Kansas has nearly 200 tech startups, but hurdles abound

By

State News

January 16, 2020 - 10:20 AM

Olathe students learn computer programming in a high school class last spring. Tech companies employ tens of thousands of people in the region, but advocates see room for growth. CELIA LLOPIS-JEPSEN / KANSAS NEWS SERVICE

KANSAS CITY, MO. ? Time was, a fledgling tech company called CivicPlus had to explain to prospective customers why it was based in Kansas ? and not some tech-heavy coastal city.

?We said, ?Hey, you get Midwest values, but with Silicon Valley quality,?? recalled Ward Morgan, owner of the government software maker based in the college town of Manhattan. ?It did throw people off to think that there was a tech company in Kansas.?

Today CivicPlus, founded in the 1990s, serves 3,500 cities and counties on two continents.

Investors see fertile ground in Kansas and Kansas City for more tech startups to take root. Far more have already done so than the public might realize, former Google vice president Brian McClendon says, yet the region falls short of its potential.

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