There’s times when I wonder whether I’m qualified to write about entrepreneurship.
I’ve never owned a business or worked for a startup. Heck, I didn’t even take a business class in college.
As I wrote the profiles for St. Louis Inno’s Fire Awards and Startup Exit Awards, I began to do some reflection and I came to this conclusion: I’ve learned more about entrepreneurship over the years than I’ve realized.
That’s because, growing up, there was a time when my parents supported my three siblings and I through their jobs as business owners. My dad owned an industrial cleaning business and my mom, a nurse, started a company that provided child-proofing services for homes. Today, that family tradition of entrepreneurship remains with my sister, Lauren, who owns a boutique in Chicago. As a child, I saw my parents navigate the challenges of running a company. As a brother, I’ve witnessed my sister steer her company through the Covid-19 pandemic, which shut down her brick-and-mortar store for several weeks in 2020.
What I’ve learned from my parents and sister is that starting and owning a business is hard. That makes it critical to celebrate your successes.
That lesson is at the heart of St. Louis Inno’s Fire Awards and Startup Exits Awards, which are dedicated to celebrating the hard work of St. Louis entrepreneurship and the wins they’ve notched in the past year.
Our Fire Awards honor 19 startups, investors and organizations that reached key milestones in the last year, helping to ignite St. Louis’ innovation economy. Winners and finalists are grouped into five categories: agtech, biotech/health tech, software/innovation, catalyst/investors and fire starters/community builders.
Through the Startup Exit Awards, we recognize St. Louis' later-stage startup successes and the individuals who have made huge contributions to the startup industry. It includes awards for Exits of the Year, Top Equity Funding Transaction and Lifetime Achievement. This year’s program includes an in-depth profile on one of St. Louis’ largest startup wins in recent years: the high-profile exits of two of its stalwart startups, Benson Hill and Nerdy.
Thank you to our St. Louis Inno sponsors — Anders CPAs + Advisors, BioSTL, Cortex Innovation Community, Envision LLC, Greater St. Louis Inc., Polsinelli, Royal Banks of Missouri, St. Louis Community College and World Wide Technology — for making this awards program possible.
Click on the links below to read profiles of the winners and finalists.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Fire Awards
Fire Awards: Agtech/food tech
Finalists:
Fire Awards: Biotech/Health Care
Finalists:
Fire Awards: Software/Innovation
Finalists:
Fire Awards: Catalysts/investors
Finalists:
Fire Awards: Fire starters/community builders
Finalists:
Startup Exit Awards
Startup Exit Awards: Exits of the Year - Benson Hill and Nerdy
Startup Exit Awards: Lifetime Achievement Award – Jim Eberlin
Startup Exit Awards: Top Equity Funding Transactions
Finalists:
