Economy
From farmers market to brick-and-mortar
Levi Holland adds another sealed black bag of coffee beans to the small pile that is accumulating on a set of distressed wood shelves only a few feet from the front door at Post Coffee Co. Behind him is the 5-kilogram drum roaster that he’s running on a Wednesday after a busy holiday weekend –…
KC rallies for low-wage workers
Chants of “Hey, hey! Ho, ho! These poverty wages have got to go!” could be heard across several blocks as hundreds of people marched from Theis Park near the Plaza to the UMKC campus Wednesday afternoon.
What’s the state of entrepreneurship in the U.S.? It’s complicated.
On one hand, it’s a good time to be an entrepreneur. Venture capital and angel investment levels are back up to where they were in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Startup valuations are high. City and state governments are building more economic development strategies for entrepreneurs. On the other hand, new business creation in…
Is driving for – and riding with – Uber worth it?
The night before Thanksgiving last November, Ben McCarthy was out trying to make a little extra cash by driving for the app-based ride-hailing service Uber. He was stopped at a stoplight in Westport when his passengers decided to jump out of the car right there and end the ride early. McCarthy said this wasn’t unusual…
What’s the state of women in Missouri?
A woman in Missouri working full time earns only 71 cents for each dollar a man earns for the same work. Two-thirds of Missouri seniors living in poverty are women. Women make up 51 percent of the Missouri population, but only 25 percent of the state legislature. These are all statistics that you can find…
Helping women dream bigger
Sara Davidson is no stranger to KC’s entrepreneurship community. But after a stint in the marketing industry, a transition to the startup world, and two burnouts — all before the age of 30 — she knew she wanted to do something different. She started Hello Fearless, a company with the goal of “creating a world…
Creating a high-tech vending machine, to dispense local art
Chips, Cheetos and peanuts are all things you might expect to find in an airport vending machine. Local art … not so much. But in one vending machine in the Kansas City Airport, you can expect to find locally made art, jewelry, T-shirts and the like. You swipe your credit card and out comes an…
President Obama: Gigabit access could unleash innovation
When President Obama visited Cedar Falls, Iowa, yesterday to talk about the potential benefits of local communities building their own broadband networks, community and tech leaders from around the country were already gathered at the Gigabit City Summit here in Kansas City to discuss the exact same issues. In Cedar Falls, residents can get gigabit-speed…
How do you build the ‘gigabit city’?
Nearly four years after Google Fiber announced service to the Kansas City area, some key questions remain largely unanswered — particularly questions about how the city will use gigabit-speed internet to grow and thrive. This week in Kansas City, the Gigabit City Summit, organized largely by KC Digital Drive, is assembling representatives from Kansas City…
An entrepreneur, taking on a hidden need – the diaper gap
A child in diapers uses an estimated 6 to 10 diapers per day. That means the average family spends $18 per week or $936 per year on diapers for each child. The costs add up quickly. And because of this, the National Diaper Bank Network estimates that one in three moms in the United States…