Midwestern Innovation Is Alive and Well

Last week I had anopportunity to spend some time with a bunch of start up companies that werepitching venture capitalists for additional funding. I thought I would share withyou some of the more interesting ideas, to show you that innovation is aliveand well.

What made things more interesting is that this event took place in St. Louis where I live. It is called InvestMidwest, and isheld every year alternating between St. Louis and Kansas City. About 40 different companies attended, pitchingto about 40 VCs. They ranged from traditional IT to biotech and alternativeenergy ventures.

Some of the ideas were downright goofy. But some had some immediate tractionwith me, such as Earth Perspectives, a Columbia, Mo.-based venture that istrying to improve the analysis of satellite imagery by comparing what haschanged in particular areas of the earth’s surface. If you think about theissue of how to examine the thousands of pictures taken each day and try toorganize them in some meaningful fashion to see man-made and natural changesover time, it is ripe for computational solutions.

Another company called SpiritShop.com has a more mundane solution forcustom-printed logo clothing. In the past, if your organization wanted theirown t-shirts or whatever, you had to fulfill minimum quantities. They can dowhatever amount you need and provide a nice Web interface to customize andupload your design. They have a great revenue sharing model to make theirproducts appealing for fundraising opportunities (such as school PTAs andsuch), too. They are based in Ann Arbor.

How about keeping track of supermarket coupons electronically? TDP‘s SaveMyCoupons.com is such a service, and they produceall the back office operations that are needed to collect and apply coupons toyour purchases. They can also track purchase history and customize coupons forparticular merchants and shoppers. They have gotten traction with several ofthe major grocery retailers and they have former Sprint executives who foundedthe Kansas City company.

This being the midwest we also had an idea for branding cattle with ink tatoosthat could be quickly read by barcode readers to keep track of their growth andother statistics. Somark Innovations based here in St. Louis is on the case, especially noteworthy given ourrecent food safety scares.

And an Indianapolis-based company called Vyante is trying to assemble softwarethat allows a company to track its online reputation through blogs, discussionforums, and Web pages, The product is called ChatterSpike and is designed tohelp marketers make decisions about their brands and how they are beingperceived online. This is a very competitive and active field, with dozens ofwanna-bes. Time will tell if they have the right stuff.

What I liked about the half day conference was how quickly you got the feelthat the spirit of innovation is alive and well in the middle of the country.Too often we tend to focus on SiliconValley and Cambridge, or a few other areas, and not realize that thereis a tremendous talent pool in our own backyards. I hope many of thesecompanies that I saw last week at the event were successful at finding backersand can continue to grow and becme profitable.