Company Profile: RoverTown
RoverTown is one of the ventures to watch: scaling rapidly and getting great traction. Follow the link below to see the RoverTown video.
 | | ITEN Company Profile RoverTown SD |
|
StartupDigest
The personalized insider newsletter for all things startup in our area.
Subscribe to the free weekly St. Louis edition of Startup Digest. With the ever-growing array of startup activities in St. Louis, it's hard to know which to attend. Startup Digest can help. We curate the events and point you to the best ones for the week ahead.
|
We Need Your Data
It is that time of the year again. ITEN is collecting data from our ventures for the 2014 St. Louis Tech Startup Report. Completion of the survey will ensure that ITEN has the most up to date data to consider YOUR venture for the ITEN TOP TEN and ITEN FAST TEN lists. Here's the link to last year's report.
We would really appreciate it if you complete the survey (sent via email by Linh). We promise it will not take more than 10 minutes.
If you are an ITEN company, click here to take the survey:
https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/36T7NXG
|
ITEN Companies Have Strong Showing at 2014 Startup Connection
Approximately 20 ITEN companies were selected to be a part of the Venture Showcase at this year's Startup Connection and 6 of them went home with prizes. Two of the companies won Startup Challenge Bright Future Entrepreneurial Inclusion Awards in addition to their Startup Connection prizes.
Better Weekdays was selected the outstanding minority-owned venture as well as received $4,000 in legal services from Polsinelli. HIPAAtrek was selected the outstanding woman-owned venture and also won $1,250 in in-kind services from CreatiVenture Law. PFITR was one of two companies selected by Cultivation Capital to receive a $1000 award. Gremln was awarded a $1,250 in-kind prize from Color Art. Barrelfish received a $2,000 in-kind prize from CIC-St. Louis and TAKO received a $7,500 in-kind prize from iSelectFund.
Over 1200 people attended the event held this year at Saint Louis University's Busch Student Center. ITEN was excited to be an organizing sponsor of such a successful event for the St. Louis innovation community, and proud of all the ITEN companies that were recognized for their hard work!
|
Welcome: New Companies Join ITEN
Tiosa Diagnosis and treatment of Obstructive Sleep Apnea through a telehealth business model - with a focus on CPAP alternative treatment (OAT and EPAP treatment solution).
NoQueSolutions Hyper Local platform that revolves around Supermarkets and lures local residences to join it by providing a better shopping experience using a que elimination technology.
Formality tuxedo rental
Sitting Duck Advertising Indoor advertising
HoodBuddies Social networking website for finding activity partners, forming clubs, and sharing charitable causes.
|
Featured Company: MeterGenius
MeterGenius changes the way people think about electricity. That's not easy - the average person spends less than 10 minutes a year thinking about this essential part of their lives. But MeterGenius makes it pay to be a smart energy consumer. We reward users for lowering their energy usage and provide tools to make it easy and fun to do so. A MeterGenius user can automatically control their thermostat from the MeterGenius app or opt in for tips to become more energy efficient.
Along with slashing high electricity bills, MeterGenius also improves low customer retention rates for competitive electricity suppliers. In Illinois, Texas, and 15 other states, customers choose which electricity supplier powers their home. These companies face fierce competition and attrition rates as high as 50%. Our first pilot in February-with 3,000 customers in Texas-immediately reversed this slide by increasing retention by 27 percent and reducing electricity usage by 6 percent. Now, MeterGenius is preparing to launch its first paid pilot with one of the largest electricity providers in the country.
Founded by a team of Northwestern graduate students, MeterGenius won a $50,000 Arch Grant and moved its headquarters to St. Louis in August. MeterGenius also won the Illinois Clean Energy Challenge, and was a finalist in the Midwest Clean Energy Challenge, Steve Case's Rise of the Rest Competition, and MIT's Clean Energy Prize. MeterGenius has worked closely with and benefited greatly from ITEN's Entrepreneur in Residence, Bryan Garcia. MeterGenius is committed to building their clean energy startup in St. Louis, and will continue to leverage ITEN and the St. Louis startup community for support as they grow this innovative business.
|
|
|
Four Graduates from Mock Angel Program
ITEN is very happy to announce that four more great ventures have graduated from our Mock Angel program. Space Sculpt, Barrel Fish, Xooker and Eateria have all completed the very challenging program and are now following up with investors to scale their businesses to the next level. The Mock Angel program helps companies create a compelling investor presentation, prepare for investor due diligence, and then introduces them to investors who are interested in ITEN's graduates. A selected group of mentors, the EIR team, and the Due Diligence team led by new CFO in Residence Michelle Murray all combine to create a program that delivers great value to the companies that participate.
 Space Sculpt, a graduate of Capital Innovators, is led by founder and CEO Brian Wideman. It's an online platform that connects talented designers and architects with property owners seeking creative and affordable design solutions.
 BarrelFish is a predictive outbound lead generation SaaS platform that uses proprietary data science algorithms and big data analytics to convert prospects into quality leads. Barrel Fish's team is lead by co-founder and CEO Paul Burkemper.
 Xooker's CEO is Tom Nickell. Xooker employs rewards and games to provide real-time, mobile, location-based consumer engagement, driving customer acquisition and loyalty.
Eateria is a SaaS digital loyalty marketing and tracking  platform designed specifically for the restaurant, food, and hospitality industries. Founder and CEO Ola Ayeni brought the company to St. Louis for an Arch Grant and has also opened Claim, a co-working space for startups downtown.
TEN has now graduated 11 companies this year, and 36 since our first graduate, Yurbuds, in late 2008. See the full list of all Mock Angel graduates at http://itenstl.org/mock-angel-program-graduates/#
Companies wishing to participate in the Mock Angel program are encouraged to apply for and complete the Business Model Validation program before entering Mock Angels.
|
Minder of the Money
 | | Michelle E. Murray, CPA, CFOiR |
by Michelle E. Murray, CPA
I am so thrilled to be able to contribute to the ITEN membership as the new CFO In Residence (CFOiR). I have spent over 20 years working with entrepreneurs in a variety of industries and am looking forward to sharing my insight. When I am not working with ITEN, I am managing my own financial consulting firm, Segue Partners. As the new CFOiR I have a few high priority responsibilities, as follow:
1) "Quarterback" the due diligence process for the companies in the Mock Angel program,
2) Coordinate the Service Provider sponsor organizations to ensure they are being fully utilized by the ITEN member companies,
3) Identify mentors and resources that can provide additional financial and accounting assistance to the company's long-term; and
4) Assist the companies alongside the EIRs with the following:
- Structuring equity and debt financings;
- Developing financial forecasts and financial statements;
- Due diligence;
- Capitalization tables;
If you are an ITEN member company, please know that I am holding office hours every Monday at the TREX co-working space on the 5th floor from 8:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. If you'd like to meet with me to discuss these financial aspects of your business, please schedule a meeting with me through my online calendar and book here:
My Monday office hour meetings to date have included a brief discussion of the company and its goals and some idea sharing as to different ways to go about fundraising, assistance with identifying assumptions for financial forecasts, and introductions to other resources in the community. We both come away with a "to do list" and then we re-connect at our next meeting in a month or so. Here's what one company that I recently met with had to say "Michelle was able to understand my business and provided some very valuable advice all in a short period of time. She will not only be a great asset for ITEN members but also to the general St Louis startup ecosystem as well." Mark Neville, Founder of FINVR.
I can be reached at [email protected] . I look forward to working with you!
|
ITEN 2nd Thursday Sets a New Attendance Record at Venture Cafe
 | | ITEN 2nd Thursday 11/15/14 Speaker Series Part 1 |
On November 13th, ITEN's unique monthly education and networking event kicked off the first event at its new home at Venture Caf� in the Cambridge Innovation Center @4240 Duncan avenue in the Cortex district. 300 attendees packed the Venture Caf� making it the most attended Venture Caf� event so far.
"The energy and excitement started right at 3pm and really continued all night until Venture Caf� closed up at 8pm," noted ITEN's Director of Operations, Francis Chmelir. "This was a really strong turnout of people and a terrific way to break in the new home of 2nd Thursday."
ITEN packed some great programming into the evening's agenda. Our guest speaker was Ryan Bell, Co-Founder and CEO of Gremln. Ryan gave a tremendous talk on his experiences as a startup CEO. His entrepreneurial journey, full of pivots and perseverance, was an excellent tutorial on what it takes to grow a tech startup company in St. Louis. You can view the video here above.
In addition to Ryan, several entrepreneurs were able to take advantage of ITEN mentor Office Hours during the 2nd Thursday event. Michelle Murray, ITEN's CFO-Entrepreneur In Residence and ITEN mentor and patent agent Dan Klotzer each met with and counseled entrepreneurs at 2nd Thursday. The meetings were truly valuable work sessions and set the framework for some possible follow-up after the event. In terms of the quality of the discussions, Dan Klotzer commented that: "The 'Office Hours' format led to exceptionally stimulating exchanges, in contrast to hyper-simplistic elevator pitching or dubiously encyclopedic speculating in a proto-startup's multi-year business plan forecast. The 20 minute discussion windows prompted a productive balance between communication focus and depth, by allowing substantive analysis and feedback, as well as targeted follow-up questions and responses."
Jing Stiffler, ITEN's Manager of Information Systems, also led a discussion on finding talent for startup tech companies. More than one dozen people packed a conference room to discuss the challenges of finding the right talent for early stage companies in our region. ITEN has kick-started an exciting new internship placement program. Check it out on our website. Stay tuned for more details regarding the program.
Make plans to join us each and every 2nd Thursday for a great night of networking and engagement with the innovation community! You can find the agenda for our December 11th event here: http://itenstl.org/network/events/#.
|
|
|
|
|
