Professional Chats started with need in family orthodontic practice managing online chat and couldn’t find vendor to do excellent job interacting with patients. Launched a service for orthodontics. Began with lead generation in mind but having quality people that could answer questions became important for generating revenue and brand recognition. 150 clients after first year. Started with 1 employee, at 70 now and hope to be at 150-200

Alphapointe is a not for profit founded in 1911 with mission to provide employment and rehabilitation for people who are blind. Goal of helping people who are blind find sustainable jobs for themselves and their family. Serve close to 2,000 people a year. Also have sewing operation providing uniforms for the military, tourniquets, office products, writing instruments and injection molding for prediction bottles for the VA and Express Scripts.

US Engineering is a mechanical contractor.Started as metal working shop in the 1850s in Germany and moved to the US in the late 1800s when they moved to KC. Tyler studied languages, classics, political science in Vermont. Father passed away in 1997 and the company passed out of the family for the first time. Tyler decided to come home to KC in 2005 and started working for US Engineering and started learning about the company and construction. Eventually became project manager, learned the business.

Erica Brune is CEO of Lever One, a PEO providing payroll, employee benefits and employee relation issues for clients. Thought would be broadway star, worked in NYC acting & at a law firm. Grew career organically. Aggressive traits she has now in the business world are the same she had deep inside her when looking for acting jobs first think in the morning. Message to young professionals and teens: Don’t be afraid of hard work. Working hard is ok. It is the key to success. Can reach Erica at www.lever1.com

Cliff grew up Montana. First job was with King Radio in Olathe as a software engineers. Met eventual founders of Garmin at King Radio, Gary Burrell and Min Kao. Garmin does everything from dogs to airplanes. Five different business segments. Have product lines in each. Over 12,000 employees in 32 countries. Being employee number six, still try to think of it as a small culture.

Video Fizz is a platform stitching pictures and videos together with an evolving customer base. Laura has a background running large teams, most recently running a genomic sequencing business for GE in Houston and managing their oncology clinical trials business in California. Just received $250,000 award from Missouri Technology Corporation. Goal in five years to have platform serving multiple verticals. If not acquired, hope to be a large company serving many verticals.
www.videofizz.com

We are getting closer to living like the Jetsons in 2018. Entrepreneur and innovator Blake Miller started learning how to program and code as a young kid. Now in his 30's, he's helping to change the landscape of city living with technology that will affect our lives.

Ramon coaches people and tries to help people get the best out of themselves and their employees. He works with leadership teams to create cultures . His company is Wisdom Hunger. How we gather info is unique. Can measure skill sets and instincts that effect companies, sports teams and students Links involving Ramon: www.wisdomhunger.com www.kolbe.com

What kind of life and business lessons can be learned from a bartender and restaurant owner? In Ryan Maybee's case, numerous tips on leadership, culture, building a brand and more with stories dating back to the prohibition era.

A conversation about the similarities between business, sports and leadership with a bank CEO who used to star on the basketball court.