Lucille Tutera, the family marriarch and founder, is a grand lady. When I ran into problems with my late Mom's former care facility, I called Lucille, who I had briefly met when searching for a home for Mom. I left a message at her office on a Friday, just before 5pm. My expectation was that she'd call me on Monday. She returned my call Saturday morning and left her home phone number. While we kept Mom at the existing home, I was truly impressed with this fine lady.
There is a KCSV open house on the 19th.
KCSV has absolutely zero integrity. They have absolutely no concern whatsoever about established residents-stakeholders in the neighborhood, or anyone else for that matter, no one is invited to the table (party) unless your part of the exclusive club-clique. There is no transparency in the process, no substance, selling smoke. Since your starting over maybe you should consider an honesty rule-ethic to be one of your guiding principles. Leave your egos at the door at minimum.
I work at a startup at the Kansas City Startup Village, and I'd like to express two thoughts:
1. The companies in the KCSV are not threatened by Google Fiber's announcement for other cities. In fact, a lot of the technology developed at KCSV leverage high-speed networks, and more people having access to similar high-speed networks is a good thing. A small community of people having access to high speed internet access doesn't make an ideal customer base.
2. Not all the startups in the KCSV are "small time-y online businesses". For example, at the company I work for, we're developing cutting edge eye-vein biometric software and our clients are the world's largest banks and OEMs. A lot of the companies have raised funding from internationally renowned venture capitalists and angel investors who believe what they're working on has a lot of potential.
Hey all. Matthew Marcus here, one of the guys mentioned in this article.
I'd like the readers of this article to understand that much of it has been presented out of context. The title alone is misleading and a misrepresentation of the current state of affairs in the KCSV. Of course we are aware that Austin is getting Google next, but the village was not founded because of Google Fiber. We certainly appreciate having it as a resource. Definitely. But the village was formed as a way for startups and entrepreneurs to live and work close to one another, supporting each other's ventures and allowing for collaboration and innovation around existing and new ideas. Take Google Fiber away tomorrow, and the village will continue to survive and thrive.
Much like a startup in its own right, the KCSV started and has grown organically. There was no planning to make it happen. It just came together. As can be expected with any startup, both inside and outside factors affect its actions, focus and results. What started as a focus on building a dense startup community morphed over time into the KCSV becoming a representative for the entire KC startup and entrepreneur community. We realized our digression, and this article was written at a time when we were figuring out how to get back to our roots. What does all this mean? It's no big deal. All good in the hood.
If you'd really like to understand what the KCSV is about, I suggest you watch our video. It's a great intro and representation of the positive things happening in the KCSV.
http://kcstartupvillage.org
Finally, we are always looking for more people to get involved. If you're interested in taking part in the actions of the KCSV or the entire KC startup & entrepreneur community, contact us. We love welcoming new co-leaders to help lead the charge.
http://www.kcstartupvillage.org/join/volun…
Thanks for listening.
- Matthew
Hi Amy! It doesn't at all! I thought we had made that clear in our interview with Ben (the author). We still have quite the headstart, Google Fiber will not roll out in Austin or Provo for quite some time.. and the value for startups in Kansas City is much deeper than just Google Fiber. For example, my team and I moved here for the community and energy the scene here offers, Fiber was just icing on the cake.
Mike - what does Google's announcing new cities to do negatively impact KCSV?
Hi Abe! I'm a founder of one of the startup businesses in the community. We need 1Gbps speeds right now for two things: to run our production server inside our office, and to provide a high quality experience for our users on low-end devices! Access to a connection like this makes a huge difference for a startup. In other cities the only way to access a network like this is to go to a university, or pay upwards of $3000/month. And you should always care about community startups! Tech startups are a fundamental part of the new economy. Startups like those in the KCSV create more jobs nationally than large corporations!
Furthermore, why do these small time-y online businesses have this great need for super fast internet. Just seems like a bunch of tech savvy people bitter that they might not get the newest toy.
What exactly do companies like Local Ruckus do, and why should I care? It seems like it's just yet another redundant website full of info that is already widely available. The marketplace is flooded with them. Hell, half of the Pitch is essentially a print version of it.
OK - so I understand some concern that Google is announcing new cities without "finishing" the metro, but what were the expectations? Did these small businesses think Google was going to make them successful? Did the Village team have a good concept that was sustainable? Google originally only announced KCK and KCMO - those areas surrounding would only be gravy in their scope.
Does it take into account the tides and whether there's a full moon? Nothing like tech geeks trying to solve a problem which is way over their heads.
I hope those two lying whores rot in Hell for what they did to the good doctor.
I think he is on the run and his family is helping him somehow.
Beeeeees! Love him! Great article. Go Sporting!
Lee jeans in america suck so bad! why cant they be as cool as australia and europe!? this is awful
I have not seen Chuck in years, in fact last time I saw him he was working at a shoe store. If a guy can undercut a large company and make some scratch for his own, then I say go Chuck! I grew up with Chuck and he has always seemed to be a good guy even though I thought he had it hard when he was young. I got nothing bad to say about him, after all he did what many of us are trying to do; become independently wealthy and secure, that is not easy nowdays. I wish him the best.
Are there any other articles about this incident besides the Pitch?
Just to let you all know that she is back in your neighborhood. I was driving up Independence Ave and yep you got it she was walking down the street towards Benton and Independence Ave. Get ready to have the trash back in your neighborhood yet again.
Re: “The Tutera Group isn't getting much resistance to its plan to wall off a chunk of Prairie Village for the Medicare set”
I concur with son - Lucille is a saint. My grandmother in law lives in the Atriums, and anytime there has been an issue she has bent over backwards to make it right.