Columbia Business Times - October 2015

October 2015

Sarah Hill

Sarah Hill brings virtual reality to Columbia Page 40

from the lab to the office

MU's new goal for innovation Page 50

the

influencers Page 60

abc labs Now and next Page 46

the STEAM ON THE BUS CPS's Mobile Makerspace Page 56

JAMES PIRTLE Chief Engineer - Broadcasting, University of Missouri

She’s so rock steady and she’s always ready. Whoa, Black Betty.

MEET BETTY. She’s a 2014 Ultra Classic and my third Harley Davidson motorcycle. Awhile back, I stopped by Mid-America Harley Davidson to get a quart of oil for my old 2009 Ultra Classic. When I walked in, Betty was sitting on the show room floor and it was love at first sight. Of course, as I was gaping at her beauty, they told me to take her for a test drive. It was game over after that. From that day on, Betty has always been ready to hit the open road with me. She’s my dream ride.

I STARTED RIDING when I got my first bike at 13 for a Christmas present. I bought my first Harley motorcycle in

1978 and have been hooked ever since. I’ve ridden Harleys in France, Italy, Germany, England and Brazil. I’ve traveled thousands of miles by motorcycle. The longest ride I’ve taken was from D.C. to California – 3,000 miles of just me and my bike. There’s nothing like it – riding with Betty is exhilarating.

The sound of the wind is like music and the unobstructed view of the scenery is incredible.

WHEN IT’S BETTY AND I getting lost on the road, I’m not just riding a motorcycle.

It’s so much more. You won’t understand why until you ride a Harley. It’s kind of like “Oh, Black Betty. BAM-BA-LAM.”

DISCOVER YOUR REASON TO RIDE AT MID-AMERICA HARLEY DAVIDSON 5704 Freedom Dr. Columbia, MO 65202 | 573.875.4444 | www.MidAmericaHD.com

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From the Editor

Editorial Erica Pefferman, Publisher Erica@BusinessTimesCompany.com Sarah Redohl, Editor SarahR@BusinessTimesCompany.com Katrina Tauchen, Copy Editor Katrina@BusinessTimesCompany.com

See You Around ›› Thirty-six. That’s how many issues I’ve edited since I started working at the Columbia Business Times in August of 2012. As you might have heard, this will be my last issue of the CBT before I move my full-time focus to my marketing training and consulting company, StoryLab. It’s been a great run, Columbia!

In pursuit of those 36 issues, I’ve attended photo shoots at sunrise and sunset with Anthony Jinson, on farms, in lakes, on airplanes in flight, in Columbia’s morgue. I’ve had the opportunity to write about topics such as crime, innovation, race relations, city finances and more. During those three years, we brought back 20 Under 40 from a brief hiatus, started CBT’s Top of the Town awards and Masters Series classes, celebrated 20 years of the CBT and won a Photo by Anthony Jinson dozen or so regional and national awards in design and storytelling.

During those three-plus years, I’ve faced a lot of challenges, matched with a lot of fun. Along the way, I learned some things, too. Now, any walk with me in downtown Columbia becomes a history lesson. That building burned down several times, that was a grocery store that sold squirrel feed in the 1800s, these were the hottest bars throughout history, and here’s a whole lot about the founding of the city of Columbia.

Although visiting friends and family are often amused by my historical trivia, the lessons from my time here that meant the most to me were the things I learned from successful local business leaders. Sarah Hill, featured on page 40, and I often joke that as journalists working in the business sphere, we have to do a lot of Googling to keep up (i.g. “What does ROI stand for?” and “What is ‘scalability’?”). And though I still have a lot to learn as I forge my own path with my business, I would have never considered entrepreneurship if it hadn’t been for Columbia’s own entrepreneurs: Mallory Van Waarde’s drive to create not just a business, but a lifestyle (December 2014 cover); Jennifer Bukowsky’s endless passion to help her clients in the courtroom and beyond; the dozens of startups we’ve featured over the years that have been shining examples of what’s possible with a little hard work; and so many others, I can’t thank everyone!

These experiences struck such a loud chord with me that I couldn’t ignore it; I wanted to play in that space. And so, I hope you enjoy my last issue of the CBT. Inside you’ll find stories of people who also had the need to play in an innovative space, from top-ranked content marketing company Influence & Co. (page 62) to ABC Labs (page 46), MU’s ever-increasing commitment to effective innovation (page 50) and Columbia Public Schools’ latest effort to instill this value of innovation at a very young age in a unique way (page 56). I have no doubt Brenna McDermott will continue to share Columbia’s best business stories and set CBT’s sights and standards even higher.

In the meantime, I’d still be happy to hear from CBT’s readers, either on Twitter — @SarahRedohl — or by email­— sarah@storylab.guru — if you ever want to talk smartphone content marketing, Columbia’s history or even the CBT. It will always be a part of my history.

Enjoy the issue! See you around.

Best,

OCTOBER 2015

DESIGN Gillian Tracey, Editorial Designer Gillian@BusinessTimesCompany.com Jordan Watts, Editorial Designer Jordan@BusinessTimesCompany.com Creative Services Keith Borgmeyer, Graphic Designer Keith@BusinessTimesCompany.com MARKETING REPRESENTATIVES Deb Valvo, Director of Sales Deb@BusinessTimesCompany.com Stacy Zorn, Marketing Consultant Stacy@BusinessTimesCompany.com CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS Jackie Duewell, Anthony Jinson, LG Patterson, Sarah Redohl, Emily Shepherd CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Beth Bramstedt, Al Germond, Alex Jacobi, Tron Jordheim, Christi Kelly Kemper, Brenna McDermott, Clint Miller, Matthew Patston, Monica Pitts, Lauren Puckett, Pieter Van Waarde CONTRIBUTING ILLUSTRATOR Tifani Carter Interns Maribeth Eiken, Alex Jacobi, Jessica Kaiser, Kaitlynn Martin, Matthew Patston, Lauren Puckett, Emily Shepherd, Abby Wade MANAGEMENT Erica Pefferman, President Erica@BusinessTimesCompany.com Renea Sapp, Vice President of Finance ReneaS@BusinessTimesCompany.com Amy Ferrari, Operations Manager Amy@BusinessTimesCompany.com Crystal Richardson, Account Manager Crystal@BusinessTimesCompany.com SUBSCRIPTIONS Subscription rate is $19.95 for 12 issues for 1 year or $34.95 for 24 issues for 2 years.

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Sarah Hill

Sarah Redohl, Editor

Sarah Hill was sure to bring a handful of virtual reality headsets with her when she came in for her cover shoot. Read more about Hill’s new company on page 40. Photo by Anthony Jinson.

SARAH HILL BRINGS VIRTUAL REALITY TO COLUMBIA PAGE 40

FROM THE LAB TO THE OFFICE

MU'S NEW GOAL FOR INNOVATION PAGE 50

THE

INFLUENCERS PAGE 60

ABC LABS NOW AND NEXT PAGE 46

THE STEAM ON THE BUS CPS'S MOBILE MAKERSPACE

PAGE 56

OUR MISSION STATEMENT The Columbia Business Times and ColumbiaBusinessTimes.com strives to be Columbia’s leading source for timely and comprehensive news coverage of the local business community. This publication is dedicated to being the most relevant and useful vehicle for the exchange of information and ideas among Columbia’s business professionals.

columbiabusinesstimes.com /// 17

18 \\\ October 2015

Member SIPC

From the Editor New Beginnings ›› Influence & Co.’s John Hall told me during our interview that innovation is an overused word. Selling a tech product doesn’t necessarily make you innovative. Likewise, selling toaster ovens doesn’t mean you are traditional. Innovation isn’t what you’re doing.

Innovation is the why, the how behind the actions. Innovation is deciding that despite “what we’ve always done,” Photo by Jackie Duewell Photography there might be a better way.

And it means not worrying about whether the buzzword applies to you and instead focusing on doing what is best for your company and your clients.

I’d say two editors working side by side to produce this magazine qualifies.

How often do we get to learn the job alongside the person who’s come before us? Sarah Redohl’s been at the helm of the Columbia Business Times for three years, and she has imparted all of that experience to me with enthusiasm. Instead of trying to read her mind — “What would Sarah do?” — I’ve had the chance to work next to her to produce this issue and learn not only what she would do but also why she would do it.

This is an exceptional publication: in look, feel and content.

I thank Sarah for crafting a fantastic product. I look forward to putting my fingerprint on CBT, and I promise you that no matter how the magazine evolves, CBT will continue to be exceptional.

You are part of that evolution. I’ve always loved homework, so here’s yours. Email me at brenna@businesstimescompany.com, stop me on the street or tweet at us — @ColumbiaBiz — and answer this question: How would you describe CBT in three words?

I look forward to hearing from you!

Mark Richardson, CFP® Financial Advisor

Change doesn’t

always have to be hard.

Sometimes it’s smart.

Your life is always changing and consequently, so are your needs and preferences. As your trusted partner and advisor, it’s my role to ensure that your portfolio is reflective of your current financial goals.

Your personal needs and preferences are always at the center of our relationship.

Best,

Brenna McDermott, Editor

Mark Richardson ,CFP® 2415 Carter Ln Suite #104 Columbia, MO 65201 573.442.1276 mark.richardson@edwardjones.com columbiabusinesstimes.com /// 19

20 \\\ October 2015

about the last times What's happening online Brenna McDermott @brenbrenmcd Proud to be the new editor of @ColumbiaBiz #como Igniting Business @IgnitingB @brenbrenmcd Congrats on becoming the new editor of @ColumbiaBiz!

Around the office 20 Under 40 Nominations for the CBT's 20 Under 40 Class of 2016 are open until Oct. 9. Head online to columbiabusinesstimes.com to nominate the superstar business leaders in your life.

Matt Nivens @Niv26 My man Dave Rowe gracing the cover of @ColumbiaBiz Times @D_ROWESCOMO #rockstar

Masters Series Do you need to improve your sales strategy, marketing plan, IT solutions or legal policies?

SERIES What about strategic plans, HR policies, financial management and organizational health? If so, sign up for our second annual Masters Series. This series of eight classes will surely add some edge to your business game.

THE

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Mizzou Nursing @MizzouNursing Chk out @ColumbiaBiz great article on the DNP program's 2015 Celebration of Excellence Award for Mature Program.

Anthony Jinson @anthonyjinson @SarahMidMO @SarahRedohl @ColumbiaBiz Yes!! The VR was amazing! Like nothing I have ever experienced!

Behind the scenes The CBT team had fun paragliding, base jumping and flying over the Icelandic countryside when Sarah Hill came in for this issue’s cover shoot with her virtual reality tech.

Write to CBT editor Brenna McDermott at Brenna@BusinessTimesCompany.com

New Ownership Exciting times are afoot around the Columbia Business Times office.

Our president, Erica Pefferman, became a full partner in the Business Times Co., joining owners Erica Pefferman Al Germond and Dave Baugher. The company also added a new editor, Brenna McDermott; a new assistant editor, Matt Patston; and a new editorial designer, Jordan Watts.

Sadly, we’re saying goodbye to two staff members: Sarah Redohl, who is leaving her post as editor to focus on her rapidly growing multimedia startup, StoryLab, and Gillian Tracey, who is taking her wicked design skills to the freelance market. We wish them the best, and we’re thankful to have helped launch two seriously talented people. columbiabusinesstimes.com /// 21

22 \\\ October 2015

October 2015

Vol. 22, Issue 4 columbiabusinesstimes.com

40

Out of the Box

With a cardboard box and great big vision, Sarah Hill left her job for a brand-new project, StoryUp VR, aimed at combining storytelling and technology to raise awareness and tell stories that “hurt our hearts.”

46 Growth Mode

Columbia-based ABC Labs finalized its sale to Californiabased Evans Analytical Group in July, and they’re setting their sights on new discoveries and continued growth.

50 The Business of Research MU is encouraging its professors to take their research from the lab to the consumer — and it wants their ideas to be big.

Departments 17 From the Editor 21 Letters to the Editor 25 Movers and Shakers 26 Briefly in the News 29 A Closer Look 30 Business Update 35 P.Y.S.K. 39 Opinion 66 Nonprofit Spotlight 70 Celebrations 73 Marketing 75 Technology 77 Organizational Health 79 Sales 80 Business Licenses 81 Deeds of Trust 82 Economic Index 83 By the Numbers 84 7 Questions 86 Flashback

56 The STEAM on the Bus Columbia’s new mobile learning lab — the brainchild of Jonathan Sessions and Craig Adams — is fueled by creativity, innovation and Booches burgers.

60 A Modern Influence

Influence & Co. proves only results matter. That’s because the content marketing agency was founded on youth, independence and yoga pants, not on tradition and suits.

24 \\\ October 2015

Movers and Shakers

›› Professionals grow, serve and achieve

Wolfe

Darrough

LEE

›› Kevin Quinn In August, Quinn was selected as the new director of development at the Missouri Military Academy. He will focus on increasing the annual fund of the academy and will work with the board of trustees and the academy’s volunteer network. Quinn previously worked at Westminster College as the director of development.

›› Mike Burns

MidwayUSA hired Burns as clothing and footwear product line manager. He graduated from the University of Missouri with a bachelor’s degree in finance and has experience in production management.

›› Tim Wolfe University of Missouri System President Wolfe is the 2015 recipient of the Missourian Award.

The award was created to honor the state’s most outstanding citizens who have made a positive impact on their communities. Wolfe has been serving as UM System president since 2011.

›› Midwest Computech

Midwest Computech added two new employees to its team in July. Cynthia Yang is the new director of human resources and graduated with a degree in broadcast journalism from MU. Christian Loesing is the company’s new marketing coordinator. In 2014, Loesing graduated from the University of Central Missouri with a bachelor’s degree in marketing.

›› Thomas Darrough In August, Gov. Jay Nixon appointed Darrough to the position of Boone County treasurer. Darrough owns Tom Darrough Construction LLC and has been a general contractor since 2002. He graduated from the University of Missouri-St. Louis with a bachelor’s degree in business administration.

middleton

Schiltz

Smith

Utrecht

›› CenterPointe Hospital

Four behavioral health clinicians were welcomed to CenterPointe Outpatient Services at its Columbia location. Psychiatrists Dr. Ahmed A. Taranissi, Dr. Agara S. Reddy and Dr. Archna Aggarwal, as well as nurse practitioner Marsha Kempf, RN, MSN, PMHNP, PMHCNS, will help expand psychiatric treatments and services for CenterPointe’s intensive outpatient program.

›› William Woods University William Woods University welcomed two new board members and seven new faculty members to its staff. Vicki Wilkerson, of Auxvasse, Missouri, and Wyatt Guthrie, of Glendale, Arizona, joined the university’s board of trustees in August. In addition, Dr. Lynn Hanrahan, associate professor of graduate education; Dr. Woojun Lee, assistant professor of sports management; Steve Middleton, instructor in athletic training; Steve Saravara, assistant professor of criminal justice; Dr. Paul Schiltz, veterinarian; Michele Smith, associate professor of equestrian studies; and Rachel Utrecht, technical services librarian, will join the university staff. Dr. Linda Davis was named the new chair of business, law, technology and languages. Dr. Tim Hanrahan will now chair education, human performance and humanities. Also, Raymond Hune is the new chair of mathematics and science.

›› Ian Micklethwaite THHinc McClure Engineering Co. , which specializes in land development, drainage and other infrastructure projects, added Micklethwaite to its team in August. As a new structural designer for the company, Micklethwaite has experience in reinforcement, cold-form and multistory designs. Micklethwaite graduated from MU with a Bachelor of Science in civil engineering.

micklethwaite

NEWEY

dial

›› Kevin Carlson Visionworks Marketing Group announced that Carlson, a 2003 MU graduate, joined the advertising and marketing agency. Carlson is the new account manager, and his responsibilities will include helping clients across multiple platforms.

Carlson will also bring his experience in design, editing , writing and photography to his new role.

›› Dr. Sarah Newey Columbia Podiatry, a foot and ankle clinic, welcomed Newey to its staff in August. Newey graduated from the Ohio College of Podiatric Medicine and has strong interests in wound, diabetic and general podiatric care.

›› Central Bank of Boone County Central Bank of Boone County promoted Brian Dial to the position of assistant vice president of commercial banking. Dial graduated from MU with a bachelor’s degree in business, finance and banking and became part of the banking team in 2005 as a teller. He will now manage business relationships and focus on ways to improve the bank’s growth. The bank also announced 11 employee promotions in July. Josh Cosey was promoted to assistant manager of the Rock Bridge Bank.

Sara Enyard will now be a personal banker at the Downtown Bank. Jessica Bennett was promoted to a senior call center representative at the bank’s customer service center. Also, Latoya Williams and Sheila Wilson are now customer service representatives II. Pattie Swartz was promoted to the position of customer service representative. West Broadway Bank’s Brooke Canzoneri and Village Bank’s Rebekah Whitaker were both promoted to senior tellers. Morgan Johnston of West Broadway Bank and Shawntez Hamilton-Wells of Motor Bank were both promoted to teller II. CBT

➜ Are you or your employees making waves in the Columbia business community? Send us your news to Editor@BusinessTimesCompany.com columbiabusinesstimes.com /// 25

briefly in the news

›› A rundown of this month’s top headlines

COMO in Inc. 5000 list Inc. magazine’s annual list of the 5,000 fastestgrowing private companies is a who’s who of the startup world.

Alumni include Oracle, Domino’s and Microsoft.

This year, we’re celebrating the five Columbia companies to appear on the list. Four are repeat winners, and one is a newcomer. AdKarma was CoMo’s highest-ranking member for the second year in a row, despite slipping from 38th to 217th.

True Media made the list for the sixth year in a row, ranking 2,770th; Division-D was the only Columbia repeater to move up, from 4,242nd to 3,665th. Job Finders came in at 1,368th, and Accurate Rx Pharmacy, the first-time winner, ranked 2,036th.

New ownership, new retail Sumits Hot Yoga studio transitioned ownership this summer, and new co-owners Jocelyn Kilgore, Bob Kilgore, Kelly Bietsch and Fred Bietsch are bringing retail flair to the business.

The ownership team added apparel from top-tier yoga brands, such as Lululemon, Onzie, Beyond Yoga, Spiritual Gangster and ALO Yoga. “We have recognized the need in our community for the quality yoga and athletic apparel products for men and women that we are providing,” Jocelyn Kilgore says.

MU music school project Three months after receiving a $10 million donation from Rex and Jeanne Sinquefield, which kicked off a fundraising campaign for a new music building, the University of Missouri is still accruing donations for the project.

Sam Hamra, a graduate of MU’s business and law schools and chairman of Hamra Enterprises, donated $100,000 to the project. The school will need to raise $35 million in private donations before asking the state for matching funds to cover the building. The new facility would be constructed on the corner of Hitt and University on the MU campus.

eyes on freight Eyes on Freight, a Columbia company that matches companies to supply chain providers, was accepted into the San Francisco-based 500 Startups business incubator. The company will participate in a four-month accelerator program in San Francisco focusing on marketing, mentoring and developing partnerships.

Eyes on Freight currently works with companies in 22 countries and 58 different services but expects to expand upon completion of the 500 Startups program.

CC GRANT RENEWED Columbia College’s Trio Student Services Program recently received a $1.15 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education. The program has received $4.29 million in federal grants since its launch in 2001.

Columbia College says the grant will allow the program to continue for the next five years.

The program, available to day students on the Columbia campus, assists first-generation college students, students with physical and mental learning disabilities and students who meet federal income guidelines.

Eighth-grade scholarships Boone County Historical Society and Commerce Bank announced the creation of the Commerce Bank Boone County History Scholars Program, which will award two $1,000 scholarships to area eighth-graders.

This year, students were required to submit either a research-based essay or a creative narrative highlighting Boone County’s equestrian history. The Boone County Historical Society will hold the two scholarships until the contest winners graduate from high school, at which time the money will be released to the schools of their choice.

26 \\\ October 2015

Stephens College world-ranked Stephens College has staked a spot among the capitals of fashion on the first Business of Fashion school rankings. BoF, a well-respected online news site for the fashion industry, named Stephens the 13th best fashion school in the world.

In the rankings, Stephens is the fourth highest-rated school in the United States, with the six other American schools on the list all in the Eastern time zone. BoF also named Stephens first in long-term value and fifth in learning experience.

Central Methodist classes Central Methodist University and Moberly Area Community College, both of which maintain satellite campuses in Columbia, announced they would begin offering programs at the same location in the Columbia Parkade Center.

The space currently houses MACC’s Columbia programs.

CMU will maintain its presence at the Forum Shopping Center in addition to its classes offered at the Parkade.

The partnership will allow MACC students to begin earning higher degrees while continuing to learn at the same site. The schools will initially offer six bachelor’s degree programs and one graduate program at the Parkade site.

Boone County studies cities The Central Missouri Events Center Review Committee went to meet with officials in Independence, Missouri and Overland Park, Kansas, to discuss strategies for event hosting.

The trip was prompted by the closure of the Boone County Event Center, which hosted its last Boone County Fair this summer. The committee, comprised of seven county stakeholders, first visited the Independence Events Center, where they met with City Manager Ron Heacock and a representative from Global Entertainment, the company that manages the center. The committee also toured various sports and tourism facilities in Overland Park.

officers train

All Columbia Police officers underwent a procedural justice training course after being accepted into a nationally sponsored program. Their training focused on developing positive relationships with the community and being proactive and transparent in community policing. Only 66 agencies nationwide were selected for the program.

Bank of Missouri merges The Bank of Missouri has much to celebrate, beginning with its merger agreement with Bank Star of the BootHeel. Bank of Missouri added Bank Star’s locations in Caruthersville and Steele to its network of 21 locations across the state. Bank Star had $91 million in assets.

The Bank of Missouri was also recognized for outstanding social media outreach.

The Independent Community Bankers of America named the Bank of Missouri a top 50 community bank leader in social media.

MoDOT bridge work Construction crews began work on three Interstate 70 overpass bridges in Columbia, at Range Line Street, Garth Avenue and Business Loop 70 West. MoDOT expects the project to cost $18 million. The new bridges will be constructed alongside the existing bridges.

Mizzou Online offers tuition break MU announced it will begin a tuition-assistance program encouraging community college graduates to work on fouryear degrees through Mizzou Online.

The Mizzou Online Community College Tuition Award, worth 10 percent reduction off tuition, is available to Missouri residents who have graduated from a community college in the state and are pursuing one of MU’s undergraduate distance programs.

The reduction will count toward the student’s base tuition and can be used for up to 150 cumulative hours of classes. CBT columbiabusinesstimes.com /// 27

28 \\\ October 2015

a closer look

›› A quick look at emerging companies

1. Equipmentshare.com

3. La Di Da Children's Boutique

5. Riback Supply

Willy Schlacks has been in the construction business for most of his life; he started his first construction company with his brother as a teenager. Now the two of them operate Equipmentshare.com with three other co-owners. The website offers construction equipment rental as well as an online platform that assists contractors in managing all of their equipment in one portal. The site carries heavy-duty tools that a rental company might not normally carry, Schlacks says. Although headquartered in Columbia, Schlacks says the company hopes to go nationwide and even international.

“We’re building a system that meets [contractors’] needs,” Schlacks says. “It saves them money and pain.”

Contact: Willy Schlacks, 817-428-4153

When La Di Da Children’s Boutique opened on Aug. 1, owner Chrissy Maurizi says parents were arriving from all around Missouri, proclaiming they’d “buy anything with a ruffle on it.” A third-generation foster care provider and business owner, Maurizi decided to open the children’s clothing boutique when she realized her friends were always looking for cute children’s clothes around Columbia. The store includes a coffee bar for moms and juice boxes for kids, along with more than 40 brands of clothing. “It wouldn’t be such a cool thing if it wasn’t bringing moms together,” Maurizi says. “I don’t care if I break even. I want moms to be happy dressing their kids.”

Contact: Chrissy Maurizi, 573-823-6941

On July 1, Iowa-based Plumb Supply Co. purchased Riback Supply from previous family owners. Originally started in 1934 by Morris and Harold Riback, Riback Supply Co. will continue operation through Plumb Supply Co., which was started in 1946 and oversees 18 locations in Iowa. Riback Supply boasts 17 locations in Missouri and one in Kansas, with the corporate office residing in Columbia. Riback Supply distributes a wide variety of residential and commercial tools, including amenities for plumbing, heating and cooling. The company also owns four showrooms that specialize in kitchen and bath appliances, cabinetry and countertops.

Contact: Corporate Office, 573-875-3131

2. Starbucks

4. Miami Bites

6. Mama T’s Cupcakes

The Seattle-based favorite for coffee fanatics has finally snuck its way south to Nifong Boulevard. After beginning building in December 2014 and working around initial traffic issues, the sixth Columbia Starbucks location is open and ready for business.

Pour, sip and stir some fall favorites as the cold approaches, such as the hashtagable Pumpkin Spice Latte, Cinnamon Dolce Latte, White Chocolate Mocha, the Skinny Peppermint Mocha and more. The new location also offers the usual Starbucks amenities, such as free Wi-Fi, digital rewards and the addition of a drive-thru for customers in a hurry to (or from) work.

Contact: April Welch, 573-268-8271

1

Lexi Price’s food truck, Miami Bites, is all thanks to her mother, Ali. Born in Cuba, Ali lived with Price in Miami until 2002, when the family moved to Columbia. For years, Price’s mother craved authentic Cuban food but could rarely find it in mid-Missouri.

Watching the rise of food trucks in the area, Price and her fiancée, Michelle Huff, decided to create their own truck, offering Cuban sandwiches with bread shipped straight from Miami. “It’s really exciting to see another Hispanic food establishment,” Price says. “I love sharing my food and the culture I grew up in with my friends.”

Contact: Lexi Price, 573-228-2257

Natasha Myrick earned the nickname “Mama T” as a ministry leader in college. She was the “mama bear” of her friend group, so incoming freshmen blessed her with the nickname — and it stuck. A few years later, Myrick baked more than 200 cupcakes for her own wedding and realized she could make a business out of her craft. Soon, Mama T’s Cupcakes began.

Offering flavors such as chocolate salted caramel, raspberry lemonade and Nutella, Myrick can also cook within dietary restraints such as gluten-free, vegan and organic. She works from a home kitchen, and out of the store Plume on Thursday through Saturday.

Contact: Natasha Myrick, 660-441-4204 CBT

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➜ Are you an entrepreneur? Are you sprouting a new business? Tell us about it at Editor@BusinessTimesCompany.com columbiabusinesstimes.com /// 29

xx Photo by Anthony Jinson Jabbok and Willy Schlacks October 2015 30 \\\ OCTOBER

business update

›› Transformed, trending and up-to-the-minute

➜ 1123 Wilkes Blvd., No. 100, Columbia, MO 65201 573-299-5222

Equipment Share

How brothers Jabbok and Willy Schlacks turned a problem in a sewer pipeline into a rapidly growing business. By Alex Jacobi | Photos by anthony jinson Most good businesses are born by solving problems. This particular problem began in a sewer pipeline.

Brothers Jabbok and Willy Schlacks were working in the construction industry when they realized how difficult it was to rent construction equipment. With their own drill miles away, the Schlacks were in need of a drill — and fast. “[Jabbok] was about 15 feet underground in the middle of a sewer pipeline, just poop everywhere, trying to get through this manhole,” Willy says. The brothers rented the equipment they needed to get out of the messy situation, and when they went to return the drill, they discovered the rental rate for three days, $300, was the going rate for a new drill.

“We knew that every contractor in the world has one of those tools,” Willy says. “There was no reason why it should have cost us that much money to use it for three days.” High rental prices result in many contractors buying equipment they may only use a handful of times, which leads to oversupply — and underutilization — of construction equipment.

But there was no way to connect contractors with excess, unused construction equipment with contractors in need of that equipment. It was then that Jabbok and Willy decided to solve the problem themselves, and Equipment Share was born.

Equipment Share is an online platform where contractors can lend and rent equipment from other contractors for less than rental companies charge.

In addition to reducing the cost of renting construction equipment by 30 percent, Equipment Share also offers contractors a simple way to manage and make money from their equipment.

Equipment Share installs devices — essentially GPS trackers — on all rental equipment

Equipment Share reduces the cost of renting construction equipment by about 30 percent.

so contractors can see who is using their equipment, what it’s being used for and where it’s being used. The company also helps save its rental customers money on insurance. Willy says rental companies charge an additional 12 to 20 percent for protection plans, which cover damage that is already covered under most contractors’ insurance policies.

“What they don’t realize is that most of their insurance plans already cover [rented equipment],” Willy says. “And if not, their plan is very close.”

Equipment Share will work with contractors at no extra cost to make sure they have a plan that covers rented equipment so they can save that 12 to 20 percent each time they rent a piece.

“If they spend $200,000 on rented equipment,” Willy says, “that could cost them an extra $20,000 for something they’re usually already paying for. Equipment Share also conducts required safety checks on all its contractors’ rental equipment.

“It’s this ecosystem that we’re creating,” Willy continues. “Some contractors lend, rent, buy and sell all within Equipment Share’s platform.”

“We’re helping solve a fundamental problem in the industry, and that is really cool,” Jabbok says. “We’re actually meeting a need and helping make jobsites safer and better.”

Essentially, Equipment Share is more than a rental service. It’s a free online management system for construction equipment, funded columbiabusinesstimes.com /// 31

Jared W. Reynolds, CFP® Carroll Wilkerson, CFP®

by a 20 percent cut of the rental price for its users’ equipment.

Basically, it’s the Airbnb of the construction world.

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You plan to retire at 55, not 65?

You have a Lab named Marco?

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32 \\\ October 2015

From startup To success Equipment Share wasn’t the Schlacks brothers’ first business venture. The pair has started a computer company, some other service-based businesses and a couple of construction companies.

“We’ve owned quite a few businesses over the years, since I was about 14, and Jabbok was 18 or 19,” Willy says. “We’ve never not owned businesses.”

So, when they started Equipment Share, they already had a plan in place.

One of their first acts was to bring Equipment Share to Startup Weekend Columbia last fall. After a weekend of hard work, Equipment Share took home first place and $2,000 in startup capital. Later that winter, the company was accepted into Y Combinator, a business incubator in Silicon Valley that has worked with Reddit, Dropbox and Airbnb, where it received advising services and $120,000 in capital.

After a few months of fundraising and beta testing software, Equipment Share launched this past February. Headquartered in Columbia, Equipment Share already serves about 1,000 companies throughout Missouri, Kansas and Illinois, with revenues growing about 10 percent every week. Willy and Jabbok hope to

expand to Texas and Florida this fall and eventually reach every state and even take Equipment Share international.

“We have talked with several companies and people interested in taking it overseas in Germany, Australia, Sweden and some other places,” Willy says. “Right now, we’re probably a year out from going overseas, but it’s definitely a goal.”

Continued growth is necessary with a company like this, Jabbok says, because more customers means more equipment to share. “It works better for everybody if more people are in the system,” Jabbok says.

“We started the company with one thing in mind,” Willy says. “We make decisions based on whatever helps contractors and benefits them.”

Despite a potentially international footprint, the brothers hope to keep the company headquarters in Columbia.

More than ‘tech’ Even though Equipment Share is considered a tech company, Willy thinks technology is just a means to an end.

“Technology is there to serve us; it’s not an end in itself,” he says. “It has to serve the end user. It has to serve the customer.

It has to make your life easier. It has to connect things. Creating something that’s cool and fancy is not enough; it has to solve a problem.” CBT

columbiabusinesstimes.com /// 33

Anne Sievers, Owner

Rylan Adams, Owner

Meet Anne Sievers and Rylan Adams, owners of Synergy Sports. They recently obtained an SBA loan from The Bank of Missouri to open a new athletic facility in Columbia for youth to learn and develop in the sports of soccer, basketball, swimming and volleyball.

An SBA loan from The Bank of Missouri is one of the best financing options for small and growing businesses. An SBA loan can help you finance an entire business, equipment and fixtures, business real estate and much more.

Andrew Zorn SBA Loan Officer

34 \\\ October 2015

Karin Bell Sr. VP, SBA Manager

P.Y.S.K. Person You Should Know

Job description: Gravity is mid-Missouri’s Apple Authorized Service Provider. We can fix any Mac made between 1980 and tomorrow. Whether in warranty or not, our goal is to get you up and running as quickly as possible. Additionally, we provide training, consultation and contracted support. My work revolves around making technology understandable, keeping it running and fixing it if it breaks down. In other words, when it comes to computers, my job is to make your life easier.

Jonathan Sessions Owner of Gravity

Age:

33

Years lived in Columbia/mid-Missouri: See age.

Original hometown: Columbia Education: A lifelong Columbia resident, I went to Russell, Smithton (Kind of. It’s a long story.

Ask Jack Jensen.), West Junior and Hickman. I started at the University of Missouri, but job opportunities drew me away. I eventually returned to earn my bachelor’s degree in elementary music education.

Community involvement: Anyone who’s met me

Photo by Sarah Redohl

knows I’m actively involved in the community. I have served on countless city committees, commissions and task forces; led youth programs and choirs; and am an active member of the Columbia Chamber of Commerce. I am in my sixth year of serving as a member of the Columbia Public Schools Board of Education.

›› Accomplishment I’m most proud of: I built and maintain the technology infrastructure for Newsy.com, the Columbia-based online news organization recently purchased by E.W. Scripps for $35 million.

Professional background: I starting working for Apple as a campus representative while at MU, where I was part of the team that transitioned the MU School of Journalism to Apple computers.

After working for Apple, I managed service and sales for an Apple reseller. I restarted school, and while still a student at MU, I opened Sessions Consulting, which grew into Tech 2 and has now expanded into Gravity.

What people should know about this profession: Birthdays and pet names don’t make good passwords. Wi-Fi and the Internet are two different things. Real-life computers don’t work like the ones on TV. Banging on your keyboard rarely helps; turning a computer off and back on usually does. columbiabusinesstimes.com /// 35

Why I’m passionate about my job: This job lets me help people at a time when they need it most: when they’ve lost an important presentation for work, photos of their kids or their entire address book. I love solving problems, and this lets me use that talent to make someone’s life a little easier. And besides, there’s always something new to learn when you’re a techie.

Join Us!

Photos by Madeline Beyer

A Columbia businessperson I admire and why: I’m impressed by all

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the people who’ve started a business and chosen to stay here in Columbia because they are committed to this city. In particular, Jack Miller of True Media has made the decision to grow his business right here in Columbia — and also dedicate his time to fixing up a part of town that’s long been neglected.

A favorite recent project: I worked with three very bright students from West Middle School on a digital signage project for REDI. They designed, prototyped, tested and produced the hardware necessary for the project using 3-D printing. Then they spent a day on-site installing, configuring and testing their equipment. It was a great example of what CPS students can do.

REDI ended up with a solid, easy-tomanage solution to its problem, and the students got firsthand experience solving problems and working with clients. And best of all, the kids got out of school for a day.

If I weren’t doing this for a living, I would: Teach.

What I do for fun: Tinker, fiddle, indulge the dog.

Family: Dr. Carrie Gartner and I play

Become a m e m abyer! tod

uclub.missouri.edu 573.882.2586

UNIVERSITY CLUB OF MU | UNIVERSITY CATERING & EVENT SERVICES 107 Donald W. Reynolds Alumni & Visitor Center 36 \\\ October 2015

house in our central-city bungalow with the aforementioned beagle, Wyatt.

Favorite place in Columbia: Downtown. Wait, scratch that. The Loop.

Most people don’t know that I: Have a working PowerBook G3. It’s best used for infecting alien mother ships with viruses and writing sex columns while in New York City. CBT

columbiabusinesstimes.com /// 37

LESS is

THEM.

.

573.443.1234

Moresource-Inc.com

Because you have better things to do.

US.

Roundtable › Al Germond

The Lone Voter Just when we thought the laudable efforts of a group of property owners to transform the sow’s ear of Business Loop 70 into the silk purse of a beautiful boulevard called The Loop through the creation of a Community Improvement District has come to a grinding halt, it has become a contentious matter inflated by the discovery of a heretofore unaccounted for resiAl Germond is the dent of the 12-room Ernest and Eugehost of the Columbia nia Wyatt Guest House at 317 BusiBusiness Times Sunday ness Loop 70 W., which is part of the Morning Roundtable UMC Health Care System. Under state at 8:15 a.m. Sundays law, the presence of a single registered on KFRU. He can be voter living in the CID can determine reached at the fate of any measure involving taxal@columbiabusiness ation, in this case levying a sales tax times.com. designated for improvements for designated projects within the district.

Because this heroine of the low-tax crowd has already told us how she plans to vote, plans for the Business Loop 70 CID are dead in the water for now, paralyzed by an unexpected oversight during the process of due diligence.

In 1998, the late Mel Carnahan signed the Community Improvement District Act, which was designed to create state-approved legal subdivisions using both member assessments and sales taxes to fund improvements within a legally designated district. The Three Trails Village CID in Kansas City was first in 2002 with a project aligning the Santa Fe, Oregon and California National Historic Trails that extended from State Line Road to Upper Independence Landing in Jackson County. Now there are more than 35 other CIDs, including the one that embraces downtown Columbia.

Poor old U.S. Highway 40. It’s the route of unrecognized but deeply historic significance that elevated Columbia to prominence in 1927, when the city was linked to Kansas City and St. Louis with a slab of concrete 18 feet wide while hundreds of bridges were installed across the rolling countryside to pull Missouri out of the mud. As an upgrade of the equally historic Old Trails Road that predated the Civil War, Columbia triumphed in a stroke of geographic luck because the Centennial Highway Act of 1921 specified routing between the state’s two great cities over the shortest path, a route that conveniently crossed the city’s northern edge where the Business Loop is today.

Noting the discovery of a single overnight bed in the Wyatt House within the ostensibly gerrymandered boundaries of the proposed CID recalls the presence years ago of hundreds of beds bunked in a since-forgotten array of motels and tourist camps up and down Highway 40, including the Show Me; Travelier; Mizzou; El Don; and the Arrow Head, still ensconced at 1411 Highway 40 E., a survivor if only via its iconic neon sign.

This photo, taken in 1958, shows the Interstate 70 bypass under construction. Highway 40 occupies the right side of the photo, with the Parkade Drive-In Theater at the present site of the Parkade shopping center and Ellis Fischel shown top center.

Passage of the Interstate Highway Act of 1956 accelerated crossing the state with a safer divided interstate highway, which was dedicated on Sept.

19, 1965. The Missouri River Bridge and more than 30 miles of Interstate 70 had opened on Oct. 8, 1960, thus begetting a new role for Old Highway 40, which was renamed Business Loop 70. The old dame had served travelers well for more than 30 years with 11 motels in 1960, 15 restaurants and 18 service stations. Only a handful of the buildings listed in the 1960 Polk’s City Directory are still standing today.

Close examination along both sides of the road armed with old directories points to the almost complete repurposing of the street. That’s not enough for proponents of the proposed CID who correctly recall that, aside from individual, privately financed business development including extensive demolition and new construction, Business Loop 70 hasn’t been attended to in a major way since 1964.

Proponents of the proposed Business Loop 70 CID have to be smarting over the sty in their collective eye inflicted by the temporary resident of the Wyatt Guest House, a person who appears to be especially gifted with a snarly attitude of adolescent belligerence. Maybe there’s more to this story because it involves the curious chronology of a lapse in time and disclosure. The Wyatt Guest House caretaker registered to vote on Feb. 28, but only recently did the members of the CID board become aware of the existence of this newly minted voter. We might never find out what really transpired, but there are ample reasons to be suspicious. Perhaps the Missouri Legislature will amend the 1998 CID Act to address the anomaly presented by this lone voter, who can claim no bona fide interest because she owns no property in the proposed district. Meanwhile, Historic Old Highway 40 will saunter along, providing the service as it has for nearly 90 years, underappreciated but significant and worthy of whatever aid and assistance we can provide through the inevitable creation of a workable CID. CBT columbiabusinesstimes.com /// 39

With a cardboard box and great big vision, Sarah Hill left her job for a brand-new project, StoryUp VR, aimed at combining storytelling and technology to raise awareness and tell stories that ‘hurt our hearts.’

By Lauren Puckett | photos by anthony jinson

40 \\\ October 2015

columbiabusinesstimes.com /// 41

W

When Sarah Hill first announced she was quitting her job and creating a startup, it was hard to imagine the equipment in her hands had the potential to revolutionize the technology industry. After all, she was holding a cardboard box.

“My friends and family are often confused when I tell them why I quit my job,” Hill says. “They ask, ‘Wait, you quit your job to sell cardboard boxes?’

But once they see the technology, they get it.”

Hill’s spent so much time with this box that, now, she’s dropped everything else to devote her life to it.

So perhaps it wasn’t just a cardboard box. Hill was carrying Google Cardboard, a virtual reality viewer made of cardboard. This equipment opened the door to her new business, a virtual reality journalism company that seeks to “combine story and technology to raise awareness about the stories that hurt our hearts,” Hill says.

This startup, appropriately titled StoryUp VR, became her full-time project in August, when Hill quit her job at Veterans United Home Loans. Since then, Hill’s worked tirelessly with Google Cardboard — the cardboard box that changed her life.

The device, built like a pair of goggles and reminiscent of a ’90s-style View-Master, works using a smartphone and smartphone app. When demoing the equipment, Hill taps an app on her iPhone, inserts the phone along a slit in the Cardboard and holds the device up to her eyes.

In the next moment, she’s in a completely different place.

Swiveling her head to the right, the 360-degree, 3-D VR video follows her line-of-sight to show her a mountain range; tilting her head up, a flock of birds; blinking down toward the ground, a rocky plateau on which she “stands” — and a drop-off only inches from her feet.

These days, Google Cardboard and other VR devices are commonplace in Hill’s home. They’re so commonplace, in fact, that she uses them to get to sleep at night. On stressful evenings, she’ll take five-minute trips to the beach via Google Cardboard right before her head hits the pillow.

By now, she’s spent enough time with VR to know how well it works, but the future of the technology, and of her business, still remains to be seen.

“I realized I couldn’t just play in this space,” Hill says. “It couldn’t be a side project.”

A new technology, new company, new future Collaborating with both Google and the VR company Jaunt, Hill uses equipment including Google Cardboard, Oculus Rift, Samsung Gear VR and Zeiss VR One. While operating as the sole employer at StoryUp VR, she hires freelance graphic artists, Unity developers and videographers to assist her in her projects. As VR is “at the intersection of gaming and journalism,” Hill says, she requires a lot of technical knowhow from computer-savvy groups who can sift through production issues.

Those production issues were an incessant problem in the long history of VR. Initial experiments with VR began in the 1950s,

according to an article by The Verge, when researchers saw the potential for video screens that could closely imitate human vision. However, late ’50s stereoscopic screens were crude. VR required — no, demanded — more advanced programming.

Decades later, in the late ’80s and early ’90s, VR found its foothold again. Designers began composing digital landscapes that simulated immersion in a video. VR companies bloomed across the United States, all hoping to grab a fistful of cash when this technology showed promising advances. But the digital images weren’t lifelike enough to capture a nation’s attention, and many of the companies went out of business within a few years.

Now in the 21st century, VR might have finally found the tools to survive. With events such as Facebook’s 2014 purchase of high-pro-

1990

1991

1993

Sarah Hill works as an anchor/reporter for KSMU Radio and an associate producer at KSPR-TV in Springfield, Missouri.

Hill takes a position as an anchor/ reporter at KFRU 1400 AM in Columbia, where she covers the city beat.

Hill anchors and produces the noon, 6 p.m. and 10 p.m. newscasts for KRCG in Jefferson City, Missouri.

42 \\\ October 2015

file VR company Oculus VR, it seems virtual reality could become the “next big thing.”

But Hill wasn’t looking to get caught up in virtual experiences when she first picked up Google Cardboard. In fact, she was interested in something else entirely. She wanted to get aging World War II veterans out of Columbia and to Washington, where they could see their memorial.

The story that started it all Hill’s grandfather, a World War II veteran, died before he could see his war memorial. This tragedy stuck with Hill for years to come, influencing her storytelling until it led her to the doorstep of the Honor Flight.

As a news anchor and reporter at KOMU 8 for 11 years, she told “Sarah’s Stories” on the air, several of them focused on Honor Flight.

Honor Flight, a nonprofit organization created to fly veterans to visit their memorials, lacked a mid-Missouri chapter when Hill first encountered the program. Hill reached out to the community and asked anyone touched by her stories to help create a chapter near Columbia.

One of those audience members was Steve Paulsell. After having served for 31 years as the fire chief of the Boone County Fire Department, Paulsell was looking for “the next big adventure,” he says. He called Hill, saying he’d be willing to help establish a local chapter.

Now, years later, the Central Missouri Honor Flight is alive and well, having produced 34 flights and sent more than 2,100 veterans to Washington. Paulsell is the current vice president of the local chapter and has traveled on all 34 flights.

“We’ve seen the impact the flight has had on all of these [veterans],” Paulsell says. “The vast majority [of veterans] tell us it’s the greatest day of their life.”

Although Hill was consistently touched by the efforts of the Honor Flight, she wasn’t completely satisfied. Something continued to frustrate her: Not all veterans were physically able to make the trip. In the past, she’d tried live streams to bring the Honor Flight experience

to immobile veterans, but bandwidth issues made the process difficult, sometimes impossible. Broadcasting a lifelike video stream to the elderly from miles and miles away wasn’t working. She needed another solution.

So when she had the chance to test Google Cardboard one day, she knew the cardboard box could change everything. Immediately after demoing the technology for the first time, she called Paulsell and his wife and told them, “I have to show you this right now.” She was already en route to their home.

After trying the VR technology for themselves, Paulsell and his wife agreed it could be life changing to veterans.

Using VR technology and grant money from the Veterans United Foundation, Hill collaborated with Central Missouri Honor Flight to create Honor Everywhere 360, a VR experience for veterans who cannot make the physical flight. The virtual video allows veterans to turn their heads and see the memorials as if they were really standing there.

Although Honor Everywhere 360 is still in the production process, Hill quickly realized her dabbling in VR could be more than just dabbling.

Now, she’s invested her life and career into VR, moving StoryUp VR into the Missouri Innovation Center at the University of Missouri Life Science Business Incubator on Aug. 15.

ductions to partners and even assistance fundraising as they get started.

Although Hill says she doesn’t have a concrete business model for StoryUP VR yet, she does have a few ideas. She plans to use YouTube ads on her spherical video experiences as a starting point, along with selling Google Cardboard on her website. Working with a High Growth Ventures class at MU, she hopes to hammer her business model into something concrete.

But Hill believes investors will provide the real cash when they see the kind of work StoryUP VR is doing. She also says there’s a possibility for creating paid, branded content that allows businesses to “StoryUp” their favorite cause or charity.

"Smart brands know they need to sell their story, not just their product, if they want to endear themselves to their customers,” Hill said in an email. “It sounds counterintuitive, but a brand can endear itself to its customers by taking the mirror and turning it away from itself.”

President and CEO of the Missouri Innovation Center Bill Turpin was no stranger to VR when Hill first approached him with this model for StoryUp VR. He’d spent 10 years in Texas and 25 years in California working with technology businesses and had even created his own VR company, called The Multiverse Network, in 2004.

Although his startup went out of business in 2010, Turpin knew VR had potential, but he didn’t know when it would bloom.

Perhaps he still doesn’t know the exact moment when VR might change the world, but Turpin says he got a better idea when Hill first stepped into his office.

“There are a few times in my life when I remember seeing something for the first time,” Turpin says. “One of those was seeing the Inter-

"A lot of a startup is the person who starts it, and [Hill] is a person I would bet on.”

- Bill Turpin, president and CEO, Missouri Innovation Center

A home base for a worldspanning business model As the local “safe space” for startup businesses, the Missouri Innovation Center seems the perfect place for StoryUp VR to call home. Companies such as Hill’s are provided with support, a business model, intro-

2001

2012

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Serving as an adjunct faculty at the MU School of Journalism, Hill also anchors and reports the 5 p.m. newscast for KOMU 8.

She begins several other programs, such as “Sarah’s Stories.”

Hill creates 2-D and 3-D video stories for Veterans United.

As chief storyteller at StoryUp VR, Hill fuels empathy by creating immersive video with VR technology.

columbiabusinesstimes.com /// 43

net when it first came out, thinking, ‘Wow, this is the future.’ I had the exact same feeling when Sarah showed me her VR technology.”

Turpin is also inspired by Hill’s philanthropic mission to tell stories that “hurt our hearts,” Hill says. By traveling around the world, she seeks to raise awareness of causes people might not otherwise know about, and Turpin says the Missouri Innovation Center is 100 percent behind her.

“A lot of a startup is the person who starts it, and [Hill] is a person I would bet on,” Turpin says.

simulating reality by capturing reality From Oct. 24 to Nov. 4, Hill plans to travel to Zambia, where she will record VR video of Zambian residents who lack mobility.

Forced to crawl on the ground using their arms, these people are often the result of tragic accidents or birth defects, and their lack of mobility can make them ostracized members of their communities.

With a five-person team including MU’s Drone Journalism program, Hill will film a fully immersive, first-person VR video from the perspective of one of these citizens. She hopes viewers will be prompted to empathize — and with VR 360-degree technology, they literally won’t be able to look away.

“There are compelling reasons to use VR that can make a difference in the world,” Hill says. “There are places and causes that people don’t even know exist, and if people can’t step inside them, they won’t understand the real need.”

After filming this experience, Hill will document the work of the P.E.T Project in Zambia.

The P.E.T Project, started in Columbia in 1994, builds devices that “go where wheelchairs can’t go,” says Director Gary Moreau.

The devices, made out of yellow pine lumber and steel, look a bit like the child of a go-kart and a bike. The device is operated by a chain pulley, which users can twist with twin handles to move the P.E.T forward, backward and around.

The P.E.T Project has made more than 50,000 P.E.T devices, averaging about three devices every two hours. P.E.Ts have been transported to more than 100 locations across the globe, delivered directly to communities with people who lack mobility.

Although the P.E.T Project continues to be successful, it struggles to find funding. And though Moreau admits he doesn’t completely understand the technology behind Hill’s VR ventures, he’s excited about what opportunities her storytelling presents.

“What [P.E.T] needs and what we’re really struggling to do is to grow into the digital age, and maybe with this VR, we can make big strides,” Moreau says. “If Obama can fund his campaign on Facebook, maybe P.E.T can do the same thing through VR.”

The beginning of the beginning of the beginning Hill looks forward to the enormous possibilities VR presents. She lists future VR options off: school field trip experiences, live concert and sports footage, real estate home tours, choose-your-own-adventure games, distractions for kids at the dentist’s office and more.

Although StoryUp VR might not cover every one of those areas of VR, Hill is ready to see where her startup takes her.

“The world needs to be reshot using this technology because it creates empathy,” Hill says. “Story, to an organization, is sometimes more important than any money.” CBT 44 \\\ October 2015

Columbia-based biotech company ABC Laboratories finalized its sale to California-based Evans Analytical Group in July of this year, and with the new partnership well underway, both ABC Labs and EAG are setting their sights on new discoveries and continued growth.

BY Christi Kelly KempeR

thinkstock.com 46 \\\ October 2015

In July, local biotech company ABC Laboratories finalized its sale to Evans Analytical Group, a California-based laboratory network.

The merger makes ABC Labs a wholly owned subsidiary of EAG but leaves ABC’s day-to-day operations intact, with no anticipated changes to the company’s name, contracts, client relationships or regulatory filings, says ABC Labs Vice President of Marketing Kristein King.

EAG has an international network of laboratories, employs 1,200 employees and serves more than 5,500 customers worldwide.

The only immediate staffing change is that John Bucksath, formerly CEO of ABC, is now a senior vice president at ABC of EAG. The deal, which was finalized for an undisclosed amount in early July, included a cash payout for the more than 400 equity investors in the company, many of whom are located in mid-Missouri. Bucksath said payments had begun as of July. More than 90 percent of the shareholders voted on the merger, with 100 percent in favor.

Late last year, ABC approached investment banking firm Lincoln International to start searching for potential buyers, with an eye toward better positioning the company for long-term growth. Private equity firm Odyssey Partners, which majority owns EAG, stepped up.

Bucksath confirms ABC does not anticipate any additional changes in staffing of the Columbia Discovery Ridge or ABC Lane facilities in the near future. “At this point in time, we don’t anticipate any change in operation sites,” he says. “We’re hoping to push forward in growth mode, and operation facilities are a critical part of the capacity.”

If anything, the growth-friendly environment in Columbia could encourage EAG to expand operations here at some point, Bucksath says.

“Our systems and infrastructure at ABC are ahead of the curve, so there is more interest in looking at how to take advantage of that,” he says.

ABC’s experience and award-winning work in the agriculture and pharmaceutical industries were key factors that piqued EAG’s interest, along with ABC’s performance and growth.

“They knew us quite well as a competitor on the ag side,” Bucksath says, “and the proof is in the culmination of three years of Contract Research Organization Leadership awards, as selected by the pharmaceutical industry.”

EAG CEO Siddhartha Kadia emphasized the importance of the expertise and experience represented in the ABC employee base. columbiabusinesstimes.com /// 47

“We especially value the scientific talent that is resident at the ABC laboratories and plan to continue to recruit, retain and develop talent to sustain our market leadership in this business for the combined company,” he says.

Long-term vision ABC’s unique blend of expertise, experience and market knowledge — along with a strong client base — makes it a natural fit for EAG’s long-term vision as a global leader in laboratory networks.

“We were previously, in some aspects, competitors,” Bucksath says. “With industries consolidating and as outsourcing matures to help develop products, they were looking for an organization that could help them on a global scale.”

Before, if someone had a new product, they would develop it here in the United States and then look at opportunities for expanding into markets in Europe, South America or other parts of the world. Today, Bucksath says, that’s done all at once.

Until now, ABC’s reach has been limited to the domestic market, though it does have global clients with products or services located in the U.S. “EAG is a global company, so we are now opened up to the global community in offering our services,” Bucksath says. “It moves us up the food chain.”

King says ABC’s crop-protection customers are some of those “looking for a better full-service, global option than is currently available.”

With the acquisition, EAG essentially turned a competitor into a business partner while adding new capacities to the EAG lineup.

“ABC has built a very strong reputation with both agrochemical and pharmaceutical clients and is a strong complementary fit with our business,” Kadia says.

EAG’s existing laboratory network included materials, microelectronics and chemical testing divisions. Its ChemEco division, which largely provides analytical chemistry services for agricultural clients, is where ABC fits in.

Agricultural testing in such areas as animal health and crop protection represents a large business segment for ABC, along with consumer products and chemical industries, and the company also has an even larger foothold in pharmaceutical testing and biotech — both new areas for EAG. Currently, about 55 percent of ABC’s sales are in the pharmaceuticals division, with the other 45 percent in agriculture and chemical companies.

Continually evolving government regulations have contributed to the demand for sci48 \\\ October 2015

entific service companies with the ability to provide a wide range of testing and analysis, which is one reason Kadia cites as incentive for the merger.

Examples in the United States include broad Environmental Protection Agency regulations; Food and Drug Administration guidance on e-cigarettes; and FDA guidelines for pharmaceuticals, medical devices and cosmetics. In Europe, the Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals regulations address the chemical industry’s impacts on human health and the environment.

One unique area of expertise ABC brings to the plate is high-level organic chemistry services, including radio labeling, Bucksath says. Radio labeling involves inserting a lowlevel radioactive tracer inside a material for better determining safety and efficacy during product development.

Existing client relationships at ABC will continue and transfer to the new combined company. One recent example is a partnership announced in March with Immunophotonics, a St. Louis-based biotech firm currently researching a potential cancer vaccine. Bucksath says that partnership, and others like it, represent years of service and relationshipbuilding and will continue uninterrupted.

Merging corporate cultures ABC Labs has a long history in Columbia, tracing back to its start in 1968. Founded by University of Missouri professor emeritus Dr. Charles Gehrke and two graduate students, Jim Ussary and David Stalling, the company’s original focus was on testing agricultural chemicals. Within a few years, ABC was manufacturing its own equipment for use in the lab and pioneered processes that allowed faster analysis of sample materials.

As it expanded, the company added pesticide residue analysis, aquatic testing, environmental studies, biopharmaceutical analysis and human clinical studies to its original repertoire.

In Columbia, ABC employs just over 430 employees both in and out of the lab.

Although they won’t see any near-term changes to structure or staffing levels, Bucksath says they have already started the process of melding the ABC and EAG employee cultures and processes.

“EAG is larger, so we’ll evolve to a larger corporate-type environment,” he says. “That creates a lot of opportunities for folks who are interested.”

ABC Labs has won awards for its work in the agriculture and pharmaceutical industries. Photos by LG Patterson.

As two companies in the highly specialized scientific services industries, ABC and EAG already have similar corporate cultures, King says, and EAG has started including ABC leadership in strategic planning to ensure collaboration and integration.

The merged companies’ global reach also opens doors for interested employees to follow new career paths within a larger framework and explore opportunities for working at other sites across the U.S. and globally.

“When there is growth, there is opportunity for employees to advance their careers,” King says. “ABC has been and will continue to actively recruit and hire new employees to support this growth.”

She says employee reactions have been positive, as EAG has been reassuring that integration will be well thought out and deliberate, with a focus on continuing to serve clients well.

ABC’s addition to the ChemEco group at EAG essentially doubles the division’s size, Bucksath says. ChemEco provides testing services in agrochemicals, pharmaceuticals and industrial chemicals markets.

There are other former ABC competitors also now among the ranks of companies acquired by EAG, creating a platform of similar services but with a diverse range of clients and industries being served.

There will be more opportunity now to share best practices, develop new processes and ideas and collaborate on new offerings, Bucksath says.

“Now there’s more critical mass to attack some of the things strategically that we couldn’t before,” he says. “Before EAG, our shareholder group was fantastic, but we did

not have the bandwidth or global presence to move in that direction.”

Pace on the acquisition has been brisk, Bucksath says, and EAG leaders have already started bringing EAG and ABC teams together to meet, interact and collaborate. Some have already done client presentations together.

“It’s gone better than I could ever hope for,” he says.

Location, location, location For years, Columbia has been working to build a strong biotech base, centered largely on MU. ABC has long been a cornerstone of that local business segment and built a flagship facility at MU’s Discovery Ridge complex south of Columbia.

In 2006, ABC signed a 99-year lease for 11.5 acres at Discovery Ridge for a total $500,000 over five years. The company’s $15 million, 90,000-square-foot facility opened in 2008 and allowed for expansion of programs and staffing and modernization in the labs. ABC was the first tenant at Discovery Ridge and remains the anchor tenant today.

In April of this year, ABC announced a 7,000-square-foot expansion with additional lab and office space and high-tech enhancements to equipment. It also maintains a second large facility at the company’s original headquarters location on ABC Lane, located off Interstate 70 east of Highway 63.

EAG saw the benefits of ABC’s Columbia location, including its facilities and local demographics, favorable cost of living, good quality of life and central geography, Bucksath says, while recognizing the benefits of proximity to a large research university. CBT columbiabusinesstimes.com /// 49

50 \\\ October 2015

THE

business of

research

MU wants its professors to take their research from the lab to the consumer, and the perceived value of their intellectual property is shifting. And MU isn’t settling for small licensing revenue either: The university wants to create companies, and it wants them to be big.

By Matt Patston

columbiabusinesstimes.com /// 51

A

A college professor's enthusiasm can come from odd places, like the thrill of strengthening collagen cells by affixing them with gold nanoparticles in a bioengineering lab and then publishing a research paper about it.

Before she became an entrepreneur, Sheila Grant had simple motivations. “I didn’t have any aspirations to own a company,” she says. “I was just a professor doing my job: researching, teaching and graduating students.”

She still does those things, as a graduate professor in the University of Missouri bioengineering department, but now she’s more enterprising. Grant is the chief technology officer for EternoGen, an international company that’s taking her collagen research into the aesthetics market in Europe and Asia.

A confluence of forces — new leadership, new resources and hotter coals underfoot — is bridging the gap between academic research and high-yield entrepreneurship at MU. The university wants professors to take their research from the lab to the consumer, and the perceived value of their intellectual property is shifting. To counteract a slowdown in funding, MU isn’t settling for small licensing revenue from its research: The university wants to create companies, and it wants them to be big.

The MU Office of Research, led by Hank Foley, is doing everything it can to lead professors into business: investing money, setting up an accelerator, developing innovative talent, etc. When it comes to making business out of research, MU wants to be “best in the Midwest.”

Birth of a saleswoman “When I was a Girl Scout, I didn’t even sell Girl Scout cookies,” Grant says. “I’m not a salesperson.”

EternoGen resulted from collaboration within the university. As Grant and her students were tinkering with collagen particles, the MU Biodesign and Innovation Program was looking for needs in the medical field that university research could fill. One such need was for a durable, injectable tissue for orthopedic use; Grant’s mega-collagen was

Sheila Grant Chief Technology Officer, EternoGen CLAIM TO FAME EternoGen is taking her collagen research into the international aesthetics market.

52 \\\ October 2015

the answer. Grant was still toying with the idea of commercialization when she got another push: An MBA student who worked with the research for a class project asked Grant to form a business. The student, Luis Jimenez, is now EternoGen president and chief operating officer.

Their biggest fan and biggest initial investor was MU. With the school’s backing, the team gathered investments and went international. They added a Swedish CEO, Anna Tenstam, whom Grant describes as “the Steve Jobs of the aesthetics industry.” EternoGen is putting orthopedics on hold for a while; Grant is optimistic that they can launch in Europe before 2016.

“The university has been very supportive,” she says. “I think that our new leadership has made it a lot simpler to start a company. The university really wants this to work because if we succeed, then obviously they succeed.”

EternoGen, in going from a research project to a market-ready product, has matured into an example of the private-public partnerships the MU research office wants to cultivate — and make money from.

When streams run dry Hank Foley arrived from Penn State in 2013, the same year as Chancellor R. Bowen Loftin, and he has since happily immersed himself in the transformation of MU’s research development.

His job requires that he find revenue streams in professorial research activity; the problem, in Foley’s estimation, is that the traditional streams have dried up.

“What we’ve tried to do is be more intelligent about intellectual property,” Foley says. “Telling outsiders, ‘This research belongs to us’ is a pretty unfriendly approach in this day and age.”

MU needs a friendly approach. When state funding for the university began falling in 2010, leadership began exploring ways to cash in on their most stable commodity: intelligence.

That’s where Foley came in.

For more than three decades, most colleges have used intellectual property the same way.

hank foley Executive Vice President of Academic Affairs, Research and Development at MU CLAIM TO FAME Architect of MU's research structure.

Foley owns 14 U.S. patents.

In 1980, after passage of the Bayh-Dole Act, universities using federal grants began retaining the licenses to their inventions and research.

Those schools then began using that intellectual property to generate some steady licensing revenue. Foley estimates that MU brings in $8 to $10 million a year with this system.

That revenue is the lowest ranking of MU’s “enterprise” operations in its budget. An update from the 2014 budget, provided by the school, said the Office of Research, patents and royalty accounted for 0.2 percent of enterprise money.

AAU FAST FACTS 14 founding universities 62 current member universities $136 billion AAU operating expenses 3,253 patents issued in 2013 7,949 operational startups from AAU universities in 2012 $23.4 billion federal money given to AAU universities in 2012 1.2 million publications from AAU schools 12.8 million citations of those publications

But MU has more than money at stake in its research department. The past five years have put the school in tighter financial straits, but they’ve also rung alarm bells about MU’s membership in the Association of American Universities, the crème de la crème of research universities in the country.

In 2011, the University of Nebraska, which joined the AAU alongside MU in 1909, became the first school to be kicked out of the club. Shortly afterward, Syracuse University voluntarily withdrew, suspecting it was the next one out.

The AAU judges members on eight criteria. Two are related to research grant funding; three are related to faculty qualifications, including published material, which influences grant money. The AAU doesn’t release

Bill Turpin President and CEO, Missouri Innovation Center CLAIM TO FAME Founding CEO of four startups and senior executive of Netscape.

rankings of member schools, but after Nebraska’s departure, MU administration — former Chancellor Brady Deaton, UM System President Tim Wolfe, Loftin and Foley — told the public that MU ranked 32nd out of the 34 public universities in the AAU. They made it clear that the school had to generate more interest from the federal agencies that fund research.

“As the margins in education get tighter, AAU membership is only going to get more important,” Foley says. “Entrepreneurial activity is good for Missouri, so it’s good for the university. But the things we want to do are making an impression in Washington, D.C.” The licensing-first system is out. The new system, and part of Foley’s master five-point plan to find more money in research, is entrepreneurship. Foley wants professors to start companies.

Changing the world and floating boats That plan assumes that professors and other university personnel also want to start companies. After all, creating a startup is difficult, especially when it’s counterweighted with a full-time professorship.

“A lot of universities didn’t know how to start companies, and they overvalued what they had,” Foley says. “They didn’t realize how much follow-up money was needed to get a product to the marketplace.”

At MU, that starts with collaboration. Case in point: EternoGen. Foley also mentions Newsy, the multimedia journalism company partially founded with university money in 2008. Five years later, E.W. Scripps bought the company for $35 million, a good chunk of which came back to MU. Foley wants to see more of this: Even if MU doesn’t sell a company for three years, that’s still a sustainable pace if it sells companies for $35 million and up. “This is a real revenue stream that’s just not there right now, and we could be 10 to 15 times larger than we are,” he says.

The school’s new philosophy on intellectual property pivots on a culture of innovation. Professors will be encouraged to learn from other professors, even from other schools, who have taken research into the market and been successful. MU wants to educate faculty on their options. They want to build an empire of successful enterprises from the ground up.

“We want to take something that could be licensed and turn it into a company,” Foley says.

“And that’s what big companies have told us they want. We would like to see Columbia, Missouri, become a hotbed for entrepreneurship.”

Another applicable part of Foley’s five-part plan is No. 2: create a class of entrepreneurs.

MU wants to be a regional leader — “the best in the Midwest,” as Foley has said — but that will have to be a grassroots effort, starting with the students the school is producing.

“We’re not going to import people from Silicon Valley,” Foley says. “Well, except for one person, and that’s Bill Turpin.”

Bill Turpin was, in fact, imported from Silicon Valley, but he was also bred in Columbia.

He was born in Bowling Green, Missouri, and grew up in St. Charles. He graduated from MU with a degree in electrical engineering. After a stint at Texas Instruments, he founded a string of technology startups, one of which was acquired by Netscape, where he began working in 1995. There, according to his Bloomberg executive profile, “his team developed some of the core technologies in the commercialization of the Internet.”

“I’ve mostly been in tech,” Turpin says. “And now I’m here.”

“Here” is the Missouri Innovation Center, of which he is the CEO and president. Turpin wields the demeanor of unblinking coolness that Silicon Valley folklore invokes; the focused clarity of his speech suggests innovation is a matter of routine for him.

What we’ve tried to do is be more intelligent about intellectual property. Telling outsiders, ‘This research belongs to us’ is a pretty unfriendly approach in this day and age. - Hank Foley The Life Sciences Incubator, which the MIC operates, is at full capacity under his leadership. They’re expanding the building’s wet lab space to allow more bio companies, many sparked by university research, to take up residency. Until then, they’re growing their tech portfolio. EternoGen is a client.

“It used to be that the university could create the basic resource and then buy a few patents, and industry would come in and do the rest,” Turpin says. “But in the last 10 to 15 years, the industry has changed. And the industry doesn’t want to do all that hard work anymore. They want the university to get a product ready for market.”

LAB SPACE

With its research space nearing capacity, the Missouri Life Science Business Incubator is set to expand.

By Alex Jacobi The Missouri Life Science Business Incubator is set to add a second wing to its facility, according to Bill Turpin, president and CEO of the Missouri Innovation Center. The new wing is expected to take two to three years to complete and fill up with emerging businesses within three to five years.

Turpin says the expansion is necessary because the incubator has no more available wet lab space, or areas where chemicals, drugs and other biological materials can be tested.

“That means MU faculty and researchers have nowhere to go to work on their technology, even if they have funding,” Turpin says.

Even the incubator’s dry lab space, which is traditionally used for computational or mathematical analysis, is nearly full due to a new initiative by the incubator to offer the space to tech companies, which tend to scale faster than biology companies.

Dry labs comprise 60 percent of the incubator's lab space, with the remaining 40 saved for wet lab space.

The expansion would double the number of labs, from 25 to 50, and will include 60 percent wet lab space and 40 percent dry lab space.

Turpin says the incubator is currently seeking funding for the project from the Missouri Department of Economic Development, and an academic building plan outlining the wing’s necessity has been submitted to the University of Missouri.

“We knew from the beginning we would eventually need to expand, and so we built this first phase with that in mind,” Turpin says. “The building already has a place to hook on a new wing, and the land has already been allocated.”

columbiabusinesstimes.com /// 53

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The MIC and the Life Science Incubator are scaffolding to university-born companies. Their mission is to get professors across the “valley of death,” as Turpin describes it: the strange, unknown wasteland between a brilliant discovery in the lab and application.

Despite the novelty of the entrepreneurial idea at MU, Turpin says the school is playing catch-up with the pack leaders. The week before his interview for this article, Turpin was at MIT, where they founded 900 startups in a year.

But Turpin agrees with Foley: MU can be the best in the Midwest, and there’s a tremendous financial incentive to do so.

At MIT, Turpin was getting a team certified by the MIT mentoring program, with the goal of coming back to Columbia and breeding startups here.

“I’m just hoping that I can provide a little mentorship here or good advice there and help an idea that can change the world,” Turpin says. It’s a powerful theme for him, and he returns to it later: “Sometimes that’s all it takes. A fundamental desire to change the world.”

There are two hurdles to clear in MU’s aspirations of becoming Silicon Valley University: money and people. Both Foley and Turpin think money will come, even if it’s not all currently there. The school will, if everything goes according to plan, be rolling out a capital-raising accelerator before 2016. Turpin is lobbying for more teamwork and cooperation among different business entities in Columbia, including city government.

People are the higher hurdle. Who will lead the startups? Who will teach the people who lead the startups? Where will they work? Who will provide the research that spawns the product? Grant points out that a professor’s entrepreneurial success isn’t brought up at a performance review.

There, more traditional metrics are examined: papers published, grants accepted, students graduated, etc.

“We want to encourage people to do this,” Foley says. “That requires not punishing them when they fail but dusting them off. I have an optimistic view that this can work and can raise all boats.”

Raising all boats and changing the world: the new ethos for intellectual property at MU. CBT

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The SteaM

ON the BUS

56 \\\ October 2015

Columbia’s new mobile learning lab is fueled by creativity, innovation and Booches burgers.

By Beth Bramstedt | illustrations by tifani carter

columbiabusinesstimes.com /// 57

M

My curiosity was piqued from the very first email. Asked to write about a new “makerspace” for the kids of our community, I was introduced to school board member Jonathan Sessions.

“So this is even crazier,” Sessions wrote with enthusiasm. “It’s not just a space; it’s a bus!”

He went on to describe the project as a mobile creativity lab designed to teach next-generation skills to the students of Columbia Public Schools. He suggested including Craig Adams, practical arts coordinator for the district, so we planned a time to meet.

What followed was an hour of pure entertainment over coffee at Kaldi’s. I can still feel my head spinning from the animated dialogue that ensued. I say very little as Sessions and Adams, pumped full of caffeine and energized to talk about their new idea, tell story after story about the innovation of what’s affectionately being termed the STEAM bus.

I listen intently, along for the ride, as they laugh and joke about the role Booches burgers, snow days, Raspberry Pi and Hootie & the Blowfish had in their newest creative learning opportunity for kids.

And so the adventure began of putting into words the innovation behind a makerspace for Columbia students.

Booches burgers: A new idea The brainstorming began one snow day last winter when Sessions and Adams were having lunch at Booches on Ninth Street. “Booches is where we solve a lot of the world’s problems,” Sessions admits with a grin, as he takes a deep breath and sinks back in his seat.

Most teachers and kids may have been huddled inside their warm homes or busy making angels in the powdery mixture, but

58 \\\ October 2015

Sessions and Adams were at work dreaming about a fun, hands-on bus that traveled around town giving local children the chance to make and create.

The pair got so excited that Sessions called to ask Linda Quinley, chief financial officer for the school district, to get them a bus.

“Linda,” he quipped, “I’m at Booches, and I have another great idea.”

“Mr. Adams is always creative and thinking forward,” Quinley says. “He had mentioned the idea to me before, so I knew it wasn’t a whim when Mr. Sessions called.” Quinley thought the concept sounded like an enjoyable and affordable way to get new tools and experiences to a lot of students and was happy to do her part.

Once the superintendent mentioned the bus as a new idea, Quinley says she simply called Student Transportation of America to see if they would be willing to donate a used school bus. “They are a company committed to education and a new partner for us,” Quinley says. “It seemed like a sure bet, and it was.”

Hootie & the Blowfish: A workable model “We are excited by the opportunity to partner with Columbia Public Schools,” says Kirk Wilkie, vice president of operations at Student Transportation of America. “The idea of supporting a mobile ‘lab’ seemed a natural fit for our company.”

Adams says it wasn’t the first time STA, through its nonprofit education foundation, had donated a bus for a similar cause. The first time came in 2011 in partnership with Carolina Studios, a media arts group in the foundation’s hometown of Charleston, South Carolina. Mark Bryan, lead guitarist and founding member of Hootie & the Blowfish, serves

as chair of the studio’s board. The partnership was forged when Denis Gallagher, CEO of the bus company, met Bryan at a charity golf tournament and volunteered to support the studio’s cause by donating a bus.

The bus still acts as a mobile recording workshop and is equipped with iMac computers, a multitrack recording studio, sound booth, external PA system and stage. It visits 40 children each week, via free after-school programs, and targets schools with large populations of at-risk youth.

Columbia’s bus was delivered in July, all the way from New Jersey. “It came as a blank slate, a wide-open canvas,” Adams says with a grateful smile. The ‘canvas’ included a blown-out window and possible evidence of a raccoon’s nest, the men admit, but nothing a little TLC couldn’t fix.

According to Adams, STA not only donated the bus, but it also is gutting the inside, fixing the brakes and painting the nose. “When we get the keys,“ Adams says, “it will look like a brand-new bus.”

STEAM: An educational purpose “Craig and I have taught science and engineering for a long time,” Doug Steinhoff says, “and the only downsides were the many fun and creative topics we couldn’t pursue because we were tied to a structured curriculum. We both agreed that if we had free reign of STEM-oriented content, we could really have a great time and invoke a lot of interest in the STEM arena.”

STEM stands for science, technology, engineering and math and serves as a core educational philosophy in Columbia Public Schools.

Add “art” to the STEM equation, however, and you get STEAM, a movement championed by the Rhode Island School of Design to

put design and technology at the center of STEM as a way to drive innovation and ensure a prosperous future.

Steinhoff might have dreamed about a creative solution, but as far as the idea for a bus, he gives Adams all the credit.

“This bus will be a giant billboard for STEAM,” Adams says. “It will be a makerspace where students can apply previous classroom knowledge to something they want to create.” The plan is to coordinate through the media specialists at area elementary schools to bring the STEAM bus into the curriculum plan.

The mobile lab will include technology such as 3-D printers, embroidery machines, robotic kits, snap circuits and 3-D pens designed to teach next-generation science skills. “It’s not about learning facts,” Sessions says. “It’s teaching students to gather,

"It’s not about learning facts.

It’s teaching students to gather, synthesize and act on information."

— Jonathan Sessions, member, Columbia Public School Board synthesize and act on information.”

Columbia’s STEAM bus has been funded 100 percent by donations. When the bus debuts this fall, Sessions and Adams say, it will be thanks to the grassroots efforts of businesses and colleges that have made inkind donations, gifted money and supplies and offered physical labor to see the vision become a reality. In addition to the gift of the bus, the project has received three commitments of $5,000 to be paid over the next three years, a $5,000 contribution for bus improvements as well as a $15,000 grant from the Community Foundation of Central Missouri.

So far contributing organizations include Student Transportation of America, Columbia College, Diggit Graphics, the University of Missouri Department of Architectural Studies, Columbia Area Career Center, JMA Information Technology and Missouri S&T.

Raspberry Pi: A real-life example Sessions has found success using the STEAM philosophy to teach students new skills while solving real problems. He recently worked with three bright students from West Middle School on a digital signage project for Columbia Regional Economic Development Inc. The crew designed, prototyped, tested and produced the hardware necessary for the project using 3-D printing and Raspberry Pi, an affordable, user-friendly, credit card-sized computer that allows students to explore computing and learn to program.

After developing the solution, the students spent a day on-site installing, configuring and testing their equipment. “It was a great example of what CPS students can do with the right tools,” Sessions says. “REDI ended up with a solid, easy-to-manage solution to their problem, and the students got firsthand experience solving problems and working with clients.”

And, Sessions admits, they were also happy to get out of school for the day.

The Raspberry Pi project illustrates just one way that more students in the Columbia Public School system will have access to new hands-on learning opportunities, tools and equipment through the STEAM bus.

Sessions and Adams hope to have the bus ready for Mizzou’s Homecoming Parade on Oct. 10. With their mental wheels turning, they describe the scene of 50 kids, all dressed up wearing blue lab coats, handing out information about the program to everyone they pass.

“Craig will be driving, of course,” Sessions adds enthusiastically.

And I’ll be among the crowd, anxious to experience firsthand just what a great idea, a little snow, some generous donors and a whole lot of passion can create.

For more information on the STEAM bus, or to donate to the cause, contact Craig Adams at CAdams@cpsk12.org. CBT

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John Hall and Kelsey Meyer 60 \\\ October 2015

A MODERN INFLUENCE

Influence & Co. proves only results matter — not age, location or tradition.

By Brenna McDermott | photos by anthony jinson

In 2011, Influence & Co. co-founder and CEO John Hall walked in most mornings wearing a suit, a Bluetooth in his ear and rolling a backpack behind him.

“We had to slowly break him out of that,” cofounder and President Kelsey Meyer says.

That’s because the content marketing agency was founded on youth, independence and yoga pants, not on tradition and suits. That culture, coupled with a specialized three-step process and enormous growth, is propelling Influence & Co. to national attention, all from its Columbia headquarters.

The day Meyer graduated from the University of Missouri, she and her boss, Brent Beshore, founder of adventur.es, a Columbiabased private equity firm and a startup angel investor, had a conversation. The companies he invested in were having a hard time getting publicity, and he posed a question: Is there a better way to get exposure?

Meyer realized there was a better way to get companies published.

“So at the time, I never heard of content marketing,” Meyer says. “We didn’t really know what that was. We were just doing a different type of PR.” Adventur.es fully funded the company, Beshore wrote in an email, and Influence & Co. is a subsidiary of adventur.es. Hall and Meyer are responsible for day-to-day operations, Beshore says, while members of the adventur.es team are active board members.

So what is content marketing?

Content marketing is creating articles that showcase a company or person’s expertise.

Then the stories are pitched to publications all over the world. These stories aren’t advertisements; they’re original articles meant to inform the reader.

Influence & Co.’s process is three-pronged.

The first step is knowledge extraction, which, Meyer points out, is much less painful than it sounds. The client shares his or her expertise on a topic in a stream-of-consciousness manner with the content strategy team. Then Influence & Co. staff write the content, incorporating the client’s know-how and the appropriate tone the article needs to get published. Then the team pitches the content to editors for distribution, through cold email and meeting editors in person. They have relationships with more than 1,000 publications, Meyer says, including TechCrunch, Forbes and The Washington Post. columbiabusinesstimes.com /// 61

62 \\\ October 2015

Their interest, Meyer says, is primarily with business-to-business clients and technology clients. And Hall says they want to work with businesses that want to educate their audiences on a topic rather than advertise a product to them.

Past clients include Dell, American Airlines and Office Depot.

Meyer says the company has 180 clients varied across industries, from AIG, No. 46 on the 2015 Fortune 500 list, to Tower Paddle Boards, a standup paddleboard company recently featured on Shark Tank and acquired by Mark Cuban.

They work with accounts of all sizes, from $2,500 a month to $25,000 a month, Meyer says.

Revenues have grown from $30,000 in 2011 to a projected $5 million by the end of 2015.

That’s a 16,505.94 percent growth, Meyer says.

Stephan Aarstol, founder and CEO of Tower Paddle Boards, says his company had been doing traditional PR and getting exposure, but content marketing resonated with him. “[Content marketing] was just taking somebody that may be an expert but unknown in their field and giving them a huge amount of visibility,” Aarstol says.

Within the first six months, Aarstol was published in The Washington Post and mentioned in Forbes.

Anthony Clervi, vice president of UNA Purchasing Solutions, a group purchasing organization headquartered in Columbia, says though it’s cliché, Influence & Co. has gone above and beyond for their company.

“I really feel like Influence & Co. has tried to understand what our business is, why we do what we do, who our customers are and then from there try to form a strategy that makes sense rather than, ‘Here’s your fee, here’s your rate,’ and just bill you for writing a bunch of stuff,” Clervi says.

“I was young, and I was inexperienced, but I think something we’ve really tried to instill in all of our employees now is it’s not about age,” Meyer says. “It’s not about what you’ve done before. It’s about your capabilities and if you can develop that trust with our clients and if we can actually get [things] done.”

Greg Bier, director of Mizzou’s Entrepreneurship Alliance, says it’s that attitude that appeals to young workers, plus retreats at the lake, talent contests and dodgeball tournaments. Both Meyer and Hall were Bier’s students, and they maintain a close relationship.

"We’re a servicebased company.

Our people are our product, and so we need to make sure that we continue to hire those people, treat them right and then give them the professional development they need."

— Kelsey Meyer, cofounder and president, Influence & Co.

‘It’s not about age’ For her first sales call at age 22, Meyer was expecting an audio call and was surprised when the client called via video. It then sunk in that she was wearing yoga pants and a T-shirt.

Meyer says after he agreed to a $2,000-a-month package, she realized if they could deliver something of value to the client, then neither age nor yoga pants mattered.

Left: Employees work in one of Influence & Co.'s many co-working spaces. Meyer and Hall know from experience that age doesn’t matter. At Influence & Co., you’ll find college students working part time alongside seasoned professionals.

The free-flowing environment is apparent around the company headquarters, located at the Museao Building. Beds; a putting green; a Ping-Pong table; “The Jar,” which co-workers contribute to when they aren’t being the best co-worker they can be; and Bud Light in the fridge all hint that tradition is not a consideration at Influence & Co. Each month a different employee serves as “culture captain” and plans an activity for the team.

Hall says he likes the shock factor. When he brought his father in for a tour, Hall had to answer for the purpose of beds in an office.

“It’s for people who want to take a nap,” Hall says, or to just sit and swing their legs off of it.

The average age of full-time employees is 26.29, and factoring in part-time employees and interns, the average age is 25.8. They attract young talent, Meyer says, because they’ve developed a relationship with MU and the EA, they promote from within and they give responsibility to young executives.

Love at first hire Influence & Co.’s staff has grown 100 percent each year. They have 55 full-time employees, 20 part-time employees, paid interns and another 30 freelance writers.

Meyer expects to hire 20 full-time employees by the end of 2015 and is projecting to double in size again in 2016, hiring about 60 people next year.

“Hiring more people and continuing to train and develop the people that we have are the two biggest challenges and opportunities,” Meyer says. “I mean, we’re a servicebased company. Our people are our product, and so we need to make sure that we continue to hire those people, treat them right and then give them the professional development they need.”

Diamond Scott, Influence & Co.’s recruitment coordinator, says the best hiring results come from employee referrals. One of her strategies is to maintain the company culture so employees continue to refer their friends and former co-workers.

Each quarter, a percentage of profits goes to the team based on performance and peer review. That, coupled with unlimited paid time off and offices in Kansas City, St. Louis and New York, contributes to that culture.

Scott says she looks for individuals who can flourish in the independent workspace. Meyer is looking for people with natural curiosity.

“So we want people to want to learn because whether you are a salesperson, an account strategist or an editor on our team, you’re speaking to the CEOs and the executives of mid- to large-size companies every single day in dozens of industries,” Meyer says. “So at any given moment, you might be learning something about the fashion industry and then switch right over into this amazing new health care technology.”

Scott’s experience with the company helps her recruit. For her, it was love at first sight.

“I tell new applicants all the time I love working for a place where I am rewarded and columbiabusinesstimes.com /// 63

Top: Influence & Co. offers a creative work environment and a variety of workspaces, from cubbies in prefabricated sheds to more common collaborative office space.

highly valued for the skills that I bring to the table, but also everyone knows my niece’s first name and knew what her first word was,” Scott says.

Bier says Meyer visits the MU campus at least once a semester to visit with students and recruit interns.

“They take their time to come back to campus and share their story and the challenges,” Bier says. “They’ll readily talk about their biggest successes and their biggest failures.

They’re very candid here.”

It's Columbia, not COLOMBIA Hall spoke at a conference a few years ago, and a woman introduced him as being first from Columbia, South Carolina; then Columbia, Virginia; and finally the country of Colombia before he got the chance to correct her.

64 \\\ October 2015

“I think people are surprised that we’re doing this all from Columbia,” Hall says. “And we love it. I mean, at first I was scared, like, ‘Let’s not tell people we’re from Columbia,’ which is bad, but it also hurts your credibility when you’re trying to do it with like two, three people. Now we’re like, ‘from Columbia Missouri.’ Boom, right there.”

He wasn't embarrassed by Columbia but was concerned about the skepticism that others might have based on their location. Hall also

says their Midwest attitude — treating people well and wanting employees, clients and publications to be happy — appeals to media members in major cities.

“One managing editor says: ‘I like you. I like dealing with you guys because you actually care about me,’” Hall says.

For Clervi and UNA Purchasing Solutions, another company located in the Midwest and working nationally, it was fun to work with

“I think people are surprised that we’re doing this all from Columbia. … At first I was scared, like, ‘Let’s not tell people we’re from Columbia’ … Now we’re like, ‘from Columbia Missouri.’ Boom, right there.”

— John Hall, co-founder and CEO, Influence & Co.

a company that understood the Midwest attitude but not essential.

“We weren’t too concerned as far as where they were based,” Clervi says.

“We were more concerned about what they could do for us. What are the things they could help us get to?”

‘Always strategically planning’ Staying relevant in a changing digital landscape will be top of mind for Meyer and Hall. They’re developing their own project management program called The Portal, and soon clients will be able to log in and collaborate. They’re showing the platform to companies in San Francisco and Silicon Valley, Hall says.

They’re also looking at growing services, from more inbound marketing to growing the types of clients they service, Meyer says. They’re always open to opportunities that pop up.

“We kind of joke sometimes that we don’t have a huge strategic plan, but we’re always strategically planning because things do change so quickly,” Meyer says.

The company was named a finalist for Content Marketing Agency of the Year in the 2015 Content Marketing Awards. In 2014, Forbes ranked Influence & Co. No. 72 of America’s Most Promising Companies.

Meyer says unofficial projected revenue will exceed $7 million in 2016.

That growth and national recognition spark discussion of selling the company.

Hall and Meyer say it could happen down the road. They’ll talk with anyone, Hall says, but for now, they’re on a path to do more.

“People are interested,” Hall says.

“They do approach us to talk about it.

It’s not like the opportunities are not there, but I think it would be very premature at this moment.

“But it could happen down the road,” he continues. “But at this point, it’s not.

We’ve got too much to go now.”

Beshore wrote in an email that all successful companies are approached to sell, and Influence & Co. is no different. “We’re not looking to sell and would anticipate continuing to help grow the company for the foreseeable future,” he said. CBT

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nonprofit spotlight

›› Missouri Contemporary Ballet

The Language that Connects Us The Missouri Contemporary Ballet enters its 10th season.

By Brenna McDermott In 2006, Karen Mareck Grundy saw a void in the Columbia community. As progressive as the city was, she says, especially in the arts, dance was an essential niche needing to be filled. And so began mid-Missouri’s only professional ballet company, Missouri Contemporary Ballet.

“I just feel like, as a dancer myself, dance is always an essential part of any great arts community,” Grundy says. “People forget about the arts and how important they are, and they’re just a major part of any community.”

‘This is what they do foR a living’ The dance company, comprised of 10 professional, classically trained ballet dancers, performs three times each year.

Randall Johnston "After attending an MCB performance, I wanted to see if I could contribute to this wonderful organization."

66 \\\ October 2015

The artists dance and train five days a week from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Then each of the dancers works a second job, and some work a third job.

Grundy, executive and artistic director of MCB, says for the first few seasons, it was sometimes a scramble to pay the dancers, but being able to employ artists fulfilling their dreams is a dream for her. Dancers’ salaries average $202.50 a week.

“They still aren’t getting paid the way a dancer should be because dancers are the lowest paid of any artist,” Grundy says.

But this season, most in the company will take their second jobs teaching ballet at the School of MCB, Grundy says, which allows them to work in their field.

“One thing a lot of people still don’t even realize about MCB is that it is a professional dance

company, and our dancers are professional dancers who have been trained their whole lives, and this is what they do for a living,” says Megan Moore, MCB board secretary.

Dancer Joel Hathaway has been with the company since 2011, and he recently left his second job waiting tables to teach dance at the School of MCB. Hathaway has a bachelor’s degree in dance performance and choreography and is now resident choreographer at MCB, which means he’ll create an original 10- to 12-minute ballet for both the fall and spring shows.

“It becomes a language for us dancers,” Hathaway says. “What I think I want most people to understand, coming from a dancer’s perspective, is that dance is a language that connects people around the world. You can be Japanese,

Karen Mareck Grundy "We are a professional company, which means the performances we produce are concerts, not recitals. Our dancers come here from all over the country, and this is their job, though they may have to have a second."

Mark Grundy "Since the beginning, I've been amazed at Karen's passion and determination she has given to bring her vision of dance to Columbia. And during this journey MCB has been fortunate to have attracted not only talented and gifted dancers but also great people."

➜ 110 Orr St., No. 102, Columbia, MO 65201 • 573-219-7134

Chinese, European, American, and you will still understand. We can all still come together as dancers, and that’s a really important thing.”

Alternative arts education The School of MCB, open since 2012, offers dance education for more than 100 students, including children, preprofessional dancers and anyone interested in dance.

This year, the School of MCB will launch a student performing company to allow students the chance to perform in the community.

The MCB dancers also do community outreach. It’s especially important, Moore says, because arts funding in schools is typically the first to be cut.

“A lot of people think we’re just a professional ballet, and that’s it and that when they donate money to our organization that they are donating to dancers’ salaries, period,” Moore says. “They don’t realize that there’s all these other programs.”

The company goes into schools for lecture demonstrations, taking students through the life of a ballet dancer and teaching some positions and dance steps.

S. Craig Rooney "We give back to our community through our DanceAbility and DanceReach programs. We have an amazing School of MCB. And we have more fun than anyone in Columbia."

MCB partners with Boys & Girls Clubs for DanceReach, a program that exposes at-risk youth to dance. The students learn about different types of dance, particularly ballet. Grundy says MCB sometimes provides scholarships to students with potential so that they can attend the School of MCB. The year of classes culminates in a performance at an MCB event.

The newest program is DanceAbility, for students with special needs, which allows them to explore dance. The program is in its third year and was designed by the MCB instructors and physical therapists. Dancing with Missouri Stars, held each May, is a major fundraiser for MCB that features local celebrity dancers.

Grundy says the outreach is an opportunity to show students that dancing is a possibility by making it accessible to them. Dance teaches students life lessons such as dealing with image and critique and instills a healthy lifestyle with students.

“I think that [dance] taught me respect and responsibility and to be honest with my cohorts and with my family,” Hathaway says.

“I think that just transferred over to being a responsible adult.”

Tina Marso "I love the art of dance, and this is a way to be involved because I can’t dance myself. "

10th season and beyond Heading into its 10th season, the MCB is gaining stability with a new exclusive season sponsorship from Missouri Orthopaedic Institute, a relationship the MCB board has cultivated; a slot in the University Concert Series next spring; and a growing audience base.

“I think that over the last two years, each season our audience base has gone up by about 200 people or so,” Grundy says. “So my vision in the beginning was I really want to create a company that Columbia attaches on to and that if we were to be gone, they would know something was lost.”

The next performance will be Poised in FLUX, Nov. 13 to 14 at the Missouri Theatre. It’s a repertoire show, featuring a mix of different styles and storytelling.

“Everyone loves it, and once they come to a performance, they completely fall in love with the organization,” Moore says. “So one of my personal goals being involved with the organization is I try to get as many people as I know to come to performances because…if they come for the first time, then they come to every show from then on.” CBT Megan Moore "We are invested in bringing professional dance to the Columbia community and making it easily accessible to everyone, whether through a company performance, the school of MCB or one of our community outreach programs."

columbiabusinesstimes.com /// 67

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Teresa White xx Photo by Anthony Jinson 70 \\\ OCTOBER October 2015

celebrations

›› Emerging Professionals in Columbia

➜ 300 S. Providence Road, Columbia, MO 65203 573-874-1132

Results Are EPIC

The Chamber of Commerce’s Emerging Professionals in Columbia program pushes young professionals forward. By Lauren Puckett When Emily Clapp was 18 years old, she desperately wanted to leave her birthplace of Columbia. After graduating from Hickman High School, she made her escape to Chicago for college. But in 2008, something called her back home.

That something was the Columbia Chamber of Commerce, and more specifically the Chamber’s newest division, EPIC (Emerging Professionals in Columbia).

EPIC started in 2006 and is a program designed to engage young professionals in networking and business opportunities, all designed to prepare them as the next generation of community leaders. The program often serves as a stepping-stone for young workers to get involved in the Chamber, but Chamber membership is not required.

EPIC targets professionals between the ages of 22 and 40, many who are fresh out of college or graduate school and looking for the next big leap in their lives.

Clapp was one of those young professionals, and when she first joined the EPIC team as its liaison, it was only in its infancy. The program was disorganized. Budgetary issues abounded. There were no specific committees; events were thrown together haphazardly.

“I really didn’t know anyone well here [when I came back to Columbia], even though I grew up here,” Clapp says. “But EPIC introduced me to some of my great friends. … The people involved in EPIC bring so much to the table. It’s an important pillar of the community.”

A reason to stay In September 2012, Clapp left the Chamber to join Veterans United Home Loans as a recruitment architect. She applied to serve on the EPIC board, and now she serves as the 2015-16 chair.

Alongside Clapp is chair-elect Teresa White, a marketing specialist for the City of Columbia, who has seen EPIC evolve, grow and strengthen over the past few years.

Moving from Springfield, Missouri, to Columbia in 2011, White immediately became involved with the Chamber and EPIC. White cites EPIC as a huge benefit to both her career and personal life; the group helped her make friends in Columbia when she only knew one other resident.

“We have a lot of people graduating in Columbia who leave because they don’t have a system or program, or they don’t know people,” White says.

“They don’t have something to make them stay.

[EPIC] gives them a reason to stay.”

Now, White is continuing her fourth year as an EPIC member and her second year on the executive committee. Over the past four years, White has watched EPIC transform; the program is now more closely integrated with the Chamber; it hosts more regional functions; more events are provided for social networking (such as trips to St. Louis Cardinals games); and, for the third year in a row, EPIC is hosting a Business Showcase Mentor Program that allows community leaders to mentor up-and-coming professionals.

Career success and personal growth EPIC is open to anyone. The program is free and low commitment, and members can choose to participate in a wide variety of networking events designed to spark professional relationships. These events include mixers; program events such as the Young Professionals Summit, a statewide conference the group co-hosted in September with the Jefferson City Young Professionals; and community involvement events such as volunteer projects at the Food Bank for Central and Northeast Missouri. Events typically range from $5 to $40, according to Clapp, and those who want to get more involved can join committees devoted to furthering EPIC. “EPIC strives to help emerging professionals with career success and personal growth,” Matt McCormick, president of the Columbia Chamber of Commerce, said in an email. “They learn valuable network-

ing skills and the importance of being involved in the business community and their community as a whole.”

Several past EPIC founders have gone on to become active Chamber and community members. Jay Linder, president of Forum Development Group, and Matt Garrett, director of audience development at KOMU-TV, were both recently appointed to the Chamber Board of Directors.

Others go on to create their own businesses, make waves in established companies or become leaders in volunteer organizations. CBT

Timeline 2006 › A group of individuals approach the Columbia Chamber of Commerce board and seek to create a volunteer-led organization for young professionals.

What they start that day later becomes EPIC. 2008 › After attending college in Chicago, Emily Clapp returns to Columbia and joins the Chamber staff as EPIC liason. She helps transform the program from a disorganized group of young workers to a functional networking system.

2012 › Clapp leaves the Chamber to join Veterans United Home Loans as a recruitment architect. Six months later, she applies for the EPIC board.

2015 › Clapp becomes the chair of EPIC, with Teresa White as chair-elect.

columbiabusinesstimes.com /// 71

TOP B2B PRODUCT DELIVERY SERVICE

First Place: Culligan Water 1801 Commerce Court, Columbia, 573-874-6147, culliganmidmissouri.com Second Place: Major Brands

TOP HAPPY HOUR

First Place: 44 Stone Public House Second Place: The Roof

TOP ARCHITECT

First Place: Jennifer Hedrick Second Place: Nick Peckham

TOP COMMERCIAL BUILDER/CONTRACTOR First Place: Coil Construction Second Place: Little Dixie Construction

TOP REAL ESTATE DEVELOPER

First Place: Starr Properties Second Place: John Ott, Alley A Realty

TOP PLACE TO WORK

First Place: Veterans United Home Loans Second Place: Hawthorn Bank

TOP ENGINEER

First Place: Timberlake Engineering Second Place: Trabue, Hansen & Hinshaw Inc.

TOP ACCOUNTING SERVICE

First Place: Williams-Keepers Second Place: Accounting Plus Inc.

TOP CATERER

First Place: Hoss’s Market & Rotisserie Second Place: Bleu Restaurant & Catering

TOP STAFFING COMPANY

Second Place: The Insurance Group

TOP COMMERCIAL LENDER

First Place: Matt Williams, Landmark Bank Second Place: Drew Smith, Commerce Bank

First Place: Influence and Co. Second Place: Global First Responders

TOP WEB DEVELOPER

First Place: MayeCreate Design 700 Cherry St., Suite C, Columbia, 573-447-1836, mayecreate.com

First Place: JobFinders Second Place: Caroline and Co. Inc.

TOP CULTURE

First Place: Veterans United Home Loans Second Place: Murry’s Restaurant

TOP OFFICE DIGS

First Place: True Media Second Place: Woodruff Sweitzer

TOP BUSINESS WITH A COMMITMENT TO PHILANTHROPY First Place: Veterans United Home Loans Second Place: Joe Machens Dealerships

TOP JANITORIAL SERVICES

First Place: Atkins Building Services Inc. Second Place: Tiger Maids

TOP COMMERCIAL PHOTOGRAPHER Second Place: Delta Systems

TOP ADVERTISING AGENCY

First Place: Woodruff Sweitzer Second Place: MayeCreate Design 700 Cherry St., Suite C, Columbia, 573-447-1836, mayecreate.com

First Place: LG Patterson Second Place: Casey Buckman Photography

TOP EVENT LOCATION

First Place: The Tiger Hotel 23 S. Eighth St., Columbia, 573-875-8888, thetigerhotel.com

TOP PLACE TO HAVE A BUSINESS LUNCH

First Place: Murry’s Restaurant Second Place: D. Rowe’s Restaurant & Bar

TOP OFFSITE TEAM MEETING LOCATION

First Place: Logboat Brewing Co. 504 Fay St., Columbia, 573-397-6786, logboatbrewing.com

TOP COFFEE MEETING LOCATION

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TOP AMBASSADOR OF BUSINESS IN COLUMBIA First Place: Dave Griggs Second Place: Mary Ropp

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TOP BUSINESS INSURANCE

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TOP OLD-TIMER IN BUSINESS

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TOP COMMERCIAL VIDEOGRAPHER

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TOP HR FIRM

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Second Place: The Canvas on Broadway

TOP IT COMPANY

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Second Place: Easy PC

MARKETING

›› Monica Pitts talks marketing trends and tips

Marketing by the Numbers So many small businesses monitor by hours in the day and live by the clock.

Then suddenly your business requires more hours than you have to give in a day. And you start wondering: How many leads do I actually have to generate to afford my new person? Is my marketing working? What’s my return on investment? And that’s when things get tricky.

With all the data available now, it’s hard to know what numbers mean what. You can gather all the numbers you want, but if you don’t review them, they are less valuable than living entirely by the clock.

The numbers can be overwhelming at first, so get started by defining a goal for what you want your marketing to do. Then decide what metrics will help you determine if it’s working. To keep it simple, think of your measurement metrics in three buckets.

Bucket No. 1: Activities These activities are a mix of sales and marketing actions taken to generate leads for the company: number of phone calls made, ads run, blogs published, videos produced, social media posts, networking events attended, emails sent. Measure the actual activities completed each month.

Bucket No. 2: Engagement Activities are planned to engage with others on one level or another; track the engagement from each. Measurement data for activities may include number of conversations; website page visits; email list growth; likes and shares; or, for a networking event, business cards distributed.

Bucket No. 3: Results Determine how to measure the results of your engagement. Three must-measure items are: leads generated, sales meetings held and closed business. Ultimately, you want to know: Did you make money on the activities you completed and engagement you generated?

After tracking your bucket numbers for a period of time, the game of marketing becomes a bit less overwhelming. Eventually you’ll know which activities yield the most closed business and can calculate the return on your investment.

Frequently Watched Numbers Here are commonly used metrics to consider when measuring the success of your sales and marketing activities.

Online metrics Online activities are easy to track. For this reason, if you’re engaging in harder-to-track marketing activities such as print advertisements, networking events, direct mail, radio or TV campaigns, you may consider using unique URLs called subdomains like radio.yourwebsite.com or creating a specific landing page like yourwebsite.com/radio to track activity engagement from non-online sources. You can also narrow down online

monica pi t ts

Illustration by Tifani Carter

data to windows of time in an effort to correlate with publication and event dates to see if they boosted engagement online.

Web Traffic sources are the ways people find your site. They may find you by typing in your website domain (direct visitors), searching for your services (search visitors), via social media (social) or clicking on another website linking to yours (referral visitors).

Bounce rate is determined by the number of visitors who enter your site and immediately leave without taking action. A lower bounce rate is better, though the rate can be impacted by many factors in your marketing actions, so if yours is higher than you’d like, take a look at the big picture before freaking out.

Sessions and percentage of new sessions indicate how many times your site was visited and how many of those visitors are new.

Landing pages, page views and exit pages help you understand how people enter your site, the most-viewed content and where they choose to leave your site. Popular pages with low session durations and high exit rates are key areas for improvement. CBT

➜ C h i e f c r e a t i v e d i r e ct o r a t M a y e c r e a t e d e s i gn columbiabusinesstimes.com /// 73

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technology

›› Brant Uptergrove reviews the latest trends in tech

IT Innovations: Intel's Compute Stick TECHNOLOGY is always changing, and there are new innovations almost daily. Whether it is a new app, piece of software or device, everyone is trying to outdo everyone else.

But one new innovation that stands out as a game changer in the IT world is the Intel Compute Stick. With demand for efficiency in the workplace at an all-time high, Intel’s Compute Stick delivers.

There have been a few microcomputers, a little larger than a thumb drive, that have come out in the past, but this one will run a full version of Windows OS. Previously, we’ve seen products such as PCTV’s mini stick and Android’s Mini PC TV that were essentially devices that just helped you display content from another operating system and were not completely self-operating computer systems. The Intel Compute Stick is much more compatible and capable of meeting the basic needs consumers look for when purchasing a computer. Since its release, the reviews have been great. PC Magazine and Computer Shopper both awarded the Intel Compute Stick Editors’ Choice, and PC Magazine says, “It’s $150, easy to set up and is the most portable computer you can buy.”

The Intel Compute Stick not only decreases space but also cuts costs. I see a big use for this in the local marketplace for any office or building with any advertising or informational screens.

Illustration by Tifani Carter

which could range anywhere from $1,000 to $1,500. This option will save some money for sure. I personally will be testing it out in some local libraries for self-checkout machines.

The drawbacks The features The Intel Compute Stick has built-in Bluetooth, a USB port, wireless, 2 GB RAM, 32 GB storage and micro SD slot and plugs directly into any display’s HDMI port. This can easily be used as a thin client (a computer without a hard-disk drive) to turn any TV into a computer or as a way to take your computer on the go. And you get all of this for about $150.

Today we’re seeing businesses continually looking to increase efficiency by decreasing the amount of space they take up with their workstations.

The Intel Compute Stick not only decreases space but also cuts costs. I see a big use for this in the local marketplace for any office or building with any advertising or informational screens. In the past a larger, more expensive all-in-one computer or computer-and-screen combination was needed,

bran t up t e rgrov e

Of course, with any innovation there are bound to be some drawbacks.

With the Intel Compute Stick, it’s important to know the additional items that will be needed for full functionality. First, you’ll need a power adapter to plug into the Compute Stick to give it the proper charge. Second, a keyboard and mouse will be needed (after all, we are working with a computer). As with any technology, advancements will happen rapidly.

Already there are rumors of Intel working on a way to power the Compute Stick via USB in combination with HDMI, which means there might be no need for a power adapter in the future.

Even though other microcomputers are available on the market, Intel’s approach in developing a microcomputer that is small and efficient has really put it at the forefront of the mini PC movement. CBT

➜ a cc o unt m a n a g e r a t m i dw e st c o mput e ch columbiabusinesstimes.com /// 75

organizational health

›› Pieter Van Waarde helps guide organizations into good health

Well-Qualified Innovation Innovation is one of the cool organizational buzzwords of our day.

Who isn’t for it?

In every organization, innovation is critical. After speaking to Terry Roberts, executive vice president of innovation at Veterans United Home Loans, I learned innovation also needs to be well qualified. We need to add a few words to innovation if we want to successfully implement it.

Roberts was gracious enough to share a few of those words and ideas that he works hard to apply in his world that may have broader application for all of us.

Innovation is everyone’s job: Sometimes leaders think innovation can be compartmentalized into a single department or person, but truly innovative organizations understand creativity isn’t limited to any one person or group, and the best results occur when everyone is thinking with an eye toward improvement.

Incremental innovation: People can easily become enamored with discovering that next big thing that will change everything for the better, but this mindset creates a high-risk scenario that rarely brings about success. Rather, innovative leaders encourage smaller incremental improvements that leverage the knowledge of the workforce in ways that make everyone’s lives easier.

Process innovation: When thinking about innovation, many people think in terms of things, but what actually leads to innovation is when people consider a process-based approach. Innovative products and services are outward facing (customer) and can impact demand. Innovative processes are inward facing (employees) and can directly impact the ability to effectively provide products and services for the long term. Innovation isn’t just about making a better product; it is also about employing a better process.

Long-term innovation: If people are thinking about their present state, they are thinking too slowly. The best kind of innovation anticipates what’s coming and prepares for it with maximum validation and minimum resources. The draw of our immediate need (and the energy it requires) can often be the greatest impediment to thoughtful differentiation and prioritized focus.

Internal/external innovation: One of the more important points of focus regarding the process of innovation is for people to think more globally. Many people inadvertently think either in terms of what is happening inside the organization or focus on things happening outside the organization. The problem with this split focus is that a change that improves customer experience may make things significantly more difficult (or more expensive) for those working inside the organization. Or, conversely, something that makes things easier or better for employees may make the customer experience less desirable. As simplistic as it may sound, the most significant and effective innovations are those that improve the experience for everyone. This requires broader kinds of thinking.

Purposeful innovation: The desire for innovation, not to mention the pressure to keep up with the competition, can make it tempting to innovate simply for the sake of trying something new. It’s understandable that people want to break

pi e t e r van waard e

Illustration by Tifani Carter

out of ruts, and sometimes it helps to shake things up a bit. But one of the most important questions we need to regularly ask ourselves in the process of innovating is: Will this help us accomplish our mission and vision in a way that is consistent with our values, or are we just trying stuff? It seems like a simple question, but in the effort to stay cutting edge, people can lose sight of the core issue: What business are we in, and will this actually help build the business?

When innovation doesn’t come easy Some environments resist innovation. In certain circles the push for innovation feels like a betrayal of core values. Serving as a senior leader in a church for more than 30 years, I've experienced innovation resistance. But that doesn’t just happen in churches. It happens in education, politics and business, too. In these scenarios, I have found Jim Collins’ statement regarding innovation especially helpful: “Great organizations understand managing the delicate balance of preserving the core and stimulating progress.”

Before talking about “stimulating progress,” get really clear and intentional about defining and preserving the core. Then once people believe the things they find most sacred will be protected, they are more ready to talk about what “progress” looks like. CBT

➜ s e n i o r pa st o r a t w o o dc r e st ch a p e l , p r e s i d e nt o f s i d e w a l k l l c columbiabusinesstimes.com /// 77

inside the LINES

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sales strategy

›› Tron Jordheim talks business trends and the art of selling

Innovate your Sales Language Today’s selling environment is not like last year’s selling environment nor is it like next year’s. Consumer habits, trends and preferences often change overnight, which leaves salespeople very little time to discover what resonates with customers.

In my case, I turn to social media to figure out what sales language I should be using. Social media has made possible a two-way communication with customers that wasn’t available to us in the past. If you’re using social media the wrong way ( just blasting sales message after sales message), you’re missing out on a great opportunity to discover what your customers find engaging.

To begin this process of asking customers what works and what doesn’t, I asked my Facebook friends how they innovate their sales language.

1. Communicate with, and not at, your customers. In the old days we called this talking about the benefits of your features. They will reveal why your product or service is meaningful to your customers and how they talk about your business.

So on social media, ask followers how they use your service and product. Use this powerful information to talk to others the way your customers talk about you.

2. Keep your sales language visual. In the old days we talked about this kind of language as painting a picture for the customer. People look at more videos and photos than you can imagine, and we are becoming more visual than we are verbal. To support this, use interesting videos and great photos to support and deliver your sales language.

3. Audit results. In the old days we kept track of the objections people had to buying and tried to catalog ways of overcoming those objections. Today, it’s better to track how people are enjoying your product or service and how and when they interact with you on social media. This should signal the need for new or revised sales language. You’ll notice which visuals people respond to. Use more of those in your verbal descriptions.

If you’re using social media the wrong way ( just blasting sales message after sales message), you’re missing out on a great opportunity to discover what your customers find engaging.

If you test new benefits with your audience, keep it visual and test what’s working and isn’t working, you’ll be well on your way to innovating your sales language.

An example of this in motion is the Small Business and Technology Development Center in Columbia. Collin Bunch, business development specialist, says the center has innovated its sales language when talking about its services.

Words such as startup and small business used in the past gave prospects the

t ron j ord h e im

Illustration by Tifani Carter

misguided idea that the SBTDC was a place for very new and very small businesses to get started. In fact, the suite of services offered is far broader. People who have been helped by its programs talk about getting Fortune 500-level services locally, so this direction is becoming a part of the new sales language that Bunch and his colleagues use. The business development specialists now talk more about new ways to help businesses grow and how the center can offer transformative business consulting. These phrases paint bigger pictures that make sense to owners of established and medium-size businesses, too.

In the self-storage business, we’ve moved away from talking about how people can leave their things with us to talking about how people can stay more organized and keep their homes and offices free of clutter. This shift in language has helped people picture their living spaces as peaceful and fulfilling rather than their belongings stacked in a storage unit. This is powerful stuff. It’s not a big shift, but it’s a significant one. Who knows what sort of visuals we’ll be attempting to convey next year? It will depend on the two-way conversations we have with customers this year and what we can learn from them.

How do you innovate your sales language? Use your social media and other means to open up communication with customers. Find a visual way to express what they find important. Then start talking about those visuals. CBT

➜ C EO o f T r o n J o r dh e i m Ent e r p r i s e s a nd P r o duc e r o f C a us e W e e k columbiabusinesstimes.com /// 79

New Business Licenses

›› Columbia residents and their upstarts THE 2

ND AN

Savor the Flavors

NUAL

7 family-favorite recipes from the pros • Page 98

NEW SSM HEALTH ST. MARY’S HOSPITAL

5 Local

Environmentally Designed • Page 18

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magical season Family sanc tuary house

Page. 32

Festive home tour, fall/winter fashions, gift picks and more!

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NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2014

JANUAR Y/FEBRU ARY 89 2015 Pages 36, 49,

e 2014

May/Jun

Y STRONG COUNTRimate cabin The ult Page 28

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MEN then and now jobs, Classic Page 68

S JOUR A HIKER'hian adventures Appalac

Page 62

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Aware Driving Lessons 1500 Shannon Place Driving lessons Poe Golf 17 S. Fourth St. Golf retail sales Sleep Management/Viemed 1902 Corona Road Health care/medical equipment Columbia Discount Furniture 1906 N. Providence Road Retail furniture, mattresses and bedding

All Clean! Windows and More 2529 Northampton Drive Cleaning service Tiger Express Wash-Office 2900 Falling Leaf Lane Clerical office for Tiger Express Wash Flexi Cash 2901 W. Broadway Payday loans

Salon W 4200 Merchant St. Hairstylist-renting booth in salon Temmy Cleaning 4505 Cedar Falls Lane Cleaning company Columbia Furniture Assembly 4705 Cedar Rock Court In-home service to assemble furniture Social Butterfly Originals 601 N. Anne St. Alterations, jewelry (sold online or in catalogs)

Mid Mo Inspectors 303 N. Stadium Blvd.

Inspections, radon and mold testing

Opie Logistics 7007 Standwood Drive Commissionbased transportation agency

KPS Construction LLC 2000 Forum Blvd.

General construction

Tootsie’s Upscale Resale 310 Tiger Lane Resale shop/boutique

Luke Offield-Guitar Technician 709 Rowe Lane Guitar repair

La Di Da Children’s Boutique 2001 Corona Road Children’s clothing

Zimmer Radio of Mid Missouri 3215 Lemone Industrial Blvd.

Radio station

The Domestic Gardener LLC 203 N. 10th St. Retail gardening products RD’s Auto LLC 2424 Paris Road Auto dealer Billy J. Melvin 704 Big Bear Blvd.

Plumbing

80 \\\ October 2015

A Touch Above Painting 2504 S. Grandview Circle Interior/exterior painting

Spark Promotions LLC 3633 Prescott Drive Promotion sales products outside the home Allianz Consulting Solutions 4802 Clark Lane Financial consultant service

Kia of Columbia 710 W. Business Loop 70 Auto dealership Precision Dent Co. 722 W. Sexton Road Automotive paintless dent repair Zocco 2119 Bridgewater Drive Management consulting Thip Thai Cuisine 904 E. Broadway Thai restaurant CBT

Deeds of Trust

›› Worth more than $406,485

$12,000,000 Columbia Hotel Associates LLC CIBC Inc. LT 5 Concorde Office and Ind Plaza Pl 1 $3,500,000 Lyon Crest Properties LLC Central Bank of Boone County LT 25 Columbia $2,250,000 Thornburg, Matt E. and Early, Elizabeth K. Hawthorn Bank LT 128 Highlands Plat 12B The $2,135,000 Westchester Village of Columbia The Bank of Missouri LT 3 Westchester Village $1,842,047 Heriford Mall LLC Providence Bank LT 301 West Vandiver Industrial Park Plat 3 $1,380,580 Smith Hatchery Farms LLC Central Bank of Boone County STR 21-47-13 //NE $1,200,000 COMO Ventures LLC Citizens Bank LT 5C Liberty Square Block 3 Lot 5 $1,025,445 North Grasslands Properties LLC Landmark Bank STR 13-48-13 //SW SUR BK/PG: 324/30 FF Tract 1 $903,000 Carr-Yager Funeral Home LLC Merchants and Farmers Bank LT 20 PT Conley and Perkins Sub

581

Deeds of trust were issued between aug. 4 and Aug. 21

$784,919 Stephens, Debra and David Commerce Bank LT 17 Paradise Hills Estates Blk 4

$500,000 Curtis Family Revocable Trust Landmark Bank LT 21 Chapel Mills Estates Plat 1

$772,000 Plummer-Exler, Benjamin and Gregory Hawthorn Bank LT 38 Scottsdale Sub Blk 2

$490,000 Sowers, Stephen E. II and Linda Franz JT Rev Trust Mid America Mortgage Services Inc. STR 9-47-12 //N SUR BK/PG: 4246/4 AC 10 FF Tract 8

$768,000 J Q B Construction Inc. Central Bank of Boone County STR 32-48-13 //SE SUR BK/PG: 4299/80 AC 21.24 FF Tract 2B w/Exceptions

$460,000 Jokerst, Rachel E. and Jason W. Landmark Bank LT 242 Copperstone Plat 2

$750,000 Shively, Mary G. and David J. The Callaway Bank LT 303 PT Valley View Gardens Plat 13

$450,000 Geun, Teresa A. and Heim, Lucas G. Central Bank of Boone County LT 241 Thornbrook Plat 7

$660,000 McHargue, Nicholas and Karen JT Rev Trust Commerce Bank LT 202 Gates at Old Hawthorne Plat 2 The

$435,680 Shaon, Michael and Kelli Alliant Bank LT 122 Stonebridge Estates Plat 1

$575,000 Johnson, Bill and Susan The Bank of Missouri LT 505 Old Hawthorne Plat 5

$420,000 Wray, Mark and Joann Mid America Mortgage Services Inc. LT 56 Woodlands Plat 3B The

$565,250 Bets Off LLC Hawthorn Bank LT 12 Nifong Village Plat 3

$417,000 Volgas, David and Karen P. Triad Bank LT 46 Cedar Lake South Plat 2

$549,000 Kimchi, Kimberly and Eric Landmark Bank LT 19 PT Hill Creek Sub Add 1

$414,336 Verslues, Jared Wayne and Brenda Lee Bank of St. Elizabeth STR 7-46-12 //NE SUR BK/PG: 4168/31 AC 12.6 FF Tract 5A

$520,000 New Haven Custom Homes LLC Central Bank of Boone County LT 424A Copperstone Plat 7

$406,485 Barnett, James C. Mortgage Research Center LLC STR 15-47-12 //SE CBT

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866-639-1715 7Methods.co columbiabusinesstimes.com /// 81

Economic Index

›› It’s all about the numbers Art & framing for business interiors The art on your walls says a lot about your company.

It also says alot about you.

Let us help you create a look that leaves a lasting impression on your clients and staff.

Housing:

Labor:

Single-family home sales, July

July 2015 – Boone County

2015: 271

Labor force: 99,700 Employment: 95,419

Single-family active listings on market, July 2015: 730 Single-family homes average sold price, July 2015: $216,533

Unemployment: 4,281 Rate: 4.3 percent July 2015 – Columbia, Missouri (Metropolitan Statistical Area)

Single-family homes average

Labor force: 99,700

days on market, July 2015: 58

Employment: 95,400 Unemployment: 4,300

Single-family pending listings

Rate: 4.3 percent

on market, July 2015: 193

Call us for consult a free ati your b on for usiness !

Stewart Cancer Center waiting room.

Construction: Residential building permits, July 2015: 119 Value of residential building permits, July 2015: $14,250,362

July 2015 – Missouri Labor force: 3,073,000 Employment: 2,894,000 Unemployment: 179,100 Rate: 5.8 percent

Utilities: Water

Detached single-family

August 2015: 47,918

homes, July 2015: 49

August 2014: 47,503 Change #: 415

Value of detached single-

Change %: 0.9 percent

family homes, June 2015:

Number of customers

$12,397,322

receiving service on Sept. 1, 2015: 47,888

Commercial building permits, July 2015: 23 * Image - Flowering Dogwood from Henry Domke Fine Art

Value of commercial building permits, July 2015:

Contact Rene Heider | 573.335.0570 | Rene.deck@msn.com

$10,915,399

82 \\\ October 2015

August 2015: 48,478 August 2014: 47,973 Change #: 505 Change %: 1.1 percent

Columbia Mall | 2300 Bernadette Drive | Columbia, MO columbiamall.deckthewalls.com

Electric

Value of commercial

Number of customers

additions/alterations, July

receiving service on

2015: $8,384,634

Sept. 1, 2015: 48,410 CBT

By the Numbers

›› Boone County statistics

5,500

overall enrollment

5,200

100%

600 million

531m

$

$

400 million

$

418m

$

$ $ $ 454m 461m 435m 445m

348m $

279m

200 million

2008 2009

4,900

Funding from Dedicated Sources

MU Trulaske College of Business

The Department of Economic Development Total Department Expenditures

Innovation can be difficult to quantify, but it’s the driving force behind a growing and healthy business community. The CBT painted a picture — with stats, of course — of some resources and indicators of CoMo’s marketplace of innovation.

2010

2011

2012

2013

2014

2015

90% 80% 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 16% 10% 5%

2008 2009

21% 4% 2010

2011

2012

2013

2014

2015

YEAR

4,300 4,000 3,700

CPS Computer Numbers

#BOOM Conference

Source: CPS

3,400

Source: REDI

2,800 2,500 1999 2001 2003 2005 2007 2009 2011 2013 2015 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 2012 2014

YEAR

$20 million - Funds needed for construction of the school’s Applied Learning Center. The state has pledged $10 million to match $10 million in privately raised funds for the building.

number of devices

3,100

14,000

13,800 12,070

11,460

550

11,904

people attended the event.

12,000 10,000

624

April

individual IP addresses accessed the live stream, likely putting viewership in the thousands.

Now

8,000

iPads

211

Laptops/desktops combineD

people accessed the event's Google Hangout.

ONE MILLION CUPS Source: One Million Cups

70

66

50 50

0

Additionally, CPS carries 210 Chromebooks and 3,529 SMARTboards, projectors and printers.

was the total view count for two Google Hangout photos.

23

1

2

2012

2013

2.11%

2014

2015

92.79% Entrepreneurship at Columbia College Source: Columbia College

103

2.5%

COLUMBIA'S RENEWABLE ENERGY USE

YEAR

students enrolled

46,645

All schools in CPS have no higher than a 1.5-to-1 ratio of students to tech devices.

94

students majoring in entrepreneurship

9

students minoring in entrepreneurship

Total energy

7.21%

Renewable energy

percent of supply

Participating Cities

25%

8%

YEAR

4,600

24%

14%

2%

1.84% 1.53%

1.5%

1.16% 1%

0.5%

0.52% 0.04%

0.01%

Bluegrass Ridge Crystal Lake Jefferson City Columbia Free Power Columbia Power Net Wind Power Wind Power Landfill Gas Landfill Gas Solar Energy Plant Biomass Metering

renewable energy source

columbiabusinesstimes.com /// 83

7 questions

➜ 1000 W. Nifong Blvd., Building 6, Suite 220, Columbia, MO 65203 • 855-647-4382

›› Get to know your professionals

In the Cloud

Matt McDermott, founder of tech company 43Tc

F U N FACT: 84 \\\ October 2015

4. How do you keep up with everchanging compliance and technology standards? I could say I memorize all of the regulatory and compliance standards, but that wouldn’t be true. It’s simple: I don’t do all the work. No one or one company can do this alone. I only hire people who have a background working across industries. I also partner with companies that specialize in identifying, mitigating and automating compliance risks for my customers.

Oh, and there is quite a bit of reading, watching webinars, communicating with experts and trying out different technologies to find the best fit for different industries.

5. What technology issue do you think individuals should be more concerned about? Personal identity information and personal tracking is one that always worries me. Although I utilize tons of technology, I always think about what I’m paying for that technology. Does the cost match the automation being provided? And what I am sharing with that company?

I’m not going to point fingers or name names, but think about the last time you read that long license agreement or usage agreement for technology you use. Typically, free means they can collect information about you and use or sell it, and by clicking “I agree,” you just gave them permission.

6. How can ineffective technology affect businesses? The two primary things I see are loss of productivity/revenue and disgruntled employees. How many times have you called or visited a business and heard the following? “Sorry this is taking so long; my computer isn’t working properly.” They are losing revenue, turning away customers, and the employee is not very happy. Simple additions, such as increasing Internet speed or adding a second monitor, can dramatically increase employee satisfaction and improve the bottom line.

Photo by Sarah Redohl

1. Why did you choose the name 43Tc? 43Tc is the symbol for technetium on the chemistry periodic table. The company started as Technetium Consulting, as it included technical and networking in the name. However, the name proved to be difficult to spell, so 43Tc became the official name early on.

2. What is the single most innovative thing about 43Tc? 43Tc has run our day-to-day operations including HR, accounting, marketing, engineering and sales from public cloud offerings for more than five years. This has allowed me to run a business with employees who are thousands of miles away from one another without any loss of operations or sales. My employees and I can open any computer from anywhere with Internet access and start to work. My Seattle-based customers often call me on the phone and ask if I could run over for an impromptu meeting, which is when they learn I don’t live in town.

3. What technology issue do you think businesses should be more concerned about? Poor investments in technology should be the biggest concern for all businesses. Today, all companies from startups to established businesses should evaluate cloud computing because it lowers costs, enables work from anywhere, improves current reliability and grows with the business.

7. With locations in Chicago and Seattle, why did you choose to headquarter your business in Columbia? Really, it was about family. We moved here because I have a daughter on the autism spectrum and wanted to provide her with the best opportunities.

It turns out Columbia has some of the best services for those on the autism spectrum. The fact that my wife attended Hickman and the University of Missouri and that her mother lives in town were fairly influential as well.

When we first moved here, all of my business wasn’t in Columbia, but when I realized this was where I wanted to live, we made the decision to move our business headquarters from Seattle and start working with customers in Columbia and the surrounding area. CBT

➜ The company has offices in Columbia, Chicago and Seattle. The 43Tc team has flown more than 2 million miles and worked in more than 20 countries.

ADVERTISER INDEX 43Tc........................................................................................................................9 Accent Press................................................................................................ 65 Accounting Plus....................................................................................... 87 Anthony Jinson Photography......................................................... 15 Baer & Edington, LLC................................................................................ 68 Betz Jewelers..............................................................................................20 Boone Hospital............................................................................................. 11 Budget Blinds..............................................................................................69 Caledon Virtual...........................................................................................4 Central Trust & Investment Co.........................................................5 City of Columbia Water & Light.........................................................8 Clearvision.....................................................................................................22 Columbia Regional Airport................................................................ 28 Commerce Bank........................................................................................... 24 D & M Sound..................................................................................................... 24 Dave Griggs Flooring America........................................................49 Deck The Walls............................................................................................ 82 Edward Jones................................................................................................ 19 Equipment Share......................................................................................... 16 Fibrenew.......................................................................................................... 33 Foundation Recovery Systems........................................................22 GFI Digital.........................................................................................................74 Gibbs, Pool, Turner.................................................................................. 55 Gravity.............................................................................................................. 38 Hawthorn Bank.......................................................................................... 88 Ideagroove....................................................................................................20 Inside The Lines............................................................................................ 78

KFRU...................................................................................................................... 45 Landmark Bank............................................................................................... 2 Lincoln University................................................................................... 85 MayeCreate Web Design......................................................................... 18 Mid America Harley-Davidson..............................................................3 Midwest Computech................................................................................69 Missouri Dept. of Conservation........................................................6 Missouri Employers Mutual................................................................ 12 Modern Litho/Brown Printing......................................................... 14 Moresource Inc...........................................................................................37 Naught Naught Insurance Agency.............................................. 33 Peckham Architecture........................................................................... 13 Personal Touch Cleaning Service............................................... 54 PhoneSmart - 7 Methods....................................................................... 81 Property Protectors............................................................................... 7 Ram Jack of Mid-Missouri...................................................................... 33 Socket............................................................................................................... 28 State Farm Insurance - Stephanie Wilmsmeyer.................... 65 Tech Electronics..................................................................................... 68 The Bank of Missouri............................................................................... 34 The Village of Bedford Walk............................................................10 University Club........................................................................................... 36 Wilkerson & Reynolds Wealth Management........................ 32 Wilson's Fitness......................................................................................... 76

Discover the BLUE in YOU

A

s a student at Lincoln University, I was deeply inspired by the sacrifices of the soldiers who founded this extraordinary institution.

Through the years, the commitment remains the same—to provide quality education to help individuals prepare for a successful future. I realized then, I too, wanted to ‘give back’ for all I had received.

I became a committed educator!

Rhonda Allen

4th Grade Teacher, Thorpe Gordon Elementary B.S. Elementary Education M.A. Guidance and Counseling

www.LincolnU.edu columbiabusinesstimes.com /// 85

flashback

➜ 17 N. Ninth St., Columbia, MO 65201 • 573-874-1944

›› Columbia, then and now

By Brenna McDermott Photo by Sarah Redohl

NEW OWNERS Matt Gerding and Scott Leslie are continuing the 35-year tradition of great live music at The Blue Note. The fall season looks to be the most packed schedule the venue has seen in years, Gerding says.

But there’s a lot that has changed in just the past year. Gerding and Leslie are expanding The Blue Note from simply a music venue to an active event space. The theater is now available for weddings, holiday parties and corporate events. They’ve outsourced event management to AnnaBelle Events, a local event-planning company. Several weddings are booked for next summer.

The inside was renovated in December with new flooring, lighting, tables and chairs in an effort to clean up for events.

In addition, Gerding says, there’s new programing, such as dance parties and “Brew ‘N View,” showing cult classic films.

Former owner Richard King sold The Blue Note last year after 34 years of ownership.

King first came to Columbia to visit his friend Kevin Walsh and later met Phil Costello. The three — King, Walsh and Costello — had a love for music that eventually resulted in the opening of The Blue Note in August 1980 on Business Loop 70.

In 1990, The Blue Note moved to where it is today, and with a different location and new owners, the dedication to booking good acts stayed the same. The new facility had more capacity, going from seating 400 to 800 people.

The Blue Note’s current location started as the Varsity Theatre in 1927, according to a 2010 Columbia Business Times article. It was built for roughly $100,000, or $1.2 million in 2009 dollars, according to measuringworth. com. The Varsity became the Film Arts Theatre in 1966, the Comic Book Club in 1988 and then The Blue Note in 1990. CBT

➜ We love Columbia business history. If you have any interesting photos and stories, please send them to Editor@BusinessTimesCompany.com 86 \\\ October 2015

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