Tag: St. Louis

“We may be a VC firm, but we’re as scrappy as a startup.”

Colleen Liebig, my boss at St. Louis venture capital firm Cultivation Capital, told me this on the first day of my internship.  In the whirlwind two weeks that I have worked at Cultivation Capital, I have quickly gained an appreciation for what she meant. I’ve had the opportunity to get my hands dirty and, in the process, learn a great deal about venture capital and the world of startups. Here are four life lessons I’ve gleaned that can apply to any intern, entrepreneur, or worker:

1. Stay On Your Toes

Millennials (those born between 1980 and 2000) are expected to have more than 20 different jobs in their lifetime. If my first two weeks at Cultivation Capital are any indication, that estimate seems low. In merely 14 days, I’ve researched recruitment software, conducted due diligence on potential investments, and helped generate attendance at an important event. Practice makes perfect, so never get complacent about learning and growing.

2. Everything is a Negotiation

Interning at a VC firm has provided the opportunity to practice a piece of advice I received from basically all my business professors: everything is a negotiation. For example, try bargaining with a coworker to exchange your strawberries for a couple double-stuffed Oreos.  Also, be aware that software salesmen may initially resist lowering the cost of a recruitment software. Yet let their emails cool in your inbox for a week, and suddenly they have some killer end-of-quarter sales. Just like you shouldn’t only check out the first link on a Google search, you should always try to get the best deal for yourself and your company.

3. Jargon Matters- Sometimes

“Detailed self-starter with a proven track record of leveraging innovative synergies to streamline processes.” This is the kind of LinkedIn summary that makes people laugh out loud. Everyone knows that certain buzz words convey nothing substantial. However, as with any culture, certain jargon does come in handy and I’ve received a crash course on industry vocabulary: KPIs (Key Performance Indicators), capital calls (requests for pledged money), and AgTech (agricultural technology). Speaking the language is not sufficient for success, but it is necessary.

4. There’s Always Room for Improvement

One advantage startups have over established corporations is their ability to avoid bureaucracy and move quickly on openings. Sometimes opportunities present themselves that make perfect sense. I learned this during a meeting between Cultivation Capital and Jessica Stanko of the Skandalaris Center for Interdisciplinary Innovation and Entrepreneurship, WashU’s entrepreneurship hub. Surprisingly, there has been minimal communication between the two outfits. Moving forward, Cultivation and Skandalaris will collaborate much more closely to educate students about the thriving entrepreneurship scene in St. Louis. Both groups will also help connect students with startup companies: Cultivation always needs talented interns for their portfolio companies and the Skandalaris Center wants to help students discover their passion for startups. Never settle for the status quo, because there is always room for improvement.

The 35th annual Fair Saint Louis will be held Thursday through Saturday, July 2-4, in Forest Park. The event has again been relocated from its usual site this year due to ongoing construction in the area around the Gateway Arch.

In the spirit of community partnership, and given the proximity of the park to campus, Washington University in St. Louis has agreed to sponsor Fair Saint Louis by providing access to several campus parking areas during the fair.

Beginning at 3:30 p.m. July 2 until the fair ends July 4, the university will allow Fair Saint Louis to manage parking for fair visitors at a number of campus lots.

Vehicles that are parked in these lots prior to this time will be allowed to remain, but they will not be able to re-enter without paying applicable fair parking fees.

Art Hill is the location for live concerts and best views of the Fireworks over Forest Park.

Large crowds are expected, and anyone who does not need to drive to campus during the holiday weekend is advised not to. The fair opens at 5 p.m. July 2 and at noon July 3 and 4, and it runs until 10:30 p.m. each day.

To minimize disruption and provide access to those who may need to drive to campus for university business during the fair, parking will be reserved for university employees and students in the following areas:

• Danforth University Center (DUC) parking garage
• South 40 parking lots and garages
• West Campus upper lot
• West side of North Campus parking lot
• All parking facilities serving the Washington University School of Medicine (except Lot L)

University parking personnel will be stationed at the entrances to these locations, and anyone wishing to park will be required to show a valid Washington University parking permit, a university ID or other documentation to verify their purpose for parking on campus.

Other on-campus parking areas will be managed by Fair Saint Louis, which may charge a fee, with all proceeds benefiting Fair Saint Louis. The university will not profit from the revenue.

Visit the Fair Saint Louis transportation website for a comprehensive transportation and parking plan.

To accommodate those who are on the Danforth Campus July 2-4, food service will be available at the Danforth University Center during these hours:

• July 2, 7 a.m.-8 p.m.
• July 3, 9 a.m.-7 p.m.
• July 4, 9 a.m.-7 p.m.

“We are pleased to support Fair Saint Louis and are thankful to the Washington University community for accommodating our participation in this important local tradition,” said Mark Bagby, WashU’s director of emergency management and its Fair St. Louis liaison.

“We are working closely with fair organizers to ensure that the use of our parking areas will be as convenient as possible for fairgoers and neighborhood residents, as well as our employees and students.”

For a full schedule of Fair Saint Louis events, visit fairsaintlouis.org.

– News Release from WUSTL Newsroom

Images: Fair St. Louis by Patrick Giblin, Fourth of July 2014, Flickr Creative Commons

This semester, I have had the incredible experience of serving on the Center for Experiential Learning Entrepreneurial Consulting Team (CELect). The CELect program pairs graduate students with St. Louis based startups. Over the course of the semester, student teams complete consulting projects designed to help young companies achieve specific business outcomes.

Coworking space at T-Rex. Photo courtesy of John Warren, Jones Lang LaSalle.

CELect classes are held at T-Rex, a technology incubator and coworking space located in downtown St. Louis. The modern workplace stations at T-Rex are complete with dinosaur-themed murals, glass-paneled conference rooms, and individual phone booths. The juxtaposition of the building’s historic architecture and its creative, fun-loving interior make T-Rex the ideal entrepreneurship classroom. Located close to a MetroLink train station, it is very convenient for students to travel back and forth from campus.

Our first CELect class was a full day of instruction, co-taught by Cliff Holekamp, Senior Lecturer in Entrepreneurship & Director of the Entrepreneurship Platform, and Bart Hamilton, Robert Brookings Smith Distinguished Professor of Entrepreneurship. Together, the professors gave an overview of the St. Louis entrepreneurial landscape and provided tips for how to be an effective startup consultant. Throughout the day, Olin alumni stopped by to share the personal reasons why they chose an entrepreneurial career over the traditional corporate path.

After our first class, we were divided into teams and set loose to get started on our projects! My team’s consulting project is for Prosper Women Entrepreneurs Startup Accelerator, a new player in the St. Louis venture capital scene. Founded in 2014, Prosper Accelerator makes twelve $50,000 equity investments each year in women-led technology, life sciences, and CPG startup companies. The businesses selected to receive capital participate in a three month program designed to help female entrepreneurs scale their companies and receive additional venture investment.

Throughout the semester, we have had the opportunity to meet with Prosper executives, interview the entrepreneurs running Prosper’s portfolio companies, and get an inside look at how the accelerator operates. It has been very rewarding to work with an organization dedicated to supporting women entrepreneurs, especially since I have future entrepreneurial plans of my own. Our team is excited for what the rest of the project will bring, and believe that we can make a lasting impact on the future of the accelerator!

Pictured above, Prosper CELect team from left to right: Fabiola Paz, MBA’16; Elise Miller, MBA’16;  Alicia Harris JD’16; and John Hamlett, JD’16.

Move over New York, San Francisco, and Seattle…St. Louis is one of the cool cities now where millennials want to live. According to a story in The Christian Science Monitor, the hottest cities for millennials include St. Louis where there has been, “a 138 percent increase in the percentage of educated 25-to-34-year-olds living in close-in urban neighborhoods between 2000 and 2012.” Read article here.

Image: WUSTL Photos

The St. Louis Mosaic Project celebrates another milestone as Luis Fernando Campedelli, Executive Vice-President for Human Resources at MasterCard Operations & Technologies, becomes the Mosaic Ambassador Program’s 450th member.

Campedelli

Mr. Campedelli’s broad international experience in the USA, Latin America, Europe, Middle-East and Africa will play a dynamic role in supporting the Mosaic Project’s endeavor of making St. Louis an internationally welcoming hub.

Bill Behr, Associate Director of Employer and Recruiter Relations at Washington University’s Olin Business School, had the following to say of MasterCard’s international outlook:

“Through an active partnership with MasterCard, the Weston Career Center/Olin Business School sees firsthand MasterCard’s continuous commitment in attracting and retaining foreign-born individuals. These actions support economic growth of our region and the St. Louis economy.”

Washington University, among a number of organizations, actively supports the Mosaic Project’s mission to make St. Louis the fastest growing U.S. region for immigration by the year 2020.

The St. Louis Mosaic Ambassador Program plays a dynamic role in this endeavor. Mosaic Ambassadors, such as former Missouri Governor Bob Holden, proactively foster an internationally welcoming atmosphere in the community by engaging in career networks, cultural events, visiting international restaurants, and building relationships with foreign-born individuals. Connecting with the international community and ensuring they feel at home in St. Louis is vital to the Mosaic Project’s success.

The St. Louis Business Journal reports that St. Louis has been accepted into the Global Cities Initiative (GCI) Exchange.  GCI is a five-year project created by the Brookings Institution and JPMorgan Chase to help metropolitan economies boost their international competitiveness.

Nickerson

Wash U is on the St. Louis team working with the Exchange. Olin’s Jackson Nickerson, the Frahm Family Professor of Organization & Strategy and associate dean and director of Brookings Executive Education is conducting research for the project. Read article here.