ETHINKSTL - Starting from Square One (Ep025) RELOADED

Published: Aug. 2, 2017, 5:30 p.m.

We’re all basically starting from the beginning-Square One. CET, the state’s oldest and largest Innovation Center celebrates nearly 20 years of entrepreneur training programs! CET has been working to find, support and grow entrepreneurial ventures and they’re succeeding with the Square One Boot Camp and Square One Ignite programs. Originally, CET focused on bioscience entrepreneurs. Many great startups including Nanopore Diagnostics, Immunophotonics, Kypha and MediBeacon participated in what was then CET’s Bio Entrepreneur Development (BED) program, which debuted in 2011. In 2014 the BED program expanded its focus to include IT and consumer/manufactured products as well as bioscience and renamed it Square One. Sarah Badahman, founder of HIPAATrek and Brad Postier, co-founder and CEO of Spectrum Perception – both Square One Boot Camp graduates doing phenomenal things – join Christy and Cheryl for a conversation about being a startup founder, their Square One experience and their personal journey as entrepreneurs. In this episode: - Learn their true business stories of how having a great and well-matched co-founder can mean the difference between success and disaster. -What to do if you crash and burn? Sarah and Brad both survived pretty hard hits and share how they picked up and moved on. Listen for Sarah and her "Parachute" and Brad’s first failed start up experience. Yes, they’re still standing. - How Square One helped each of them to start thinking like a “business person”. Resources mentioned: www.codeacademy.com STL TechShop look for universities and capstone projects that work with businesses