St. Louis Incubators Attract Tech and Innovation

St. Louis has all the ingredients to continue growing as tech hotspot—world class universities, like St. Louis University and Washington University, affordable commercial properties for lease, support groups such as the IT Entrepreneurs Network and Innovate VMS, as well as incubators.

Business incubators are programs designed to increase the success rate of startups and entrepreneurial initiatives through a portfolio of resources and services. One of those resources being space—a place to nurture and grow the business through shared administrative resources, offices, technology and most importantly business expertise.

Business incubators come in many shapes and sizes depending on their target industry, but common themes across most incubators are professional environments with designated spaces where startup teams and entrepreneurial types can interact with clients. Some incubators have temporary business space, such as conference rooms for rent or small office spaces with access to computers, copiers and fax machines. Other, more tech-focused incubators, may even have labs and research resources.

St. Louis incubators like T-REx, Lab1500, Helix Center and soon the Cambridge Innovation Center (CIC), contribute to the steady growth of the St. Louis tech-community.

Tim Rowe, founder and CEO of CIC, spoke at a Plug In2 STL event. He opened up about plans to move as many as 100 new startups into their Midtown space beginning in September 2014. Rowe went on to explain the value of learning and growing with other businesses, “You also need to have community, where entrepreneurs are around each other and helping each other,” he said. “And that is the area we are in.”

We are firm believers in helping St. Louis business community grow, and we’d enjoy hearing your thoughts on how incubators are fueling a technology movement in our city. Contact us today.