ITEN (www.itenstl.org) and the Missouri Small Business & Technology Development Center (SBTDC) (www.missouribusiness.net/sbtdc/) are excited to announce a new partnership aimed at enhancing and broadening services for the startup and early stage companies they serve.

“ITEN’s programs and expertise working with scalable tech-based companies will be extremely helpful as we see an increasing number of companies with technology as a key component of their business model.

This partnership will strengthen our understanding of those resources and be able deploy them for the clients more effectively,” said Kevin Wilson, Regional Director for the SBTDC St. Louis office.

“The statewide and national mentoring network SBTDC offers, as well as workshops focused on business model canvas and financial modeling, meet critical needs of our entrepreneurs,” remarked Mary Louise Helbig, ITEN Executive Director.

“Throughout ITEN’s 10-year history our primary focus has always been to support the validation and commercialization needs of our entrepreneurs. We accomplish this through programming like our recently released EUREKA! Validation Modules, and partnerships such as this one with Missouri SBTDC.”

While this partnership is initially focused on the St. Louis region it has the potential to expand to other cities in the state. “While ITEN was St. Louis-focused for much of its history, efforts are underway to expand to Kansas City, Columbia and Springfield,” said Helbig. The partnership kicks off this month with the goal of onboarding 20 new jointly-supported clients in the first 90 days.