TBP’s June Entrepreneur Corner Brings in Hundreds of First Friday Shoppers

It’s not every day that a bunch of Kansas City’s local storefront owners can gather together to sell their homemade, one-of-a-kind items.  But thanks to the newly-formed Zaarly Bazaars (and a dynamite collaboration with Think Big Partners), we were able to bring together many of Kansas City’s coolest storefront owners during First Fridays.  The result?  Hundreds of people in and out of our parking lot buying some of the city’s most unique entrepreneurial products.   

There’s no denying it: June 7 was one of Kansas City’s most successful First Fridays.  The Crossroads was buzzing with local vendors, live entertainment (who got to see the Quixotic show?), live bands and hundreds upon thousands of excited attendees.  Snow & Co. was at one-in, one-out capacity, PizzaBella was completely full until 11:00 at night and our parking lot at 18^th & Baltimore was crammed with local shoppers from 7:30-9:30pm.

As a matter of fact, according to Zaarly, over 100 downloads of the Zaarly app occurred during this Entrepreneur Corner--in just a matter of a few hours!

If you had the chance to stop by Entrepreneur Corner and check out our Zaarly Bazaar, we hope you enjoyed your experience (and we hope you walked away with something awesome!  Maybe a Nelson-Atkins inspired Kansas City t-shirt?  Or a throw pillow in the shape of Missouri?). 

We snapped a few photos ourselves as we enjoyed chatting with new and old faces at Entrepreneur Corner.  Take a look:

Our own Think Big booth attracted budding entrepreneurs from the Kansas City area.

Zaarly storefront owners conversed and sold to First Friday attendees.

The Think Big Partners team celebrates Entrepreneur Corner, First Fridays and the Zaarly Bazaar by crowding around Think Big Accelerator's newest product--a Fully charging station/cocktail table. 

Thanks to all who made it out to Entrepreneur Corner and our first ever Zaarly Bazaar during First Fridays!  We hope you had as much fun as we did.

To learn more about Entrepreneur Corner, visit us on Facebook!

What Are The Think Big Accelerator Companies Up To?

Things move fast here at Think Big Partners.  From the collaborations in our coworking space to our entrepreneur events, everything seems to be created very quickly.  And for are accelerator companies, the TBP experience is no different.

Each of our accelerator companies have been making big waves in their own respective fields. With so many things going on, it’s hard to keep up with all the accomplishments these entrepreneurs and their fantastic startups are doing.

We’ve compiled a highlight reel of sorts of what the Think Big Partners Accelerator companies are up to.  Take a look: 

Keyzio

Founder Parker Hills and the rest of the Keyzio team are happy to announce they have had their first successful user sale using the Keyzio platform.  Keyzio will also be launching its website that mirrors the same full functionality available on the iPhone app.  This new addition will no doubt increase the already growing user base of Keyzio. Stay abreast on what this great startup is up to by Liking Keyzio on Facebook or following them @KeyzioInc.

TheHub.fm

Head honcho of TheHub.fm Jonathan Block has racked up some miles since March. After joining 50 other entrepreneurs from Missouri bound for SXSW, via bus, for the SXSW Interactive and Music Festivals. TheHub.fm generated a ton of great press most notably, Digital Trends’ list of best apps at SXSW 2013. Following a whirlwind trip in Austin with a brief pit stop in NYC to see The Allman Brothers front row center (being a veteran in the music business has it’s perks), it was on to Toronto, Canada for Canadian Music Week. While there, Jonathan was a featured on a panel for Mobile and Social Media Strategies. After CMW, it was back to NYC for 2 weeks for meetings and networking. All of Jonathan’s hard work is geared toward TheHub.fm’s launch which is poised for summer 2013. 

Phone2Action

At SXSW, Phone2Action competed in the SXSW Interactive Accelerator. After a great pitch by founder Jeb Ory, Phone2Action bested the other seven participants earning a big SXSW win and $4,000. Part of Phone2Action’s victory can also be attributed to its praise from Senators Jerry Moran (R-KS) and Mark Warner (D-VA), who embraced the platform for support of their Startup Act 3.0 legislation. Since gaining momentum at SXSW, Jeb and the rest of the Phone2Action team has been on a roll and recently just returned from CES on the Hill where they were alongside fellow exhibitors Microsoft, Google and others.

Fully

Currently spreading its mantra to “Keep Calm and Power On”, founder Bryan Richard has been traveling all over the nation working on getting Fully’s charging stations into places where people need it most. One of those places in need is AT&T Park, home of the World Series Champion, the San Francisco Giants. It’s only a matter of time until the rest of the country will be Fully charged.

We here at Think Big Partners are excited about what all of our accelerator companies have accomplished. We can’t wait to see what the summer has in store for these driven entrepreneurs and their startups.

Stay up to date with all of our startups and the rest of the Think Big team by following us @ThinkBigKC.

028 Think Big Radio: A Think Big Partners Update

LISTEN NOW:
028 Think Big Radio: A Think Big Partners Update

What can we say?  Think Big gets $*!@ done fast!  In the past few months, we have had a lot going on and we want to fill you in.  In this episode of Think Big Radio, podcast producer Derek Olsen sits down with partner at Think Big, Blake Miller and the two discuss an update from everyone’s favorite Kansas City incubator and accelerator.

So what’s new with Think Big?  Tune into this episode of Think Big Radio and get the skinny on:

• Think Big Ventures I and our two recent investments
• The first Think Big Accelerator class
• Success in the first two weeks of the Accelerator program from companies like Fully and Phone2Action
• Upcoming event: Microsoft’s Azure Cloud & Windows 8 App Kickstarts (a free event for developers)
• bizperc coworking space buzz 

Follow Blake! @blakemiller32