Last week, the Kansas City tech and entrepreneurial leaders welcomed the newest addition to the startup scene, Digital Sandbox KC. The project, led by the Innovation Center at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, is an effort to spur development of local IT-related startup businesses in partnership with private companies, universities and government agencies. Twentyseven Global is thrilled of the progress Kansas City has made in the startup community, especially with tech startups.
Jeff Shackelford, new director of the initiative, kicked off the event which included inspiring speeches on the entrepreneurship of Kansas City from U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver II; Mayor Sly James; and Kansas City’s youngest entrepreneur, Hunter Browning, CEO of Fannect.
We’ve had the pleasure of supporting several Kansas City-based startup companies with our software development services over the past four years. In this time, we’ve seen a steady crescendo in the volume of entrepreneurs, ideas, and investment capital in this area. We’re proud to help put Kansas City on the map as an entrepreneur’s Mecca.
Digital Sandbox KC Announces Leadership, Processes
(Photo Credit: UMKC)
Digital Sandbox KC is unique among economic development and entrepreneurship efforts in that it is supported by a wide array of private sector partners as well as economic development agencies, non-profit groups and universities. Corporate partners will provide boots-on-the-ground mentoring and advising from top executives. Digital Sandbox KC is a key initiative in the effort to brand Kansas City as “America’s Most Entrepreneurial City.”
In terms of eligibility, all ideas related to IT are welcome; but the Sandbox will have four key focus areas:
- data center and cloud operations
- big data and data analytics
- mobile applications, and
- data security
Eligible applicants include emerging, startup and established companies and technology transfer offices, both corporate and academic. Digital Sandbox KC is also open to established companies seeking to add value to a “shelved” technology – a technology that will not be further developed inside the company, but may have relevance in the market.
People from outside of the Kansas City region are encouraged to apply, but any operations associated with technology development and establishment of resulting business or business expansion must be located within the Kansas City CSA.
The deadline for the first round of applications is midnight March 1, 2013.
