The Missouri Innovation Center (MIC) provides support for high-growth business ventures that improve human life and sustainability. Our emphasis is in the life sciences sector, and our facilities and services are tailored to support startups seeking to establish and grow enterprises in that sector.

Life sciences startup founders are often interested in the facilities and equipment they can access by partnering with MIC. However, many find that access to a thriving network of business professionals is just as valuable in the process of launching a company. One critical form of this intangible and essential support that is particularly important is our mentorship program.

Mentors play a key role in fostering innovation and entrepreneurship. A good mentor can help with a variety of challenges. Whether it is making a key hire or an unexpected pivot, a mentor can coach founders through the process of transforming from novices to leaders.

However, a mentorship program only works if the right mentors join it. What does it take to become a mentor? What are the benefits, processes, and challenges of this unique form of business building? 

In this resource, we will consider the benefits of becoming a mentor, the unique opportunity it offers to give back to others, and what it takes to become a mentor in an established and reputable network like that maintained by the Missouri Innovation Center.

What Does the MIC Mentor Network Look Like?

Mentorship programs come in all shapes and sizes. At MIC, we have cultivated a program structured to help ambitious, inexperienced business leaders navigate the turbulent waters of launching a startup. We only accept qualified coaches who have strong communication skills, clear industry experience, and are able to fully commit to the weighty responsibilities of guiding and influencing an entrepreneur.

A strong selection process is especially important in a field like life sciences. Client companies that lease space and pay for services at MIC are seeking to enter a highly competitive, high-risk, high-reward business landscape. They are focused on niche areas, such as:

• Nanotech
• Drugs
• Radiopharma
• Biowaste
• Animal health, 
• Renewable and alternative energy
• Diagnostics
• Medical devices

No matter how good a startup’s products or services might be, these verticals require significant up-front investment and sound business decision-making for a new company to survive. Every action is important and benefits from clear, impactful guidance from a business coach. This avoids wasted resources, shortened runways, and missed opportunities.

Mentorship Networks: What Are the Benefits to Mentors?

It’s easy to see the benefit that a mentored individual gets from having access to a wiser, more experienced business leader. (Although even then, there are some surprising additional benefits that are easy to overlook, which we’ll touch on in the next section.)

But what about a mentor? If you’re considering becoming a mentor for a business founder — or even formally joining the Missouri Innovation Center mentorship network — realize that mentorship isn’t all about pouring out into others. Mentoring is a nurturing, developmental task that requires a socratic approach to help teach entrepreneurs how to analyze and solve problems.  It is not consulting or a human web search where the entrepreneur asks questions and the mentor provides answers.  

Networking With Other Industry Leaders and Innovators

When a mentor operates individually, they are isolated and have limited opportunities to connect with others outside of their own network. However, when a mentor joins a larger group of like-minded individuals, as is the case with the Missouri Innovation Center’s mentorship network, they naturally increase their ability to connect with other professionals. 

They also can enjoy the assumption that everyone within this network is at least successful enough to be able to provide experiential wisdom to others in some capacity. Furthermore, by mentoring in the entrepreneurial space, they can expect to rub shoulders not just with proven business leaders in key industries they care about but with cutting-edge innovators in peer-to-peer settings.

Professional Development Opportunities

Mentorship programs provide a wide swath of advisory value to founders. A program like MIC’s allows mentors with business, niche, industry, and even science-specific experience to speak into a young business and help its leaders make decisions.

This cross-section of experience and wisdom can also benefit mentors. As they build their networks, it can open up opportunities for professional development and horizontal growth around their strengths. This empowers mentors to use this deepened knowledge in their own ventures as well as in their efforts to advise and coach others.

Exposure to New Technologies

Our world is advancing at breakneck speed. Something that was innovative five years ago can feel like ancient technology in the present. This has made continuous learning a critical piece to the entrepreneurial puzzle, not just for founders but for mentors, too.

Seasoned entrepreneurs must still remain open to digital transformation and should maintain a willingness to trial new technology as it becomes available. Mentorship environments are a great space where you can engage in this growth-oriented approach, equip yourself with the latest technological tools and knowledge, and actively demonstrate to founders the importance of an ongoing investment in continual learning in key areas like technology.

Enhanced Leadership and Coaching Skills

The act of coaching can help startups navigate launching and scaling a company, but make no mistake. It can also have a positive impact on the individual doing the coaching. 

The long-term process of mentoring an entrepreneur provides ample opportunities to develop coaching skills. They can practice active listening and emotional intelligence. They can learn to build professional relationships that last, communicate better, and provide constructive feedback. Coaching may be primarily aimed at the benefit of the coached, but it can also enhance a mentor’s leadership skills in the process.

Resume Building and Professional Recognition

It’s one thing to be recognized for your business accomplishments. Helping others achieve their own entrepreneurial dreams is another layer of professionalism that you can’t tap into on your own.

A mentor is able to add a unique element to their resume, even if it is already full of impressive accomplishments. In addition, the recognition that comes with investing in others is unique, and even if it isn’t their primary goal (which is appropriate), it doesn’t change the fact that it is good for a mentor’s personal brand.

Benefits to Mentees: The Mentor Impact

When a mentee can find the right individual and maximize their mentor relationships, it can have a powerful impact on their career and business trajectories. While it’s easy to understand that as a general concept, it’s worth considering some of the specific and unique ways mentors in a network like that at Missouri Innovation Center can positively influence the founders with whom they work. Let’s look at a few examples:

• Mentees gain access to industry expertise and guidance: The simple benefit of gleaning wisdom and avoiding mistakes through the advice of others can have an astronomical impact on a cash-strapped, risk-prone startup leader trying to find the best path forward.
• Mentees expand their professional networks: It can take years to build a strong professional network. A mentee can shortcut some of this process through connections obtained through a mentor.
• Mentees accelerate learning and skill development: A coach can help a founder learn key skills and hone business capabilities at a much faster rate than if they had to do so alone through individual experiences.
• Mentees gain increased confidence and motivation: The experienced advice of a seasoned mentor can infuse a cautious, inexperienced entrepreneur with the boldness to make decisions, even if they come with calculated risks.
• Mentees have a higher likelihood of startup success: Numbers don’t lie. Studies have found that Mentored businesses are 12% more likely to stay in business after a year and that they are twice as likely (70%) to survive beyond five years.

Benefits to the Innovation Ecosystem

Finally, it’s worth mentioning some benefits that a qualified mentor in a healthy mentor network has on the innovative output of a larger entrepreneurial ecosystem. In the case of the Missouri Innovation Center, we have found that our mentorship network has strengthened and amplified our impact on the entire mid-Missouri community we serve. 

The businesses bolstered by our mentors are actively fueling economic development in the region. The cross-industry collaboration and knowledge sharing within our system are creating a synergistic impact, and the accompanying job creation is attracting and retaining talent.

When you step back and look at it from a holistic perspective, a well-connected and supported mentor can be the game-changing difference-maker that leads to an ever-widening ripple effect across companies, industries, and entire regions.

How to Get Involved as a Mentor

If you’re considering becoming a mentor, what steps can you take to turn that into reality? In the case of a system like Missouri Innovation Center’s mentorship network, you start by applying. 

Once we’ve vetted your qualifications, you can begin a period of training where you will learn how to teach others through your experience and direct them toward the resources provided at the MIC facilities. You will also go through things like goals, expected time commitments, and other responsibilities.

If you’ve thought of becoming a mentor in the past, the time has never been better. As the world changes, opportunities continue to arise, but they are surrounded by an increasingly complex world of technological, global, and industry-specific challenges. 

A strong mentor/mentee connection can be the perfect tool to help innovative entrepreneurs (both those established with something to offer and those starting and in need of support) build confidence, maintain clarity, and make the best decisions for themselves and their businesses.

At Missouri Innovation Center, we offer the mentorship and resources required to build operational frameworks around great business ideas. Part of that is establishing proper governance structures to oversee the establishment and growth of a business. 

While it’s easy to understand the roles of, say, a CEO or Director of HR, some leadership structures are more confusing. If you’re unsure about the composition and responsibilities of a board of directors as opposed to a board of advisors, this resource is designed to provide definition, clarity, benefits, and best practices regarding these two important areas of business oversight and leadership.

Boards of Directors: Legal Structure and Responsibilities

A board of directors is a legal entity with critical oversight and responsibility over the governance of a company. It is responsible for financial oversight, compliance, risk management, and helping to make strategic decisions.

These are typically broken down into detailed and well-defined roles, such as fiduciary responsibility, which includes categories like duty of care (prudence) or duty of loyalty (prioritizing organizational interests). A board of directors must be careful to comply with all laws, regulations, and corporate bylaws while executing these functions.

Board members are former members of an organization who are held personally liable for things like misconduct or negligence. They exercise voting rights and must adhere to formal meeting and documentation requirements, such as quarterly meetings or maintaining minutes.

Boards of Advisors: Role and Purpose

In contrast to a board of directors, a board of advisors functions as an informal, non-binding group. It does not have any legal responsibility for organizational finances or compliance. Members can offer guidance, expertise, and mentorship, although they do not have formal roles or responsibilities in the operation and decision-making processes.

The lack of legal requirements makes a board of advisors a more flexible group, both as it pertains to membership and operation. As an unregulated group, each board of advisors can follow customized functions, and its members can fill unique or circumstantial roles. A board of advisors can focus on strategic, high-level guidance and can meet as needed.

Key Differences in the Composition of a Board of Directors and Board of Advisors

The considerable differences in the form and function of a board of directors compared to a board of advisors make the selection and composition of each group quite different. Here are a few of the key factors to consider:

• A board of directors is formally elected by either stakeholders or shareholders, whereas a board of advisors can be informally appointed.
• Directors tend to need specific financial, legal, or other governance training. Advisors are often chosen based on experience or expertise.
• A board of directors should be structured and numbered based on regulatory specifications (often containing around 12 total individuals, although many boards are smaller). Advisory boards are designed to meet organizational needs and can vary widely in number and structure.
• Directors are hired with fixed terms and clear legal obligations. Advisors lack these binding duties and are often appointed for flexible, shorter stints.
• Directors receive clear compensation packages, such as salaries, stipends, or stock options. Advisors are compensated on an unstructured basis and may even be unpaid or receive a simple honorarium or equity incentive.
• Directors are given legal decision-making powers and are expected to exercise them when necessary. Advisors offer more broad, experiential, mentorship-focused advice.
• Directors are held accountable for decisions and have agency in the trajectory of a company. Advisors offer advice and can influence but are not legally (or even generally) held accountable for the actual day-to-day decisions they impact.

In all cases, an advisor is the more flexible option, whereas a director must adhere to specific organizational and regulatory guidelines.

Benefits of Directors vs Advisors

There are clear applications and benefits for both a board of directors and a board of advisors. Here are some of the most obvious advantages to each group.

Benefits of Board of Directors

A board of directors:

• Provides a shared and accountable sense of legal oversight and governance.
• Prioritizes shareholder guidance and represents their best interests.
• Considers the implications and implementation of present and future regulatory compliance.
• Provides strategic direction aimed at creating specific results, such as growth or increased revenue.

Benefits of Advisory Board

A board of advisors:

• Provides a flexible, scalable, and deep source of expertise across as many fields and areas of advice as desired.
• Comes with industry connections, networks, and reputational prestige.
• Offers mentorship opportunities that cultivate future leadership and expertise within internal organizational pipelines.
• Reduces administrative burdens through shared advice and group guidance.

Practical Considerations for Businesses

When companies are considering establishing a board of directors or a board of advisors, here are some questions to ask regarding which one is right for your situation.

When should you establish each type of board?

A board of directors is critical to legal governance in a corporate setting. A board of advisors can be helpful with initiating growth or establishing strategic guidance without the need for formal oversight for leadership.

What are the cost implications involved?

A board of directors comes with fixed (and generally higher) cost implications. A board of advisors brings more flexibility and lower costs to the table.

What are the time and resource requirements required?

A director will need to commit to significant time, whereas an advisor can provide occasional input. The former has a more dramatic influence on the time and resources of both its members and your company.

How does either board integrate with your business strategy?

Is there a strategic advantage to creating a board of directors (such as incorporating a business) or a board of advisors (such as accessing industry expertise)?

Building a Board for Your Startup

As your startup grows, consider the advantages and disadvantages of a board of directors compared to a board of advisors. Once you’ve chosen the right fit for your growing company, keep best practices in mind, too, including:

• Careful selection based on director vs advisor criteria.
• Meeting structure and frequency.
• Communication protocols and performance evaluation.
• Conflict resolution measures.

Whether you’re looking for a board of directors to meet legal requirements or a board of advisors to provide soft guidance and key insights to a growing company, make sure you invest in these areas thoughtfully. Choose the board that meets your company’s needs and growth goals at the moment, and then staff it with properly vetted, well-qualified individuals who can positively contribute to your company throughout their tenure.

Environment plays a key role in innovation. It is a critical piece of the creative puzzle that can facilitate ideas, spark synergy, and guide processes. Speaking about the importance of workspaces and where ideas come from, science author and media theorist Steven Johnson said, “If you look at history, innovation doesn’t come just from giving people incentives; it comes from creating environments where their ideas can connect.”

The Missouri Innovation Center has invested in the importance of settings and situations for its entrepreneurial clients in the life science sector. Along with resources such as wet labs, shared resources, and collaborative spaces, MIC maintains a facility that is uniquely designed to encourage and amplify the creative process. 

From fostering important connections to creating thoughtful spaces, this resource will consider the role of environment in the innovation process and how MIC’s industry-leading incubator offices and labs are empowering the next generation of innovators.

Understanding the Innovation Process

The process of facilitating innovation starts with understanding how the creative process works in the first place. This is a subtle and nuanced part of business that remains unreplicable by software and AI algorithms and requires humans engaging in indefinable processes. 

The complexities of the act of creation, particularly through innovation in a business context, consist of a few components. The creativity of individual contributors is important. So is the culture of a founding team. Availability of specific resources is also a factor, as is strategic alignment that helps transform the potential of an idea into a solution with value for an end user.

The innovative journey typically takes place on a similar timeline. This includes:

• Ideation: This is the initial act of coming up with an idea with real market potential.
• Evaluation: This consists of fleshing out and testing an idea to thoroughly consider the costs and benefits of investing in it.
• Experimentation: Early iterations, prototyping, and testing attempt to form a real-world version of a good idea and then refine it into something with consumer value.
• Implementation: This takes working prototypes and attempts to scale them at affordable costs.

Each of these stages is critical for transforming ideas into successful products and services — and environment plays a part in each stage.

For example, a physical space can create opportunities for collaboration as an entrepreneur looks for ways to implement an idea effectively. If they are in the experimenting phase, having access to the right facilities and tools can impact modifiability. It can also help them conduct more thorough testing or accelerate the ideation process, leading to a faster time to market.

The Science Behind Environment and Creativity

What does science have to say about spatial importance for innovators? While it’s easy to generally reinforce the claim that an entrepreneur’s space impacts how they focus and create, there are a few important elements to be aware of based on statistical analysis.

One of these is to be aware of the holistic nature of a “space.” Both visual and audible elements factor into an innovation-prone environment. Audibly, much research has been done to show the impact that sound can have on creativity. 

For example, studies have found that a reasonable degree of ambient noise, around 70 decibels, can encourage out-of-the-box ideas and stimulate abstract thinking. This is similar to the “buzz” of a coffee shop, although if you get into the louder environment of a restaurant or bar, it is less effective and more distracting. 

Visual elements are also key. Minimalism is an example of a visual approach to decor that has been shown to stimulate creativity by removing clutter from a space and, thus, also from the mind. Nature is also a commonly trumpeted way to encourage creativity, although, like ambient noise, it has limitations. One study found that viewing a natural environment stimulated curiosity, flexibility, and imagination. However, it also reported that “highly natural environments distract our minds from work.”

MIC’s Facility Design Philosophy

Missouri Innovation Center’s facility is designed with innovation in mind. The incubator’s 33,000-square-foot floor plan integrates architectural concepts that promote creativity, such as open spaces and natural lighting.

MIC also balances the need for private-focused work areas and collaborative spaces. Our cross-section of life science entrepreneurs provides complementary input and analysis that can find expression in shared workspaces. At the same time, our rentable spaces are designed for flexibility and adaptability to accommodate the unique, innovative needs of each client we serve.

How MIC Workspaces Reinforce the Science

Missouri Innovation Center’s workspaces reflect many of the innovative findings listed above. For example, we have thoughtful spaces that include cubicle offices with an open space floor plan to facilitate focus without creating a sense of isolation. Board rooms and meeting rooms with closed-off spaces are also available for privacy and selective interactions with targeted groups as needed.

Everything is well-lit with natural light, as well. Even labs have natural light along with artificial light fixtures. All of our spaces also maintain a clean and professional look that can appeal to all startup needs. This is important, as the inconsistencies of unconventional workspace designs do not necessarily improve innovation. 

The result is a business incubator that incorporates the impact of physical surroundings into a framework of solutions designed to help founders innovate, iterate, improve, and exercise effective problem-solving capabilities.

Key Facility Features That Drive Innovation

Let’s consider some of the most important elements of environmental design and how the Missouri Innovation Center integrates those key concepts into its spaces as a way to spark creativity and drive innovation.

Collaborative Spaces

The concept of offering collaborative spaces for entrepreneurs has already come up a couple of times in this resource — and with good reason. Spaces that encourage the intersection of founders as they each tend to their startups may not be a natural priority. However, finding like-minded individuals facing similar challenges in related business verticals can provide unique synergy and perspectives.

MIC’s large meeting rooms and breakout areas encourage entrepreneurs to engage in face-to-face interactions with others in similar stages of the business-building process. This helps the dozens of startups operating in our space to glean advice, hone ideas, and gain greater awareness from the insights and experiences of others.

Technological Resources

Apple may have famously started out of a garage, but many other startup models require more infrastructure right out of the gate. In a field as complex as the life sciences sector, it is particularly important for a founding team to have scientific equipment and resources available to experiment and iterate as they turn ideas into actionable business models. A dedicated space like the MIC’s facility provides access to important infrastructure and specialized tools, such as wet labs and related lab equipment.

Building an Innovation Community

Connections and support lines are an essential part of any successful startup. That’s why it is important for founders to think carefully about how they build their teams and choose their board of directors. Along with these internal influential pieces, many set up a board of advisors, seek out mentorships, and look for peers who can speak into their decisions as they vet ideas and look for the best path forward. 

Missouri Innovation Center’s facilities and structure are designed to accelerate the assembly of these external elements by bringing together like-minded innovators invested in related and complementary business sectors. 

The presence of mentors, for instance, can help with corporate decision-making and industry-specific application and ideation of business ideas. Peer-to-peer mentorship opportunities can also lead to mutually beneficial relationships that feature the exchange of up-to-date information.

The MIC incubator’s shared spaces make it easier for these groups to interact with founding teams. They also offer a high degree of nuance within these networking opportunities. While life sciences is an emphasis for the incubator, the clients it attracts come from a wide variety of niches within that sector, including:

• Radiopharma
• Animal health
• Biowaste
• Renewable energy
• Alternative energy
• Diagnostics
• Medical devices
• Drugs
• Nanotech.

Through its thoughtful approach to spatial design, the incubator encourages its clients to cross paths in dedicated public spaces, such as our shared office suite, wet lab resource suites, break room, and the entire portion of our facility dedicated to maintaining an open office environment. 

Investing in Space as a Startup

Office space is a notoriously difficult thing to invest in as you launch a business. The high overhead makes an incubator an attractive option to reduce costs and gain access to a startup-friendly space, especially in the life sciences industry.

It is important for founders to think beyond the practicalities of equipment access and affordability, too. An optimized environment like the carefully cultivated suites and startup spaces at MIC encourages a greater sense of innovation that can play a critical role in accelerating and honing the creative process. It can lead to more informed and accurate results and speed up the time it takes to get a business idea up and running.Missouri Innovation Center remains committed to providing optimal conditions for the next generation of innovators. If you are looking for a positive space to house your startup, contact us to learn more about what it takes to apply to the incubator and become one of our client companies.

Securing that initial round of pre-seed funding is always exciting. Not only does your founding team feel they have a viable business idea on their hands, but you have convinced an outside funder to buy into your vision as well. 

While this is an important first step, what do you do next? Navigating the critical transition period after securing initial funding can be intimidating and overwhelming. You’re no longer talking in hypotheticals. Instead, you’re making very real-world decisions as you attempt to take actionable steps to turn your idea into reality, create a product or service, and then use that to generate sustainable growth.

Nothing is certain in the startup phase (23.2% of private sector businesses in the U.S. fail in the first year alone). It is important to invest in giving your fledgling business the best chance of long-term success. 

That is why mentors and coaches are such a critical part of the startup process. In this resource, we will look at the several challenges that startups face post-funding, consider key coaching advice and methodologies, and look at Missouri Innovation Center’s approach to startup coaching as a central part of our incubator’s offerings.

The Post-Funding Challenge

It’s tempting to see the other side of your first round of funding as a chance for some smooth sailing after that initial effort. But the truth is, once you have that money in your business’s shiny new bank account, you’re just exchanging a financial headache for a range of new challenges and hurdles that you need to clear.

Here are a few of the biggest pitfalls funded startups face after securing initial investment:

• Mismanaging funds: It’s one thing to see a product you want to create. It’s another to spend money in the pursuit of creating it. It’s easy to come up short when managing investment funding, and when that happens, it can quickly bring a good idea to a bad end.
• Shifting mindsets: Once you have your initial funding, you need to rapidly shift from fundraising mode to execution mode (at least until your next round of funding arrives). This means making the right hires and engaging in strategic planning that will move your idea forward — something that many founders fail to adjust to.
• Overcoming a lack of business experience: Technical founders often struggle with business operations that are out of the scope of their training and experience. From scaling too quickly to failing to achieve product-market fit, a lack of business acumen can plague a well-funded startup from the outset.

It is important to take this menagerie of challenges seriously. Don’t assume that limited experience or “gut instinct” will naturally elevate you above the average. The cold, hard truth is that the statistics are stacked against a pre-seed-funded business. Research shows that 60% of pre-series A-funded startups fail — not just in the long run. They never even make it to Series A funding.

It’s important to give yourself every advantage — including the wisdom, insights, and experience of a veteran business coach.

Key Areas Where Coaches Provide Guidance

A business coach or professional mentor can have a game-changing influence on transforming novice founders into effective CEOS and improving the trajectory of their startups in the process. This comes from a variety of areas where a mentor can positively impact a new company as it gets off the ground, particularly in a complex, competitive field like life sciences. Here are a few examples of different ways coaches can provide key tips and critical guidance for a pre-seed-funded startup trying to get to Series A.

Financial Management and Runway Extension

Proper management of the multi-faceted financial considerations of developing a new company is central to the long-term success of a new business. At this early stage, it’s important for founders to iterate and experiment with their business ideas and develop product prototypes that they can effectively bring to market. A coach can help with wise spending, avoiding unnecessary expenses, and looking for any and every way to extend runways while ideas are tested.

Strategic Planning and Milestone Setting

It’s easy to get bogged down in the details when developing a radiopharma solution or an agtech product. A coach can bring a sense of clarity as you build a strategy for the future. They can also help set SMART goals and achievable milestones that can keep a startup on track and make the most of every invested dollar.

Talent Acquisition and Team Building

Making the right hires at the right times is an ongoing challenge for a growing business. Leaning on the advice of a mentor can help a founding team avoid unnecessary or expensive hires. At the same time, it can also help them identify when new talent is needed to meet a skill gap or help delegate a growing list of responsibilities.

Product-Market Fit Refinement

An idea may sound good on paper, but fitting it to real-world needs is often more nuanced than expected. A coach can help founders navigate the process of turning theory into practicality through more accurate product development that genuinely meets consumer needs and has a clear market demand.

Operational Efficiency and Scalable Processes

It is important to use the early funding phases of a business to set the stage for the future. This starts with operational efficiency. For example, an experienced mentor can recommend utilizing affordable rental space at a targeted and well-equipped incubator like Missouri Innovation Center rather than squandering startup cash on a less efficient solution. They can also help put processes in place that can scale with a business as it grows its team and attains more funding.

Customer Acquisition Strategies

The real-world experience of a veteran coach, mentor, or board of advisors can help founders connect a relevant product with the people who need it. Experience is essential when developing acquisition strategies, and the input of a business mentor can streamline the process and avoid wasting resources while a founding team works to build out initial brand awareness.

The Coaching Methodology

Each coach works in their own unique way, so don’t expect the experience to be predictable. However, as you work with a mentor or advisor, you can expect a few common elements that tend to factor into most coaching methodologies:

• Assessing startup strengths and weaknesses: A coach will likely want to take the time to evaluate where your founding team is strong and where it needs work. The same will go for things like your financials, business processes, business plan, and even your product itself.
• Creating accountability frameworks: A good coach will not just set goals. They’ll look for ways to keep you accountable to them, from consistent check-ins to target dates and deadlines.
• Balancing founder vision with practical execution: A coach won’t be afraid to push back against idealistic vision casting if it doesn’t align with real-world market conditions or a practical way to turn that vision into reality.
• Connecting startups with mentor networks and resources: A good coach always thinks bigger than their own impact and will look for ways to help your startup collaborate with others, gain access to key resources, and establish a broader network of mentors.
• Pivoting versus persevering: A coach can provide insights during key moments, such as deciding when to continue pursuing a particular line of action and when to deviate or adjust — especially in the context of the relatively limited runway of most pre-seed scenarios.

Coaching for the Long Game

A quality coach, like those within the Missouri Innovation Center network, will help shepherd resources and make short-term decisions while maintaining the big picture. This includes building a scalable business model and preparing for future funding and growth phases.

Building a Sustainable Business Model

A coach will help an initially funded startup move from investor funding to a more sustainable business model. This includes exploring recurring revenue streams and developing customer retention strategies. As initial R&D efforts produce products, they can also help analyze profitability through unit economics and ensure that you have a path to profitability.

Preparing for the Next Growth Phase

The pre-seed funding phase often only lasts for a matter of months. This makes preparing for future funding a priority. A coach can help identify readiness indicators for Series A/B funding and define a path to scale operations while maintaining a fledgling and fragile company culture. They can also help develop a long-term vision and identify strategic partners and expansion opportunities that can play an integral part in that roadmap.

Using Coaching to Supercharge a Startup

Coaching, mentorship, advisory boards — call it what you like. It is difficult to underestimate the impact of tapping into the experienced advice of a business professional. Coaches can play an ongoing role throughout the startup lifecycle by helping to make key decisions in the present while simultaneously preparing for the future.This is why the Missouri Innovation Center’s mentorship program is a leading element of our core services. If you are part of a life sciences startup attracting early funding but lacking an actionable plan to move forward, we encourage you to reach out. Our team can help you gain access to our services to ensure that you can maintain affordable support as you navigate the complex and challenging process of moving from pre-seed through Series funding and on to scaling into a profitable company.

While stress is often a normal part of life, the intensity and frequency of today’s stressors are causing many people to experience frustrating (and even debilitating) levels of anxiety and depression. 

As of 2024, the American Psychiatric Association reported that 43% of adults in the United States felt as if their anxiousness was increasing, leading to negative impacts on both their sleep and mental wellness. And while there are over-the-counter and pharmaceutical drugs that can help those seeking relief from the symptoms of high stress, many people are interested in natural, non-drug solutions to help them better deal with stressors. 

Enter Healium, an innovative tech company incubated at the Missouri Innovation Center (MIC) and quickly gaining international recognition and success.

A new way of leveraging brainwave data

As noted by Sarah Hill, Healium’s founder and CEO, the company is best described as an immersive mental wellness solution uniquely powered by biometric data delivered to wearables. Through the interpretation of this data, Healium essentially allows users to interpret their real time physiological vectors so they can learn to self-regulate their physical and mental responses to stress and trauma. 

Validated in 10 peer-reviewed journals, Healium enables individuals to downshift their nervous systems through immersive relaxation practices. This ingenious approach leverages the latest neuroscience to induce calm. In fact, Healium has garnered so much public attention that it is trusted today by organizations including the Mayo Clinic, NFL teams, and major airlines.

How did Healium get to this point? Hill credits the MIC for providing a launching pad that allowed her vision to come to fruition — and her startup to gain traction.

More than a touchdown space

In 2016, Hill was looking for office space for her emerging company. During her search for the ideal workspace, she was introduced to the MIC. Feeling it would be the right fit, she set up shop and quickly discovered it was more than just a location.

“We got so much more,” Hill recalls. From mentorship, investment opportunities, and networking, she notes that the MIC proved to be a comprehensively supportive incubator in the early days before Healium was an actual product.

Over time, Hill was able to evolve her concept into a product, thanks to several key advantages that her company experienced by being part of the MIC. These crucial advantages highlight the supportive role the MIC played in Healium’s early development.

1. Regular mentoring

One of the biggest benefits of being part of the MIC for Hill was having access to mentors. They were the company’s first informal board of directors before she had a real board. She appreciated that they would take the time to sit down with her, enabling her to better define and refine her goals.

“The mentors at the MIC were incredibly helpful to us,” says Hill. They helped her reimagine her product and unit economics, as well as scale up after the pandemic. After all, Healium was well-suited to meet the societal needs of the stressful pandemic and post-pandemic world. Yet, Hill needed some guidance to determine how to navigate her company toward success.

For example, Healium started as a consumer product. But Hill says it became clear that selling just to consumers was not going to be as lucrative. Accordingly, she had to pivot her thinking to embrace the idea of selling to corporate entities as well.

“The unit economics for consumers are harder to attain than selling it [Healium] to the enterprise market,” notes Hill. “It costs a lot to acquire consumers in mass.” With the assistance of her MIC mentors, she discovered that she could boost her startup’s performance metrics (e.g., customer acquisition rates, customer lifetime value) if she worked on a package that would entice larger companies to purchase enterprise-level subscriptions. It was a helpful learning process for Hill as she crunched the numbers to understand where to best take her sales and marketing for maximum returns.

2. Protection of the product

Being at the MIC wasn’t just valuable from an economic standpoint for Healium. It also offered important protections, particularly concerning intellectual property.

Upon consulting a patent attorney, Hill was originally told by one firm that securing a patent for content that was powered by biometric inputs was “not patentable. ” Surprised but undaunted, Hill decided to get a second opinion with her MIC coaches.

The experts at MIC introduced her to Missouri Entrepreneurship Legal Clinic that worked exclusively with clients who were entrepreneurs in Missouri. It was the ideal match. Hill wound up being able to secure multiple patents for her technology and protect her company’s intellectual property, thanks to what she calls a “great strategic partnership.”

3. Investor introductions and feedback

To scale her product and hire a world-class team, Hill needed to find investors, as well as be able to engage them with her pitch, showcasing the value of her company as a compelling investment opportunity. The MIC gave her constant feedback on her pitch so she could attract potential sales channel partners and firms.

Hill’s investment pitch was effective, leading to the successful acquisition of seed funding that set her company on a strong trajectory. “We’ve generated millions in investment and millions in revenue.” And Healium isn’t finished growing yet.

Advice for fellow entrepreneurs

The collaborative atmosphere and assistance provided at the MIC made the difference for Hill and her company. Today, she is not just a proud founder but an advocate who recommends entrepreneurs seek out resources within their communities, particularly incubators like the MIC. “It’s not just office space they’re offering, but something far more valuable.”With Healium now enjoying a solid reputation and upward trajectory, Hill credits MIC with her company’s growth.. For startups or early-stage ventures in life sciences or biotech industries, the MIC offers the tools, connections, and guidance necessary to move from idea to successful product. Interested parties should contact the MIC to discuss how it can help their company become another success story like Healium.

There’s a somewhat romanticized ideal of the budding entrepreneur who spends every last bit of personal wealth to bootstrap a business. Yet for many early-stage founders and their families, risking it all isn’t a feasible or responsible decision. That’s where angel investors can help.

Angel investors are able to invest in alternative investments such as providing seed capital to young ventures. If you can effectively communicate to investors the vision of your venture and its future value, you can attract funding from these angel investors. That said, attracting angel investors isn’t a guaranteed process. To get their attention, you need to set your startup apart, as well as be prepared to show why your business is positioned for success.

Though that might sound challenging, it’s not impossible. The angel investment landscape is still booming, despite a small contraction after a post-Covid rush. In fact, across Missouri, the Midwest, and the nation, angel investor activity is strong.

According to statistics from the Center for Venture Research, more than $18 billion in angel investments flowed into 54,735 entrepreneurial ventures in 2023 alone. Two of the top five sectors that appealed to angel investors were healthcare services and biotech, which may be particularly meaningful if you’re one of the several life sciences startups at the Missouri Innovation Center (MIC).

Again, the numbers bode well if you’re bent on connecting with angel investors. Read on to further understand what angel investors are looking for — and how you can show them you’re exactly the right fit for their funds.

Are angel investors another name for venture capitalists?

It’s a common misconception that the terms “angel investors” and “venture capitalists” are interchangeable. They’re not.

Angel investors are individuals who risk their own wealth to invest in very early startups. Their goal is to get into a business at its initial inception. In contrast, venture capitalists typically wait to see if a company has gained momentum before spending organizational (not personal) funds on the company.

As you might presume, angel investors are willing to trade uncertainty for significant paybacks. In 2021, angel investors saw an average return rate of 2.7 times their investment when the startups they funded were sold, per the Angel Funders Report 2022. However, returns can be much higher for angel investors who have the tolerance and patience to wait for their startups to fully mature.

Angel investors don’t tend to invest as much as venture capitalists can and do. For instance, the average of all angel investments from 2022 was $339,390. That’s far less than the millions and billions associated with venture capitalist investments. Nevertheless, if your proof of concept is strong, you may be able to attract more than one angel investor to back your company mission and vision.

This isn’t to suggest that angel investors aren’t motivated by financials. They are, but they tend to be equally motivated by the challenge of helping a startup construct a runway and get off the ground. That’s why angel investors form relationships with incubators like the MIC. They’re looking for opportunities to “get in on the ground floor,” so to speak.

Angel investors typically aren’t satisfied with just sitting on the sidelines, either. They take a more proactive approach to investing. It’s not unusual for angel investors to provide mentorship or foster business connections. Yes, they expect equity for their money and energy. But they thrive on giving their investments personalized attention.

How can you catch the interest of an angel investor?

The world of angel investing is competitive. Therefore, if you’re an entrepreneur, you need to prepare conscientiously before attempting to get a deal with an angel investor.

First, make sure your startup’s product or service makes sense for your intended market. If you can’t demonstrate any growth potential, an angel investor will question whether you’re a calculated risk.

After you’ve determined that you have an attractive market, you need to form a solid foundation. The team you bring together should have complementary and diverse skills. In fact, having people from wide-ranging backgrounds can make your startup more attractive. An angel investor will see that you’re not just bringing one voice to the table; you’re bringing many eyes and experiences to every problem you encounter.

Next, design your business model to lead toward profitability. Angel investors may not expect a quick exit (like venture capitalists can), but they aren’t going to gamble on a startup without a logical roadmap to turning a profit. At the MIC, our team of experts can help you design your business model to show a clear pipeline to profitability and growth.

Finally, pay attention to securing any intellectual property. It’s one of your competitive advantages, after all. At that point, you should be able to start building your startup’s financial projections, which will indicate what kind of funding you need.

When you have all those elements in place, it’s time to craft a pitch deck that will answer an angel investor’s questions and get your startup noticed.

What does an angel investor want to see in a pitch deck?

You’ve probably heard the term “pitch deck” before. It’s essentially a short presentation that explains to a potential investor why your startup is worth funding.

There are a few key components of effective pitch decks, starting with slides that answer the “Why?” behind your company’s inception. These include a slide or two that points out the problem that exists, followed by a slide that lays out your specific solution to the problem. From that point, you can showcase the fruits of your research in future slides.

As you’re writing your pitch deck, remember to think like an angel investor. For example, spend more time on the hard facts, like the size of the market, any growth you’ve made thus far, your competitor analysis, the advantages of your team, and how you’ve used whatever money you have. 

Of course, you can’t only tell your story using data. Put on your narrator attitude and act like a storyteller. Angel investors may be more apt to consider investing in your startup if you have a compelling narrative. Certainly, your financial projections will always sway them. But if they’re waffling, they may be won over by your charisma and enthusiasm for what you’re doing.

That said, spend less time pitching and more time listening. One of the biggest pitfalls entrepreneurs make is talking too much during their pitches. Your pitch deck should be inviting on its own; you’re there to fill in the gaps, not to read from your slides or give a one-sided presentation.

At the MIC, we can help entrepreneurs master their business plans, which can be essential to forming pitch decks and pitch session narratives. Having insights and practice helps entrepreneurs position their emerging companies well when they’re in front of angel investors.

Where can you find and approach angel investors?

Before you can start using your newly minted pitch deck on angel investors, you need to find them. The MIC offers opportunities for its clients to meet Missouri angel investor networks, as well as attend exclusive events. 

Can you take the old sales tactic of cold calling an angel investor? Yes, but warm introductions make more sense. Again, that’s a value of being aligned with a known organization like the MIC that can serve as a connection and resource.

How can you maintain lasting relationships with potential angel investors?

Your first angel investor probably won’t set up a deal with you immediately. The process of developing a trusting relationship takes time. Consequently, treat the connection like a budding business partnership and keep communicating.

For instance, you could send out regular updates to angel investors in your network. These updates should demonstrate that your startup is making progress and meeting milestones. Be sure to be genuine, though. It’s fine to be transparent about the roadblocks you’ve encountered and the workarounds you’re using to navigate them.

What are best practices for getting an angel investment deal signed?

Congratulations — an angel investor is willing to trade funds for equity. It’s a big step, and one that you’ll need to navigate with professional assistance. That way, you can be sure that you have all your documents lined up and legal considerations handled.

It’s fair to say that the experience may have stops and starts. An angel investor may question you in the middle of your negotiations, slowing the process. Remain focused and address any questions or concerns proactively and accurately. Leaning on your advisors and mentors will help you reach the finish line and secure your investment.

Yet it’s not enough to just line up an angel investor. You need to set expectations and lay out how the angel investor will be a support to your company. Some angel investors want to be hands-on to the point of being involved at a very detailed level. Other angel investors may be happy to be available when you need them, as long as they’re getting the reporting they expect.

Ideally, you and your angel investor should have clear roles. This will assist you in maintaining a tighter, more meaningful, and trusting relationship.

Are you ready for an angel investor?

Having at least one angel investor supporting your startup can give you the traction you need to move to the next stage of your organization. If you’re in the mid-Missouri area and want to take the next step toward angel investment, contact the MIC.

Our central focus is the creation of a cluster of high-technology companies. We routinely coach entrepreneurs, incubate new technology companies, and attract ventures to the region. In addition, we have deep connections with existing and emerging angel investors who want to meet — and fund — the dreams and goals of the next generation of life science entrepreneurs.

The process of curing cancer involves multiple complex steps, but current research indicates positive progress. In fact, one Missouri Innovation Center (MIC) client, Endevica Bio, has made great advancements in the cancer treatment space. The company’s latest biotech drug addresses cachexia, a potentially life-threatening wasting disease that can make cancer recovery challenging — or even impossible — for patients.

Statistics from the Cleveland Clinic indicate that 40% to 70% of cancer patients experience cachexia, a condition causing rapid weight loss that weakens the body’s ability to fight disease and reduces treatment effectiveness. As a result, patients experience the same longevity they could achieve if they maintained a healthier weight throughout their cancer journeys.

To provide possible relief from cachexia, Endevica Bio is working on a peptide therapeutic drug designed to combat cachexia. Currently called TCMCB07, the drug is entering a Phase 2 clinical trial in 2025. Per a 2024 press release, the trial will test the efficacy of TCMCB07 on 100 individuals with stage 4 colorectal cancer. 

In the release discussing the upcoming trial, Russell Potterfield, Chief Executive Officer and Executive Chair of Endevica Bio, exhibited great confidence and enthusiasm around the promise of the drug. In expressing his optimism, Potterfield said, “We are excited to offer hope to patients and their families to address a condition for which there are no effective treatments available. We believe that B07 could be the breakthrough solution and are excited to begin enrolling patients in our trial.”

Indeed, Endevica Bio is a rising star in the biopharmaceutical world, as evidenced by a $10 million Series B funding deal in 2023. However, like all emerging companies, Endevica Bio began as an unknown startup looking to make its mark. And the MIC was there to provide a path for it to grow, innovate, and impact the life sciences market.

More Than a Mere Workspace

Looking back on the early years of Endevica Bio, Potterfield agrees that MIC was pivotal to the company’s development. “Endevica Bio would not exist but for MIC,” said Potterfield. “We needed access to lab animals and oversight as well as institutional care and use.” He noted that the original founder required a lab capable of running high-pressure liquid chromatography equipment and individuals with technical expertise, both of which the MIC provided, along with the guidance and support to build a successful company and team.

The original founding team of Endevica Bio benefited from comprehensive support from the outset, encompassing resources within the incubator and expertise from the business school. Potterfield noted that understanding the business aspect of being a startup is particularly critical in the biotech industry. As he explained, there’s a “collision between science and business” that often needs to be ironed out in startup biotechs. “Trying to teach a senior scientist how to think in a business way requires that level of mentorship that MIC’s been able to provide.”

Endevica Bio spent the first six years at the MIC, taking full advantage of the benefits inherent in the incubator’s ecosystem. Potterfield credits MIC for helping the company garner early financial support from Centennial Investor Angel Network, which leveraged additional funding from the Missouri Technology Corporation. The MIC also proved to be a valuable resource for talent acquisition. “I know that we were able to pick up a really fantastic MBA graduate,” recalled Potterfield.

Success at the MIC and Beyond

Eventually, Endevica Bio began to expand beyond the MIC, which Potterfield views as a natural progression for startups that gain momentum. As he points out, entrepreneurs establish a set of outcomes they want to see, and then move toward those outcomes — in the case of Endevica Bio, the advancement was steady.

Endevica Bio’s headquarters eventually moved to the Chicago area, a decision its leadership made after the business had established itself as a late-stage startup. Though the company still maintains a presence within the incubator. “The business evolved to become a full-blown company taking a pharmaceutical to market,” said Potterfield. “We still have a small space [at the MIC], but we no longer do any technical work ourselves. We outsource.”

Regarding the company’s future, Potterfield anticipates bringing its products to pharmacies and hospitals. “I think that we are going to commercialize the molecules that came out of MIC and follow [the same process] from there.”

To be sure, Endevica Bio is capitalizing on its initial innovations and findings. Thanks to the company’s cachexia research, its team has been able to start looking at a new drug that can help patients with obesity. The weight management drug, 710GO, is currently in an experimental phase, undergoing studies on animal populations to assess its potential.

A legacy of startup support

From providing life science startup founders a place to launch their dreams to introducing them to angel investing opportunities, the MIC enables companies like Endevica Bio to make a difference. While not every startup aims to develop solutions for conditions like cancer, the opportunity for startups to test their viability is essential. And the MIC is the right partner for many of them.

Potterfield calls the MIC’s work “just fantastic” and intends to have an ongoing relationship with the incubator. “It’s a great ecosystem to launch businesses in,” he concluded.

Having a strong core team is essential for all businesses. But for startups and early-stage ventures with dreams of continuous growth and scalability, it’s a critical component. A team that can’t work together will struggle to innovate, and that’s not conducive to long-term success.

That’s why purposefully constructing and nurturing team culture matters. When leaders prioritize the health of their teams, they set up their organizations to harness the advantages that come from tight team dynamics, like higher levels of collaboration. As research shows, nearly three-quarters of workers thrive when they’re in collaborative working environments. They’re also more productive and engaged, which fuels economic viability.

At the Missouri Innovation Center (MIC), we routinely guide and mentor businesses to ensure that their team cultures are strategically built to give them a competitive industry advantage. Through our unique combination of access to resources, expert coaching, and talent, we’ve been able to foster high-performing, high-technology company teams in mid-Missouri.

But make no mistake: You can’t just hope to create an innovative team accidentally or expect your team to somehow achieve greatness on its own. On the contrary, you need to deliberately spend time understanding what team culture is and how to harness its advantages for the performance and profitability of your venture. Essentially, you must be the coach who brings all the players together.

What are some of the foundational elements of an innovative team?

Most people have been on teams before, whether in their professional, recreational, educational, or personal lives. However, not everyone has experienced the rewards of being part of a team culture that supports and encourages creative problem-solving, innovative thinking, and unfettered collaboration.

What’s unique about high-performing teams is that while they are all distinctive, they tend to share several key characteristics. These are not negotiable attributes; without them, a team simply can’t go as far.

The first trait is trust. This doesn’t just mean trust between the people who make up the team. It means an inherent trust of the organization and its “north star” mission and vision as well. 

Employees who are trying to build a biotech or life sciences business from the ground up must trust that they’re working toward an achievable and vital goal. Without full buy-in, they may have difficulty pushing through roadblocks or maintaining positivity during challenging times. 

Recent studies have shown that high-trust teams are resilient teams. Unfortunately, just one-quarter of employees trust the companies they work for. As a leader, you must prove yourself to be trustworthy as part of your commitment to constructing a team where people can rely on each other.

Communication is another driver of a stronger team culture. Members of a team must be able to talk with one another. Ideally, talk should be honest and frequent. It shouldn’t be difficult to hold conversations or engage in debate. The best teams are made up of members who can disagree but respect each other. This creates a sense of psychological safety.

Surveys have shown that 89% of workers believe that psychological safety on the job is important, and it’s easy to understand why. Feeling safe to speak your mind when you’re part of a team allows you to let your guard down and propose ideas, even if they might sound radical. Innovation and transformation just can’t flourish if team members feel unsafe to contribute.

Having diversity is also needed on high-performance teams. Diverse teams just do better. For example, companies with diverse workforces (e.g., teams) have outperformed other companies by 35%. What startup wouldn’t want that kind of return on investment? Consequently, making sure that your team brings differing viewpoints based on their backgrounds and expertise is a winning solution.

Two final characteristics that define strong team culture are commitment and focus. That is, members must be committed to the aims of the startup, and they must be able to “row in the same direction” toward milestones. 

For example, when Equinosis came to the MIC as an emerging business, its founders had the goal of developing technologically innovative solutions that would allow for the collection and analysis of data that could be practical when diagnosing equine disease. Without a team of people who were moving together toward that vision, Equinosis couldn’t have been as successful.

Why does a strong team accelerate innovation?

Having a team that’s trusting, communicative, diverse, committed, and focused allows you (or any startup founder) to innovate.

First, you’ll be able to break down siloed behavior. Powerful teams enjoy collaboration and are willing to share cross-functional responsibilities. They see themselves as part of a bigger whole and don’t withhold information. Through sharing, they help the business become more efficient, productive, and creative.

Secondly, you’ll find that your team takes more risks. Taking a risk can be hard for many people because they become fearful. Will their boss think they’re being foolish? Will their colleagues strike down their ideas? Will they lose their jobs if they propose a solution that fails? Again, this is where trust comes into the picture as a needed cornerstone for innovation.

Finally, when you’re part of a strong team that communicates, you should begin to notice that your team becomes curious. People are more apt to want to learn when they feel safe to make mistakes. After all, mistakes can lead to “Aha!” moments.

Is there a way to measure a team’s innovation? 

In business, it’s often said that what gets measured gets managed. In terms of teams, this means that if you can find a way to measure the team’s effectiveness, you can guide its development.

There are a few key performance indicators (KPIs) that you can use to track your team’s culture and performance. For instance, you may want to gauge how many new ideas, theories, or products are being created by the team within specific timeframes. Or you could keep tabs on your time to market. 

Ultimately, your KPIs will reflect your business. Our experts at the MIC frequently assist startups in pinpointing which KPIs are best-suited for identifying the strength of their team culture. They can share the KPIs that have provided the most insight for other life sciences and biotech startups as well.

What are some strategies to grow a resilient and innovative team?

As a leader, you’re in a unique position to nurture innovative thinking through the development of your startup’s core team. Initially, you’ll want to pay attention to the people you’re bringing into your business. It’s important to hire the talent your startup requires based on more factors than just their histories or connections. You want to ensure that they’re culturally aligned with the direction that you want your team and company to go.

After amassing a team, you must then give them the resources and space to support creativity. This can be challenging, particularly if you’re a life sciences startup founder. Joining an incubator like the MIC can give your team immediate access to to equipment, tools, and other resources that can be challenging to find or purchase as an early-stage organization. 

Be sure that you’re fully invested in being an approachable team member. Even if you’re the visionary behind your company, you need to allow others to share their contributions in a respectful environment. As your team members begin to realize that you’re open to receiving their feedback, they’ll have more reason to be innovative.

How can you future-proof your team for continued innovation?

This isn’t to suggest that building a team is a one-and-done experience. It’s not. All teams need to be nurtured to maintain their effectiveness and innate strengths. They also must be checked for anti-patterns that might damage their innovation-centered fabric.

An example of an anti-pattern could be a new or existing team member’s resistance to change. When that happens, the whole team can be disrupted as the resistance spreads. Another anti-pattern is a flood of toxicity and negativity, especially after a line of innovation failures, can be detrimental to team culture as well.

This is where tracking your team KPIs is valuable. You’ll be able to spot gaps in your team performance right away, allowing you to take intervention measures before your team falls apart.

Be aware that you may have to adapt your team dynamics if you start to shift toward remote and hybrid work. When colleagues aren’t working in the same space, they may find it harder to build the trust that’s necessary for collaboration. In that case, you’ll need to identify ways to bring your team together regularly, whether that’s physically or online.

Designing strong teams capable of sustaining innovation

Today’s marketplace is fast-moving and competitive. For startups that are just entering the business world, having culturally resilient teams is a huge differentiator. But teams aren’t born; they’re built. And you’re in a unique position to build the team that will move your business forward faster.

To prepare your startup and its team for the rapid changes that lie ahead, consider contacting the MIC. With an incubator supporting your efforts, you have access to some of the brightest minds and most advanced resources available. Contact our team right now, and we’ll start a conversation about preparing your team for sustainable innovation and commercialization.

An incubator is only as good as the companies that come out of it. Missouri Innovation Center has been able to walk alongside multiple innovative entrepreneurs as they sought the resources, support, and focused space where they could turn their ideas into real-world companies.

Some of these brands have emphasized consumer products, others deep tech. Many have invested heavily in life science solutions, including Elemental Enzymes. Founded by Missouri University alumni, this groundbreaking biotechnology company came to MIC in 2011 with a revolutionary agtech concept and spent the next few years using the incubator’s physical, mentoring, and financial resources to build out a business plan and ultimately launch a successful agtech brand. 

Below is the story of Missouri Innovation Center’s role as a top-level incubator in mid-Missouri and how it helped Elemental Enzymes find sustainable success in a competitive field with high startup costs.

The Story of Elemental Enzymes

Elemental Enzymes was founded by Brian and Katie Thompson in 2011. At the time, the couple were newlyweds. Katie Thompson was wrapping up her Ph.D., and Brian Thompson was completing his postdoc. As entrepreneurially-minded individuals, the pair were looking for a high-utility business idea that could use their areas of scientific expertise to create high-value, practical, real-life solutions.

By 2011, after ideating with multiple people, they settled on Elemental Enzymes, a company that would specialize in enzymes, peptides, and biochemistries for sustainable agriculture. This was based on a technology that used microbes to make and stabilize enzymes to amplify soil and cultivate healthy plants in sustainable ways. After focusing on soil remediation for the first two years of the company, they pivoted to a wider emphasis on agriculture tech in 2013, at which point the company found its stride, gaining momentum rapidly and producing a string of successful commercial products.

Elemental Enzymes Looks for Space and Tools to Grow

Katie and Brian Thompson launched their company in 2011, but they had a long road ahead. They had the core elements needed for a successful company. However, launching a life sciences enterprise requires a long runway and plenty of support. These pieces began to fall into place over the following years. 

For example, they raised around $1 million in seed funding in 2012 and received the Missouri Small Business & Technology Development Center (SBTDC) Rising Star of Innovation award in 2012. However, they needed more than funding and recognition for good business planning. They required space, equipment, and entrepreneurial guidance. They turned to the local, affordable, and accessible option of the Missouri Innovation Center as a solution.

The Role of the Missouri Innovation Center

As Brian and Katie Thompson looked for ways to put Elemental Enzymes in motion while bootstrapping their idea with funding from friends, family, and their own credit cards, they settled on Missouri Innovation Center as a way to maximize every dollar.

They saw MIC as a well-equipped incubator with affordable and flexible pricing options. In the words of Dr. Katie Thompson,  “I can rent a tiny space and get in for not very much, and they had an autoclave and the lab infrastructure that we really, really needed for our product concepts and that validation.” 

Thompson added that, along with the equipment, MIC offered fractionalized spaces that were small enough to fall in their startup budget, “We started off really tiny. We were renting a quarter of a lab, which is like one row of like two desks, and that’s how we got our foot in the door. From there, we just tried to use every resource that we could […] that was geared to help entrepreneurs and startups that we could possibly get our hands on.”

MIC’s resources expanded far beyond high-pressure steam and sterilization equipment. It included a variety of tangible and intangible elements, including office space, funding connections, and both networking and mentorship opportunities.

MIC was able to connect the founders to key investors, including one of the incubator’s capital partners, Centennial Investors Angel Network. The Thompsons were also able to participate in business plan competitions. 

They worked with others at the incubator to develop a plan that emphasized the key selling points of their new agritech solution. Essential in this plan was an emphasis on the ability of their new technology platform to pivot to market needs. They submitted a business plan to the RICE Business Plan Competition. Out of 400 submissions, they were one of 40 chosen to present to investors live in Houston. While they didn’t succeed in winning the competition, this gave them valuable business experience and a future fund-matching offer to amplify their own investing efforts.

In addition to this critical entrepreneurial starting point, the Elemental Enzymes founders made sure to use the full resources of the incubator to give them the best chances of long-term success. They were offered access to university research farms and equipment, learned from rubbing shoulders with other startups and potential collaborators, and had access to donated supplies from companies like Pfizer that helped with experimentation, validation, and other lab work.

The incubator resources went beyond their agritech specialties, too. Dr. Katie, for example, took classes to learn Quickbooks and basic business administration. From affordable lab space to access to essential resources, like a chemical recycling center, MIC was a source of entrepreneurial infrastructure that is critical for life science and similar startups to succeed.

Elemental Enzyme’s Business Growth and Achievements

Thanks in part to the support, resources, and infrastructure of Missouri Innovation Center, Elemental Enzymes was able to survive a lengthy incubation stage that lasted from 2011 until its first commercial partnership in August of 2013. Shortly after that, it pivoted from a focus on soil remediation technology to a wider application of agritech solutions. 

This has led to the launch of 17 commercial products, four of which came in 2018 alone. Some of these expanded to plant nutrient efficiency, an application angle also developed through MIC connections. Others came from the development of peptide biopesticide products or the ability to grow test corn crops at MIC.

Partnerships with major agricultural companies followed, along with the rapid growth of the company. By 2015, Elemental Enzymes was growing so fast that it ran out of space and had to relocate to St. Louis, where it also expanded into manufacturing and R&D. It continued its affiliation with MIC even after business expansion and today has become a corporation with 100 employees. In 2022, it generated $18.6M in revenue — a figure that doubled annually over both of the previous years. In 2023, it completed a $50M private equity round for a minority stake, and as of the latest data, Elemental Enzyme products are impacting 17M acres across the US, Canada, and Australia.

The Successful Incubation of Elemental Enzymes

Elemental Enzymes was founded in 2011 and grew from a quarter-lab startup to a company with nearly $20M in revenue and 100 employees in a dozen years. One of the most critical stages of this process came from 2011 to 2015 when the bootstrapped enterprise leaned heavily on the resources and infrastructure of MIC’s labs, network, and staff to get its operation up and running.In the words of the Elemental Enzymes brand, “We are legacy innovators, with a persistent curiosity to find solutions easily implemented within existing systems.” MIC is honored to have played a key role in that legacy by providing the infrastructure and support required to help founders Katie and Brian Thompson turn their ideas into paying jobs, commercial products, and a healthy, thriving business with incredible potential.

Innovation rarely happens in a vacuum, especially at the organizational level. To fuel big, bold ideas, teams typically do better when they come together to share ideas. As they bounce concepts, they find that it’s easier to innovate quickly, learn from one another’s varied experiences, and ultimately help their organizations remain competitive within today’s fast-moving business ecosystem.

To be sure, there are different ways to precipitate crowdsourced innovation. However, more companies are turning to collaborative workspaces to inspire their team members to produce a steady stream of innovative ideas. And the World Economic Forum has flagged collaboration as a must-have element for future business models, too. 

Indeed, the construction and implementation of collaborative workspaces are on the rise. According to research from Allwork, nearly one-third of all available office spaces are expected to have coworking capabilities by 2030. In other words, millions of workers will be able to do their best work in atmospheres that promote camaraderie and facilitate invention, like the Missouri Innovation Center (MIC).

At MIC, entrepreneurs — and, when applicable, their partners and teams — are nurtured to create high-growth, scalable ventures. By having exposure to other innovators within MIC’s shared spaces, entrepreneurs can leverage the positive, science-backed advantages that come with working alongside a diverse set of professionals representing different backgrounds, industries, and experiences.

What the science says about collaborative innovation

Anyone who’s been tasked to come up with innovative concepts knows how hard it can be to produce ideas without input. Creativity can arise on an individual level, of course. However, it’s far more likely to come when people collaborate.

This collective process leverages the power of what’s been called “creative collision”. That is, the phenomenon of creative minds bouncing off each other. 

As author and creative collaboration expert Dr. R. Keith Sawyer noted in a 2021 interview, the outcome of creative “collision” is akin to what happens for improvisational musicians: As each musician contributes new sounds and tempos to a song, all the musicians must adapt accordingly — and rise to the occasion. The resulting tune is a unique blend of music that couldn’t be achieved by a solo artist.

Although entrepreneurs and their teams might not be engaged in improvisational music, they can leverage crowdsourced creativity to elicit breakthrough ideas through the same creative collision concept.

What mechanism makes this possible? A 2021 review on collaborative creation from Frontiers in Psychology has some answers. (Like Dr. Sawyer, the authors used performance artist improvisation as an example of how collaboration prompts ideation.) The review explains that improvisational collaboration “has the capacity to disrupt or confound” everyday practices. In other words, when people are exposed to new thoughts, they are led toward possibilities that they might never have considered on their own.

In a business context, you and the rest of your organization can lean into the same effect of rampant creativity that comes when people connect in workplace and social settings. In fact, a 2023 study from Thinking Skills and Creativity concluded that collective collaboration was a survival must-have in the ever-changing work environment of the modern world. 

What are the key elements of effective collaborative innovation spaces?

This doesn’t mean that you can simply put a group of people from different businesses in a space and watch innovation bloom. Thoughtful design of the actual space is necessary to get the most out of any collaborative work area.

For example, the physical nature of the workspace has to be considered. While open rooms are needed for group collaboration, private areas are also necessary for individual contemplation and execution. Therefore, a collaborative workspace can’t be relegated to large spaces alone. It requires smaller offices and huddle areas, too.

A functional, innovation-fostering workspace requires technology as well; this means it must be laid out for modern working life. And there’s little argument that the infrastructure requirements expected by today’s workers have changed dramatically. A prime example is the need to manage and execute effective hybrid meetings, which requires not just WiFi access but spaces conducive to making all attendees feel involved.

Overall, the best collaborative spaces offer workers a balance between being in a structure setting and having the opportunity to be spontaneous (e.g., moving furnishings around, using a variety of surfaces for ideation, being able to plug into a technically advanced system.) Only when an environment is outfitted with flexible features can it transform into exactly what teams need to collaborate and invent.

Winning collaborative spaces

Thanks to the MIC’s collaboration-focused workspace design elements, many entrepreneurial organizations have found innovation success.

Take Endevica Bio, a startup that moved from North Carolina to be a part of MIC. The company appreciated that MIC offered both the facilities and collaborative opportunities it needed to continue its life sciences and research-based mission to develop innovative products to treat cachexia in cancer patients. 

Equinosis is another company that found a home at MIC. Founded to improve the diagnosis of lameness and related diseases in horses, Equinosis also appreciates the research and laboratory access that MIC provides. Being able to work alongside other growing life science businesses has been an asset to the company’s expansion through innovation.

Countless other organizations have experienced similar success in MIC’s 33,000 square feet of shared incubator space. It’s been a place where residents can tap into both physical and human resources — and collaborate their way to innovation. 

Overcoming common barriers to cross-disciplinary collaboration

This isn’t to suggest that successful cross-disciplinary collaboration is only about the design of the workspace itself. It’s not. Other factors are involved, which is why it’s important to acknowledge some of the barriers to making collaborative spaces work.

The first barrier is siloed thinking. When teams are not empowered or encouraged to cross invisible boundaries and work with other teams (including from their own organizations, at times) they hold tight to their information. As a result, they create a wall that discourages interaction, despite the space they’re in.

A second roadblock to cross-disciplinary innovation is the human resistance to making any kind of major change. Team members may have difficulty doing something “that we’ve never done before”, such as collaborating across businesses or departments. Often, their reluctance comes from their misunderstanding of what they’re being asked to do. It may also stem from a fear of failing at something new.

Time (or lack thereof) can be another barrier. People who struggle to keep up with their current workloads may be resistant to adding another task or responsibility to their roles. 

Fortunately, these issues can all be overcome and resolved through the communication and participation of you and the rest of your leadership team. When people see their leaders jumping into collaborative creativity, they get curious. And when they are trained at the value of being in a collaborative workspace, they can start to achieve their potential and drive greater innovation.

Ways to implement collaborative workspaces

If you’re not yet part of a purpose-built collaborative incubator space like MIC, you may want to rework your existing spaces into more collaborative touchdown spots. For instance, you may want to look at your office layout. Does it allocate enough space for group meetings with several team members? Do departments have the opportunity to share resources and collaborate?

You can also catalyze collaboration by offering programs and other events that bring your teams together. Or, you might want to partner with another organization to have a “meet and greet” brainstorming event that’s led by a creative collaboration consultant. That way, both your organization and the other organization could get the benefit of custom-led cross-disciplinary and cross-industry innovative thinking.

In addition to designing a space and setting up collaborative experiences within your organization, be sure to help your leaders understand best practices to nurture collaborative innovation among their direct reports. Some leaders may not be confident or comfortable promoting collaboration; others may be unsure how to track it, which can be done through measurement processes.

How to measure collaborative success

As with every business practice, you can measure the success of your space-related collaboration efforts. You just need to find the right key performance indicators (KPIs) to track.

For example, you might want to start sending regular assessments to your team members. The assessments could ask for their feedback on how they’re collaborating within your office space, as well as the innovations that have come from their collaborations. Over time, the results of regular assessments should indicate any progress and highlight barriers.

Another KPI could be your organization’s innovation outputs and their measurable outcomes. By taking a look at hard numbers, you could get a better view of how collaborative innovation is helping you achieve your financial and business goals. 

The innovative, collaborative approach of MIC

MIC is passionate about making collaboration easier for entrepreneurs and their team members. For this reason, we consistently raise the bar by offering exceptional collaborative initiatives as well as unparalleled resources within our incubator setting.

If you’re an innovator, you don’t have to wait for innovation to happen. You can harness the power of collaborative spaces like MIC to drive the future of your business — and the future of your industry.Contact MIC today to learn more about our opportunities.