There’s a vibrancy to St. Louis’ startup ecosystem that other sectors of the economy would envy. A big reason? The energy of ambitious, young entrepreneurs.
Our inaugural Inno Under 25 feature is designed to spotlight some of those up-and-coming innovators. The list includes college students balancing studies while building promising startups as well as recent grads and young adults focused full-time on their ventures. Unsurprisingly, this list features many with ties to Washington University, which has had an outsized role in boosting St. Louis’ entrepreneurial economy.
In choosing this first class of nominees, St. Louis Inno sought recommendations from within the St. Louis startup community. The final selections were chosen by the St. Louis Inno and St. Louis Business Journal editorial team.
Joe Beggs, 24 | CEO of Hive Medical & GenAssist
At 24, Joe Beggs already finds himself at the helm of two companies. He is CEO of St. Louis-based startups Hive Medical and GenAssist. Hive Medical, developed out of student-run health care accelerator Sling Health STL, has developed a remote patient monitoring platform for at-home IV antibiotics. So far, it’s been financed entirely through competitions, having won about $110,000 in non-dilutive funding and in-kind services. It plans to seek Breakthrough Device Designation from the FDA and proceed with a clinical trial.
GenAssist is developing a regenerative implant to treat severe muscle loss. It was created out of technology from the Musculoskeletal Tissue Engineering Laboratory at Saint Louis University. To this point, it’s been backed by seed funding, though Beggs said he’s seeking additional capital. The company is also planning a clinical trial with Washington University and Saint Louis University.
Beggs holds a bachelor’s in biophysics from Grinnell College and a bachelor’s in biomedical engineering from Wash U. He worked as a laboratory technician following his graduation in 2020 from Wash U, but has centered all his energy on his two companies.
Chiara Munzi, 20 | Co-founder of ClosetSwitch
Chiara Munzi, 20, has teamed up with her younger sister, Cosima, to create e-commerce startup ClosetSwitch, a second-hand men’s and women’s clothing trading platform. It was borne out of frustrations with existing online clothing trading platforms, with the Munzi sisters bemoaning the high costs and shipping fees. They embarked upon ClosetSwitch as their first foray into business.
ClosetSwitch allows users to post unwanted clothes to its platform in exchange for digital coins, which can be traded for other clothing items posted on the platform. So far, the program has launched at Wash U and at Cosima Munzi’s high school in Los Angeles.
Last year, Munzi completed a program through the NIACC Pappajohn Entrepreneurial Center to fine-tune the venture. The concept has also been a semifinalist in the Draper Competition for Collegiate Women Entrepreneurs and a finalist for the Spring 2021 Skandalaris Venture Competition at Washington University.
Munzi, a marketing and philosophy-neuroscience-psychology double major at Wash U, said she plans to expand ClosetSwitch to more colleges.
Alex Quinn, 22 | founder and CEO of Disruptel
Alex Quinn’s path to entrepreneurship began while attending Red Bud High School in Red Bud, Illinois. In 2017, he founded Disruptel, a technology startup developing smart, voice-enabled technology that allows people to interact with the television content they are watching. Context, Disruptel’s flagship product, allows people to ask questions about the content they’re watching, receive additional information and purchase products that appear on-screen.
In March, Disruptel, which operates from downtown St. Louis, raised $1.15 million in a seed funding round. Quinn, 22, said the funding has “been amazing just from a stability standpoint in allowing us to focus” on Disruptel’s product development and go-to-market initiatives.
He said Disruptel is discussing partnerships with major entertainment and technology companies that could land its technology in millions of homes. He said the five-person startup plans to share more about those collaborations in the near future.
After graduating from high school, Quinn said he decided to forgo college and works full-time on his startup.
Owen Zhang, 20 | co-founder, CTO of Caralyst and managing director, Sling Health STL
For Owen Zhang, his decision to pursue a career in health care and medicine is personal. When he was younger, he had a family member drown in front of him.
“I was really motivated by that to try and learn emergency medical skills,” Zhang said.
The 20-year-old Washington University student is co-founder and chief technology officer of Caralyst, a technology platform designed to connect patients and doctors and match them based on shared qualities and characteristics. The company placed third in the 2020 Skandalaris Venture Competition at Wash U, winning a cash prize Zhang said helped in funding product development and making it HIPAA-compliant. Caralyst’s current focus is partnering with high-profile local physician groups, with the hopes of having 200 doctors on the platform as it prepares to soon launch a private beta for its technology.
In addition to his startup, Zhang spent the past two summers as a software engineer intern with Google and is the managing director of student-run health care accelerator Sling Health STL. Zhang said he is also in the early stages of developing a blockchain-based pixel game.
Marc Beinder, 25 | founder of Podtrics
Marc Beinder, 25, says his startup, Podtrics, is a “project borne out of a multitude of failures.”
Beinder initially had ambitions to create a listener engagement platform for radio stations before pivoting to develop a content management system for radio websites. Both initiatives were more difficult than he expected.
But Beinder found a finished product with edgrRADIO, a mobile app designed to provide users with a network of radio stations they stream. The Lindenwood University student soon noticed individuals were submitting their podcasts for the app. That led to the creation of Podtrics, a podcast management platform to help podcasters upload their shows to all of the major streaming apps with a few clicks. While Podtrics is still in its early stages, Beinder says is has already received one inquiry about a potential acquisition from the head of acquisitions for entrepreneur and investor Dan Martell.
In addition to running Podtrics, Beinder has worked at Chick-fil-A while he finishes college. He will graduate from Lindenwood this year with a bachelor’s degree in digital marketing.
Ayana Klein, 21 | co-founder and president of 3DuxDesign
Ayana Klein, 21, has always had a passion for building.
“When I was younger, my parents had a rule in the house where we had to make things for each other or for friends or grandparents for holidays and birthdays rather than buying something,” said Klein.
Klein is a co-founder and president of 3DuxDesign, a Fairfield, Connecticut-based startup she founded with her brother Ethan and mother Marci, and that she’s helped run during her time studying at Washington University, where she’s a senior entrepreneurship major.
The venture has created architectural modeling systems designed for children, with kits that include materials for kids to create specific designs or their own structures. She also launched 3DuxUniversity, an online project-based learning platform.
So far, 3DuxDesign has found a niche with schools, after-school programs and maker spaces, positioning its kits as a way to practice STEM education for younger students. Since its launch four years ago, 3DuxDesign has scaled rapidly, with Klein saying the company had sales of about $175,000 in 2020.
Lloyd Yates, 24 | founder of Tylmen Tech
As a member of the football team at Northwestern University, Lloyd Yates, 24, was required to wear a suit and tie on game days. To help fill out his wardrobe, Yates’ father gifted him several hundred ties. He soon started to sell them to teammates and classmates.
“Then, I just became known as the tie guy. That’s how my business got started,” said Yates, an MBA student at Washington University.
Yates is founder of Tylmen Tech, a startup that has evolved from Yates selling ties out of his dorm room to a technology startup focused on helping retailers reduce returns. Tylmen uses virtual sizing technology designed to ensure they purchase the correct size when ordering clothes online from retailers. Lloyd said the startup is working with about a dozen brands, with plans to fully launch its platform before the holiday season. According to Yates’ LinkedIn profile, the company’s largest account is Seattle-based e-commerce retailer Zulily, which had 2020 revenue of $316 million.
Yates has a bachelor’s degree in communications and film from Northwestern.
