\u201cWe consider ourselves competition. What if we just worked together? \u2026 We have so many silos. And I feel charged to bring them all together.\u201d<\/p>\n
Powell swings the sledgehammer on such barriers by leading local initiatives that include Back2KC<\/a> and New2KC<\/a> \u2014 in addition to numerous other community building efforts through Social Balances, her consultancy \u2014 and working on such national efforts as Right to Start<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n RELATED: Missouri Starters Coalition debuts effort to boost homegrown jobs, future founders<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cPeople like doing business with people they like, know, and trust,\u201d she explained, sharing highlights from her personal mission statement.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI win when you win. I genuinely want other people to see and believe that.\u201d<\/p>\n Born and raised in Kansas City, Powell didn\u2019t grow up thinking entrepreneurship was an option for her. It wasn\u2019t taught in school at Shawnee Mission East, she said, and it certainly wasn\u2019t talked about as a career option around the dinner table.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I graduated in 2000, my vision was to be a good wife and mother and live the American dream,\u201d she said, recalling her focus as she headed off to the University of Kansas and her early career \u2014\u00a0or lack thereof.<\/p>\n \u201cI wasn\u2019t good at keeping a job. I was kind of a disruptor. I asked \u2018why\u2019 too much.\u201d<\/p>\n At odds with the job market, Powell noticed her friend was founding a startup in Chicago, so she reached out and asked if she could join his team as an executive assistant. He laughed at her request and made her COO, she recalled.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI didn\u2019t even know what a founder was,\u201d Powell said with a laugh.\u00a0<\/p>\n She lent her sales, marketing, and operational talents to the company and its expansion offices in Austin and Denver for several years before being challenged to invest in her hometown ecosystem and its worth by Darcy Howe, founder and managing director of KCRiseFund.\u00a0<\/p>\n All in for Kansas City, she did just that, she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Click here<\/a> to read more about Powell and the most recent showing of Back2KC.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cNow that I know I can have anything I want if I go create it for myself,\u00a0I want to help everyone else to have that too.\u201d<\/p>\n Powell shared more about her belief in Kansas City, its talent pipeline, and all-around good humans, with Startland as part of the return of its long-running KCultivator Q&A series.\u00a0<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/2KC-Logo-Flagship-Facion-300x300.png\"){kind=logo}
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