urbanSTL

The Advocate just named St. Louis the 6th gayest city in the US for 2014. While I think this is a great list to be on, putting St. Louis ahead of San Francisco is just silly and kind of negates the credibility of the entire list. I mean, come on. http://www.advocate.com/print-issue/cur ... es-america

More love for St. Louis in The Week, this time featuring Olio/Elaia in the Food & Drink section and 801 S. Skinker in the Best Properties on the Market section! The new issue isn't online yet, but I snapped some pics (Jan. 17th, 2014 issue):





As I said before, this is the best kind of exposure we could ask for, because the readership is hip, educated and largely on the coasts. We need more of this kind of press.

PS-- Aren't you proud to live in a city that doesn't require the state (MO) to follow it in national/world print publications? St. Louis stands on its own!

Yeah, the condo fees in that building are insane.

St. Louis was featured on Forbes as one of the cities which are trying to change their brand to "startup town"

How Cities Reshape Brand Narratives
http://www.forbes.com/sites/aaronperlut ... arratives/

I don't know if this has been posted already, but Washington University ranked #9 on the Princeton Review's Best College Campuses for 2013.

Article about Monsanto in Wired:

Monsanto Is Going Organic in a Quest for the Perfect Veggie
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2014/ ... egetables/

In a windowless basement room decorated with photographs of farmers clutching freshly harvested vegetables, three polo-shirt-and-slacks-clad Monsanto execu­tives, all men, wait for a special lunch. A server arrives and sets in front of each a caprese-like salad—tomatoes, mozzarella, basil, lettuce—and one of the execs, David Stark, rolls his desk chair forward, raises a fork dramatically, and skewers a leaf. He takes a big, showy bite. The other two men, Robb Fraley and Kenny Avery, also tuck in. The room fills with loud, intent, wet chewing sounds.

Eventually, Stark looks up. “Nice crisp texture, which people like, and a pretty good taste,” he says.

“It’s probably better than what I get out of Schnucks,” Fraley responds. He’s talking about a grocery chain local to St. Louis, where Monsanto is headquartered. Avery seems happy; he just keeps eating.
...
Changing the agricultural game is what Monsanto does. The company whose name is synonymous with Big Ag has revolutionized the way we grow food—for better or worse. Activists revile it for such mustache-twirling practices as suing farmers who regrow licensed seeds or filling the world with Roundup-resistant super­weeds. Then there’s Monsanto’s reputation—scorned by some, celebrated by others—as the foremost purveyor of genetically modified commodity crops like corn and soybeans with DNA edited in from elsewhere, designed to have qualities nature didn’t quite think of.

What You Get For $700,000
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/23/great ... 00.html?hp

The NY Times profiled a penthouse for sale. It didn't involve someone saying half-compliments. It didn't involve crime. It's a nice, even-handed profile.

Absolutely nails it...

Why I'm Moving My Business from San Francisco to St. Louis
http://needwant.com/p/im-moving-san-francisco-st-louis/

Gateway City wrote:St. Louis is a successful millennial city:

http://www.rooflines.org/3563/the_march ... s_is_real/

Great. Thanks for posting.

Unless I missed it, it's weird how it's hard to find St. Louis Post-Dispatch reporting on findings like these. And when they do, it usually comes with a "but" or "however". Yet, they love the, 'St. Louis ranks near bottom for economic mobility' stories.

I need balance.

Again, thanks for posting.

^awesome article

From MedCity News.com

Three things biotech entrepreneurs should know about St. Louis
January 22, 2014 6:34 am by Veronica Combs



Adolescence has been good to BioSTL so far. The biotech group replaced its original and descriptive (if clunky) name for a shorter, sleeker moniker. A new district for entrepreneurs, researchers and investors is drawing in local and transplanted companies. And, investors are starting to appreciate the economics of deals done in the Midwest.

Donn Rubin, the CEO of BioSTL, said that the group’s current accomplishments have been a decade in the making.

“We have focused on building elements that support entrepreneurs,” he said. “BioSTL has been both the umbrella and the catalyst of all this activity.”

In 2011, the group dropped the original “Coalition of Plant and Life Sciences” name and launched a website. At the same time, the group added several major funders, who made commitments of $10 million to be provided over five years.

“Seventy percent of the money goes to Biogenerator and into companies as equity investments,” he said.

Rubin said that the key to BioSTL’s success is due to an early investment in collaborating with everyone in town who had a stake in the biotech sector.

“We have for over a decade been convening everyone – business incubators, researchers, and business leaders – to build trust,” he said.

The city and its life science entrepreneurs also benefit from Pfizer’s legacy.

“Pfizer downsized four years ago and left such a cluster of drug discovery talent,” he said. “Many of those people did not want to leave St. Louis and wanted to be entrepreneurs.”

Express Scripts, Centene and Ascension Health all have corporate offices in St. Louis, creating a source of customers and mentors for healthcare startups.

“As entrepreneurs are looking to develop HIT and mobile health solutions, we can connect them to major healthcare systems to be their first customers and to help them build business models to match demand,” he said.

The group’s approach to building new businesses was recently recognized as a best practice in the Western Hemisphere in the “Signs of Competitiveness in the Americas” report from the Inter-American Competitiveness Network.

If that isn’t enough to convince you that St. Louis is a great place for biotech startups, here are three more reasons.

Read More

Square Cofounder: Jack Dorsey Is Like Hello Kitty

He decided to return to St. Louis, the city where he and Dorsey are from. Over the years, he has used some of his notoriety and know-how to launch a series of programs to boost job opportunities in the city, including Six Thirty, a financial technology accelerator, and Launch Code, which helps developers get the experience needed to find work.

Hopefully many thousands of entrepreneurs and CEOs see this Forbes piece on Arch Grants and the future of Saint Louis:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/brentbeshor ... rtup-city/