Competition is meant to help area business startups

A major startup business competition is launching in Cape Girardeau, led by a newly formed venture capital group and economic development partners.

The co-working community and technology incubator Codefi, capital group Traverse Ventures and the Cape Girardeau Area Chamber of Commerce are collaborating in the competition, called 1ST50K.

1ST50K is modeled after Arch Grants, a St. Louis startup competition for no-strings-attached grants and support from experienced members of the business and economic development community.

Members of organizations leading 1ST50K say they believe the competition could lead to economic benefits for the area by providing financial and educational support to budding entrepreneurs, who in turn will have a better chance of creating moneymaking, job-creating businesses.

"What is really unique about this opportunity is that this will provide nondilutive capital," said Dr. James Stapleton, co-founder of Codefi and a longtime entrepreneurship educator. "The hardest money to find is always that first money."

The competition will take applications year round, and winners will be selected throughout. The cash grants will be up to $50,000 and will be coupled with pro-bono business services and access to successful entrepreneurs.

Winners will be recommended by a committee of entrepreneurs, private investors and technical experts in relevant fields, according to a news release from Traverse Ventures. The venture group board will decide which applicants receive the grants.

Applicants, said Stapleton, are encouraged to submit "unique, innovation-based business models or ideas that appear to be scalable."

The models or ideas don't have to fit with any one industry, Stapleton said.

The committee is planning days for each quarter of the year when selected applicants can pitch their ideas.

The primary goal of the competition, organizers say, "is to help start and attract more innovation-based startups to Cape Girardeau and provide them the support and connections they need to be successful and grow."

The competition's creators say business-building tools that will become available to winners and the mentorship opportunities with successful entrepreneurs that will come with the competition may prove valuable to participants.

The competition and venture capital group has brought together some of the area's most successful businesspeople to advise participants -- among them, Jeff Maurer, president of Mayson Capital Partners, which has various business investments throughout the region. Maurer also is involved with PAJCO Inc., which owns Rhodes 101 convenience stores.

The competition committee is a like a Rolodex of successful business leaders and entrepreneurs, Maurer said.

"What I hope to do is share the successes and failures some of us have had in other businesses in a direct way," he said.

Maurer said he believes Cape Girardeau needs a new round of great companies because not as many businesses in the area are growing to become regional and multistate companies as was the case years ago.

"There is a very different landscape today than when [some well-known business founders] were creating their businesses," Maurer said. "Hard work prevailed in those days. I think today, you still have to work hard, but you need a lot more help, especially in the early days, figuring out things like legal assistance, accounting assistance, regulatory assistance."

As entrepreneurs look to start businesses, they aren't always able to handle those challenges alone, Maurer said.

"I believe in mentoring as the right way to do things," he said. "It's a very effective way to help people, and I think it's what's been missing in the business development in our community."

Another partner is Glenn Campbell, founder of a nationwide, multimillion-dollar headwear company. Campbell founded Hat World in 1994, and his company later bought Lids, a national chain of hat stores. He sold the company to footwear giant Genesco in 2004, and today remains in the business as an executive.

Campbell founded his company in Indiana, but he grew up in Cape Girardeau and moved back in 2007.

"I really want to give back to people ... people with ideas who don't know where to take them, or what the steps are. They may have a good idea, they just don't have the platform to take it anywhere," Campbell said.

Campbell said he has learned from his experience as an entrepreneur that people end up investing in people as much as they do an idea.

"Starting from scratch, scraping money together and meeting different people, sometimes begging, sometimes convincing ... it's hard work," he said. Most people don't end up believing in the company; they end up believing in the person. That's what you find out."

Stapleton said participants will receive guidance on business development throughout the application process and can apply for grants more than once as they develop ideas and models.

Competition winners also will receive membership services from Codefi.

Some participants also may be eligible for additional investments from the capital group, the release said, or from other strategic private investors.

John Mehner, president and CEO of the chamber of commerce, said he believes the new venture capital group to be the first of its kind in the area. He said the chamber is supporting the competition because it recognizes "entrepreneurial development as a huge piece of potential job creation in the future."

eragan@semissourian.com

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