Welcome to EQ Print Issue 1
- Visitors
When I moved to St. Louis in the summer of 2000 for graduate school, I thought Iโd be in this city for seven, maybe eight years to finish my PhD at Wash U. I didnโt think much about where Iโd land next, but I didnโtย really imagine I would stay here. Fast-forward 15 years and Iโm firmly transplanted in St. Louis, and canโt imagine not livingโand building businessesโin this city.
What made me stay? Entrepreneurship. The summer after my first year of graduate school, I took a part-time job at a startup.ย A retail business with an online store andย phone center, Attilioโs Discount Supplementsย was growing rapidly and had a boldย vision to expand nationally. I was inspiredย by the founderโs story, and by the team heย had surrounded himself with to grow hisย business. After just a few months, I knewย my path was forever changed. Seeing howย my work had such a direct and immediateย impact on how the business operated wasย so compelling, and ultimately, life changing.
Within twoย years, we launched ALIVE magazine out of that business, and I was aย co-founder for the first time. We were allย new to business when we first met, but Iย will always feel a debt to my co-foundersย for exposing me to entrepreneurship,ย which has now become my lifeโs passion.
At ALIVE, we believe St. Louis is a greatย city. We have been telling its stories forย almost 15 years and have been passionateย advocates for the city, its Downtown,ย its business owners and its movements.ย We believe our cityโs startup movementย is a new opportunity for St. Louis and weย couldnโt be more excited to tell that story.
So, welcome to our print edition of EQ. Inย our first quarterly, we wanted to provide aย broad but deep look at the startup community.ย Check out our ecosystem map,ย followed by insights from 10 voices in theย community on our current challenges. We talk to many of the leaders helpingย drive the regionโs innovation space forward, and for our feature, weย explored two primary innovation communitiesย in the region: Downtown and Cortex.ย We hope with our coverage we can shine aย light on our regionโs unique opportunities.
We also hope stories of entrepreneursย like those of Mary Wolff and Chisom Uche,ย who grace our cover, will inspire othersย toโas Mary put itโโgo do it.โ
If you wereย fortunate to get your copy at an event orย from one of our partners, we hope youย join our community by subscribing.
We will be distributing copies of thisย issueย completely free for readers at select innovation spaces in St. Louis. If you wish to order additional copies for purchase, let us know at [email protected].
Here are a few ways to join our conversation as we get EQ off the ground and continue to roll out more features:
- Post a photo of your EQ print issue around townโor the worldโon social media for a chance to win a free subscription. Tag us (@EQSTL) andย the hashtags #EQIssue1 and #STLStartups to win a free twoย year subscription.
- Share your feedback with us by dropping us an email at [email protected]
- If you’re an organization that is interested in becoming an advertising partner, please reach out – [email protected].
- Do you currently publish to Medium or wish you had an outlet to share your opinions? Share your story directly with your STL startup ecosystem by publishing a story on EQ here.
Let’s tell more #STLStartup stories.
Kelly Hamilton
Cofounder/Managing Partner, EQ