The 2013 Arch Grants winners were announced yesterday, May 14th at 1:30pm. Out of the 707 that applied, only 20 were chosen to receive $50,000 in funding for their start-up. The 20 winners this year range from biotechnology to cancer research to student discount programs, so it’s really such a diverse group with some really exciting things for St. Louis and the world to look forward to.

And while some of them don’t appeal to me, mainly because I don’t know the first thing about quarter-turn pneumatic valve actuators and solenoid valves or understand how a tool that any publisher will be able to introduce anything to anyone who wants to sell is specific enough to market. Then again, they did just win a $50,000 grant, so they have the resources to work that out.

Here are my Top 5 Favorite 2013 Arch Grant winners:

Code Red Education: Being from a family where I was a first generation college graduate, I didn’t feel that my parents or my high school counselor had in-depth knowledge to help guide me towards the best degree for me. I find this happens to many college students who ultimately choose the wrong major or who wait to choose a major, giving them fewer opportunities for internships and less work experience in their field. Not to suggest that I would have been interested in the careers that were booming during my college years, but in a not-so-booming economy, I find it important to choose a field that has a large rate of career opportunities (and high paying at that). Currently, one of those fields belongs to computer science. And Code Red Education is offering students as early as 1st grade the opportunity to learn about computer science and entrepreneurship to help them get training early on to more easily get jobs in those fields. I’m really excited about this!

Eateria: Who doesn’t love eating? Well, it appears that with this start-up, your favorite restaurants will be able to better provide you with specials, coupons and offers through e-mails and social media channels, and you’ll be able to validate them more quickly through mobile devices for more convenient use when you’re out and about. While it’s mostly geared towards the restaurants, it will surely benefit their customers by providing us easier (and hopefully more frequent) use of special offers and coupons.

RoverTown: A mobile marketing firm that caters to college students. This is something I wish had been available when I was a college student. They’ve been building this product for 3 years and already have over 68 colleges throughout the country on board for businesses to take advantage of. Similar to Eateria, this is a great way for businesses to not only market themselves but also offer their loyal customers (in this case students) great offers and incentives to keep them coming back. And we all know students are generally poor, so it’s great to see a program out there that offers them useful discounts.

Immunophotonics: A research company in the development stages of an innovative, practical and safe therapeutic cancer vaccine (inCVAX). It is such an amazing thing to hear about all of the advanced technology happening with cancer research. I am delighted that Arch Grants is able to offer this program a grant to help develop research that has already shown encouraging results in the treatment of metastatic cancer.

Appcropolis-On one hand you have Code Red, providing education to the future computer coders of the world to be able to have careers in the technology and software world. On the other hand you have those of us who already have a career or already own a business and just need a quick way to start a website or mobile app, but don’t know “computer lingo”. This is a project which helps those who want to be a bit more tech savvy and create a mobile app for their small business but are not able to for lack of tech knowledge or funding.

An additional shout-out to Triflare. While I’m not a woman who you would ever see in a triathlon, this start-up is geared towards women’s athletic wear and helping women, both already fit or working towards that goal, to find athletic wear which makes them feel powerful, feminine, and stylish. Also because I’m a woman, I give it my full support.

It is such an inspiration to live in a city which offers amazingly intelligent and talented entrepreneurs a location to build a thriving business and the opportunity to achieve success. This is such an invaluable program and I’m so happy to see it unfold in St. Louis.

Learn more about all twenty 2013 Arch Grants Winners here.

 

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