Entrepreneurially Thinking: Innovation | Experimentation | Creativity | Business

TWC Constructors and Atelier3 Design are Redefining Design and Changing the Landscape Of Construction. An industry that will always be relevant and remain in demand is engineering and construction. Projections for the St. Louis region place the industry at over 4 billion dollars in the next few years. Despite the surplus of capable young men and women in this region there is a workforce shortage that threatens the industry. Today we meet two very accomplished design and construction entrepreneurs who are making tremendous impact while creating opportunities. They are as committed to community as they are their businesses. Each one of these CEO’s is giving back, changing the landscape of the industry and building pathways for minorities within their design. At 11 years old, Todd Weaver came to construction and design on a dare to find work in order to help his mother out. his unique story is likened to “The Blind Side” movie. As if it were divine design, his serendipitous collision with Clayco CEO, Bob Clar

Today, we will be chatting with an organization that is already impactful in our region with a long-standing history of changing the conversation about disabilities in St. Louis. Paraquad is the organization that works with people with disabilities of all ages, empowering them to increase their independence through choice and opportunity. We have Paraquad’s CEO, Aimee Wehmeier who is only the 3rd Executive Director and CEO in the organization’s 47-year history, Beth Jantz, their grant writer, and Dennis Kouo a Paraquad board member joining us to talk about their organization and a new social enterprise they are developing that will engage their constituents and be a great gathering place for all of our community! If you love finding new Cafes, stay listening so you can hear all about this new innovative service offering from Paraquad! Learn more:

Does your calendar revolve around professional sports seasons? Are you the designated sports expert among your friends? Were you the one who organized the office-wide fantasy football league this year? If you answered yes to these questions, you might want to consider launching a sports-related startup.If you start that business, we have a new offering in our region that can potentially it and you to the next level. Today, we have Tim Hayden, co-founder of Stadia Ventures, a very unique offering that is a Sports Innovation Hub for entrepreneurs, industry partners and investors created to solve the pain points ofthese distinct voices. According to them—they help entrepreneurs navigate the entrepreneurial path and immediately connect them to their network, they help investors by educating, validating and driving deal flow directly to the best sports business opportunities available, and they help Industry partners byacting as their innovation brokers to maximize deal flow and minimize risks. All of this is acc

You know we have a bias for good food and great company – this episode delivers on both! Annie Magny, founder of One Dish Wonders, joins Alyce Wilson, Director of the Grace Hill Women’s Business Center, to share her entrepreneurial journey. After retiring from a major telecommunications company with nearly 30 years of service, Annie realized that there was more to do than be retired – she just didn’t realize how much work it would take! Thankfully, with the help of the Grace Hill Women’s Business Center, The BALSA Foundation and great mentors she is now well into her second act as a food entrepreneur. Despite all the hard work, Annie is excited to be on this personal and fulfilling journey. And you can be a part of the experience from your own dining room table. One Dish Wonders makes it easy for families to eat delicious meals together again. Need to figure what’s for dinner tonight or what’s on the menu for your next corporate or family event – Annie has what you need. Inspired by her story and eager to wr

We are very lucky to have a wealth of resources in our region to help individuals create and build new businesses. That includes the St. Louis Regional Chamber, the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and the Asian American Chamber of Commerce as well as the newly formed local chapter of the US Black Chamber. Collectively, our local Chambers help business owners thrive and create a strong, supportive environment that attracts new businesses and helps local firms expand their footprint. At the heart of what they do is build community and connect people in meaningful ways that lead to success. During this episode, we have a full house of Chamber representatives in studio to help us better understand how they add value to and stimulate growth in our local economy. From promoting international trade and helping immigrant entrepreneurs grow their businesses to connecting their own varied constituencies with each other as well as the larger business community, these Chambers are hard at work recruiting and promoting the

Cheryl and Christy are passionate about connecting people – great ideas, companies, invention and progress don’t happen in isolation. It is important to connect with a community of like-minded people for the support and inspiration you need to make your dreams a reality. It just so happens that there are two new places in St. Louis where you can find those people and resources. We invited Kristy and James Jackson with DK Annex and the Social Synergy Project, and Marc Bowers with Brick City Makes to tell us more about the new facilities and communities they are building. While their projects are separate and distinct, both are in the City (they are neighbors) and are bringing new life to old buildings, as well as the Fox Park and Benton Park neighborhoods. Our conversation explores how serving entrepreneurs outside the advanced technology ecosystem helps create a vibrant community of creatives, small business owners and scale-ups. There are hidden manufacturing gems in industrial parks throughout the region an

We live in a very diverse city with hard working people. Many of the folks in our region are hard working immigrants who are helping to make St. Louis a great city and region to LIVE, WORK and PLAY. The St. Louis Mosaic Project is a wonderful organization that helps to ease the transition for many of these individuals as they make St. Louis home. A couple of episodes ago, we had Betsy Cohen, Executive Director for Mosaic on the podcast with Julie Li, Founder of Create Space Generator and Lulu Fresh Express. On this episode, Christy and Cheryl welcome Vin Ko, a friend and colleague from Mosaic and Cuong Dang, an energetic and ambitious entrepreneur who hails from Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam and is a graduate of Maryville University. Cuong is founder and CEO of the St. Louis based tech company, Enliven, and owner of Lac Brewing, a craft brewery in Vietnam. In 2015, Cuong received the Diverse Business Leader award from the St. Louis Business Journal and in early 2016 was inducted into the Regional Business Counci

Persistent, Intellectually Curious, Courageous, Entrepreneurial, Innovative—these are all familiar entrepreneurial terms that are used by our guests to describe folks that are engineers. Mr. Ronald Moore and Dr. Terrence Freeman represent the St. Louis Chapter of the National Society of Black Engineers or NSBE. NSBE’s mission is the same today as it was over 40+ years ago—to help improve the recruitment and retention of black engineering students who excel academically, succeed professionally and positively impact the community. NSBE is a highly respected, premiere African-American organization that is community focused with STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) programming. They create opportunities for children as young as elementary school all the way through post-graduate studies. In this conversation, hear about the positive impact they have had on entrepreneurs they’ve worked with as well as the the millionaires and billionaires that are NSBE members. What’s even more exciting is their 43r

Entrepreneurs are driven to identify and solve problems. In the entrepreneurial ecosystem it’s called the “pain” point of customers. Shay Gillespie and Jared Arms created their businesses out of distinctly different sources of personal pain. Coincidentally, each had a passion and focus to improve opportunities for African-American children in the technology sector with coding and programming instruction. Shay, the founder and owner of “Color Coded Kids” knows the impact of technology on a global scale and from a corporate vantage place, while Jared, at just 23 years old, founded “Kylar for Kids” and entered into the IT space from a very different and unlikely point of origin. Shay needed a practical and accessible source for IT instruction for her young son and discovered most of the mothers she knew shared that need. Jared got started while responded to the pain of losing friends and loved ones to gun violence. Each of them stumbled onto very viable answers to a common community need—access to resources an

We’re all basically starting from the beginning-Square One. CET, the state’s oldest and largest Innovation Center celebrates nearly 20 years of entrepreneur training programs! CET has been working to find, support and grow entrepreneurial ventures and they’re succeeding with the Square One Boot Camp and Square One Ignite programs. Originally, CET focused on bioscience entrepreneurs. Many great startups including Nanopore Diagnostics, Immunophotonics, Kypha and MediBeacon participated in what was then CET’s Bio Entrepreneur Development (BED) program, which debuted in 2011. In 2014 the BED program expanded its focus to include IT and consumer/manufactured products as well as bioscience and renamed it Square One. Sarah Badahman, founder of HIPAATrek and Brad Postier, co-founder and CEO of Spectrum Perception – both Square One Boot Camp graduates doing phenomenal things – join Christy and Cheryl for a conversation about being a startup founder, their Square One experience and their personal journey as entrepre

How does having $500-$1000 to start your business sound to you? That’s what winning a BALSA Foundation grant can do. This organization helps to change lives for many early stage entrepreneurs by not only providing financial support but also mentoring and other resource assistance. Today, Christy and Cheryl will be speaking with Matthew Wyczalkowski, Executive Director of The BALSA Foundation and Arriel Biggs, Founder of Young Biz Kids, a grant finalist last summer. Young Biz Kidz is a non-profit organization that uses positive, diverse and creative ways to teach business and equip youth with the knowledge and skills to live productive lives. In this episode: Hear more about The Foundation and how it has impacted this entrepreneur and her business. How BALSA meets entrepreneurs where they are. What is idea support and how to access the help? What is the BALSA grant award? How Arriel created Young Biz Kidz and how BALSA made a “huge” difference. How mentorship, direction and idea support can transform your bus

If you look under the hood of startup action in the “information technology” space, some of what you find is the IoT, blockchain (think Bitcoin), Artificial Intelligence, Deep Learning, Augmented Realty and Virtual Reality. This is where action and innovation is taking place across dozens of industries. This is a trend you need to pay attention to. Welcome to the infinite and imaginative world where the power of technology is interwoven with the human experience Christy and Cheryl recently visited with Nathan Pettyjohn CEO of Aisle411 and founder of the VR/AR Association. St. Louis is the world HQ for the VR/AR Association – a global industry group for Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, and Mixed Reality, connecting leading solution providers with brands & customers. This technology is already radically changing education, medicine, commerce and might result in a new opportunity. The conversation includes Aisle411's startup story, as well as the cultural impact of disruptive technologies that are redefi

Christy and Cheryl get to meet a lot of interesting people. After a particularly fun and productive meeting with Stacey Fowler from SLATE and Kevin Wilson from the SBTDC, they knew they had to have them on the show. Get ready to take some notes - you won’t believe the golden opportunities and hidden gems out there to help you get training, tap new talent or pursue your startup dream. Some of you who grew up in St. Louis may remember SLATE - the St. Louis Agency on Training and Employment - as the place to get a summer job. As Stacey Fowler shares, it is so much more. From apprenticeships that benefit both workers and employers to employment services and an entrepreneurship training program offered in partnership with SBTDC and Legal Services of Eastern MO, there is something for everyone who wants to build a business or career in St. Louis. Kevin Wilson from SBTDC is in studio alongside Stacy to explain how their partnership works, how they created a new nonprofit to create the Small Business Empowerment Cent

Working to change the world? Not all entrepreneurs are motivated by profit - some see earned revenue as a way to finance the social change they want to see. What are the nuts and bolts of creating social change? Well, your tax status comes secondary to what you are trying to do. Establishing a non-profit is not the “be-all-end-all” solution to achieve your mission. Social entrepreneurship leverages market forces to “do good” while “doing well”. Students at the Brown School of Social Work at Washington University are learning strategies that can make social change work. Dr. Heather Cameron is the inaugural Michael B. Kaufman Professor of Practice in Social Entrepreneurship at the Brown School. It is there that she is creating a climate of change-making where MSWs, MBAs, other students and community members can explore new business models aimed at creating positive systemic change while adding value to the bottom line. She shares her personal intriguing journey to St. Louis, which includes international travel

“Pivot on Your Plan” is a term we use in the innovation community. In the lives of these two resilient entrepreneurs, “pivot” played a critical role. So did mentorship, a solid team and being aware of and ready for change. Today, we are speaking with two innovative entrepreneurs who found success and futures in the home healthcare market sector —one is considered the “queen” of the industry and the other a “rising princess”. Meet Ada Joyce Taylor, owner of Deer Valley Home Health and Dacia Betts, owner of Integrity Home Health Services. Each are visionaries with real world experiences in the home health care industry and insight that only those who have been in the trenches could profess. Ada Joyce Taylor, founder and CEO of Deer Valley Home Health Care, began her journey as a teenager. With her vision, team and a plan she has grown Deer Valley to be one of the largest, most visible and successful service providers in the region. Listen to Mrs. Ada tell her story and begin building on new ventures in the st

According to the most recent Kauffman Foundation Index of Startup activity, about 17% of entrepreneurs in Missouri and 29% in St. Louis where unemployed before starting their business. This suggests that some entrepreneurs are starting businesses out of necessity. This has implications for the number and types of businesses that are created, the founders’ access to capital and the potential to scale, as well as the potential to employ others and create generational wealth. It also reflects the reality that for those with limited career choices - due to education, experience and in some cases, involvement in the justice system - entrepreneurship can be a pathway to prosperity. We've invited Jason Watson, the Director of the Beyond Jobs program at Mission: St. Louis and former state senator, Jeff Smith, Executive Vice President of Community Engagement and Policy with Concordance Academy of Leadership to talk about how their programs help men and women tap into their inherent leadership skills, innate creativit

Healthcare businesses are doing well in our region and many entrepreneurs are building strong businesses in this industry. Today, we are speaking with two entrepreneurs in this market sector —one building a new venture, DEAL-C2, focused on diabetes home care and another seasoned and successful entrepreneur, chiropractor, and business partner in Proficient Chiropractic. Sonia Deal, CEO of DEAL-C2, is a new business owner in our region building and scaling her business to include a three-phase system for diabetes care—the first phase will include community education and home care, the next phase will focus on building a diabetes care clinic and lastly, a skilled nursing home facility focused on diabetes is Sonia’s ultimate goal for her venture. Listen to Sonia tell her story of how and why she feels she is uniquely capable of “changing the face of diabetes care”! Dr. Edgar Everett III, a partner in Proficient Chiropractic, was introduced to the chiropractic field when he was a teenager and instantly knew, thi

ETHINKSTL-017-From farmers to physicists, AgTech is one of St. Louis' fastest growing industries From farmer to physicist, the trends in AgTech run the gamut! Tune in to find out what's hot and how you can be part of one of St. Louis' fastest growing industries with Connie Bowen is the Program Manager at Yield Lab, Kristina Menn from Arvegenix and Betsy Boedeker, Sr. Research Scientist, CRO Coordinator at St. Louis Community College. In her role at Yield Lab, Connie is familiar with the trends such as big data, precision farming, crop yield technology and animal health that are exciting investors while working to solve global issues related to alternative energy, hunger and environmental sustainability. Arvegenix, one of Yield Lab’s portfolio companies, exemplifies the local opportunity for startups to capitalize on these global trends. As new companies are formed to commercialize new technologies, new jobs are created, too. We learn more about the opportunities for job seekers in our conversation with Kri

Today Cheryl and Christy are with Lynette Watson from our local Small Business and Technology Development Center – also known as SBDC or SBTDC - and Michael O’Brien from Prosperity Connection. Like many organizations in the St. Louis entrepreneurship ecosystem, these two work very closely together to help promote financial empowerment and entrepreneurship in the community. From Prosperity Connection's Excel Centers and Red Dough Money Center to SBTDC's Innovate HER and the Fantasy Food Fair Business Competition, there is a lot going on in Old North and throughout the City for aspiring entrepreneurs. Lynette, a small business owner herself, give us insights on moving from "hobby to hustle" and the importance of initiatives like the Look Like Me Mentor Project that works to engage people of color as mentors and subject matter experts. Michael explains how having access to a nonprofit alternative to payday lending, credit building programs and support from financial counselors strengthen local businesses and th

Today we are speaking with Betsy Cohen, Executive Director for the Regional Immigration & Innovation Initiative, the St. Louis Mosaic Project and Julia Li, Founder and Executive Director, Create Space Generator and Executive in her family’s business, JX Restaurants, which includes the famous LuLu Seafood restaurant. Betsy leads the St. Louis Mosaic Project, an outstanding organization focused on supporting foreign-born populations in our region. You will learn about this organization’s impact in our region and how she and her team have made great strides supporting entrepreneurial endeavors for many foreign-born individuals. Julia and her family are great examples of the success made by foreign born entrepreneurs. You don’t want to miss her family’s story and Julia’s personal journey which starts in Shanghai, takes her to Washington University and stops she made along the away at Nickelodeon, The Walt Disney Company and Scratch Music Group before coming back home to St. Louis and running her family’s bus