As St. Louis and the Midwest area become ever more important to the US tech sector, the St. Louis Startup Roadshow will set off on its mission to introduce the region’s talent to investors on some of the country’s biggest platforms.
First of all, the Accelerate St. Louis coalition will host representatives of 19 companies at a kickoff event that will include pitches and conversations on Sept. 6 from 4-6pm at the Downtown T-Rex building at 911 Washington Ave. in downtown St. Louis (register to attend).
Eleven of the 19 startups will pitch in front of analysts and investors at Thomson-Reuters in New York on Sept. 14 and at Ernst & Young in Chicago Sept. 19. Eight other startups will pitch at TechCrunch Disrupt in San Francisco Sept. 18-20.
“It’s a great opportunity and honor to represent the innovation happening… across the entirety of our growing startup community in St. Louis,” said Matthew Kulig, who will be pitching in New York and Chicago as co-founder of participant company Aisle411. The indoor retail location and mapping pioneer works with major retailers including Toys ‘R’ Us and Walgreen’s. “Technology and the innovation minds in our region are clearly changing how we are all doing business and growing the St. Louis’ economy for years to come and it’s exciting to be a part of it.”
Attention on the Midwest tech seen has been increasing steadily over the last few years. Two years ago Forbes cited St. Louis as “The right way to build a tech city” and a year later FiveThirtyEight called it “The startup frontier”. More recently the region is seen with such importance that tours taken through it by Mark Zuckerberg and Tim Cook are taken as signs of future presidential runs. Either way they’re certainly important to the tech giants.
“The startup community has been one of the primary growth engines of the St. Louis economy over the past five years,” said Andrew Smith, vice president of entrepreneurship for the St. Louis Regional Chamber. “In many ways, the innovation story in St. Louis is our best, most authentic story.”
