For St. Louis to continue to position itself as a city where startups can flourish, industry leaders say the region must continue to lean into its strengths and build upon them.
Specifically, they believe St. Louis must continue to differentiate itself from other markets by tapping into its assets in specific industries, including life sciences, agriculture technology, geospatial technology and manufacturing.
“This is a critical decade and we’ve got to lean into our strengths,” said Jason Hall, CEO of economic development group Greater St. Louis Inc.
However, as it pursues growth, the leaders contend St. Louis must find a way to provide a streamlined system of support organizations and tools for entrepreneurs that is founder-oriented and easy to navigate.
Greater St. Louis Inc. is also targeting policy measures it believes will boost the region’s startup economy. During Missouri’s current legislative session, it had made it a “top priority” to lobby in support of the Missouri Technology Corp., a private-public agency that provides funding to startups and entrepreneur support organizations. It is pushing for the state to allocate to MTC $94.9 in State Small Business Credit Initiative dollars that were awarded through federal Covid-19 relief legislation. It is also championing a research and development tax credit measure being weighed by the legislature.
As St. Louis puts a focus on startups, we asked Hall, TechSTL Executive Director Emily Hemingway and Cortex Innovation Community President and CEO Sam Fiorello for their thoughts on how St. Louis can further elevate its innovation economy.
Emily Hemingway, executive director, TechSTL
While St. Louis has a plethora of startup and entrepreneur support organizations, Hemingway says the region can do a better job of linking together those groups to provide an experience for entrepreneurs that is oriented more toward founders and is easier for them to navigate.
“St. Louis has a lot of the right pieces and parts to build a city that checks every box, but we don't do a good job connecting the dots. While we seem to possess the resources and connectivity to justify a synergistic innovation hub, the reality is that our flow of resources are often restrictive and inequitable. While an entrepreneur support organization network is tasked with elevating entrepreneurs to launch and grow, instead our massive network seems to squash founders under the weight of the ecosystem overhead. In some ways we are too big and heavy to put the entrepreneurs first anymore. But luckily, this is something that can be fixed. St Louis as a city would benefit from not only taking a page from the books of other innovation hubs, but also from the startup playbook of running lean and being iterative.”
Sam Fiorello, president and CEO, Cortex Innovation Community
Fiorello said it’s crucial for the region to continue to invest in and support the industries in which it has assets that provide it with a clear advantage over other peer markets. That includes the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency and the region’s growing cluster of geotech companies, the region’s universities and their life sciences research, and a vibrant health care industry.
“We can, with a lot of data, say we are among the leaders in life science research. We punch above our weight with our hospital systems and health care in this town. Places like Washington University and Saint Louis University bring in hundreds of millions in federal dollars for competitively awarded research. I would hope we could focus on those three or four things that can clearly articulate as unique strengths and really focus on those.”
Jason Hall, CEO, Greater St. Louis Inc.
While Greater St. Louis Inc. has pushed for policy measures to boost the region’s startup economy, Hall says St. Louis also has to up its game in sharing the success stories within its startup and innovation economy. It’s lagged in such efforts, he said.
“We revved up our engine on telling our story about this. If we attract more capital and more entrepreneurs, you’ve got to tell the story. You can be the best kept secret and expect to grow. Some of these other communities have been doing that at a significantly larger scale and for a consistently longer time. That entrepreneurial story and strength, we know from the data, moves the needle positively on St. Louis when people are exposed to, with what’s happening and what we have to offer."
