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"FORTUNE &amp;#8212; Last month, a group of 12 New York venture capitalists took a chartered jet to St. Louis, as part of a 36-hour tour of the city\u2019s tech ecosystem. For most of them, it was the first time hearing St. Louis even had a tech ecosystem.\nIt does, though it\u2019s in its infancy. Organized by Enstitute, an apprenticeship program, and the local chamber of commerce and supporters, the trip was meant to pique the interest of coastal investors, while injecting a bit of their startup expertise into the region, if only for a weekend. The investors\u00A0listened to pitches, toured TREX, St. Louis\u2019s downtown co-working space and tech incubator, and attended InvestMidwest, a regional investing conference.\nGiven the enormous wealth created by tech startups in Silicon Valley, it\u2019s no surprise to learn that yet another city\u00A0is eager to remake itself\u00A0in the\u00A0Valley\u2019s image. That\u2019s why, in addition to Silicon Alley in New York and Boston\u2019s CyberDistrict, there\u2019s also a Silicon Beach, a Silicon Prairie, and a Silicon Roundabout, and a dozen or so other places whose &amp;#8220;Silicon&amp;#8221; nicknames haven&amp;#8217;t yet caught on beyond that particular area. Pushing\u00A0the entrepreneurial spirit of the Valley (and with it, the economic benefits) is the next logical step from all the self-imposed \u201Cvibrancy\u201D of recent years in declining rust belt cities. But simply flying the innovation flag isn\u2019t enough to inspire founders to start companies. And even if they do start companies, they need a support system of investors, mentors, potential clients, and a pool of talent to hire from in order to become successful. The intention is great; the rest is trickier.\nMORE:\u00A0Jack Dorsey: The pride of St. Louis\nSt. Louis\u2019s tech ecosystem is young. (It doesn\u2019t even have a cheesy \u201CSilicon\u201D name yet.) But it has a savvy advocate\u00A0in Jim McKelvey, co-founder of mobile payments company Square. McKelvey started Square\u00A0with Twitter \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\tTWTR\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t co-founder (and St. Louis native) Jack Dorsey, whom he\u2019d met working at St. Louis-based Mira Publishing.\nNow he\u2019s on a mission to make St. Louis into a hub for innovation after a long dormant period. \u201CFor the last 100 years, it\u2019s been pretty quiet around here,\u201D he says. \u201CThe 1904 World Fair was sort of the peak, and too many people made too much money 100 years ago, and all their children and grandchildren basically decided to be rich and not do much,\u201D he says, half-joking.\n\u201CThat has turned around pretty starkly in the last five years,\u201D he says. \u201CWe\u2019re seeing all these programs hitting, and they all interact with each other.\nThose programs include his own, a program called\u00A0LaunchCode\u00A0that\u00A0helps coders get the relevant work\u00A0experience they need to get good\u00A0technical jobs. Since its start\u00A0in October, 58 students ranging from unemployed mothers, Starbucks employees, and military vets have done\u00A0LaunchCode apprenticeships and 27\u00A0have been placed in jobs at companies like Scottrade, Panera \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\tPNRA\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t, and Enterprise. The program&amp;#8217;s current crop of apprentices has 225 people enrolled after three\u00A0months.\nLikewise, Enstitute, an apprenticeship program founded in New York, launched in St. Louis in conjunction with the trip. There are also new accelerators cropping up, like SixThirty, the fintech-focused program started by McKelvey, and a grant program and business plan competition\u00A0run by the city called Arch Grants.\nMORE:\u00A0Tech jobs aren&amp;#8217;t just for Silicon Valley\nThe city&amp;#8217;s advocates tout the eagerness of corporations like\u00A0Mastercard \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\tMA\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t and\u00A0Monsanto \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\tMON\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t, and institutions\u00A0like\u00A0Washington University\u00A0to get involved. Some of the city&amp;#8217;s notable startups, like Lockerdome, a social network, and Hatchbuck, a sales and marketing SaaS platform, also participate.\nStill, it&amp;#8217;s early. While the New York investors didn&amp;#8217;t whip out their checkbooks after one brief visit, many viewed it as a first step toward potential deals in the region. Nihal Mehta, a partner with Eniac Ventures, says he agreed to mentor some companies which were relevant to his fund\u2019s mobile thesis. He noted that it would be wise for existing coastal startups to set up engineering offices in St. Louis, because the talent is inexpensive and plentiful. Beyond benefitting the startups, it could help catalyze the ecosystem in St. Louis.\n\u201CIt took New York awhile to get there, he says, \u201Cand it&amp;#8217;s certainly only happened in the last six years, after the \u201908 financial collapse. St. Louis also needs that awakening, where people are graduating and all they want to do is create startups. That happens through inspiration.\u201D\nJacob Brody, a seed-stage investor with Mesa+, says he\u2019s interested in backing Midwestern companies because of the opportunity with\u00A0enterprise software in regional industries like agriculture and logistics. \u201CThere are a lot of industries not being served by startups being built on the coasts,\u201D he says. But before he can invest, he needs to build up a vetting network of contacts in the area. \u201CWe need to know local entrepreneurs we can trust, who can send us deals,\u201D he says.\nMORE:\u00A0Fastest-growing cities for tech jobs\nGreycroft Partners Principal Ellie Wheeler says she didn\u2019t see any startups at\u00A0the Series A stage in St. Louis, which is where Greycroft invests. But once Greycroft makes one deal in a city, others tend to follow, because that founder\u2019s network becomes part of the firm\u2019s network. \u201CWe start seeing more deal flow from the region and getting to know people there,\u201D she says. That\u2019s been the case in London and Chicago, two cities where the firm has multiple investments but no office. Recently, Greycroft invested in ThisClicks, a Minneapolis-based company.\nJay De Long, a VP with the St. Louis Regional Chamber, says deal opportunities in the region offer favorable valuations, qualified talent, and low burn-rates. He notes that, because of the lack of risk capital, many startups have grown revenue organically.\nIt\u00A0takes many generations of successful deals and exits for ecosystems to flourish, and St. Louis is still in the first phase. But McKelvey says he can sense a notable difference from five years ago. \u201CI\u2019m feeling an energy that I haven\u2019t seen,\u201D he says. Before, conversations about St. Louis would always focus on the cost of living. \u201CThey\u2019d lead with the, \u2018Oh it&amp;#8217;s cheap to live here.\u2019 And that always bothered me,\u201D he says. But now, the answers are varied. People say they came to St. Louis because of its strength in life sciences, or to work with one of its small, but growing startups.\nCome to St. Louis they have: In the last decade, young people have moved to St. Louis in droves compared to the prior 30\u00A0years. Net migration of 25-29-year-olds grew from a loss of 28 people for every 100 in the 1970s, to a gain of 35 people for every 100 in the 2000s.\nAs the website NextSTL put it, \u201CMillennials are saving St. Louis.\u201D If all goes well, a thriving tech ecosystem might keep them there."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://fortune.com/2014/04/08/can-st-louis-become-the-next-tech-hub/>