BizJournal 💲📰

Opportunities to secure government contracts were first authorized by the Small Business Act of 1953, in turn leading to the development of the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) to counsel small businesses and ensure that smaller firms receive an equitable share of federal contracts. The government has also invested significant funding to help grow the local business ecosystem and set forth several ways to help small businesses reap the full benefits of the Small Business Act. The history…

You’ve heard of minority-owned businesses, veteran-owned businesses and women-owned businesses, but you aren’t sure whether you should “get certified.” How do you decide if certification is right for your business? Which certification do you pursue? How long does the certification process take? Here are five things to consider if you are thinking about pursuing a certification — whether an MBE, WBE, DBE or other designation. Who is your target customer? As attorneys who counsel businesses…

This year we celebrate the fifth anniversary of 39 North, our 600-acre innovation district located in the heart of agriculture. Anchored by the Danforth Center, BRDG Park, the Helix Center Incubator, Bayer Crop Science, Benson Hill and the Yield Lab accelerator, 39 North sits at the center of it all: agriculture, bioscience, big data, geospatial technology and logistics. Since its inception in 2017, 39 North has experienced significant growth. St. Louis is home to over 1,000 plant science PhDs and…

The crowdfunding entity, Nvsted, said Thursday its leadership has chosen to “pause” operations and that its fundraising platform “will no longer be publicly accessible” by the end July.

A developer is moving ahead on a $24 million plan to turn a former tobacco company building into apartments, after a previous plan to redevelop the space into offices fell through due to the pandemic.

This week's entry in our Advance STL project, which explores the region's biggest challenges, might also be the most compelling. It offers insightful tales of the immigrant experience from people who are having a lasting impact on the St. Louis business community. But it also shines a spotlight on how, despite those successes, we still lag our peers when it comes to attracting the foreign-born and other critical demographics.

St. Louis, long a slow-growing metro, has plans to boost its immigrant population — a strategy that prevented more decline from 2010 to 2019. But, to a large extent, it's constrained by the long-standing controversy over the U.S. immigration system.

A subsidiary launched earlier this year by the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center to create startups from its campus has established its first company. Peptyde Bio is focused on developing natural fungicides that can protect crops from disease.

Of the 12 St. Louis-area restaurants recognized for their wine lists, only two were newcomers to the honor.

Zbigniew and Agnes Matukin didn’t plan to start a business when they immigrated from Poland to the United States. Now they've built their company and related business entities to about 130 employees with annual revenue of $20 million.

Karthik Raghavan came to the U.S. as part of a joint master’s program. The St. Louisan now runs a growing pharmaceutical manufacturing company, which in 2017 got FDA approval for a dog medicine. It's now seeking approval of a human drug to boost operations further.

Ajla Zigic came to St. Louis in 1995 as a refugee, and saw her parents work hard to build a better life. It's why she's devoted her career to access to capital, being part of a team distributing $200 million in low and moderate-income areas.

Brian Barlay, an immigrant from Sierra Leone, runs a consulting business with an emphasis on helping immigrants acclimate to the St. Louis area and American culture. He wants more to come here, reasoning that they're “driven and entrepreneurial.”

The CEO of Greater St. Louis Inc., a native of the Metro East town, called the plan by U.S. Steel to sell the plant in a move that would result in around 1,000 layoffs "personal" and highlights the importance of attracting advanced manufacturing to the region.

The advocate for transgender rights says some minds are hard to change, but more people are willing to listen.

After shuttering its first location six months ago, this ice cream shop owner is starting fresh in The Grove. This time, she's also focusing on improving her wholesale business in the new, larger space.

Instead of 106,000, St. Louis should have as many as 300,000 to 500,000 Latinos and Hispanics, based on demographic trends across the nation and within other large metro areas. Boosting those figures could aid the slow-growing region, which is poised to get overtaken by places that already count more of the residents.

A city board granted preliminary approval of incentives to a developer planning an ambitious $200 million mixed-use redevelopment in Downtown West that would build a 29-story apartment tower, office and retail on underused sites near the new soccer stadium.

The decision follows the golfers' choice to join LIV Golf, a new professional league that is rivaling the Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida-based PGA Tour and that has been criticized for its financial backing from Saudi Arabia.

The department's new leader has been with the firm since 2005.