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Written Apparel looks to rewrite the pencil skirt
When you think about fashion cities, places like New York, Paris and Milan probably spring to mind. Cedar Rapids? Not so much. But a fashion startup, Written Apparel is looking to unfold into a worldwide brand with the help of the Iowa Startup Accelerator. How Written works “Fashion has always been very important to me,”…
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Borrow for Your Bump wins $10,000 at Get Started Omaha
Borrow for Your Bump, an Omaha-based startup that provides high-end maternity clothes to expecting mothers, won $10,000 last night at the 3rd annual Get Started Omaha event. Hundreds gathered at the sold out event at the Holland Performing Arts Center to watch five businesses pitch their best ideas to a panel of five judges. The…
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Upcraft Club wins $40,000 at national InnovateHER competition in DC
Elizabeth Caven, founder of Upcraft Club, won 1st Place in the SBA’s InnovateHER Challenge last night in Washington, DC, winning $40,000 from Microsoft for her pitch. Caven was one of 10 finalists from across the country, after winning a local Innovate HER in Des Moines at Gravitate last summer. “The SBA really has a great initiative supporting women…
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Lume Lifestyle has the smart leggings you’ve been waiting for
Lume Lifestyle used campus-based brand ambassadors to launch a successful Kickstarter campaign—and their company. About a year ago Waira Mungai, a student and personal trainer at the University of Kansas, saw a problem at the campus gym. “I noticed a girl who put her phone in her waistband and when she bent over it fell out.…
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Upcraft Club wants to change the way you think about sewing
Sewing is no longer just for your grandma or artisanal hipster friend. With Upcraft Club, thousands are enjoying the new technology that is revolutionizing the sewing industry. Upcraft Club, based in Des Moines, Iowa, is an ecommerce marketplace that sells digital sewing patterns. They also sell their patterns through a patent-pending process which allows brick and…
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6 questions with Borrow For Your Bump co-founder Krystal Stubbendeck
Borrow For Your Bump (BFYB) is an e-retail startup based in Omaha that rents out maternity clothing to expecting mothers. SPN caught up with Co-founder Krystal Stubbendeck over the phone. SPN: When we last spoke, you were planning on opening a store, starting Bump Love Club and possibly adding trimester boxes to your site. Can you update our readers…
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11 questions with PopBookings co-founder Erika Klotz
PopBookings is a startup based in Kansas City, Missouri, who recently received a $50K LaunchKC grant by winning the People’s Choice at Techweek KC. SPN caught up with Co-founder Erika Klotz over the phone. SPN: Can you tell us a little bit about PopBookings? EK: We’re basically Uber for event staffing. PopBookings is a platform designed to help…
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KC startup scene attracts Warby Parker to open its first Kansas City store
Stepping into a Warby Parker store is like entering a modern version of a 1960’s style library. But instead of wall-to-wall and floor-to-ceiling shelves of books, they are eye-wear frames. The dark walnut shelves, the kitschy wall-paper, the brass library lamps and books accompanying the glasses, the mid-century library design of the reference desk sign…
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Exchanges With will feature Brian Spaly, Devon Brooks
The Omaha Startup Collaborative will host its first Exchanges With event on August 27, featuring Brian Spaly, founder and CEO of Trunk Club, and Devon Brooks, founder and CEO of Blo blow dry bar. Spaly is best known for founding Trunk Club, a men’s styling service primarily conducted via virtual consultations. Trunk Club was acquired by…
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Mike Macadaan at Big Omaha: “Whenever I laugh, that’s the idea that’s going to be successful”
Designer Mike Macadaan spoke at Big Omaha 2015 about how he developed the idea of the cord taco, had the idea stolen in China, got picked up by Apple, and sold a million cord tacos along the way. He shares his biggest insight from his professional experience: “Whenever someone shares an idea with me now and I laugh,…