As the publisher of bizblip, I put on many events for early stage founders. Most are reasonably well attended, but I’ve had to drop a couple. And I talk to a lot of event organizers, and all agree that pre and post lock-down behavior is radically different.

In my opinion, and for my events, I believe early stage founders discovered how to make connections to forward their business needs, during lock-down, in ways that do not involve getting together in person. They aren’t staying away out of fear, rather, they’re busy building their business and meeting people in person does not carry as high a value to them as it once did.

That’s why I am so amazed at the humility and hard work exhibited by the Venture Cafe – St. Louis team. They are unabashedly seeking out what stakeholders within the wonderful startup ecosystem need — and then they step up to put that in place!

Some changes are small — like shifting the Thursday Gathering time back by an hour. 3 to 7 is now 4 to 8. But it goes deeper than that. They’ve also streamlined the Thursday Gathering by shifting from monthly themes to a weekly cadence on a monthly basis. They’ve also teamed up with TechSTL for intense technology oriented programming at one of the weekly Gatherings every month!  Also, after VenCaf closes down the ‘cool kids’ pop across the street to Aloft to keep things going, or pop out to a local restaurant for a bite. That’s awesome!

If you haven’t been to Venture Cafe in a while, you HAVEN’T been to Venture Cafe! Just don’t expect it to be the old Venture Cafe, rather, look for how in touch this group is with current realities in innovation. And if you don’t see what you need… step up to J.P., Christian or Ebby and tell them how you can help them bring it! I am certain they will accommodate.

~Paul Riat, bizblip publisher

Caught Schmoozing:

  1. Joe Beggs, Hive Medical; Chris Bethel, BioGenerator
  2. Doug Elliott, Carthage Intellectual Capital Mgmt; Joel Smiley, Attracting Resources
  3. Nate Hartman, Lumeris; Mouna Apperson, Decide; Matt Schanz, IT professional
  4. Blake Knight, Anzac Developments; Chris Ransom, Phollio
  5. Kaye Brathwaite, Haiphen; Jude Safo, Haiphen; Blaine McDonnell, Hive ID
  6. Jessica Kuechler, Wiedner & McAuliffe; Lauren Coburn, multiask