Wichita and Kansas
1 Million Cups was developed in Kansas City, MO in 2012 by Co-Founders Cameron Cushman and Nate Olson who were working at the time on the Entrepreneurship Team at the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. What began as an experiment to bring entrepreneurs in one city together over a cup of coffee towards a goal of…
Read More
Wichita-based BuddyBrands started by building better beds to help canines get their sleep. The company has expanded its offerings to include so much more. The BuddyRest story begins seven years ago when company Co-founder, Trevor Crotts’ labradoodle, Buddy, visited the vet. Crotts happened to be a corporate trainer in the mattress industry at the time,…
Read More
Video gaming has always been a fiercely competitive pastime. Those who are old enough surely remember hunkering down into a game after school and bickering with their siblings over the Atari joystick for a crack at Pitfall! or Frogger. (For those who are too young to have relished in the joy of the successful virtual…
Read More
Alyss is innovating in hiring. When Alyss competed for and won the $120K grand prize at the Inside/Outside Innovation Summit in Lincoln, Nebraska last year, company Founder and CEO Mike Mathia was determined to realize his vision of helping job applicants stand out and demonstrate their qualifications beyond a simple resume. Less than one year…
Read More
Clint Brauer grew up farming with his dad in Kansas. He did not enjoy farming at all and after graduating from K-State, made his way to Los Angeles to work. After spending 13 years in tech, Clint set out to bring the Wichita area an organic alternative, with the thought that his tech background might…
Read More
Maggie Schoonover calls herself “an introverted science nerd.” We call her an inspiring Silicon Prairie Founder, and we’re pleased she chose to share her co-founding story with SPN and our readers. Here’s what she had to say…. My educational background is heavily focused in the sciences – I earned a B.S. in Meteorology from…
Read More
Sometimes the grass is greener, and other times, it’s overgrown. Wichita-based Lawn Buddy can help with the latter. Steven Werner grew up on a small ranch in Wyoming, enlisted in the Marine Corp as a junior in high school, toured in Afghanistan, and found his way back to Wyoming in 2013. Throughout his military career,…
Read More
Wichita-based Nitride Solutions is a manufacturer of materials used in electronics. Sounds simple, but it’s much more complex. Founder Jeremy Jones explained that Nitride Solutions essentially grows crystals, in specially designed reactors at very high temperatures (4000 °F) to produce a material called aluminum nitride. The resulting material is used for applications in electronics, refrigeration,…
Read More
The Wichita community answered the call and completed more SPN community surveys than any other city. We think that is fantastic and to show our gratitude we wanted to share the love. The following report is the compilation and tidbits of information that the citizens of Wichita were so gracious to share about their ecosystem.…
Read More
Green Dot Bioplastics closed a $6.5 million Series A financing deal led by Fulcrum Global Capital on February 7, with participation from iiM (Innovations in Motion) and Open Prairie Ventures through its Open Prairie Rural Opportunities Fund. The company will use the investment to accelerate organic growth, develop and commercialize new bioplastics products and uses,…
Read More