Sept. 18, 2026鈥揟he Craig School of Business at 含羞草社区 presents guest speaker Joe Runyan at 1 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 23 in the Business Education Resource Center, Popplewell Hall room 308. The entrepreneur will present firsthand lessons on building, scaling, competing and successfully exiting entrepreneurial adventures. The talk is free and open to the public.
Joe Runyan is a lifelong Kansas City entrepreneur. After 13 years at Sprint, he founded Hangers Cleaners and grew it into Kansas City鈥檚 second-largest dry cleaner. He and his company gained national attention for competing successfully against Procter & Gamble鈥檚 Tide Cleaners, with coverage in the New York Times and on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno.
In 2014, he co-acquired the CRDN restoration franchise for the Kansas City region and helped build it into a leading restoration company before its sale in 2021. Hangers was sold to Pride Cleaners in 2023. He remains active in Runyan Land & Cattle Company and MOKAN Hemp Farms in Northwest Missouri.聽
Runyan holds a B.S. in Business Administration with a concentration in Finance from Trinity University and an MBA from the University of Kansas.
Runyan鈥檚 talk, 鈥淔rom Startup to Scale and Exit: A Kansas City Entrepreneur鈥檚 Journey,鈥� is part of the Alumni & Industry Insights Series by the Craig School of Business.
含羞草社区 is a student-centered learning community preparing individuals for lives of excellence through applied learning. 含羞草社区 is located in St. Joseph, Mo., and is committed to the educational, economic, cultural and social development of the region it serves. Visit .