St. Louis IT Entrepreneur Network  (ITEN)

 
The St. Louis IT Entrepreneur Network (ITEN) is an initiative of the St. Louis IT Coalition and Innovate St. Louis started in April of 2008 to be a catalyst for the emergence of a thriving and robust entrepreneurial community that creates successful IT ventures.  Thanks to generous grants from the Missouri Technology Corporation and the University of Missouri-St. Louis, ITEN helps IT ventures and start-ups through the initial stages of development so that they can succeed.  ITEN assists IT entrepreneurs in the greater St. Louis Region.   ITEN enables connections between start-up companies, expert mentors, recommended service providers, and investors interested in early-stage IT opportunities.

While duly recognizing that successful innovation also requires the presence of fortuitous intangible factors, ITEN focuses efforts on programs believed to have the most promise for helping IT entrepreneurs be successful.

Networking Events – ITEN holds periodic networking events that bring together the tech start-up community around areas of common interest.  Come meet and connect with the entrepreneurs, mentors and others who make up our emerging community. 

ITEN Mentoring Program - The ITEN Mentoring Program provides IT start-ups with experienced mentors that help the company focus its efforts effectively and avoiding mistakes.  Many ITEN mentors have experience with IT start-ups of their own or are knowledgeable in an area of technology adjacent to the start-up’s technology. 

Mongel Training Program – When a company has evolved to the point of being ready for investment consideration, it can apply to ITEN’s Mongel (mock angel) Training.  The company presents its investor pitch to a group of expert mentors who act as angel investors.   The company gets constructive feedback and suggestions to strengthen the presentation.   When the Mongel group concludes that the company is ready, a referral is made to ITEN-affiliated investors looking for early stage deals.

ITEN Beta Program - The ITEN Beta Program seeks to match ITEN start-up companies with larger corporations within the region who agree to become early trial adopters of the start-up company’s technology, product or service.  This program is conducted on an individual case basis and requires the start-up’s product or service to be of interest to the larger corporation as well as be ready for rigorous beta testing.

Please visit www.itenstl.org for more information about the ITEN programs, and to become part of the ITEN community as a start-up company, mentor, service provider, investor, or to sponsor the important programs ITEN provides.

Jim Brasunas
Director, ITEN
jbrasunas@itenstl.org
(314) 409-2533