Jake Johnson

  • Kansas City-born Divshot closes $1.1m seed round, lays roots in LA

    Divshot, a team that came together at Startup Weekend Kansas City last April, isn’t slowing down. After building a prototype in its first 48 hours of existence, three months later it went on to win a Los Angeles pitch competition in July. The next month, it entered San Monica startup accelerator Launchpad LA. Today, less…

  • From Launchpad LA, Divshot focuses on improving beta, hiring engineers

    Living up to its name, startup accelerator Launchpad LA has helped Kansas City-born Divshot leap into the next phase of its business. Divshot, a drag-and-drop interface builder for web apps, was conceived in April 2012 at Startup Weekend Kansas City. Three months later, co-founders Michael Bleigh and Jake Johnson won a national pitch competition that…

  • Divshot lands in Los Angeles for Launchpad accelerator

    Just two weeks after their August acceptance into Santa Monica, Calif.-based accelerator Launchpad LA, the co-founders of Divshot moved to the Golden State. “It was pretty crazy,” Divshot co-founder Jake Johnson said of the series of events that led the company, formerly based in Kansas City, Mo., to the startup accelerator founded by Mark Suster.…

  • After re-starting from scratch, Local Ruckus sporting all-new look

    Nearly a year into working on Local Ruckus, Adam Arredondo decided that in order for the Kansas City startup to move forward, it would have to take a step back. Make that several steps back. “We decided,” Arredondo said, “to start from scratch.” Arredondo founded Local Ruckus in February 2011, and the web-based tool for…

  • Divshot wins Crowdstart LA contest, takes home $25k

    Divshot, a Kansas City, Mo. startup born at Kansas City Startup Weekend in April, took first place today at Crowdstart LA, a live pitch event hosted by crowdfunding platform Crowdfunder. Today’s competition in Santa Monica was the culmination of a 7-week crowdsourced startup …

  • Startup Weekend KC’s Divshot picked as finalist for Crowdstart LA pitch

    In the span of just more than two months, Divshot has progressed from a 60-second Startup Weekend pitch to the precipice of a $25,000 prize. Divshot, a Kansas City, Mo. startup, was selected from a pool …