When Joelsette Hernandez-Jones started her IT and engineering staffing firm Pharos Partners in 2014, it was following a decade in IT consultation across several large corporations in Kansas City. “I wanted to have more control over my career, and to do that I needed to start my own company,” she said. “Given my experiences as a consultant, I decided to go out and start my own staffing firm.” Hernandez-Jones has…

Brenda Craig’s entrepreneurial journey has been one defined by adaptation. Before starting Craig Safety Technologies in 1998, she had been a teacher, a flight attendant and a hotel manager. She also spent more than 10 years in the food distribution business, serving on the board of directors at her father’s company. In 1997, Craig started selling CD-ROMs with instructions for OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) compliance — but few…

It didn’t feel like it then, but getting fired was one of the best things to ever happen to Joe Vazquez. Losing his job as an accountant led the Kansas City entrepreneur to found Vazquez Commercial Contracting, one of the city’s fastest-growing construction firms — one that can tackle everything from stormwater projects to demolitions to historical restorations. The Midtown-based company was on pace to end 2018 with about $40…

When he started Tallgrass Freight Co., Damon Anderson had a couple goals. He wanted to run his own small freight brokerage from his farmhouse in Leavenworth. And he wanted to give his clients outstanding service, the way he saw fit. It didn’t work out exactly like he planned, but the journey’s still been pretty amazing. Six years after it launched, Tallgrass Freight Co. is one of America’s fastest-growing private companies,…