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4/30/2015 campaign.r20.constantcontact.com/render?ca=9d38579a-0132-4de2-88c7-46422d87d33f&c=93f22550-bf91-11e3-85b9-d4ae529a7b12&ch=94c8af30-bf91-11…
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Chuck Vallurupalli, EIR & Mentor
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ITEN: Catalyst for Tech Startups Entrepreneurs Helping Entrepreneurs
ITEN Newsletter April 2015
In This IssueIn The News
Featured Job Openings
Sign Up For Startup Digest
Mentorship From Entrepreneur InResidence
New Joined Companies In April
Featured Event: 2nd Thursday
Company of The Month
In The News
ITEN Welcomes Venture Capitalistto The Board of Directors(Tom Hillman of FTL CapitalPartners and Lewis and ClarkVentures Joins ITEN in Support ofTech Startups) FULL ARTICLE ITEN Honored With CommunityGiveback Award FULL ARTICLE
Featured Startup
Jobs TopOpps has an opening for aSales Development Representative.
iNTUiGENT is hiring CTO /Developer (PHP, MySQL)
Appnotch is looking for an Application Sales Executive
Transnational Care LLC is addinga Software Developer.
Thoughts on Mentorship from Entrepreneur In
Residence
As of April 1, ITEN is 7 years old! What adifference in the St. Louis tech echosystemsince our early days back in 2008. ITEN hasinteracted with over five hundred startup techventures in our region since inception and afew recurring questions always come up fromour startups. What should I focus on in termsof strategy? What is the best approach tomarketing? What choices should I make interms of technology? How can I successfullyraise funding? We asked our Entrepreneur In Residence,Chuck Vallurupalli, to share his thoughts onthe elements of strategy, marketing,technology and fundraising that would behelpful to startups. Here is what he has to say. StrategyFocus on delivering something of distinctivevalue (at least for a finite amount of time) toyour target customers. This could be a set ofchoices you make related to your product,marketing or other areas that collectivelydefine your unique value. A good place tostart and use as a frame of reference is yourcompetition. The level of your uniqueness is agood predictor of the level of traction you might see from your prospective customers andinvestors. MarketingThe key is to segment and target a niche. Think going deep and vertical versus casting abroad net and going shallow and horizontal and stretching yourself thin. Within your niche,find early adopters. Make them successful and they will in turn help with the reference storiesand the word of mouth necessary to reach the broader audience within your niche. If you takethis approach, the limited budgets and resources you have will go a long way. Your inboundand/or outbound tactics email campaigns, SEO, pay per click etc will all be more effective.Even the holy grail of achieving virality will have better legs. TechnologyThe key issue here is to cut through the clutter of choices available and to deal with the costand time involved in finding the right talent. If you are developing an App or a Softwareasa
4/30/2015 campaign.r20.constantcontact.com/render?ca=9d38579a-0132-4de2-88c7-46422d87d33f&c=93f22550-bf91-11e3-85b9-d4ae529a7b12&ch=94c8af30-bf91-11…
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Data Dynamics, Inc. is looking forBusiness Analyst (Freelance)
EDIS Solutions, a pharmceuticalsoftware startup, is looking for aBusiness/Marketing Intern
Sign Up ForStartupDigest
The personalized insider newsletterfor all things startup in our area.
Subscribe to the free weekly St.Louis edition of Startup Digest.With the evergrowing array ofstartup activities in St. Louis, it'shard to know which to attend.Startup Digest can help. We curatethe events and point you to thebest ones for the week ahead.
Service product, one good way to go about this is to start with a PlatformasaService (PaaS).For example Google App Engine, Heroku etc. If you start with a PaaS, you can leverage andreuse the many components and services (....like lego blocks) already available as opposed tobuilding everything from scratch (....manufacturing the lego blocks themselves). A huge addedbonus, you will spend less time and money worrying about complex issues like architecture,security, concurrency, scalability and many other aspects needed to even deliver a minimumviable product that your early adopters are willing to try. Many of these complex issues arealready accounted for outofthebox in the PaaS. FundraisingWhen you want to raise outside funding, your need to convince investors that you are capableof providing them a reasonable return for the financial risk they are taking. One of my favoriteall time quote is by Dr Deming "In God we trust; all others bring data." The best data you canshow your investors is the traction you have todate. Focus on the elements I have detailedabove with respect to strategy, marketing, technology and you will be well on your way to getsome great traction and investor love. About The Entrepreneur In Residence (EIR) ProgramThe Entrepreneur In Residence (EIR) program addresses the needs of the most promising andcompelling earlystage startups. The EIRs select ventures that can best benefit from afocused, handson, strategic advisor to achieve rapid acceleration. Currently our Entrepreneursin Residence are working with 31 companies. 13 of them has participated in our MockAngel Program and 11 of the 13 companies graduated from the program. In the first quarterof 2015, these promising tech startups raised approximately $1,000,000. More Information... About Chuck VallurupalliChuck is passionate about leveraging digital technologies, Big Data, Data Science, analytics,creative marketing and innovative products and services to make every thing faster, cheaper,simpler and better for consumers and businesses. Click here for Chuck's Linkedin Profile.
New April Additions
In April, ITEN has welcomed 15 new companies. Here are some interesting trends and facts.
4/30/2015 campaign.r20.constantcontact.com/render?ca=9d38579a-0132-4de2-88c7-46422d87d33f&c=93f22550-bf91-11e3-85b9-d4ae529a7b12&ch=94c8af30-bf91-11…
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Company Industry
ITEN 2nd Thursday
IT'S GONNA BE BIG.... If you love Big Data, or just want to learn more about it, you won't want to miss May's 2ndThursday @ Venture Café on May 14. We are collaborating with three of St. Louis' mostactive big data meetups to throw a Big Data Extravaganza starting at 5:30. We will haverepresentatives from Answers, Monsanto and Mastercard Advisors talking about MongoDB,Hadoop and R. Find out more details here. Prior to the Big Data event, we will welcome Global Velocity CEO/CTO, Greg Sullivan, at 4:30. Greg will share his entrepreneurial journey and the Global Velocity story. Founded in St. Louisin 2003, Global Velocity has become a leader in next generation cybersecurity solutions. 2nd Thursday will also have the always popular Investor Roundtablesthis month hosted byArch Grants and iSelect. And ITEN Mentors will hold office hours. Go to our website to findout more and signup. If you missed April's 2nd Thursday, you can watch the archived videos here:
ITEN 2nd Thursday April 9, 2015 FeaturedSpeaker Dedric Carter pt 1
Company of the Month
4/30/2015 campaign.r20.constantcontact.com/render?ca=9d38579a-0132-4de2-88c7-46422d87d33f&c=93f22550-bf91-11e3-85b9-d4ae529a7b12&ch=94c8af30-bf91-11…
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Kingdom Scene has launched a virtual world game and brand for kids ages 7 to 13 calledLightgliders, which was strategically designed to encourage hope, purpose, and meaningfulconversations. The company grew out of founder Zach Fay's desire as a former church youthdirector to impact kids in the areas of faith, values, and service in a culturally relevant andglobal manner. He saw that kids were spending many hours each day digitally connected butonly about 20 minutes of quality time with mom and dad, and dreamed of leveraging thedigital time to maximize the quality time. Through angel investment, partnerships with designand development studios in the United States and Europe, and a whole lot of focus grouptesting, Lightgliders became available globally in the summer of 2014 for beta testing. As a 'Lightglider,' kids create a unique character, play games, battle Machines, decorateTreehouses, meet other Lightgliders, rescue creatures called Gliddles, and explore a worldcontinually updated with new adventures and designed to impart values such as humility,confidence, and love. A feature set called 'Glidebook' has additional activities that teach thesevalues, encourage an understanding of the Bible, and provide a place for prayer. Parents canchoose to turn on or off Glidebook for their kids and can elect to receive daily email updatesabout the day's activities. These updates are meant to spark meaningful conversations at thedinner table. Lightgliders is still being betatested, but the product is resonating with kids as thousands ofplayers have registered from over 50 countries. While the game is free to play, a subscriptionoffers unlimited features and functionality. Once beta testing is complete, Kingdom Scene willbegin marketing Lightgliders with the goal of ensuring that kids all around the world know thatthey were made to shine. For more information on Kingdom Scene, visit kingdomscene.com. To become a Lightglider,visit lightgliders.com.
SPONSORS Get involved
4/30/2015 campaign.r20.constantcontact.com/render?ca=9d38579a-0132-4de2-88c7-46422d87d33f&c=93f22550-bf91-11e3-85b9-d4ae529a7b12&ch=94c8af30-bf91-11…
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Sustaining Sponsors Get involved
Questions? Email Jing Stiffler at [email protected] or visit www.itenstl.org
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