By Jason Moxness, Market President, Core Bank.
Entrepreneurism is alive and well in Kansas City! I was honored to be one of the 42 “Sharks” at the 4th Annual Pure Pitch Rally held at the American Restaurant in Crown Center. Pure Pitch Rally is a community-funded platform that creates relationships between angel funders and the tech start-up ecosystem. It represents a true game-changer for KC!
At the event, I voted on which of the 10 well-deserving entrepreneurs to support. Each of the participants delivered a well-prepared pitch about the new business idea they were starting. Their hope was to receive a piece of the $300,000 in cash and services being awarded.
BestyBNB
So who did I vote for??? Spoiler alert – I often vote with my heart and this year my heart was with BestyBNB! BestyBNB is an amazing new company that aims to address the less than 5 percent of nearly 3,000 domestic violence shelters in the United States that have the ability to house companion animals. The platform provides a suite of tools to manage and track survivors’ pets, who are matched with pet caregivers.
Here’s a brief highlight of a few of the other fantastic businesses that also won that night:
Blockchain Water – Using Artificial Intelligence they are able to identify leaks in a city’s water system and predict pipe failures before they happen at a fraction of the cost.
Calving Technologies – Their technology tracks and evaluates biomedical changes that occur in late-gestation cows to help decrease calf mortality rates.
Clara Biotech – They take any bio-fluid and extract any species of pure, viable, intact exosomes into pure solution solving a major bottleneck in next generation medicine.
Helix Health – Utilizing their clinical business intelligence tool they help health care payers and providers reduce the cost of care while improving health outcomes in chronic care conditions.
Matchrite Care – Their platform allows patients to retrieve, store and share medical records from multiple providers and improve patient record accessibility.
Pawconx – Using their mobile messaging platform they allow pet owners to stay connected with selected dog pack members to match their pet with their perfect pet playmate.
Travelhive – This is a digital platform that simplifies the entire travel journey through bookmarking and planning tools to research, plan, save and share travel plans with a group.
FeedKC – This concept matches area soup kitchens with high volume prepared food distributors to use and serve food that would otherwise be thrown out.
A special Thank You to Karen Fenaroli and her fantastic team in showing your support of small businesses in KC. The Pure Pitch Rally gets bigger and better every year and this city is a better place because people like Karen help shine a light on those who might not otherwise be seen.
