Speaking Startup: Big aspirations in small Missouri towns

Today's Speaking Startup podcast takes us to a pair of rural Missouri towns for stories of how early-stage businesses affect smaller communities. The first stop, Hamilton, in northwest Missouri, once was best known as the childhood home of James Cash "J.C." Penney, founder of the retail chain that still bears his name. Today, it's the birthplace of another business empire — the Missouri Star Quilt company, which has boosted the town's tourism business with its rapid growth over the last decade. Then we turn our attention to Jonesburg, a town of about 800 that will house one of the state's 60 licensed medical marijuana cultivation facilities. We visited Jonesburg — and talked to residents of a similarly sized city in Colorado — to get a sense of what the new industry might mean to a town of its size.