Posts made in March, 2015

For Squarefruitlabs, it’s all about re-shaping.

Posted by on Mar 27, 2015 in Featured Stories, Innovation Tuesday | 0 comments

When Chico Weber describes the nature of his growing business, listeners should prepare to hear the word “reshaping” sprinkled liberally throughout the conversation. It begins with the name of Weber’s company – Squarefruit Labs. The title comes from a two-decades-old practice by some Japanese farmers of growing watermelons that are square. Those farmers insert the melons into square, tempered glass cases while the fruit is still growing, producing a melon that can more easily be stacked, transported, displayed, and placed on a refrigerator shelf. Squarefruit Labs may sound like it deals in...

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Turning CFO’s into superheroes the goal of St. Louis startup.

Posted by on Mar 20, 2015 in Featured Stories, Innovation Tuesday | 0 comments

In delivering a presentation about his new business to a group of St. Louis entrepreneurs earlier this month, PFITR founder Jim Koetting raised a few eyebrows around the room when he noted that many public fund managers – the men and women who are in charge of investing public dollars for America’s counties, cities and taxing districts – are largely unable to quickly answer a couple of basic questions.  “’How did you do last month, or last year, and what is the valuation of your portfolio as of last night?’ Those are two questions that people who are managing public funds can’t answer,” said...

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St. Louis entrepreneur hopes movie app translates into success

Posted by on Mar 15, 2015 in Featured Stories, Innovation Tuesday | 0 comments

When people ask Roberto Garcia to describe the technological concept behind his new business, he references Shazam, the app that allows customers to point their smartphones at a radio when a song is playing, then feeds back to the user data that identifies the name of the piece of music they’re hearing. Garcia’s new app, called LISTO similarly uses a technology that enables the smartphone’s microphone to capture audio in an effort to enhance the entertainment experience. But LISTO doesn’t target music aficionados, it aims to reach movie lovers. Click here to hear Roberto Garcia on KMOX...

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The St. Louis startup that gets into the weeds.

Posted by on Mar 7, 2015 in Featured Stories, Innovation Tuesday | 0 comments

Officially, it is known as pennycress, and it springs up all over the Midwest – a seemingly unremarkable weed, with a circular arrangement of leaves that makes it look a bit like dandelion plant. Although it’s not particularly odoriferous, some call it the “stinkweed.” Yet despite that inglorious moniker, there’s an awful lot to like about pennycress, say officials with one St. Louis startup company. That’s because pennycress seeds –five to seven thousand of them in a given plant – have the potential to produce the world’s next big biofuel, in addition to providing protein feed for...

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