WalletHub has a new best-worst list on places to start a business. St. Louis ranks number 48. Cliff Holekamp, Olin’s senior lecturer in entrepreneurship and director of the entrepreneurship platform, shares some tips on choosing a location for your startup. 
He doesn’t name cities, but read between the lines…I think he might be describing STL as a great place to start a business! Where would you launch a startup?
Check out the list and what Prof. Holekamp has to say here.
Images: WalletHub
They’ve honed their business plans, practiced their elevator pitches, and this week students in The Hatchery entrepreneurship course make final presentations to investors to see who is ready to fly. Prof. Cliff Holekamp teaches The Hatchery course and provided a list of the companies pitching this week:
Westminster Press
Kogo
Cybrid Commerce
Cancer Glasses
IdealTap
Mercury Law
SIMP
Animal/Prison Rehab
Triumphant Life
BREAK
Hummingbird Tech
CarMD
TruTix
Westminster Press launched a Kickstarter campaign and is on track to meet its $10,000 goal. Watch their video and pledge!
Nicholas Curry and Tucker Pierce are the creators of Westminster Press, and plan to launch an art gallery, retail consignment store, and printmaking studio dedicated to promoting work made by artists of marginalized identities.
Images: Chicks hatching, John Donges; Beakout, Brett Jordan, both from Flickr Creative Commons
A candy necklace instead of a red ribbon was cut to celebrate the opening of the Bear-y Sweet Shoppe, the newest student-owned and operated business on campus. Four Olin undergrad women (all experienced entrepreneurs), got the idea for the new venture a year ago. After months of honing their business plan and managing a multitude of logistics required to open the first student-run consumer food business on campus, the Shoppe opened on schedule Jan. 12. Supporters and investors were invited to the celebration Jan. 16.
Watch our video and read more in The Record about the Shoppe team’s drive and determination to create a successful startup. Congratulations to the team, pictured above, from left to right: Jessica Landzberg, Mary-Brent Brown, Kailey Dreyfus, and Shea Gouldd.
Videographers: Ross Arkin,Cal Hsiao, Tucker Pierce, Emma Kane
The top prize in the 2015 Olin Cup competition was awarded to Love Will Inc., a developer of virtual currency-based financial tools, at an awards ceremony held Thursday, Jan. 29 in Whitaker Hall.
The company was founded by four 2014 graduates of Washington University’s Olin Business School and School of Arts & Sciences. Its first flagship product, Pheeva, is a mobile bitcoin wallet and peer-to-peer transaction application that enables individuals and businesses to affordably send and receive money from anywhere in the world, instantaneously and for little to no cost.
Dave Sutter (left) and Casey Lawlor, members of the winning team from Love Will Inc., pose with the Olin Cup. Photo: Mary Butkus/WUSTL Photo
Love Will was selected from a pool of eight finalists vying for the Olin Cup. Members of the Love Will team include: A.J. Hong, Director of Finance, BSBA 2014; Casey Lawlor, Director of Business Development, AB 2014; Dave Sutter, Director of Sales, AB 2014; Jeff Handler, Director of Marketing, AB 2014.
A total of 26 teams, which included Wash U alumni and current PhD and executive MBA students, entered this year’s competition. The following teams were recognized at the ceremony for finishing in a tie for second place:
Pratim BIswas, Chairman of the Dept. of Energy, Environmental & Chemical Engineering
Applied Particle Technology, LLC — Provider of innovative, cost-effective air treatment and filtration solutions for specialty applications which require high efficiency removal of ultra-fine particles, inactivation of pathogens and/or removal of toxic fumes and odors. Team members include: Jiaxi Fang, Co-Founder and President, PhD student; Tandeep S. Chadha, Co-Founder, PhD student; Prof. Pratim Biswas, Co-Founder and scientific advisor.
Dabble — Marketplace for classes in the community. Dabble serves as a means to explore one’s interests in a low-commitment, enjoyable way. Through its online marketplace at dabble.co, Dabble serves to connect people offline, all in the name of learning and exploration. Classes are held in person and range across topics, from Coding to Calligraphy and Graphic Design to Glassblowing and everything in between. Jay Swoboda, CEO and co-owner, is a WUSTL alumnus, AB 2002.
HamStrong — Prosthetic hamstring device and intellectual property company. The device, combined with two workout protocols, (one for rehabilitation and one for injury prevention) dramatically reduces the recovery time for those suffering from hamstring injuries, and when used in training can prevent injuries from even occurring. HamStrong CEO Mark Becker and team member Ben Igielnik are members of Executive MBA -Kansas City class 41.In addition to a nominal monetary prize, the four top-performing teams will have the real-world opportunity to pursue further funding and mentor engagement by negotiating with the university for potential investment in the new venture.
Audience members at the ceremony were able to view posters and hear presentations from all eight finalists, followed by a reception to provide feedback to the teams and celebrate all team accomplishments.
Additional sponsorship for the Olin Cup competition comes from the law firm Polsinelli and accounting firm RubinBrown.
About the Olin Cup
The Olin Cup was founded at the Olin Business School in 1987 and expanded in 2003 to recognize outstanding new ventures created by Washington University students, faculty and alumni from all schools. The competition is sponsored by the Skandalaris Center for Interdisciplinary Innovation and Entrepreneurship and Olin Business School. It represents the center’s threefold-mission: to invite Skandalaris program participation from all disciplines; to provide high quality, realistic, practical entrepreneurial skills training; and to provide access to early stage seed capital to the university’s most promising entrepreneurs and innovations.
“The Olin Cup process is a perfect fit for the center’s mission to provide practical, real-world training to these promising Washington University entrepreneurs,” said Emre Toker, managing director of the Skandalaris Center. “The Olin Cup is a great beginning, and our teams have advanced and learned a great deal. We look forward to continuing to mentor them to increase their invest-ability so they may secure funding leading to successful venture formation.”
Julie Flory and Rosemary Gliedt contributed to this blog post.
Arch Grants will begin accepting applications to its Global Startup Competition on January 1st, 2015. Arch Grants is a nonprofit organization accelerating economic development by providing $50,000 equity-free grants to entrepreneurs willing to locate their businesses in St. Louis. The program is an aggressive effort to inspire the next generation of employers, civic leaders, and philanthropists for the St. Louis region.
Previous Arch Grants Global Startup Competitions have attracted some of the world’s brightest entrepreneurs from a wide array of industries. The organization has awarded $3.1 million in non-dilutive grants to 55 startup businesses since its 2012 launch.
“Arch Grants companies have produced dramatic growth in jobs, revenue, and follow-on capital raised,” said Arch Grants Executive Director Ginger Imster. “We are pleased to begin accepting applications from companies that we know will be additive to our entrepreneur network in St. Louis.”
A community of experts from various backgrounds will evaluate applications in the early rounds of the competition. Finalists will then be invited to St. Louis to pitch their businesses to the newly formed Competition Committee. Recipients will be announced in June.
Pat Doherty of Saturday Capital and Think Big Partners will Chair the Arch Grants Competition Committee, which boasts representation by many of the most active players in venture capital, angel investment, and academic institutions in St. Louis. The Competition Committee will include:
“Over 200 judges from throughout the St. Louis region will assist with the initial evaluation of applicants,” explained Pat Doherty. “The Committee’s role will be to select and interview finalists, then bring our recommendations of Arch Grants Recipients to the Arch Grants Board of Directors, which will then select Recipients.”
The 2015 competition will open January 1st and will accept applications throughout the year. Funding announcements will be made in June and November of 2015.
“We’re excited by the Board’s vision for a more entrepreneur-centric competition schedule, and by the caliber of the volunteers who have joined the Competition Committee under Pat’s leadership,” said Ben Burke, Director of Entrepreneurship for Arch Grants. “Interested applicants can go to our website for more details.”
Funders for the 2015 competition include Advantage Capital Partners, Emerson, Monsanto, the SLDC, and Thompson Coburn. Missouri Technology Corporation, the Economic Development Partnership, and DowntownSTL are also major underwriters of Arch Grants. Arch Grants is actively fundraising for the competition and donors interested in making a commitment can find more information on the Arch Grants website.
Previous Arch Grants Recipients include simMachines, FoodEssentials, and Sparo Labs, all of which have made headlines recently because of their innovative businesses and rapid growth. To learn more about previous Arch Grants recipients, visit www.archgrants.org.
In 2014, eight Wash U-related startups received $50,000 Arch Grants. Read about the companies here.
Click here to apply to the Arch Grants Global Startup Competition.
Important Dates for the Spring 2015 Competition:
Applications Open: January 1st, 2015 at 12:00 AM
Early Application Deadline: February 28th, 2015 at 11:59 PM
Final Application Deadline: March 31st, 2015 at 11:59 PM
Finalist Pitch Days: March 5th, April 2nd, and May 7th, 2015
First Day of Incubation: June 18th, 2015
Editor’s Note: This post replaces and corrects an earlier version that incorrectly stated Jan. 1, 2015 as the deadline for applications.
When Johnna Beckham, EMBA 39, had the idea to create a business selling custom suits to women online, she approached Ron King, Myron Northrup Professor of Accounting at Olin, for advice and support. King said, “In general, with any new idea, one reacts to it based on the quality of the person and their capabilities and passion—people, project, and passion. In addition to seeing all of that in Johnna, I also saw that the market need for custom-made suits for women was an underserved market.” King ended up investing in and co-founding Johnna Marie with Beckham.
Guest blogger: Tanya Yatzeck, EMBA 43
Even with this support, Beckham found herself looking for additional help. Like most EMBA students and graduates, Beckham had a full-time job to do in addition to developing her entrepreneurial idea into a business and needed help organizing her effort. She found Prosper Women Entrepreneurs, which she says has been critical in her ability to develop the business:
Johnna Beckham
“As a woman entrepreneur, you need like-minded women to gauge where you are. If your execution doesn’t work, you will fail, and it’s helpful to be with other people that have been through it. I did a ton of research through career networks, and then I found the Prosper Mastermind Program. It was the first program I found that had a solid format. It is very structured, which I like.”
Prosper Women Entrepreneurs was created by women business leaders in 2014 to address the entrepreneur gender gap revealed by a Kauffman Foundation report on the state of entrepreneurship. Prosper has numerous initiatives to expand women entrepreneurs’ access to growth capital, educational resources, and networking opportunities.
Beckham is currently participating in one of Prosper’s Mastermind Groups. The two-year training programs involves women entrepreneurs working together to move their businesses forward. The Prosper Startup Accelerator (managed by Olin alumna, Kasey Joyce Grelle, MBA’14), announced in July 2014 is a program that speeds up the growth of a business through access to equity investments among other resources and provides a more intensive three to four month training program offering $50,000 in equity funding. The St. Louis Business Journal recently reported that applications for this program were double what was expected.
Maxine Clark
Maxine Clark, Founder and former Chief Executive Bear at Build-a-Bear was part of the group that founded Prosper Women Entrepreneurs earlier this year. Clark, currently co-teaching the course “Women in Leadership” at Olin, says, “Most of the ideas funded in St. Louis are around technology and agribusiness. Women don’t always come up with those ideas. They want to do products and services. Prosper is a member of the entrepreneurship ecosystem—as is Olin—that provides women with the tools they need to be successful, whether the business is in science, technology or the consumer sector.”
Dr. Mary Jo Gorman.
Dr. Mary Jo Gorman, Founder and CEO of Advanced ICU Care and now Managing Director of Prosper Women Entrepreneurs earned her MBA in 1996 in Olin’s Executive MBA program. She says, “The statistics around women-led companies show that they are not accessing capital. At Prosper Women Entrepreneurs we are trying to create a pipeline of companies that will be terrific candidates for venture capital and at the same time involve women who perhaps haven’t invested before and to get them to start investing at a level that makes them comfortable.”
Gorman also believes that gender-specific resources like Prosper won’t always be necessary. “Our sense of it is at this point in business growth, there still needs to be focused attention to underrepresented groups. In the future, this won’t be necessary. Now, focused attention will help people enter this space, who may not have thought about doing it before if it were in a more gender mixed setting. Women often feel like they have to have everything perfectly, which sometimes appears as lack of confidence. We are trying to make the space feel like more of a safe place that results in a positive experience. “
Since completing her MBA, Gorman has started multiple companies and is a well-established business strategist with particular expertise in the medical field. Of the EMBA experience she says, “When I started my EMBA, I was a doctor with one small company. Without it there is no chance I would be where I am. I learned that I have a strong interest in entrepreneurship, and I wrote a business plan and started a second company while I was in the program. It definitely set me on a path to learn what I needed to learn. I expected it to lead me to healthcare administration, and I ended up in a very different place. “
Prof. Ron King, Director of the Center for Experiential Learning and Myron Northrop Professor of Accounting
When asked about the future of Johnna Marie, Ron King says, “I think the path looks very bright and I think the business model is likely to accomplish its objectives. But businesses are inherently risky. Even if the financial aspirations do not develop as quickly as planned, the process of building a business plan and putting a team together will add to her substantial resume. I’m hoping for the upside, not only for a return on investments –but for her growth and advancement. For the benefit of the St. Louis community and Washington University, there are so many reasons to support and champion efforts like hers. “
Johnna Marie launches in January 2015, and will participate in Olin’s booth at the 10th Annual Business Journal Women’s Conference in downtown St. Louis on January 30.
