Paul Jarrett accepts the Innovator of the Year award Thursday night at Pipeline’s annual event in Kansas City.
Family gatherings often are chaotic, frantic affairs—full of love, of course—where everyone stumbles over each other, there are way too many dishes to fit in the sink and no one can agree on politics or much of anything.
Thursday night, business leadership program Pipeline brought together its ever-growing group of members, fellows, partners and community friends for a family-themed version of its annual Innovator of the Year gala at The Midland in downtown Kansas City.
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This family gathering, however, was noticably more refined. Everyone—more than 600 of them—wore their best attire, and through videos and skits over the course of the night Pipeline entrepreneurs showcased what it meant to have their new family as well as the support from their spouses and children at home.
Each year, one family member from the current class of fellows rises to the top through the quality of work done over the year and a pitch competition—also Thursday, at Union Station’s Extreme Screen in front of three national experts—to become Innovator of the Year.
This year’s winner is a familiar face in the Silicon Prairie: Paul Jarrett, co-founder of Bulu Box. Jarrett and his team have been in the news throughout the year, whether its for surpassing 30,000 customers and $100,000 in monthly revenue in October, being named to Inc.’s list of startups to watch, or starting their own half marathon in Lincoln. In his acceptance speech he thanked his new Pipeline family, his team and of course his wife and co-founder, Stephanie Jarrett.
In addition to a reunion and rekindling of all the relationships built over the course of the year, the group welcomed 13 new fellows for 2014 that are from six cities and three states:
- Mike Bosch, Dawn Fiber, Baldwin City
- Brett Byman, Nobl, Lincoln
- Jason Carman, Flyover Innovations, Kansas City
- Tony Caudill, Aware3, Kansas City
- David Chait, Travefy, Lincoln
- Chris Cheatham, ClaimKit, Kansas City
- Tom Cohen, Nanopore Diagnostics, St. Louis
- Amos Danielli, MagBiosense, St. Louis
- Carlos Fernandez, Page-Out, Wichita
- Alicia Herald, myEDmatch, Kansas City
- James Havers-Strong, Aviation Business International, Wichita
- Shaz Khan, BuyNow Worldwide, Omaha
- Luis Lopez, CardioSys, Omaha
