stLouISTSTL Tech Stars Shine at CoMo Startup Weekend
STL teammates claim first and second place in TechStars Startup Weekend, Columbia.
EQ
HireMe Rebrands to V15Able
New website and brand refresh looks to bring disabled jobseekers and employers together.
NGA Signs Data partnership Agreement with T-Rex
I think this has been on the wish list for a long time: a way for the NGA to work in the STL community without everyone else needing "security clearance."
St. Louis Startup Founder Finds Traction in Silicon Valley
2022 has gotten off to a flying start for St. Louis founder, Bash Jones, who joined SeedScout and headed West to meet investors and launch Homeplan, a personal home management platform.
TechSTL Responds to EQ’s Critique
In response to my recent opinion piece, in which I criticized TechSTL for claiming to be St. Louis’s “First Tech Council”, Founding Executive Director of TechSTL, Emily Breedlove, contacted me over the weekend and we arranged to meet in person. I thought it was brave of her to reach out as she could have just ignored […]
New St. Louis “Tech Council” Launches to Burn $475K Federal Grant on… Oh I Dunno, Probably a Job Board?
Strong opinion.
Jim McKelvey on What Invisibly Does to Reclaim Your Personal Data
If you've been wondering what Invisibly —St. Louis' most stealthy startup— actually does, here's an explanation from the fintech-meets-adtech startup founder, Jim McKelvey.
InsureTech Startup Wants Customers to Spend 5 Mins Buying Life Insurance (Not 5 Weeks)fin
Former RGA employees and co-founders of tech startup iCover, Nicole Mwesigwa and Hari Srinivasan, aim to cut down the time to buy life insurance from a few weeks to a few minutes. From blood tests to medical exams, circumventing the daunting steps required to purchasing life insurance, iCover utilizes predictive analytics to quote, underwrite and […]
Mission Control Founder, Byron Abrigg Shares Entrepreneur Journey
An entrepreneurship program at Saint Louis University and work experience at the SportsTech and e-sport venture capital firm, Stadia Ventures, struck a chord and became the motivation behind founding Mission Control says Byron Abrigg in an interview with VoyageSTL. Founded in 2017, Mission Control is a platform for growing the community using recreational e-sports with video […]
Arch Grants Startup Competition Increases Equity-Free Grant Funding Awards to $75,000
Arch Grants to Award $100,000 to Companies Relocating to St. Louis
David Karandish on Selling Answers.com for $950M
David Karandish is the co-founder and CEO of Capacity, an enterprise artificial intelligence SaaS company focused on helping teams do their best work. To date, the company has raised over $62 million from a Midwest network of private and angel investors. In January 2020, Capacity, announced an additional $27 million in Series C financing, closing […]
St. Louis Business Diversity Initiative Fellows Experience Accepting Applications
The Fellows program was founded in 2006. Since then, nearly 1,000 Fellows have completed the program, with 90% remaining in the metro. Through volunteer and civic activities, Fellows hone their skills, expand their relationships, and deepen their connection with the broader St. Louis community.
Diverse Business Accelerator Offers $5k Equity-Free Funding
Twelve-week program boosts business acumen of diverse entrepreneurs; provides participants with support, connections and $5,000 in non-dilutive capital.
Now in its fourth year, the Diverse Business Accelerator (DBA) has provided 36 portfolio companies 320 hours of programming and a total of $120,000 in funding.
Hire Henry Joins Internet of Things Accelerator
Struggling to find young people willing to sit on a riding lawn mower for 10 hours a day in the hot sun? No problem, Henry is here for hire.
Harris-Stowe U Launches E3 Black Business Incubator Program Powered by PNC Bank
In a collaboration between Harris-Stowe State University and the PNC Bank, E3 is a newly launched program focused on closing the funding gap for Black business founders in St. Louis. PNC is providing the university with a 3-year $450,000 grant as part of a $88 billion community benefit and economic empowerment plan by the Bank […]
5 Pet Tech Startups Win $10k Each
Five startups have been selected from the Pet Care Care Innovation Prize to receive a $10,000 in investment and the ability to participate in a virtual accelerator boot camp that includes mentorship from Nestle Purina PetCare. Nathan Rubbelke on STL Inno has the winners list: Bright Planet Pet, a plant-based dog treat manufacturer uPetsia, a […]
St. Louis Unicorns Are Unicorns No Longer
St. Louis’ startup economy was booming in September last year with Nerdy and Benson Hill both reaching incredible billion dollar valuations ($1.7 billion and $1.35 billion respectively) and being taken to IPO via a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC). However, the two St. Louis startups have seen their share value drop more than half (58 […]
Arch Grants Awards $400,000 in Four Startup Growth Grants
In 2021 Arch Grants awarded a total of $600,000 in "Growth Grants" to startups who had previously relocated to St. Louis startups, seen success and re-committed to building here for another two years.
Platform Co-ops Offer Startups Viable Funding Alternatives to Investor Control
I was extremely lucky to (VIDEO) chat about platform co-ops with Nathan Schneider, Assistant Professor at University of Colorado Boulder.
Nathan is the Author of Everything for Everyone: The Radical Tradition that Is Shaping the Next Economy and Co-editor of Ours to Hack and to Own: The Rise of Platform Cooperativism, a New Vision for the Future of Work and a Fairer Internet.
The interview was conducted on the 25th October 2021 and was originally intended to be just recorded for notes of our conversation "on background" while I was researching a student (Mizzou) journalism assignment into Broadband Co-ops.
That original story got abandoned but this conversation was so interesting, Nathan kindly gave me permission to convert our call into an audio episode and publish on EQ.
The interview has been edited for clarity.
We discuss lots of interesting stuff, from topics such as new legislation passed in 2021 that improves crowdfunding options for startups and what it's like to run a platform co-op, to how blockchain innovation overlaps with the cooperative mission to create stakeholder led companies.
GiftAMeal Gift Guide Lists St. Louis Stores Shipping Nationally
According to this list from GiftAMeal, businesses such as the Tower Grove Creamery, Reconstruction Coffee, Pappy’s Smokehouse and La Nouveau Macaron of St. Louis are all shipping nationally, so you can literally gift a meal while GiftAMeal-ing.