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Entrepreneurship

KC embraces innovative ideas. Take a closer look at KC’s entrepreneurial culture…

Made in KC

• Hallmark greeting cards
• H&R Block tax advisors
• Yellow Cab Company
• Kansas City Southern Railroad Company
• Sprint’s first completely digital PCS cellular network
• Applebee’s restaurants
• Garmin’s nüvi navigation device
• Bayer Advantage flea and tick treatments

Professional Organizations/Resources

• KC SourceLink
• Kansas Technology Enterprise Corporation
• Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation

History

In Kansas City’s very earliest days, families came in covered wagons to make one last stop before entering the unknown Western wilderness. Entrepreneurship and innovation is at the very root of the KC culture.

The last century has seen major international brands emerge from this rich culture – Hallmark Cards, H&R Block, Garmin and American Century to name just a few.

In 1910, 18-year-old Joyce Clyde Hall, stepped off a train in Kansas City with two shoeboxes of postcards tucked under his arm. He had no money but enough determination and grit to start a business empire—which is exactly what he did. Hall sent packets of postcards to dealers throughout the area, and within a couple of months had $200 in his pocket. By 1915 was joined by brother Rollie, and the Hall Brothers began creating and printing their own high-quality Christmas and Valentine cards. In 1917, J.C. Hall continued to innovate by adding more product lines, inventing modern gift-wrap among other things. By the time the company name was officially changed to Hallmark Cards, Inc., in 1954, the tradition of entrepreneurship begun by J.C. Hall was deeply ingrained in nearly a century of product innovations.

A similar pioneer who took a different path to success was Ewing Marion Kauffman. Born on a farm in Garden City, Missouri, in 1916, Kauffman transformed a one-man operation in the basement of his Kansas City home into the pharmaceutical company Marion Laboratories. When he sold the company in 1989, it had nearly $1 billion in sales and more than 3,000 employees. Kauffman’s dream was to help others become economically independent, so he established the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to fostering entrepreneurship and education. The Kauffman Foundation has more than $2 billion in its coffers and gives about $90 million away each year, funding innovative entrepreneurship initiatives throughout the country as well as math and science programs for students in the Kansas City area.

Henry and Richard Bloch were born in Kansas City, the second and third sons of a prominent attorney. During Henry’s junior year at the University of Michigan, the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, and he enlisted in the Air Force. He eventually went to Harvard Business School to study for a military career. It was there the idea for his business was born. Henry found a copy of a professor’s speech that talked about small business being the backbone of the country and that the future would be in helping small businesses. The idea resonated with Henry Bloch, who was eager to realize his dream of providing accounting, temporary workers, collection, management services and even income tax preparation for small business. With a $5,000 loan from his aunt, the 24-year-old Henry rented a storeroom office for $50 a month. The United Business Company was open for business. Eventually, Richard became Henry’s partner, and the company began to focus on income tax preparation. By 1955, Henry and Richard replaced United Business Company with a new firm: H&R Block Inc. The company went public in 1962. In 1986, it tried a new approach to income tax preparation with electronic filing, which was an instant success. The trademarked Rapid Refund service is now synonymous with electronic filing.

The climate in the Kansas City area is ripe for those entrepreneurial pioneers who have a dream and the business acumen to realize it. From the early days of Hallmark, new business ideas have been encouraged and given a financial leg up by a community that is continually looking for business expansion and innovation. The city is not only on the lookout for new business ideas, but welcomes the unique, the inventive, and the innovative with open arms. There is no more welcoming place to realize your dream.