Download III. START-UP ACTIVITY SERIES In our new series highlighting start

III.
START-UP ACTIVITY SERIES
In our new series highlighting start-up activities around the globe, member Sara Stock
shares with the MMSB Committee her insight into the incubators and other start-up activities
occurring in St. Louis, Missouri.
St. Louis, Missouri
In the beginning of November, 2014, I joined my two partners, James Wyrsch and Javad
Khazaeli, in opening Khazaeli Wyrsch Stock, LLC (KWS Law), a start-up law firm
servicing start-ups as well as small and medium-sized business in St. Louis, Missouri. In
doing so, I left the comforts of an equity partner position at a large law firm that I loved
and where I anticipated spending my entire career, an agonizing decision to say the
least!
Why, you ask, would I make such a decision? My clients at that time (and now) consist
primarily of small to medium-sized businesses, and it is challenging to work with those
sized clients from a large law firm with a high hourly rate. I’m very passionate about
servicing that segment of the market. It’s personal for me – my husband runs a mediumsized business, and I grew up in a household where my parents ran our family business
out of our home. Now, running my own start-up (law firm), I use the practical knowledge
gained by running my small business as a lens through which to provide practical legal
advice to my clients.
If you are going to represent start-ups, St. Louis is a great place to be. St. Louis has a
number of accelerators for start-ups including Capital Innovators, SixThirty, Stadia
Ventures and BioGenerator, venture capitalists like RiverVest and Prolog, Cultivation
Capital, the Helix Fund, the Arch Angels program (with almost 70 local investors), St.
Louis University’s Biliken Angel Network, and many others that now provide a starting
point for emerging companies.
One of the most preeminent start-up programs in St. Louis is the nonprofit Arch Grants,
which occupies a unique niche on the local landscape. Founded in 2012, the business
plan competition awards a total of $1 million to 20 startups each year in the form of
individual $50,000 non-dilutive grants. Additionally, two companies are awarded followon grants of $100,000 each. Arch Grant winners are provided access to mentors, a
variety of pro bono services, and affordable office space at T-REX (short for Technology
Regional Entrepreneur Exchange). Arch Grants stipulates that winning companies must
take up residence in St. Louis for one year. The competition is a way for St. Louis to
keep its bright young people here while attracting others. Arch Grants is the largest
business plan competition in the world.
Startup Incubators in St. Louis include:
(1)
The T-REX was created in 2012 to provide startup companies low-cost,
flexible office space with the backing of The Partnership for Downtown St. Louis, The
Regional Chamber and the City of St. Louis. KWS Law is located on the second floor of
the building that houses the T-REX. There are more than 130 start-ups located in the
T-Rex, and many of them regularly stop by KWS Law with a quick question, just to say
hi, or to drop off samples of their latest product.
(2)
The Cortex District is a 200-acre innovation hub and technology district in
midtown, St. Louis. “Cortex” is a nonprofit formed in 2002 by a number of local
universities and non-profits to capture the commercial benefits of university and regional
corporate research for St. Louis. Within Cortex is the Center for Emerging Technologies
(CET), established in 1998, to help develop next generation biomedical science and
other advanced technology companies. Within CET is The Cambridge Innovation
Center, or CIC. CIC started in 1999, and today prides itself as nationally housing “more
start-ups than anywhere on the planet”.
There are dozens of other, smaller co-working spaces and incubators in St. Louis that
are a part of the growing startup scene, including Helix Center Biotech Incubator
(focused on bioscience, technology, and plant and life startups), BioGenerator (provides
financial assistance with pre-seed or seed funding as well as access to lab space),
Nebula, Lab1500, and TechArtista.
Author:
Sara Stock, with Khazaeli Wyrsch Stock, LLC, located in St. Louis,
Missouri.