Year: 2021

Buck Surgical

Origin: MO | Grant Awarded: 2021 | Status: Active

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What is Buck Surgical?

Buck Surgical LLC is at the forefront of medical device innovation; developing cutting-edge surgical solutions that improve outcomes and expand patient access to care. Dedicated to modernizing life-and-limb-preservation treatments in vascular and gastrointestinal surgery, Buck Surgical’s premier device, The Buckle™, solves anastomotic failure with its novel and efficient method of performing anastomoses.

Company Leadership

Donald w. buck II, MD FACS

Founder & PResident

Dr. Buck is a board-certified plastic & reconstructive surgeon, fellowship-trained reconstructive microsurgeon and founder of Buck Surgical. Dr. Buck is a key opinion leader in plastic surgery, author of over 250 publications, abstracts, book chapters and presentations in plastic surgery, and editor of 5 textbooks. He is a physician executive at UnitedHealthcare, MTF Biologics and ETS Wound Care. Prior to this, he was a surgeon at Washington University St. Louis.

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jennifer buck

director of business strategy

Jennifer has nearly 20 years of marketing and communications experience, with the majority of her career spent in healthcare. She has served as the enterprise performance marketing lead for a patient engagement startup, population health management company, a healthcare supply chain technology company, EHR company, med device company, non-profits and more. Her work with four healthcare start-ups resulted in substantial sales growth and subsequent acquisitions.

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Athlytic Inc.

Origin: MI | Grant Awarded: 2021 | Status: Active

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What is Athlytic?

Athlytic is a fully integrated marketplace that connects student athletes with potential endorsement partners so that they can take advantage of monetizing their likeness without taking away from their ability to perform at a high level in their prospective sport.

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Company Leadership

Ashton Keys

co-Founder

Ashton Keys is a Detroit-native and an alum of Michigan State University. He is an established professional in technology with experiences working in UX Design, Engineering, Product Management, and Growth Marketing. He has a background in building marketplaces, where he worked as a Product Manager at Rocket Homes helping launch their mobile app experience. Ashton has a passion for sports and technology, and looks to build Athlytic as one of the leading sports technology companies in the industry.

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Jared Eummer

co-Founder

Jared Eummer is a young entrepreneur who has a demonstrated history of delivering high-level partnerships across several different platforms and industries. As a graduate of coveted HBCU FAMU; Jared got his start in sports working on partnerships at Roc Nation, and currently works in corporate partnerships for the Cleveland Cavaliers. Jared has been able to take his love of sports and combine that with his entrepreneurial genius to build Athlytic, which he envisions to revolutionize the sports industry.

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PlaBook

Origin: MO | Grant Awarded: 2021 | Status: Active

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What is PlaBook?

PlaBook is a cutting-edge reading technology created by a world class team of educational experts that utilizes the latest in artificial intelligence, natural language processing, and speech recognition to help children learn to read more effectively. PlaBook has an AI chatbot named RUBII, the first Digital Reading Voice Assistant to teach children how to read. RUBII also provides insights using smart dashboards for teachers, parents, and students. PlaBook also has a speech recognition assessment tool “RUBII Assess”, which uses machine learning and is developing a diverse children’s voice data set that saves educators over 130 hours of time assessing, tracking and analyzing reading levels for students each year. RUBII has the first Digital Running Records that can accurately identify children’s speech down to their Phonics, Phonemes, and Graphemes. PlaBook also has the first Augmented Reality Math App on iOS and Android geared towards creating a real time immersive learning environment with a purpose. RUBII math uses gamification that is aligned to the standards and produces sharable results to the teachers, students, and parents.

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Company Leadership

Dr. Philip Hickman

Founder/CEO

As the Founder & CEO of PlaBook, an innovative reading technology that uses artificial intelligence, natural language processing and speech recognition to help children learn to read. Dr. Hickman’s innovative leadership, personalized learning and emotional IQ methods are exemplified in his three books: Stop Dribbling Footballs, Execution By Firing Squad: Effective Leadership When You’re The Target, and eMOTIVES: The Truth Behind Student Behavior. Also, as a serial social entrepreneur, Dr Hickman’s most notable accomplishment is being the co-founder of a multimillion dollar non profit coding academy WeCodeKC. A K-12 coding program and adult workforce ready platform resulting in a 100% job placement rate after successful completion of the Coding Program. Dr. Hickman graduated with honors obtaining 5 graduate degrees and a Doctorate.

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Tammy Buckner

COO

Tammy is a self-taught software developer, served as a Technical Director and Lead Business Systems Analyst, collaborating with C-Level and multi-disciplinary teams to turn business requirements into high-fidelity wireframes and story-boards. She developed and facilitated the BSA Center of excellence program to train BSAs on leadership training and professional development courses. Being apart of women programming organizations, and active in the Startup Community, Tammy works at bridging the diversity divide in technology. Connecting with educators, business owners, schools and community centers to provide conferences, community tech events, and facilitate workshops.

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oneKIN

Origin: NY| Grant Awarded: 2021 | Status: Active

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What is oneKIN?

oneKIN is a mission-driven, retail-tech company, and we are singularly focused on providing small businesses creative technology solutions to help them increase their visibility and grow sustainably. Our hyper-focus on small business is very deliberate. We believe that they harness the collective resourcefulness, creativity, and genius of their respective communities. By providing them tech-enabled solutions to grow, we are empowering them to effect widespread socio-economic change.

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Company Leadership

Marvin A. François

ceo & Co-Founder

A former Wall Street banker turned self-taught engineer-in-training, Marvin is incredibly passionate about building and investing in disenfranchised communities, and leveraging technology to disrupt the invisible market forces that exacerbate the wealth and opportunity gaps. He completed undergraduate studies at Boston College’s Carroll School of Management where he studied Finance; and later completed graduate studies with a focus on public finance, policy, and economics at New York University.

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jennifer gomez

CmO & Co-Founder

Prior to oneKIN, Jennifer helped brands and startups leverage data and creative storytelling to reach and build authentic relationships with their consumers. She was a marketing force behind some of the biggest brands, multimedia marketing campaigns and global influencer-led projects in recent years including sports & media giants like Major League Baseball and Time Inc., to beauty giants like L’Oréal and NARS, Sephora and more. She holds a B.A. in Political Science from Brown University.

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Printerior

Origin: MO | Grant Awarded: 2021 | Status: Active

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What is Printerior?

Printerior produces 100% recycled 3D printer filament from consumer and industrial waste. Our goal is to bring a circular economy to the 3D printing industry. Our Printerior Recycling Program collects 3D printing waste generated by consumers, universities, and businesses. Recycled filament offers users a environmentally responsible choice to 3D print with sustainable input materials; our consumers help address the world’s plastic waste issue, all at a competitive price. Printerior also has the only US based print farm that can create parts made from recycled plastic, we work with artists and industries to create one off custom pieces or large scale production runs.

Company Leadership

Trent Esser

Co-CEO

Trent graduated from the University of Missouri with a BSBA in Management & Entrepreneurship. He has worked with start-ups for over 6 years doing sales, marketing, product design, and team management. Trent has a passion for sustainability, and previously worked on products in that industry. Printerior has allowed Trent to utilize his education, passion, and experience to solve a problem through the creation of a unique business model.

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Jordan Backes

CTO

Jordan graduated from the University of Missouri with Bachelors of Science degrees in Electrical and Computer Engineering and is earning a Masters in Computer Science from Georgia Tech. He has worked as a Real-Time Software Engineer at the Boeing Company. The breadth of his work and educational experience provides him a unique skillset to solve technical challenges faced by Printerior

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Hayden Seidel

Co-CEO

Hayden is 24 years old and is from St. Louis Missouri. He graduated from the University of Missouri in 2020 with a BS in civil and environmental engineering. He has been passionate about 3D designing, building and sculptures since he was young. In 2018 he learned how to 3D print and was able to bring his designs to life. Hayden has always had the entrepreneurship self-starter mindset and dreamed of creating his own company someday. With his degree in engineering, his knowledge in 3D printing and the right business partners he was able to bring this dream alive and create Printerior.

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Mississippi Mud Coffee

Origin: MO | Grant Awarded: 2021 | Status: Active

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What is Mississippi Mud Coffee?

St. Louis-based Mississippi Mud Coffee is a wholesale production company specializing in organic coffees and cafe-inspired beverages. From its beginnings in 2004, roasting coffee on the banks of the Mississippi River, the company has honed and perfected its craft with an uncompromising commitment to freshness and flavor, developing new products and expanding distribution nationwide, earning a loyal following and a name that is synonymous with some of the best coffees available anywhere.

Company Leadership

christopher ruess

president

Company Founder Christopher Ruess’s success in the coffee business is fueled by extensive experience in the wine industry, coupled with his achievements in design, digital marketing, management and communications. In addition to his work with Mississippi Mud Coffee, Chris has served as Director of Marketing and Sales for Crown Valley Winery; Director of Development and Director of Marketing for the Vino family of companies; and Owner and President of Ruess + Ruess Marketing Communication Group.

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Chandler Branch

CeO

At the forefront of Chandler Branch’s career is proven success in fundraising, planning, management and communication, for programs and events in the US, Russia, France, Portugal, the Netherlands and Costa Rica. He has served as President & CEO of the SDG Music Foundation (2002-2011); Executive Director of Art Saint Louis (2011-2020); and CEO of Mississippi Mud Coffee (2020-present). Chandler is a member of the 2016-17 class of FOCUS St. Louis’s Leadership St. Louis program.

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Preventogen

Origin: MO | Grant Awarded: 2021 | Status: Active

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What is Preventogen?

Prevent-Plus has just recently launched a groundbreaking technology into the medical and retail segments. Developed by a NASA Polymer Scientist and a world renowned Dermatologist from NYU, this new advanced infection prevention technology is a non-antibiotic, microbicidal liquid polymer that forms a protective film barrier over the skin. The microbicidal agent in the polymer kills microbes (bacteria, fungi and viruses) on contact, and then forms a flexible, organic, odorless and biodegradable barrier that protects the wound from harmful elements, such as water, dirt and germs. This flexible protective barrier also prevents oxygen entering the wound, lowering the pH and creating an optimal healing environment. This polymer contains NO antibiotics, which puts this technology in a whole new class of advanced infection prevention and wound healing. In a recently published prospective, randomized clinical study, the results were outstanding in the reduction of pin site infections in orthopedic trauma applications: – For patient-level analysis, 33.3% of patients in the control group experienced infection, while none of the patients in the PREVENTOGEN group experienced infection (0%) – For pin-level analysis, 23.3% were infected in the control group, while none (0%) were infected in the PREVENTOGEN group – The application of the PREVENTOGEN liquid polymer has shown its effectiveness in dramatically reducing the rate of pin-tract infections related to external fixation procedure With these new data, Prevent Plus is continuing to build evidence of this polymer’s potential as a new class of transformative therapeutic to prevent infection in areas with high un-met clinical need. Prevent Plus currently has two brands in the marketplace: PREVENTOGEN www.preventogen.com and DuraDerm SPORT www.duradermsport.com and are looking to expand their portfolio into animal health, acne treatment and environmental sterilization and decontamination.

Company Leadership

brad chartrand

ceo

Brad Chartrand is the Chief Executive Officer for parent company Prevent Plus and is responsible for Global growth of the Preventogen and DuraDerm SPORT. Mr. Chartrand has over 15 years of Medical Device experience in various Sales and Marketing leadership roles with Applied Medical, CR BARD and AngioDynamics. Prior to Mr. Chartrand’s Medical Device career, he played 8 years of professional hockey, spending five seasons with the Los Angeles Kings (NHL).

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joe thomure

Chairman

Joe Thomure is the Chairman and Managing Member of Prevent Plus and stepped out of retirement in 2018 due to his passion and earnest belief in Preventogen. A graduate of the U.S Merchant Marine Academy in Kings Point, New York, Mr. Thomure was called to active duty in the U.S. Navy, during which time he was promoted twice in three years, and eventually received his honorable discharge, pending LCDR in 1977.

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Julie Morris

vice president of clinical research and product development

Julie Morris is the Vice President of Clinical Research and Product Development for Preventogen. Her responsibilities include KOL development and clinical studies. Julie has over 19 years of medical device experience including positions with Covidien, Medtronic, Smith & Nephew and various early stage start-ups where she demonstrated success in several commercial roles. Julie works with our KOL team on the advancement of Preventogen’s clinical research and data and has been a key driver for the advancement of infection prevention in wound care.

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Simerse

Origin: CA | Grant Awarded: 2021 | Status: Active

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What is Simerse?

Simerse creates synthetic data for AI & Computer Vision. The company enhances Industrial AI with ready-made training datasets, fully labeled for Machine Learning. Simerse solves the bottleneck of real world data collection by making available computer-generated visual images which are capable of training real-world AI.

Simerse also recently launched a training data marketplace called Bounding.ai.

Company Leadership

michael naber

ceo

Michael Naber is the Founder & CEO of Simerse.

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GABA

Origin: GA | Grant Awarded: 2021 | Status: Active

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What is GABA?

GABA’s vision is to empower human connection for the purpose of learning and career development. For students, a lack of career guidance, the cost of support services, and burnout from trying to go it alone kills dreams. Initially an independent consulting firm, GABA is a web and mobile career development platform and peer learning community for over 2,000 students around the world. Our app matches students to peer mentors, tutors, and coaches based on their desired career and learning preference. GABA was awarded the Mountain Dew and BET $1M Real Change Opportunity Fund for its mission to democratize career development and diversify professional fields.

Company Leadership

candice blacknall, md, mba

ceo

Candice S. Blacknall, MD, MBA is a serial entrepreneur and army veteran with a passion for healthcare and education innovation. The thesis of her career has centered around advancing solutions to access and equity. To that end, she has spent the last 4 years leveraging her training as a military leader to coach students and entrepreneurs to career success. Her dedication to career and business development for underrepresented minorities comes from her upbringing in Flint, MI, and her belief that places like her hometown are rich with untapped potential for entrepreneurial innovation.

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sergio munoz

CtO

Former founder, eternal student, 10 years experience understanding business and user needs, thinking about how technology can be at their service

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