Matt Menietti knows the St. Louis region is not starved of programming geared toward developing local early-stage entrepreneurs. It’s why, as executive director of the TechArtista Foundation, he intentionally focused the organization’s new cohort-based accelerator program, LaunchPad 725, on St. Louis County-based ventures with a social or environmental mission or those led by people from traditionally underrepresented groups.
Menietti says the newly launched program grew from TechArtista’s community grants program, which gives co-working memberships to those kinds of ventures, as well as feedback from community members about needing more resources. “They needed structure. They needed accountability. They were looking to build relationships with other founders,” he says. “We wanted to build more of a holistic, wraparound service, in addition to, ‘Hey, here’s a free co-working membership. Have at it.’”
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Now, with funding from the St. Louis County Port Authority, LaunchPad 725 has 10 founders, which represent a wide range of ventures, such as food-farm education, a business supporting those managing the loss of a loved one, a drone-deployed LED display company, and more. During the six-month program, cohort members meet every other week and have access to TechArtista UCity.
The selected businesses don’t necessarily need to be aiming for high-growth or venture backing. “There are some companies that have no aspirations to grow to be the next billion-dollar unicorn or major employer of the St Louis region, [but] they still have value,” Menietti says. “Any well-functioning economic ecosystem has multiple types of businesses that are providing different things.”
Nurturing Newer Organizations
At first, Queenie Vesey wasn’t sure whether to pursue being part of LaunchPad 725. The owner of Neeuq’s The Experience, a food-farm education business, she knew that she needed help and coaching to get the business headed in the right direction, but she thought the program might be for ventures that were further along than hers.
“I filled out [the application] and deleted it three times. Then, finally, someone sent it to me again, and I’m like, This time, I’m just going to fill it out. If they don’t pick me, who cares? If they do, great,” she says. “And they picked me… I was just stunned.”
Vesey says she’s at a point where she needs to take the guesswork out of building her business, which spans from preserving food to experiential courses that blend history and culture into such activities as canning or breadmaking. “I feel like right now I’m on my own. I’m guessing. I’m Googling. And I’m not leveling up,” she says. “I’ve got so many orders right now, but I don’t have the capacity. So there’s money sitting out here waiting to be had.”
Since starting the program and visiting with Menietti, however, Vesey says she has a much clearer vision of what she’s building toward. “I need a building with a commercial kitchen where I can be a chef, make all of my products, put them in the store,” she says. “I can still do all the teaching. I can still do farm education. It’ll be like that one-stop shop.”
Vesey also appreciates the way that LaunchPad 725 tackles multiple facets of business development. Cohort members also share wins, losses, and breakthroughs with each other. Menietti says this structure is crucial to driving collaboration and connection.
Each bi-weekly session has a featured speaker, but there’s also time for cohort members to discuss the latest or if there’s a broader ask of the group. “Like ‘Hey, I could really use some eyes on my business plan.’ ‘We have a new brand concept or a logo—I’d love some feedback on that,’ or ‘I’m having a real tough time with an employee. How have you managed hard conversations?’” Menietti says. “Those things that maybe were dealt with in isolation now can be brought into a very safe space.”
Providing Room To Experiment
Robin Huffman founded The Mortality Mentor a few years ago. “It’s really helping with all the administrative, logistical things that people forget about and cause a lot of stress when they’re grieving,” Huffman says. She describes the work as a mix of project management accountability and “a little bit of detective work” that comes with inventorying the accounts and digital and physical assets of someone approaching death, or who has recently died. “It can get messy quick, even if there’s not a lot of assets involved,” Huffman says.
She expects that LaunchPad 725 will provide an opportunity to pilot ways of positioning The Mortality Mentor for sustainable growth. “To actually test what types of services would gain the most traction,” Huffman says. “Whether it’s in the medical community, as someone has a recent diagnosis, helping someone document things so that their family has what they need, or working with employers or professional employer organizations to test out if after loss services could be an employee benefit that is offered through HR.”
Menietti says he sees LaunchPad 725 helping support a healthy “entrepreneurial ecosystem” in St. Louis, where locals have space to test ideas and find support from others at similar points in their business journeys. “You need a good blend, much like any portfolio with different types of companies, goals, and industries in mind,” he says. “I think that creates a really resilient economic engine for the city and for the region,”
Vesey concurs with the sentiment: “I should be able to profit, make a living, and survive and still help my community at the same time.”
