Startup Missouri Information to fuel Missouri business startups

The Freedom Community Center in St. Louis won a biennial J.M.K. Innovation Prize that includes a cash award, technical assistance funds and a resource network to support them through the challenges of a startup organization.

After Jake Heyen noticed his social media feeds showing a lot of workout-related content, he put together Fitic, an app he describes as a fitness-related version of Only Fans or Patreon where subscribers pay to gain access to all creators on the platform.

Kansas City entrepreneurs relish the small-town networking climate, the established professional and cultural history, and the building block infrastructure needed to foster successful small-business launches.

Decades of experience earned on the front lines of community revitalization prepared Sandra Moore, Chief Impact Officer at Advantage Capital, for how she can deliver a compelling story that resonates with private equity investors to help entrepreneurs.

As a way to help the impoverished in areas with little access to electricity, Conner Hazelrigg created the Sunshine Box, a portable solar-charging station that provides electricity for mobile devices. Her company, founded in 2015, aims to use the box to bring economic independence to her customers in developing countries.

A fair number of entrepreneurs have found themselves opening new startups despite the world groping its way through one of the biggest, most complex, least predictable economic environments in living memory.

Mary Zhang had a realization: the products she used to treat humans while practicing acupuncture and Chinese medicine could also be used for animals. That led her to start Gou Gou Pets, a company that hopes to have 30 products available for purchase by the end of this year.

The software-as-a-service company, which was originally founded in a spare office and now employs 19 full-time people at its 13,000-square foot downtown St. Louis location, aims to find ways to connect its advertising clients to the public with measurable results by referencing proprietary and third-party data across multiple platforms and in real time.

After opening its first location in Osage Beach in 1986, Andy's Frozen Custard now has about 100 locations around the country, and company president Andy Kuntz says finding great people is key to the company's success.

Those who hit it big with a million-dollar idea always seem to get all the attention. But, as many entrepreneurs will tell you, it is the businesses that crash and burn that sometimes teach the best lessons.