StartupDigest 

The personalized insider newsletter for all things startup in our area.

The St. Louis Startup Scene in 2013

 Brian Feldt

1MC Retrospective

In February of this year, ITEN brought one of the Kauffman Foundation's newest initiatives for entrepreneurs to St. Louis-the 1 Million Cups program. 1 Million Cups (1MC) is a simple way to engage entrepreneurs in communities around the world. Each week, the 1MC program offers one or two local entrepreneurs an opportunity to present their startup to a diverse audience of mentors, advisors, entrepreneurs and interested public. Presenters prepare a short presentation and engage in 20-30 minutes of feedback and questioning after they present. Entrepreneurs gain insight into possible ways they can improve their businesses, gather realtime feedback, connect with a community that truly cares about their progress, and walk away feeling like they have advanced their business. The audience also learns a great deal from the presentations.

At the time it started here in town, St. Louis was the 4th city to host a weekly 1MC gathering.  Now the program exists in 20 cities across the country.  Here in St. Louis over 50 startups have presented at our local 1MC weekly events.  Presenting companies have found talent, made business connections and honed their presentation skills.  The discussions have been lively and fruitful for everyone involved. 

Earlier this year a group of entrepreneurs stepped forward to become the facilitators of the program here in St. Louis.  Paul Heirendt, Aaron Mottern and Paul Hermanson work to book companies, filter presentations and foster the discussion each week for 1MC in St. Louis.  Their help has been tremendous in reaching out to their networks and beyond for companies each week.

Since its inception here in town, 1MC St. Louis has enjoyed a partnership with the Nine Network in Midtown.  The Nine Network has provided a physical home for 1MC as well as providing the essential coffee.  One unique advantage of this collaboration has been the fact that the Nine Network has filmed, livestreamed and archived all the presentations since the first one in February.  You can see them at ninenet.org/1mc

We look forward to even more activity in 2014!

 Featured Company:

Gremln     The adoption of Facebook, Twitter, and other social media by businesses is nothing new, but did you know that there are entire industries that have barely put their toes in the social media waters because they are afraid?  The real-time nature of social media brings with it unique risks that make regulated industries, such as financial services and healthcare, sit on the sidelines.  Recently though, this has begun to change. 83% of consumers say it's important to read user generated content before making decisions on financial services. 44% of millennials will not purchase insurance without reading other'

GREMLN is secure social media software for social media risk mitigation. Think of them as a social media marketing and analysis suite wrapped in a security layer to maintain compliance with communications guidelines set by the SEC, FINRA, FFIEC, the FDA, and many others.  This is done by providing message workflow that prevents any messages from going live without going through the appropriate review process.  Filtration tools enable companies to prevent certain words, phrases, and abstract concepts, such as stock tips, from being posted.   Additional tools include message archiving and automatic insertion of disclosure statements based on message content.  These tools, combined with a full marketing and engagement suite, remove roadblocks to social media participation, and provide the tools these companies need to be successful in social media.

With over 150,000 registered users, GREMLN is well on its way to being a significant market player in secure social media tools.  They were recently endorsed by the New York Bankers Association as the exclusive social solution for the banks in that state.  See what The North Face clothing company and the Missouri Bankers Association call "essential to any business with a social media presence."  Check them out today at http://GREMLN.com. 

2014 Startup Report Coming Soon

In April, ITEN published our first ever St. Louis Startup Report, highlighting the history, growth, and outlook for tech industry startups in the St. Louis region. The report was an instant hit, gaining both local and regional attention. 

Here are some of the results and metrics that indicate the progress that our ventures have made and the impact ITEN is having on our community. These statistics are current as of the end of October, 2013:

• 298 tech startup ventures are actively involved with ITEN, receiving mentor assistance, enrolled in our programs and attending events.
• ITEN has interacted with a total of 450 start-up tech ventures in our region since the inception of ITEN in April 2008.
• 71 Volunteer Mentors are engaged and working with our startups 1-on-1 and via our acceleration programs.
• A total of 25 ventures have graduated from our Mock Angel Training, preparing them for investor consideration. The complete list can be seen at https://www.itenstl.org/programs/for-investors/mock-angel-graduates.
• ITEN companies have received over $91 M in outside funding to date. Of that total, $50M has been invested into our Mock Angel graduate companies.
• The combined monthly revenue run rate of ITEN ventures is $5.5M.
• Our ventures have created over 850 net new full time employment positions
• There are 75 investors or investor groups that are directly affiliated with ITEN

ITEN will continue to publish the St. Louis Startup Report every year.  As the end of 2013 is approaching, we will be calling on all ITEN registered companies to complete our year-end survey. The survey data will be used to determine the ITEN TOP 10 rankings in a number of areas. Completion of the survey will avoid your venture being left out.  As always, your data will be kept confidential. 

Saving Memories Forever Graduates from Mock Angel Program

Harvey Baker, founder and CEO of Saving Memories Forever (www.savingmemoriesforever.com), has a vision to create a very user-friendly app-based product that will help families and genealogists capture and preserve their important events and memories.    With thousands of users already, the company is off to a great start.    Saving Memories Forever graduated from Mock Angels at the November 20th session, and has become our 25th graduate.

The Mock Angel program is specifically designed to prepare emerging tech startups for investors.   Companies already in ITEN can apply for admission to Mock Angels, and there is a rolling admission policy.    Most ventures complete Business Model Validation before being admitted to Mock Angels.   

Mock Angels specifically works on the investor pitch and preparation of due diligence materials, but this work often exposes deeper issues in the candidate company's business model.    Many ventures have made significant pivots during their time in the program that have led directly to later success.    Graduating companies are introduced to a growing list of investors looking for the best tech deals coming out of our region.   See the full list of Mock Angel graduates at https://www.itenstl.org/programs/for-investors/mock-angel-graduates.

In the four months since beginning work as the initial Entrepreneur in Residence (EIR) for ITEN I've learned firsthand there's an incredible amount of ecosystem talent seeking to support the aspiring tech entrepreneurs in St. Louis. There's also a terrific number of smart, energetic startup companies that have unique concepts to grow their business in our city. Identifying potential startups that made for a good match required a combination of analysis, experience, feel, and a bit of luck. Another critical component is identifying the right team chemistry that fits with an advisor's personality and management style. And certainly the idea or problem the company solves is of substantial importance - it has to be unique and big.  After meeting with many qualified companies I felt my experience and background were best suited to contribute to Pixel Press, TechSource 360, and AcuteTeleCare.

Robin Rath and the team at Pixel Press (www.projectpixelpress.com) were a great match from the first meeting. The combination of game development industry experience and software industry knowledge made Pixel Press attractive. Pixel Press enables users to draw their own video game on paper and then 'automagically' transfer the drawing onto an iPad using the built-in camera and clever software.  A couple of clicks and you can play and share your game with friends.

The combination of a unique idea along with a creative and open management team made this an easy decision. The team has doubled in size while the product has advanced substantially going from prototype to a working beta. In early November Pixel Press went through their first ITEN Mock Angel presentation. The team has also solidified investments from a few key local investors and is part of this fall's Capital Innovators class. Finally, the multiple partnership prospects with recognized industry names make Pixel Press a name to watch in St. Louis.

TechSource360 (www.techsource360.com) is new to ITEN but founder Mark Kehoe and his team  have a combined 26 years in startups and public companies. TechSource360 seeks to leverage their print industry experience and enterprise rolodex to reveal and reduce the printing costs of Fortune 1000 companies by creating real-time print policy controls for network devices. With an easy-to-install enterprise solution they collect massive amounts of rich data detailing how and what organizations print while deep analytics help enterprises shrink print expenses and reduce their carbon footprint.

I chose to work with Mark based on his great company concept and my ability to contribute to awareness of the financial and technical resources in the startup ecosystem. While only having worked with the team for the last six weeks, we are preparing to participate in ITEN's Mock Angel program and have worked hard to simplify the company message and create a new pitch deck. 

AcuteTeleCare's David Jacques is developing a healthcare solution to improve care coordination for the over 800K people in the US that experience a stroke. The lack of trained stroke specialists combined with the delays in treatment limit timely delivery of effective medication to the patient.  While other in-market solutions focus on hardware-based delivery, Acute TeleCare's remote patient monitoring model seeks to leverage mobile devices and familiar lightweight tools with easy installation at many points of care for faster decisions.

David is an experienced entrepreneur but sought additional insights into the local ecosystem and fund raising. AcuteTeleCare resonated with me because of my experience with my own company (Respondesign) in the telemedicine space. Our relationship is only a few weeks old and we are working together to identify the necessary resources to bring this intriguing product to market.

Featured Events

2nd Thursday

December 12th, 2013 - 4pm until about 6pm - Networking with ITEN companies, mentors, investors and interested friends. (Speaker starts at about 4:20)

Topic for December:  The Year in Review: 2013  This year has been an exciting one in many ways, with important advances for the tech startup community.    Let's take a step back, look at the successes and challenges and what it all means as we approach the new year.   We'll look for ideas and suggestions from the audience about what you think the region needs, and how we can maximize the positive trajectory for the tech startup ecosystem. 

 Speakers:  Francis Chmelir and Jim Brasunas, ITEN; others soon to be named.

Special heartfelt thanks to our 2nd Thursday event sponsors:  AHM Financial, and the iSelect Fund.

If you missed the last 2nd Thursday, Click here to watch our archived videos.

ITEN 2nd Thursday Speaker Series November 14 2013 - Part 1