^Well if the return on investment in transportation was close to what is possible with these companies, I'm sure you would.
Large signup forces LaunchCode to move class
I had heard they intended to cap this event to 150 (there are, I believe, 100 spots in the actual partnering program), but then... didn't. And over 1,000 signed up. The article does not mention that, so that could be bad info.
Regardless, I think it's awesome that there's such an interest. Not everyone will be able to be a part of the actual partnering program, but I hope most continue to pursue programming and the likes. Would be great for our workforce.
http://www.stltoday.com/business/column ... 04.twitterMore than 1,000 people have signed up for a LaunchCode's free computer programming class, forcing tonight's introductory session to move to the Peabody Opera House.
I had heard they intended to cap this event to 150 (there are, I believe, 100 spots in the actual partnering program), but then... didn't. And over 1,000 signed up. The article does not mention that, so that could be bad info.
Regardless, I think it's awesome that there's such an interest. Not everyone will be able to be a part of the actual partnering program, but I hope most continue to pursue programming and the likes. Would be great for our workforce.
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So Charter is making a $60 billion run at Time Warner Cable.... huge move. Anyway, if they had committed here and this went through it would have been great to see something like what Comcast is doing in Philly:
http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/bus ... wt_PHBrand
Comcast Corp. announced Wednesday that it’s building a new, iconic skyscraper that will redefine Philly’s skyline, create thousands of jobs and shift the city’s image from a Rocky, blue-collar town to a city of innovation that rivals the Silicon Valley.
“It will be a melting pot of talent and people who want to change the world in the businesses that we are in,” said CEO Brian Roberts.
Comcast is partnering with Malvern-based Liberty Property Trust to erect the 59-story Comcast Technology and Innovation Center at 1800 Arch St.
The $1.2 billion development will be home to up to 4,000 employees dedicated to developing new apps, software and business services for the Philadelphia-based company.
A Four Seasons will be on the top floors. Pretty impressive and something similar here would have been sweet. Instead we have the head honchos out in NYC and coporatebots being ground down out in West Co.
http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/bus ... wt_PHBrand
Comcast Corp. announced Wednesday that it’s building a new, iconic skyscraper that will redefine Philly’s skyline, create thousands of jobs and shift the city’s image from a Rocky, blue-collar town to a city of innovation that rivals the Silicon Valley.
“It will be a melting pot of talent and people who want to change the world in the businesses that we are in,” said CEO Brian Roberts.
Comcast is partnering with Malvern-based Liberty Property Trust to erect the 59-story Comcast Technology and Innovation Center at 1800 Arch St.
The $1.2 billion development will be home to up to 4,000 employees dedicated to developing new apps, software and business services for the Philadelphia-based company.
A Four Seasons will be on the top floors. Pretty impressive and something similar here would have been sweet. Instead we have the head honchos out in NYC and coporatebots being ground down out in West Co.
I was wondering today if that ship has fully sailed. If they were successful in their bid, is there any chance they'd consider new HQs or does the recent move pretty much kill that idea?
They're in Stamford, CT, not NYC, IIRC.
They're in Stamford, CT, not NYC, IIRC.
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^ good question. What's kind of weird is that this is huge news nationally but it appears rather subdued here.
edit: it appears that the move of official HQ to Stamford was purely a personal decision by its new CEO who lives there. Doubt he'd change his mind, but it is a testament to the notion that a single CEO or two can help change the destiny of our region by simply saying, "Dammit.... I'm doing it. We're moving downtown."
edit: it appears that the move of official HQ to Stamford was purely a personal decision by its new CEO who lives there. Doubt he'd change his mind, but it is a testament to the notion that a single CEO or two can help change the destiny of our region by simply saying, "Dammit.... I'm doing it. We're moving downtown."
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Lumate has graduated from T-REX and will relocate to the Cosmo building. Another sign positive momentum is building.
http://m.bizjournals.com/stlouis/blog/B ... tml?r=full
http://m.bizjournals.com/stlouis/blog/B ... tml?r=full
It's AMAZING what Comcast is doing for Philly. The innovation that Philly will receive as a result is going to be enormous. Comcast owns NBC.roger wyoming II wrote:Anyway, if they had committed here and this went through it would have been great to see something like what Comcast is doing in Philly:
It's unfortunate that companies such as AT&T (Southwestern Bell) and Charter left St. Louis then became bigger players in their industries. Imagine if they had stayed.
My hope is that Charter buys Time-Warner and as a result St. Louis becomes a major regional office that would manage about 10-15 states. All local Charter/TW offices would then be consolidated in the soon-to-be vacant AT&T Tower.
If Charter is successful at buying Time-Warner, my bet is that the new headquarters will be in NYC. Time-Warner's massive headquarters is there.
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Excellent... exactly how this is supposed to work. I remember hearing the Lumate guy on Charlie Brennan's show a few months ago and I was pretty impressed. These are almost all young Rolla grads and they have some students work for them over there as well. It would be great if we could get some kind of S&T-Saint Louis downtown campus.downtown2007 wrote:Lumate has graduated from T-REX and will relocate to the Cosmo building. Another sign positive momentum is building.
http://m.bizjournals.com/stlouis/blog/B ... tml?r=full
btw, 1112 Olive looks like a cool building.... anyone know what's become of the old Maurizio's spot across the street?
Arch City, certainly love your vision. I think the issue and therefore the difficulty for St. Louis is when the top executives are not based in your city you truly don't see the big gains, vision. Yes, their is some companies like Boeing, etc. that have such large workforces but it tough to see any Charter prospects of that magnitude even with further acquisition.
A classic of a city losing out in acquisitions is ATT itself considering that the acquisition spree started with Southwestern Bell based out of St. Louis started to acquire the likes and became SBC. When SBC executives decided to make TX the new home the dynamics truly changed. Acquisition of ATT and then Bell South has led to smaller presence for St. Louis not bigger. Maybe Charter will see some growth, but have a tough time seeing it go beyond then consolidation of some of its cable back office work.
I still believe the tough one to swallow is when Square made its commitment to mid town San Fran. Imagine Square filling up Railway Exchange with employees on the top floors and its own data center on floors 3-8. I'm sure their was a lot of factors but somehow can't shake the thought it a had a lot to do with Dorsey/investors wanting it to be close to the scene no matter what made sense as well as a desire to put some geographical space between the physical location and a certain professor.
A classic of a city losing out in acquisitions is ATT itself considering that the acquisition spree started with Southwestern Bell based out of St. Louis started to acquire the likes and became SBC. When SBC executives decided to make TX the new home the dynamics truly changed. Acquisition of ATT and then Bell South has led to smaller presence for St. Louis not bigger. Maybe Charter will see some growth, but have a tough time seeing it go beyond then consolidation of some of its cable back office work.
I still believe the tough one to swallow is when Square made its commitment to mid town San Fran. Imagine Square filling up Railway Exchange with employees on the top floors and its own data center on floors 3-8. I'm sure their was a lot of factors but somehow can't shake the thought it a had a lot to do with Dorsey/investors wanting it to be close to the scene no matter what made sense as well as a desire to put some geographical space between the physical location and a certain professor.
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^ on the Square issue, I suppose a good part of the equation for Dorsey was whether the Saint Louis region had the workforce infrastructure in place capable of a such a large venture. The good news is that our skills are being developed -- in part to his leadership on the issue -- and I hope that we can indeed host the next Square generated by one of our own that comes along.
^ Roger, at end of day I just don't buy that. Maybe Twitter where you need a tremendous amount of talent to constantly innovate and stay ahead of the pack. But a big part of Square's business is a third party transaction provider with a nifty piece of hardware. The argument would also suggest that the Financial Service industry with its IT needs shouldn't be in St. Louis either.
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^ thanks, dredger. anyway, its good to see we're getting a more skilled labor force in that area that should serve us well moving forward.
Lessons from a startup that got away
http://www.stltoday.com/business/column ... 61f54.html
http://www.stltoday.com/business/column ... 61f54.html
This story, much like the Square story, is simply painful. It goes beyond belief that they literally could find nobody to take over a CEO job here while it was no problem in Minneapolis. Is there really such a gap in available talent and/or recruiting difficulty between the two cities?A little over a year ago Cardialen launched a search for a new chief executive. Board members tried to recruit someone to St. Louis, but couldn’t find a seasoned medical-device executive willing to come here. They turned to Paula Skeftje, a former Medtronic executive. She took the job, first on an interim basis and then permanently, and recruited three other Minneapolis-area executives for her management team. Without anyone backing up a moving van, the base of operations moved north.
I share your concern however, these life science positions are so specialized that many times there is no one within the region that can fill the job. There is another company called Adarza (http://adarzabio.com/) that is moving to St. Louis from Rochester, NY for similar reasons. I agree it is disappointing but I believe we are getting our fair share of life science companies moving to St. Louis as opposed to moving away from St. Louis due to both strong talent and life science/bio investment capital within the region.
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Good private investment funding attracted to Splice data startup that has its research and product development team based in the Helix Center at StLCo's Helix Biotech Incubator. Interesting comment on local talent issues:
Splice co-founder and Chief Technology Officer John Leach said the company has been looking to hire more employees for the St. Louis office, but hasn’t yet found the right people. The big Series B — the largest raise for a startup with St. Louis ties to date — should help attract a better talent pool, Leach said.
“We feel like we’ve been screaming from the mountain tops about the jobs we have available,” he said. “We want to ramp up our engineering efforts, so we’re looking for people with Java and computing skills.
http://www.bizjournals.com/stlouis/blog ... 0&page=all
Splice co-founder and Chief Technology Officer John Leach said the company has been looking to hire more employees for the St. Louis office, but hasn’t yet found the right people. The big Series B — the largest raise for a startup with St. Louis ties to date — should help attract a better talent pool, Leach said.
“We feel like we’ve been screaming from the mountain tops about the jobs we have available,” he said. “We want to ramp up our engineering efforts, so we’re looking for people with Java and computing skills.
http://www.bizjournals.com/stlouis/blog ... 0&page=all
Not sure if anyone caught this story on TechShop off the KWMU website nor do I have an idea how far they are along in attracting them to CORTEX
http://news.stlpublicradio.org/post/st- ... d-techshop
Cortex, St. Louis’ technology district, is working with TechShop to raise $3 million in capital and obtain 1,000 membership commitments that Techshop needs to open its doors. The proposed space for Techshop is an existing building at Boyle and Forest Park Avenues.
http://news.stlpublicradio.org/post/st- ... d-techshop
Cortex, St. Louis’ technology district, is working with TechShop to raise $3 million in capital and obtain 1,000 membership commitments that Techshop needs to open its doors. The proposed space for Techshop is an existing building at Boyle and Forest Park Avenues.
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^ that sounds like a pretty cool concept. Looks like they have Brauer Supply in mind for the location if it pans out.
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^^ that's an amazing idea. it's really really difficult to find machine shops and electronics shops that allow public access. and the cost of the machines/instruments is usually prohibitive for individuals. this is definitely something i'd be interested in using.
From what I understand, TechShop is like heaven for the maker crowd. Something akin to ArchReactor on steroids.
How does it work exactly? Do they offer training for the machines and does one have to be certified to use them?
They do offer classes on how to use the equipment. See examples from the SF TechShop here: http://techshop.ws/take_classes.html?storeId=4
Great location and would be an asset for Cortex and St. Louis in general. I hope this gets off the ground.
Great location and would be an asset for Cortex and St. Louis in general. I hope this gets off the ground.
I just ran across this site:
http://www.seed-db.com/accelerators
If you rank by Funding or Number of Employees, Capital Innovators is among the top 10 in the world in Seed Accelerators. Thats definitely pretty good.
http://www.seed-db.com/accelerators
If you rank by Funding or Number of Employees, Capital Innovators is among the top 10 in the world in Seed Accelerators. Thats definitely pretty good.
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Nice article on a tech entrepreneur from St. Lou who has had two start-ups here that he then moved to SilVa... his third one he is expecting to keep here in a sign of our progress.
http://www.stltoday.com/business/column ... dab24.html
http://www.stltoday.com/business/column ... dab24.html
^ or a sign of how expensive it is getting in the Bay area. Some companies like Charles Schwab and Chevron are moving office jobs out of the Bay area outright while a lot of non-tech companies are moving across the Bay to cheaper rents in Oakland, Emeryville and Walnut Creek submarkets when their leases are due.
That being said, I do think it shows a sense of progress and the ability for the region to deliver the needed talent which is great for the area. Would have to give Square co-founder Jim M a lot of credit for understanding the issue and a businessman putting some faith in what is happening locally
That being said, I do think it shows a sense of progress and the ability for the region to deliver the needed talent which is great for the area. Would have to give Square co-founder Jim M a lot of credit for understanding the issue and a businessman putting some faith in what is happening locally