Venture Café is a nonprofit organization that hosts community events and programs that support early-stage entrepreneurs. As of May 2020, there are 11 independently managed Venture Cafés, located in

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St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis ( , sometimes referred to as St. Louis City, Saint Louis or STL) is an Independent city (United States), independent city in the U.S. state of Missouri. It lies near the confluence of the Mississippi River, Mississippi and the Miss ...

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. As of 2019, there were plans to open Venture Cafés in some 40 more cities. The flagship event of Venture Café is the Thursday Gathering, a weekly meeting for new and experienced entrepreneurs to exchange ideas and support. The event usually includes several free educational sessions to teach entrepreneurs to how to start and run a business. Participants can also hold informal discussions of creative and speculative ideas and look for collaborators, co-founders, mentors, or investors.

History

The Venture Café was conceived as a restaurant in the

Cambridge Innovation Center Cambridge Innovation Center (CIC) is an American community of entrepreneurs. The company was founded in 1999 by Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) graduates Timothy Rowe and Andrew Olmsted. Its campuses are a mix of startups, corporate ...

Boston, Massachusetts Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

. The idea failed to attract investment, so the founders changed it to a gathering space for the entrepreneurial community, based on the book ''Venture Café'' by Teresa Esser. Venture Café Kendall launched in 2009. In 2014, Venture Café expanded to the

Cortex Innovation Community Cortex Innovation Community, Cortex Innovation District, or Cortex is an innovation district in the Midtown neighborhood of St. Louis, Missouri. A 200-acre hub for technology and biological science research, development, and commercialization, ...

St. Louis St. Louis ( , sometimes referred to as St. Louis City, Saint Louis or STL) is an independent city in the U.S. state of Missouri. It lies near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a populatio ...

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, to bring together the emerging startup community. The success of the St. Louis location prompted the launch of Venture Cafés in other cities and ultimately the creation of Venture Café Global Institute, a public benefit corporation based in St. Louis and Boston. In 2018, as part of St. Louis Cortex District's new 4220 Duncan building anchored by

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...

, Venture Cafe launched Innovation Hall in St. Louis based upon Boston's District Hall. In 2018, St. Louis launched EdHub to support and bring together innovators to increase youth access to education. EdHub STL is inspired by the Forward Through Ferguson report, which calls for an innovation education hub to address the region's most entrenched educational issues. Venture Café Foundation in Boston runs the Roxbury Innovation Center. Like EdHub, it brings together innovators in education including students, parents, administration, and teachers to help solve inequities in education and introduce youth to entrepreneurship and STEAM activities. In September 2021, Venture Café St. Louis cancelled its events and made no public statements. On September 13, 2021, Venture Café St. Louis board chair Whitney Masching released a statement stating, "Seven years later, it is time to close this chapter. Effective immediately, the VCSTL programming you know is on pause — but this isn’t the end."

External links

CIC Venture Café Global Institute - Official WebsiteVenture Café Foundation Official Website

Venture Café St. Louis Official Website

Venture Café Sydney Official WebsiteVenture Café Warsaw Official Website

Venture Café The Success Story of a coworking space.

References

{{Reflist Entrepreneurship organizations Non-profit corporations Community building Companies based in St. Louis Organizations based in St. Louis Non-profit organizations based in St. Louis Coworking space providers

History

See also

External links

References