Tag: Startup Connection

All three levels of the Atrium in Knight Hall and Bauer Hall were buzzing Nov. 18 with the energy of the St. Louis startup community. The 7th annual Startup Connection attracted more than a thousand attendees to see and hear pitches from the newest companies in the Midwest. This is the first time that Olin and WashU have hosted the event.

Brothers Tim, MBA’13 and Chris Fetter, PMBA student, showed off their new venture, unfetteredsocks at Startup Connection.

16 startups received cash and in-kind awards from a strong lineup of companies ranging from Bank of America to law firms to Monsanto.

The St. Louis Business Journal reported on the winners. Link to the story.

Image above: Ed Domain taped segments at the Startup Connection for his show, the Domain Tech Report, to be broadcast on the Nine Network in January.

It’s here! Global Entrepreneurship Week events are taking place worldwide and here in St. Louis, one of the biggest events gets underway Wednesday, Nov. 18, 5 p.m. in Olin’s Knight Hall and Bauer Hall!  Startup Connection is the largest event for early-stage startups in St. Louis. Registration required. Link to register for Startup Connection

Over a third of the companies participating this year are founded or supported by WashU alumni, faculty and students. The event gives St. Louis’s top startups the opportunity to present their companies to a packed house of entrepreneurs, investors, and other members of the innovation community. The event combines a startup showcase, resource fair, and is topped off with a fast-paced pitch session.

WashU’s new Fuse website has posted video profiles of four of WashU’s Startup Connection participants.

Read more about the startups selected to participate this year.

For more events taking place during Global Entrepreneurship Week, click here.

Seventy companies are headed to Washington University in November for St. Louis’ largest event for early-stage startups: Startup Connection. Over a third of these companies are founded or supported by WashU alumni, faculty and students.

Startup Connection will be held in Olin’s Knight Hall and Bauer Hall on Wednesday, Nov. 18 beginning at 5 p.m. Registration required.

The event gives St. Louis’s top startups the opportunity to present their companies to a packed house of entrepreneurs, investors, and other members of the innovation community. The event combines a startup showcase, resource fair, and is topped off with a fast-paced pitch session. Link to register for Startup Connection

Leading up to the event, WashU’s new Fuse website will be posting some quick video profiles of WashU’s Startup Connection participants. Stay tuned as these companies prepare to pitch their products and ideas to faculty, alums, the business community and venture capitalists.

Watch the first video: DataDog: Using biofeedback to regulate stress

Read more about the startups selected to participate this year.

Wash U was a tour de force at Startup Connection on October 3!

The event is St. Louis’s largest entrepreneurship expo and brings entrepreneurs, investors, students, and community members together for one night to hear a series of pitches from the region’s hottest up-and-coming startups.  Sixty companies each had 90 seconds to pitch their idea to a room full of nearly 1,000 people.  At the end of the evening, the audience and investors chose their favorites, awarding more than $160,000 in cash and in-kind prizes.

Sparo Labs added to their growing list of prizes with two awards– The BioSTL Award ($2500) and the People’s Choice Award in Bioscience, voted on by the attendees ($500).  Washington University graduates Andrew Brimer and Abigail Cohen launched Sparo Labs while in school, and continue to run the company full-time.

Farmplicity, which was launched in the Hatchery class last spring, won the People’s Choice Award in Early Stage Tech/IT ($500).  Wash U alum Drew Koch and current student Jolijt Tamanaha, represented Farmplicity on stage.  The company’s other co-founders, Andrew Lin and Lauren Ortwein, are also Washington University BSBA graduates.

Faculty-launched Observable Networks, run by Patrick Crowley (professor in Engineering) and Peter Finley (adjunct professor at Olin), won third place and $20k in the St. Louis Startup Challenge.

The big news was that Olin Cup winner and recent law school alum Drew Winship’s Juristat won first place in the Startup Challenge along with a check for $50k. (Pictured above.) Read more about Juristat’s big win here.

Additionally, Wash U students were highly visible at the event.  The EVCA, led by Kasey Joyce, provided and coordinated about 50 MBA and BSBA student volunteers to run the event.  Kasey moderated the on-stage elevator pitches.  All-in-all there were over a hundred Wash U students in attendance.

Read more about Startup Connection in the St. Louis Business Journal.

After the event, I took part in a panel discussion on innovation and entrepreneurship on 9Network’s program, StayTuned.  Square co-founder and Washington University alum, Jim McKelvey, was also on the show.  You can watch the program in its entirety here.

It was an incredible and exciting night for Washington University and the entrepreneurship community in St. Louis!