KC Start-Up Scene

The first neighborhood to get Google Fiber, known on the map as Hanover Heights but locally as the Kansas City Startup Village, is the new home of early stage startups co-locating near one another to collaborate, leverage resources and to build a community based around growing a tech business.

Leap2 is among the first wave of startups moving to the village. In early November, the company — which was founded in 2011 — moved its offices from a non-Google Fiber neighborhood in Kansas City to a connected one. The KC Startup Village consists of other companies such as Local Ruckus, Eye Verify, Threedee, Trellie and Form Zapper, as a part of an initiative to make it a new startup tech hub.  Homes for Hackers, whose mission is to further the business community in Kansas City by offering 3 months of rent-free, Google Fiber-connected startup space to entrepreneurs, is also part of KC Startup Village.

“We’re seeking like-minded, local/regional/national startups who are interested in locating (or relocating) their business to the Kansas neighborhoods of Hanover Heights and Frank Rushton and/or the Missouri neighborhoods of West Plaza North and West Plaza South,” the KC Startup Village organization notes on its website.  It’s also encouraging businesses in the region to use the hashtag #KCSV on Twitter to spread awareness about the grassroots initiative.