Kansas City's World Cup small business efforts forged bonds between founders 74%
By Tommy Felts83%
7/19/2026, 9:00:00 AM
BS Summary: This article contains 24 faulty reasoning types, including Anecdotal, In-Group Bias, and Appeal to Emotion, with Optimism Bias as the most egregious example at 30.8% saturation with 342 hits. Analysis detected 2,070 faulty-reasoning hits from 1,110 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 66.6% and a BS Rank of 74% (4,990 of 18,600 articles). This article is worse (more manipulative) than 73.20% of the article peer group.
Business owners backed by the City of Entrepreneurs initiative are getting more than they bargained for, said Jackie Nguyen, describing the scene during the FIFA World Cup when she looked around Union Station and found herself surrounded by a freshly connected sisterhood — a family — of entrepreneurs.
“This has been a moment of our businesses embracing the challenge at hand and stepping up to the plate,” said Nguyen, board member for Hella Good Deeds, which is among about 20 organizations and businesses in the City of Entrepreneurs’ inaugural Open Doors!
cohort.
“And for the people who are thriving the most, it’s because we did it together.”
In addition to organizing a high-profile, five-week marketplace inside Union Station that saw more than 120,000 visitors, City of Entrepreneurs’ Open Doors!
program also is proving a success, she said, pointing to unexpected collaboration opportunities with fellow cohort members and other entrepreneurs.
Like Hella Good Deeds — a nonprofit led by Béty Lê Shackelford that offers support services to Kansas City’s Asian community and business owners — other Open Doors!
recipients earned short-term leases (three to six months), working capital grants to support build-out and operations, and technical assistance in legal, marketing, finance, access to capital and business development.
Tapping into like-minded human capital wasn’t as obvious, said Nguyen, who also is founder of Cafe Cà Phê, Kansas City’s first Vietnamese coffee shop.
The program helped open a line of communication between her and Paige Beltowski, owner of Cut & Sew Production KC (another Open Doors!
cohort member), who reached out to Nguyen with an idea.
Beltowski wanted to use Cafe Cà Phê’s just-released soccer jerseys to create reworked fashion pieces that would offer female fans more options for attending World Cup games and watch parties.
(The seamstress’ custom work already was on display thanks to reworked REP URS jerseys she’d crafted in partnership with City of Entrepreneurs.)
Within 36 hours, Nguyen said, the duo was wrapping up a photoshoot with live models outside Union Station.
The effort immediately became a viral collaborative marketing piece for both businesses.
“It all came together really quickly,” she said.
“It felt like a really amazing opportunity to work together, amplify each other’s businesses, help our communities — all through the lens of fashion and design.”
The flurry of activity also showcased the crossover of founders — like those at EZ Pedicabs — involved in City of Entrepreneurs, the REP URS campaign, and Nguyen’s own network.
“People talk a lot about serendipity.
And this is a serendipitous collaboration, but none of these intersections would be happening without us having a common force or common language behind us,” she said.
“It might seem like we’re just throwing together a fun little art project, but it’s bigger than that.”
Beltowski echoed gratitude for City of Entrepreneurs’ placemaking through Open Doors!
and other World Cup initiatives.
“My background is mostly in events, live entertainment on TV, and in film, but seeing the World Cup bring all of these small businesses together — especially women-owned and minority owned businesses — building a place to connect and find each other is amazing,” she said.
“Sometimes we’re just so busy, and it can be hard to just link up.”
“Jackie and I are both agile and ready to do the work,” Beltowski continued.
“We’re really happy to have a platform to show our work and what we’ve been working toward for a long time.
When the world is watching, we’re ready to show up.”
Click here to see more about the collaboration between Cafe Cà Phê and Cut & Sew.
“It’s a cool fusion of cultures, but I want to emphasize: this is what happens when the city shows up for us,” said Nguyen.
Evaluating impact
While work within the Open Doors!
program is expected to extend throughout the year, organizers behind City of Entrepreneurs already are evaluating the impact of the Union Station marketplace, said Nia Webster.
“The goal is to prepare for future major events in our city,” she continued.
“We’re taking lessons from NFL Draft and now the FIFA World Cup to build the programs and maybe even the policies that can help change the landscape for all businesses in our city — entrepreneurs who are either birthed here or expanding here.”
City of Entrepreneurs — led through a partnership between Kansas City, Missouri, and the Economic Development Corporation of Kansas City (EDCKC) — was created to help founders build and grow businesses across Kansas City, said Webster, who serves as assistant director of the neighborhood services department for the city of Kansas City, Missouri.
For Strickland, an Open Doors!
committee member, a major marketplace highlight was seeing diverse Kansas City businesses gathered in one hub, ranging from veteran-owned businesses to emerging startups, she said.
The subsequent collisions sparked collaborations and a renewed feeling of community, vendors told Startland News.
A few booths away, Keisha Jordan said she quickly realized that the marketplace wasn’t about competing with other small business owners in the space.
“Complex Flavors does not have a huge following here in Kansas City, but that’s OK,” she said of her design studio which focuses on creative wallpaper and decor.
“This experience has helped give us the exposure that we need.
People had the opportunity to come to our booth and touch and experience our wallpaper samples.
They were really amazed by the colors and vibrancy.”
“They also had a chance to be introduced to our new collection, the Sanctuary,” she continued.
“They saw our pillows, our mugs, and most importantly our incense line.
But the biggest takeaway was the number of entrepreneurs who worked really hard, who showed up and showed out.”
Jordan most notably was surprised by the concentration of Black women business owners showcased at the marketplace, she said.
“I just couldn’t believe how many sisters were out there,” Jordan said.
“And speaking of sisterhood, the community we built in a short amount of time, the way we got to know each other, our products, our businesses, the love and greetings that we gave each other every morning we opened up, and even the goodbyes … We all were rooting for each other and wanted each other to grow.”
It’s a spirit of cooperation she wants to see continue alongside City of Entrepreneurs.
“I hope and pray that we just walk in the same mindset and the same victory,” Jordan said.
“I want Kansas City to continue supporting small businesses because we are the backbone of this community.”
This story was originally published by Startland News, a fellow member of the KC Media Collective.
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