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BizJournal 💲📰

A historic Hill favorite is under new ownership

1 year 2 months ago
A restaurant that claims to be the historic Hill neighborhood's oldest in operation is under new ownership, the restaurant said in a press release Monday afternoon. Rigazzi's, which first opened in 1957, was purchased by Corey Christanell and Donn Ganim. Christanell previously spent 20 years at Anheuser-Busch, including as a senior adviser to the CEO, and is currently the CEO of St. Louis cannabis brewing company Monarch Supply Co., according to his LinkedIn profile. Ganim is an owner of several…
Hunter Bassler

Records show Dean Plocher charged the state for travel already paid for by his campaign

1 year 2 months ago
Weeks after his return from a conference in Hawaii, Missouri House Speaker Dean Plocher was trying to convince legislative staff to reimburse him for the cost of his trip. He’d filed an expense report that included $1,199.60 for a plane ticket to represent Missouri at the 2023 Uniform Law Commission conference, but he was informed he’d missed his window. The ticket was purchased in January, and it was already August — well outside the 90-day timeframe laid out in House rules to file for reimbursement. Plocher…
Jason Hancock

Hawley, Kunce draw heavily on donors outside Missouri to fuel U.S. Senate campaigns

1 year 2 months ago
U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley and Democrat Lucas Kunce have something big in common – their campaigns are heavily dependent on money from outside Missouri. Hawley, a Missouri Republican incumbent seeking his second term, and Kunce, who narrowly lost the state's 2022 Democratic primary for Senate, are the best-funded candidates in the race according to campaign finance reports filed last week. With a little over a year to go before the election, Hawley, a Republican elected in 2018, has amassed a bank…
Rudi Keller

National entrepreneurship group Venture For America bringing annual event to St. Louis

1 year 2 months ago
Detroit-based Venture For America (VFA) announced this week it has partnered with local nonprofit startup funder Arch Grants and business group Greater St. Louis Inc. to host its alumni reunion here in 2024. It said the event will provide its past fellows an opportunity to “network with subject matter experts, probe the local startup landscape, and foster meaningful connections.”
Nathan Rubbelke

As Series A funding dries up, startups must shift focus from growth to profit

1 year 2 months ago
Early-stage startups have more competition than in previous years for Series A rounds as venture capital firms focus on more mature companies with established profitability potential. As funding dries up for Series A rounds, some startups who might have quickly soared through the round in past years are instead remaining at the seed stage to build more capital, giving their business more time to reach peak revenue growth. To keep VC investors interested in your company, even more effort will need…
Dave Finklang

Illinois gun laws, scholarship tax credits, nuclear energy – but not new spending – on table for veto session

1 year 2 months ago
When Illinois lawmakers return to the Capitol next week for their annual fall veto session, they have a full agenda, including a handful of vetoes from Gov. J.B. Pritzker to consider overriding, in addition to deciding whether to revive a private school scholarship program. But additional state spending is unlikely to be on their agenda, according to recent comments from both the governor and House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch. The prospect of a supplemental spending plan had been floated…
Jerry Nowicki, Peter Hancock, Hannah Meisel and Andrew Adams

'We need to get focused on the big thing now': David Hoffmann plans to 'stop all these little projects' in Augusta, focus on hotel

1 year 2 months ago
Tackling projects through its Naples, Florida-based Hoffmann Family of Companies, the Hoffmann family in 2021 announced its plans to transform Augusta, Missouri, into a national wine destination, later upping its investment to $150 million. “We’ve gotten all the aesthetics done,” David Hoffmann said of the current state of Augusta, in a recent interview. "But we need to get focused on the big thing now, and that’s the hotel.”
Connor Hart