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Mark Your Calendar
New Venture Night - January 24
ITEN 2nd Thursday - February 10
Gateway To Innovation/G2I- April 5
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Washington U Summer Interns Available
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Washington University's Skandalaris Center for Entrepreneurial Studies is now accepting applications for our 2011 Summer Internship Program. The program will run from June 6th through August 11th and is open to local organizations and ITEN ventures, both for-profit and not-for-profit. The intern's work week will be Monday-Thursday with an educational session hosted by the Skandalaris Center each Friday. The best internships for both students and organizations are those that offer a high level of access to the founder or entrepreneur. We hope that the founder or entrepreneur may also be available to attend one Friday event as a panelist as well as the closing lunch program on Friday August 13th.
To get an intern for the summer complete and return the application promptly and plan to attend our Internship IdeaBounce® on February 11th to pitch your opportunity and meet interested students. The last day to submit an application for guaranteed feedback before the Internship IdeaBounce® is January 31st. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Amy Zander by phone at 314-935-6906 or by email at dunnezander@wustl.edu. More info is also available at www.sc.wustl.edu.
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Guest Blog
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Cherokee Happenin': "But There's Nothing to Do in St. Louis" -by Jonathan Fritz
As a college student or young professional in St. Louis, it can be difficult to get away from class and/or work to experience St. Louis' cultural intricacies. I've heard many complaints from my friends during my time at Washington University about how St. Louis' music and trendsetting young adult scenes were essentially non-existent and far behind that of the major cities on the coasts. Although the density of events and clubs may be smaller than that of NYC, many people never give St. Louis a fair chance - there are many cool, innovative cultural events and that make St. Louis' scene unique. In fact, the smaller size of our community makes it much easier to be involved in interesting projects, and maybe even help start some of your own. You just need to take some initiative.
I'd like to highlight some of the pieces of St. Louis' modern culture that I find most exciting, and considering much of my work stems from the St. Louis music scene, I'd like to discuss how Cherokee Street is a rapidly developing epicenter for music in St. Louis. Cherokee is an ever evolving mix of Latino businesses, antique galleries, and more recently: screen printing shops, record stores, and spaces for concerts. I use the word "spaces," because some of the best places to see shows are not in traditional venues. Some of St. Louis' best bands have played in the basements of APOP Records and Cranky Yellow, an avant-garde thrift store. Foam, a relatively recently opened coffee shop and bar on Cherokee, hosts concerts and events every week, and DJs spin upstairs in the loft-space above The Stable. And if you keep an eye out, you'll even find concerts in houses, storage spaces, and the occasional Eleven office party. Cherokeestreetnews.com, the district's main news blog, will keep you posted about what's going on (and of course, shameless plug: check out www.elevenmusicmag.com for information about hot events on the block too!).
Although two of St. Louis' best concert venues, Off Broadway and 2720 Cherokee, are in the Cherokee Street area, the foundation of St. Louis' growing music scene will be in-part solidified in these smaller, DIY spaces. Each serves as a gathering point for elements of the community, and the nucleus of the scene grows with each passing concert and event. Recently, the St. Louis Secret Sound Society threw a music festival in multiple venues and businesses on the street - almost a mini South by Southwest-type happening - and it was a great success. I'm sure many attendees who were unfamiliar with the area will be returning soon to partake in its emerging scene. On Cherokee, music fans and musicians alike talk about new records, upcoming shows, and St. Louis' soon-to-be cultural renaissance. Come down to the block and join the conversation.
(Jonathan Fritz is CEO and Editor of "Eleven" magazine. Check out www.elevenmusicmag.com)
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Foxtrax Vehicle Tracking opened for business in January of 2006. Our mission was to market a GPS vehicle tracking system to small fleet operators.
GPS tracking systems are simple in concept. The customer puts a tracking device in his vehicles and follows those vehicles on an on-line map. The Foxtrax system is somewhat more complicated than this basic concept in that it provides stop reporting, cost accounting, geo-fences, and many other features.
Originally, Foxtrax provided tracking exclusively through GPS-enabled wireless handsets. Two years ago we decided to make the switch from wireless handsets to dedicated GPS trackers. This turned out to be just what our customers wanted. We have grown steadily ever since and today we track thousands of vehicles throughout the continental U.S.
Our marketing approach mixes inside sales with various forms of Internet and telephone lead generation. This strategy has been quite successful and is currently providing growth at a rate of 10% per month.
Though our business is on the upswing we still face challenges: Coping with the demands of our growing customer base; accelerating our market share growth, and integrating our operations with those of our new majority shareholder. For a start-up company, these are good problems to have!
You can learn more about Foxtrax and our products at www.foxtraxgps.com.
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Mentor Spotlight
Kyle Cordes
Over the last 20 or so years in software development, Kyle Cordes has created numerous large and small applications using a variety of programming languages and technologies. Kyle is the founder of Oasis Digital Solutions Inc., a St. Louis-based software development firm, which primarily works on complex software systems for its clients. The company's mission is to make its clients more productive, more self-sufficient, and more competitive in their markets.
Before Oasis, Kyle's entrepreneurial spirit led him in 2004 to co-found Mobile Workforce Management LLC, a vertical market software-as-a-service (SaaS) business. The firm was very successful and grew steadily.Kyle sold the company in 2009.
Kyle speaks at technology events and writes at kylecordes.com, and also serves as an ITEN mentor, to help grow the software industry in St. Louis. "I would love to see more software-centric firms in the area," says Kyle. His mentoring focus is on system design, team-building, SaaS, and related topics. ITEN companies can connect with Kyle through the Mentor Match search engine on the ITEN website.
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Event Spotlight
New Venture Night
Monday, January 24, 2011 from 6:00 PM - 8:30 PM (CT)
New Venture Night provides a place for people who have a great tech idea and need some feedback, a team, or a kick in the pants to make it happen. Or come and contribute to the evolution of ideas from others. Great conversation, group focus on each idea, and lots great feedback and connections. If you're in to creating or helping create a new venture, then New Venture Night is for you!
New Venture Night begins at 6:00pm and is hosted at Saint Louis Coworking in the Shell Building, located downtown at 1221 Locust Street (Locust and 13th) on the 11th floor.
For Parking:
- Street parking is an option in front of the building (Remember to feed the meters until 7pm!
- There is also a covered parking lot on above Papa John's on the corner of Locust & Tucker. They stop charging after 7pm, you can take a ticket to get in and drive out after the event no charge.
By Metrolink:
- The 8th and Pine St. station is closest.
The format for New Venture Night:
6:00 Fill out name tags, mingle, have a tip jar out to pay for food. $5 recommended donation.
6:30 1 presentation- a startup, business, or technology person shares relevant experiences. Patrick Brannan, founder of Foxtrax will present January 24.
6:45 2-3 pre-selected presenters pitch their startup ideas, or present a problem they're facing with their current startup. 2-3 minutes each.
7:00 everyone breaks up to brainstorm on the presentations, share work and network
8:15 Wrapping up time with general comments and assessments
For more information on who is planning on attending, check out our eventbrite Here. For dates of future NVN's, see www.itenstl.org/events .
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Business Plan Competition
offers $100,000 to winners
The second annual St. Louis Regional Business Plan Competition sponsored by Edward Jones and presented by St. Louis County Economic Council is an exciting opportunity to showcase your business venture toprominent St. Louis business leaders while competing for thousands of dollars in cash prizes and in-kind legal, accounting and marketing services.
Total prize money of $100,000 will be awarded to the top 3 winners. Legal, accounting and marketing services from competition sponsors will be given to the winners in addition to the cash prizes. We encourage ITEN companies in the St. Louis (MO-IL) metro region to go to www.slcec.com to apply and for rules of the competition and additional information. The deadline for applications is March 1.
Innovate St. Louis has committed to provide judges for the competition. If you are interested in helping out by volunteering a little of your time, please contact Susan Sampson at Innovate, susan@innovatestl.org . Applications can be reviewed online, so judges are not limited by location.
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