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AudioAnywhere CEO Wins PIPELINE Innovator Award


PIPELINE names first regional class of entrepreneurs.

Kyle Johnson, the CEO of AudioAnywhere, was named the 2011 PIPELINE Innovator of the Year during an awards dinner Jan. 26 at the Overland Park Sheraton.

The PIPELINE program provides a yearlong “immersion experience” for entrepreneurs, offering them mentoring, training, networking and other resources so they can achieve high growth more quickly. It was created in 2007 by the now-defunct Kansas Technology Enterprise Corporation, but became a separate 501(c)3 organization in 2010.

AudioAnywhere, which is based in Lawrence, has developed an advertising platform that promises to be “the Google AdWords for Internet radio,” PIPELINE said.

During the dinner, PIPELINE also released the names of its 2012 class of entrepreneurs. Because PIPELINE is becoming a regional organization, that means businesses from Missouri and Nebraska are part of the mix now, too.

The 2012 class includes:

  • Mark Allen, Wichita (Enertech)
  • Pierre Barbeau, Kansas City (Moblico)
  • Nathan Benjamin, Kansas City (InvenQuery/Planet Reuse)
  • John Carpenter, Omaha (BastLab LLC)
  • Miranda Coggins, Kansas City (The Lano Co.)
  • Justin Graves, Kansas City (Infegy)
  • Blake Lawrence, Lincoln (Hurrdat Social Media)
  • Matthew MacEwan, St. Louis (NanoMed LLC/Retectix LLC)
  • Ben Pankonin, Lincoln (Social Assurance)
  • Brandon Shuey, Wichita (FlipHound.com)
  • Xandra Sifuentes, Olathe (Metactive Medical LLC)
  • Ben Vu, Omaha (SkyVu Entertainment)

PIPELINE Entrepreneurial Leadership Awards were presented to the organization’s regional founders:  Peter and Kate Brown (Grassmere Foundation); the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, PIPELINE alumni and a Nebraska coalition of funders, including the University of Nebraska, Paul Hogan (Home Instead), Scott Technology Center, Rod Markin (Prairie Ventures), David Milligan (Advent) and the Jim and Karen Linder Foundation.

Nate Gregory of MoJack (Wichita) received the PIPELINE Innovator Growth Award while Toby Rush of Eyeverify (Lenexa) won the PIPELINE Innovator Leadership Award.




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