This document provides a summary of resources for the St. Louis tech scene, including regular meetups, conferences, coworking spaces, accelerators, investors, and notable companies. It lists organizations that support startups through various university programs. It also provides names of people active in the community to follow on social media and notes how newcomers can best connect within the local startup ecosystem.
2. Meetups
● StartLouis - monthly tech meetup
● 1M Cups - weekly pitching and feedback meetup,
Wednesdays at 9am at KETC
● 2nd Thursdays - monthly ITEN sponsored networking happy
hour at the Tavern of Fine Arts
● St. Louis Game Developers Meetup
● Women Entrepreneurs of St. Louis (WEST)
● Start30 - general meetup for startups, tech, culture, art
● EO - Entrepreneur’s Organization - Peer networking for
founders of later stage (e.g. not concept) startups.
● Application Developers Alliance
● Code Until Dawn - last Friday of the month, all night hacking
session at LockerDome.
● List of St. Louis Tech Meetups on meetup.com
3. Conferences and Hackathons
● St. Louis Startup Weekend - build a company in 54
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hours. National movement of startup events.
Product Camp - unconference for product people
Strange Loop - Multi-disciplinary conference for
technologists and big thinkers
GlobalHack - St. Louis-based hackathon series.
Civic Hackathon - local movement organized around
National Day of Civic Hacking.
InvestMidwest - venture capital forum
Gateway to Innovation (G2i) - national IT conference
StampedeCon - big data conference series
4. University Resources
● Skandalaris Center (Washington University)
○ Ken Harrington, Director
○ Aimee Dunne-Zander, Outreach
○ Stacy Pearson, Programs
● John Cook School of Business - Center for
Entrepreneurship (St. Louis University)
○ Jerry Katz, Professor
○ Tim Hayden, Director
● Bob Virgil Center for Entrepreneurship (HarrisStowe University)
○ Shawni Jackson, Co-Director
● Innovative Technology Enterprises at UMSL
5. Coworking Spaces and Incubators
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Lab1500 - co-working space at 1500 Washington Avenue, downtown St.
Louis
T-REX - startup space in downtown St. Louis. 70+ startups and 200+
people.
Nebula Coworking - Space near Cherokee Street. Design, tech, artist,
freelancer-focused
Cortex - St. Louis hub for bioscience and technology research,
development and commercialization
○ Center for Emerging Technologies
IT Enterprises - UMSL collaborative space, for startups in chemistry,
nanotechnology and IT
STLVentureWorks - network of country-run incubators
Center for Impact - social enterprise incubator / accelerator
Arch Reactor - largest hackerspace in St. Louis
Cambridge Innovation Center
Claim - co-working space in downtown St. Louis (Railway Exchange Bldg)
6. Accelerators and Mentoring Groups
● go-celerator! - 12 month equity-free program for one
young founder per year
● SixThirty - FinTech Accelerator - ~4 month program for
financial tech startups, takes equity
● Capital Innovators - 12 week program for tech startups
with traction, takes equity
● Arch Grants - Business plan competition, doles out (20)
$50K equity-free grants per year in to startups in tech,
bio, and consumer products
● ITEN (IT Entrepreneur’s Network) - nonprofit that
provides free programs, events, and access to
resources for early stage tech startups
7. Angel & Venture Capital Groups
● Cultivation Capital - pre-A round VC firm for
tech and life sciences
● St. Louis Arch Angels - angel group
investing in early-stage startups
● Billiken Angels - angel group connected to
St. Louis University
● iSelect Fund - build-your-own private equity,
personalized fund
9. Entrepreneurial Dev / Design Shops
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Integrity
Steady Rain
The Able Few
Spry Digital
The Net Impact
Wired Impact - nonprofit web design/apps
Happy Medium
Atomic Dust
10. Design Resources
● St. Louis AIGA
● St. Louis Design Week
● Graphic design contractors (list)
11. Journalists and News
● Techli - Edward Domain and Caryn Tomer
● St. Louis Business Journal - Brian Feldt
○ TechFlash
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St. Louis Post-Dispatch - David Nicklaus
St. Louis Beacon - David Baugher
St. Louis Egotist
Hacker News (national) - y combinator
started tech/geek news thread and forum
12. Other Resources
● Accelerate St. Louis - resource database
and community calendar for the St. Louis
startup scene.
● Startup Genome - free and open platform for
collecting, curating and analyzing data about
the local startup activity
● LaunchCode - helping St. Louis grow tech
talent base through pair programming and
group learning.
13. Scaling Tech Companies to Watch
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LockerDome
FoodEssentials
Tunespeak
Gainsight
Hatchbuck
Aisle411
Click With Me Now
Juristat
BusyEvent
Time to Cater
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Norse
TrakBill
Lumate
RoverTown
Gremln
Bonfyre
PixelPress
Answers.com
BidRazor
Material Mix
Upside
16. How to Connect
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Maintain a good balance of giving and taking - what can you offer the
startup community?
Be respectful of people’s time - don’t always ask for an hour in person
meeting. Ask questions via email or schedule 15 minute phone calls to
start.
Don’t ask investors/mentors to sign NDAs - figure out a way to talk about
your idea without disclosing your ‘secret sauce’
Attend events and meetups first - chances are, people will refer you to
them.
Be friendly and thank people for their time and/or advice, even if you don’t
agree with it.
Immerse yourself in the community - get a desk at a co-working space,
volunteer at a startup event, be active on sites like Quora, Twitter, GitHub,
Reddit, etc.
Give and receive. If you’re asking for help, consider how you can give
back.
