate in the inaugural rendition of the 24-hour hackathon. The event kicked off with breakfast and API talks by representatives from MapQuest, SendGrid, Mashery, Dwolla and Ordr.in … read more

NEWS

Demo day showcases first class of BetaBlox startups

4246_a617fc4620_small June 4, 2012 by Sara Davidson

Kansas City StartKC and BetaBlox teamed up on May 24 to host startFEST+DEMO, a demo day that showcased 10 Kansas City startups that participated in the BetaBlox incubator and accelerator hybrid and within StartKC's startup program. It was the first big opportunity for some of the teams, which were selected last year, to present to an audience of investors and business leaders from the region’s entrepreneurial community. More than 200 people attended the invite-only event, which was … read more

SERIES

Founding a startup and following your intuition: Across the globe and back again

4243_2adb687ed0_small June 1, 2012 by Guest Contributor

Kansas City (This is a guest post by Jessie Bishop.) In 2011, I founded Klink Mobile, a company that uses cutting-edge mobile technology to transfer minutes and money to mobile devices worldwide, and in retrospect, I didnʼt fully comprehend what I was getting into. I didn't realize that I was embarking on a path that would transform me, a twenty-something living with my parents in Kansas City, into the public visage of a potentially billion-dollar company; a path that would take me out of my comfort zone and into a war zone; a path that would show me, time and again, the importance of intuition in the face of adversity. But, I did know that my heart was telling me something. And lucky for me, I listened. As a female founder of a mobile technology startup … read more

NEWS

Gig Bits: Mayors’ task force unveils ‘playbook,’ Fiber timetable delayed

4234_cb21e5a8a6_small May 31, 2012 by Michael Stacy

Kansas City Nearly two months have passed since the last installment of our Gig Bits series. That gap in coverage can be explained, in part, by the fact that it's been all quiet on the Fiber front — at least from Google's side, anyway. The Kansas City Star reported earlier this month that the timetable for Fiber has been pushed back from Google's onetime deadline of June 30. “We’ll have an announcement about Google Fiber this summer,” a Google spokeswoman … read more

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