Recently I was part of a very fun event named the Raspberry Pi Jam which was hosted by the Danforth Plant Science Center. At this event, I was able to meet some wonderful people in the makerspace community as well as represent a great group — the Inventor Forge MakerSpace.
Here are some of the people I met:
MARSfarm corporation
First off let me introduce you to the MARSfarm crew. Their mission is to bring the farm to the classroom to help students learn about farming on earth and beyond. Using the lens of agriculture, they teach students about all sorts of STEM topics. In addition to learning about their cool projects, Drew was very kind to share some information regarding non-dilutive funding that startup founders to which startup founders should apply. To be honest, I had never heard of such a thing and am sure to follow up. In addition, he offered an invite to checkout their facility which I will surely take him up on that. Their booth and materials were impressive, so I’m excited to see what their facility is like. In addition to Drew I briefly met Peter who Drew described more as the ‘software guy’ who I unfortunately didn’t get to spend a lot or time with, but I am looking forward to speaking more with him. Drew also suggested that I look up Tyler Richards (https://www.linkedin.com/in/tyler-richards-stl) founder of UFab. After reading his CV I understand the referral as Tyler seems very active in the electronic board manufacturing process.
Drew also shared a grant that we should look into, which offers non dilutive funding: Arch Grants. Here is a quote from their site:
Arch Grants disrupted the status quo of economic development in 2012 with a mission to transform the economy in St. Louis and throughout the world by attracting and retaining extraordinary entrepreneurs. Through our unique and groundbreaking annual Startup Competition model, we provide $75,000 equity-free grants and access to an ecosystem of resources, helping early-stage startups grow and scale. Our program is a beacon for entrepreneurs globally, developing the next generation of employers, civic leaders, and philanthropists for the St. Louis region.
Jeff Geerling + family
A mom with a group of kids stopped by my booth and locked into the Pi-Py-Ardu-Pong project. I started asking them about their involvements with technology and the conversation quickly steered to Jeff Geerling who runs a popular YouTube channel on what seems like lots of topics, and many of them having to do with Raspberry Pi and similar style embedded devices. Both Jeff and his wife were very gracious with their time — his wife helped make the introduction and Jeff gave me a few pointers of how to grow the Electronic Computing Solutions brand through the use of social media. Here is Jeff’s YouTube channel.
